Sporting teams can be quite superstitious places.
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Lucky underwear and putting your right sock on first when getting ready to compete are just two practices used by athletes.
Nick Percat and Brad Jones aren’t superstitious but perhaps they need to start.
After a much-anticipated swap to the Albury-based Supercar outfit for the start of the 2017 season, it’s been nothing but bad luck for the talented Percat.
He’s managed to finish just one out of six races.
A strong seventh in race one at the season opening Clipsal 500 in early March looked to be the perfect start for the young driver.
He then qualified sixth for Sunday’s main race but, making a rare error, hit the wall at the infamous turn eight on lap one, ending his race.
The races at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix two weeks ago didn’t count towards the 2017 Championship.
It was a great opportunity for Percat to become more familiar with his BJR crew and new car.
An engine failure just before qualifying made life tough for the 28-year- old, but worse was to come – much worse.
In the weekend’s first race on Friday, while travelling at 250kmh on the main straight, a component in his braking system failed.
The ensuing accident was huge.
He hit Holden driver Lee Holdsworth at over 180kmh and careered into the fence at turn one, in a sickening impact.
Amazingly both Percat and Holdsworth walked away, but their cars had extensive damage – too much to repair for either of them to compete for the rest of the weekend.
In fact, BRJ had to get Percat’s car on a truck that night back to Albury, to ensure it would be ready for this weekend’s second round of the Championship at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains circuit.
Both Percat and team owner Jones are hopeful that they have had all their bad luck for 2017 and that this weekend will be more successful.
“Despite the Grand Prix being a tough weekend for Nick, he was fast when he was on the track, which we are very pleased about.’ Jones said.
“The other good thing we saw that weekend was that our cars seem to respond well to the new Super-Soft tyres.
“So I’m really looking forward to getting to Tasmania and seeing where we are when we’re in full-on championship battle mode.”
Percat was sore and disappointed after the huge hit at the Grand Prix but is looking forward to getting back racing this weekend.
“I felt good Saturday morning after the crash, but on Sunday I felt like I was 100 years old,” he said.
“I’m fine now.”
