Hitting The Track, Bathurst Race, Getting Sleep For The Race
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Mornings with Matt White
Supercars Driver- Nick Percat 10/10/24
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I will play you some of what Peter told me this morning around the license fee situation where this whole thing is at, the conversations that he had with the NRL when all of this came about. On Monday the Western Bears, big consortium members, were in Sydney speaking with executives that they hadn't lined up to essentially run their entire show and were deep in the detail, which is when the call came. So this is all around the license fee and that's the big sticking point. I will play you that in just a second. Also coming up this hour, Nick Percat from Bendix Racing. So a lot to get through over the course of the next hour on the program and you can be part of it. Thanks to Alltell, 1-300-01-1170. Alltell is your business outsourcing partner. Tab, we're on. Chances are you're about to lose. Jared Daffy's on the line this morning. Hi, Def. How are you, mate? You ready to rumble? Yeah, good things, Matt. Yeah, I'm ready to rumble. I mean, we've got football out of the way to some degree. There's still a little bit to come, but there's plenty of sport coming on, isn't there? Yeah, and tonight at the Adelaide Oval, it's crunch time, isn't it? Gee, there's some interest in this for the soccer ruse, not just for their opponents in this one and what it means, but the Tony Popovitch era starts. You're right about that. I mean, we look at prices and think, well, that's a foregone conclusion, but we've seen that recent times with the soccer ruse and it didn't pan out that way. But there's the shortest they've been tonight, $1.12. So we're talking winks out there, a draw at $8 and China, the rank outside is $21. Plenty of markets open on that, but you would hope that the soccer ruse can get the job done. Yeah, okay. So we'll follow that one tonight. Now, I've been doing a fair deep dive and I ran through my form guide for the Bathurst 1000. What are your numbers saying for how it plays out on Sunday? Well, I figured you'd be all over this. We've got equal favourites and it's such a tough race to predict, isn't it? Three and wind cup and brand and pile the equal favourites at $4.50 ahead of Moss dirt and holdsworth. Of course, they've won it before. They're at $5.50, waters and Moffatt at $6.50, Kostegi, Hosewood, $7, Payne and Tanger at $9 and the rest of $15 or better. Just on that, by the way, there's live bedding throughout the race on Sunday. But I'd be curious to get your thoughts. It's good to know that there's live bedding daff. I'll tell you that much because it's a bloody long day. But you're right. But also, just on that, I mean, we bet right up until probably the last lap or two because haven't we seen some rather bizarre finishes in the years gone by? Because bizarre things happen there. That's one of the key points of difference about Bathurst. What might not happen at a Tasmania or a street race in Adelaide will happen at Bathurst. You know, it's just that there are too many variables. My thoughts on that is I'm not surprised that the top contenders that you read out because they're exactly the top contenders that I've got to be there at the end of the day. I'm leaning towards Cam Waters and James Moffatt for a number of reasons, mostly because of emotional Moff calls with us here on SEM. But I also think that car's been very fast. They know what they're doing around there. It's an absolute race to try and beat the Red Bulls. And I like the look of Payne and Tanda as a $9 Smoky. They will be, if things go their way, they should be there at the end because the 50-odd laps that Garth Tanda does, as opposed to the 107 laps that Matt Payne will have to do, shouldn't be too far away relatively speaking with time. So that's the kind of way that I let's as forensic as I'm going to get on your death. But I like those numbers. I can live with that. $6.50 and $9. That'll do me. Yeah, I thought you'd be happy with those. Right, 220 Women's Cricket Australia just continue to roll on their house. The market's there. They do. The girls are in action again on Saturday morning, our time 1am, $1.05 to eat Pakistan at $9. Who in a few little changes to win it? One thing that hasn't changed is Australia red-eyed favor. It's $1.65. England and they have a second picks at $4. India had a good win overnight, but they're still $7 in South Africa, 13. But it's ours to lose. We've been odds on since the market first went up and that has not changed. Okay. And just one from the world of racing. We've done our tips with Miles just short time ago. The Mitten Power at Corefield. I love this race. It's a million-dollar race group. One, it's over the 2,000 metres. Mr Brightside, so, so tight at the moment. Looking at around the $1.55, $1.50 mark? That's right. Pride of Jenny didn't accept for that race and didn't accept for the Turak either, so we'll see you next week probably. So it's left up to Mr Brightside. Obviously with some of these big races coming up, like the Cox plate, it's imperative that they perform while on Saturday. He's priced up as though he should win Mr Brightside at $1.55, as you mentioned. The Sydney side at Jay Mac and Sea Wilder. Good combination, $5 to $9. There's been a bit of interest there, 11 in the late and the rest of 14 or better. But there's not too many really want to be on anything to beat the champ, Mr Brightside. Yeah. Just eight in the field and out of that eight three into single figures at the moment. Good on you, mate. Have a great weekend coming up. We'll speak again next week. Thanks, Matt. Tab, we're on. Chances are you're about to lose. For free and confidential support, visit gamblinghelponline.org.au. Jared Daffy joining us there. As you might have heard in the news, Corey Oates has called time on his career, family and injuries, the main reasons there. So that's popped up on the Brisbane Broncos website and he will finish his career as a one club player, which is an extraordinary feat for the 29 year old. So 216 games made his debut back in 2013 and along the way played nine games for Queensland. So Corey was off contract at the end of the season anyway. And last month had confirmed that he had no offer for next season from the Bronx. And of course, Michael McGuire now in charge there. 15 games in 2024 this season, obviously, after only nine in the year before. So instead of trying to go to the UK or test himself, he's decided to call it quits and spend time with these kids, with these families. So congratulations to you, Corey. That's a stellar achievement, a stellar career, and we wish you all the best in retirement. Righto, let's go back to Mathis, Mount Panorama, the focus, Nick Percat from Bendix Racing, getting ready yet again. You can put your foot down with confidence with Bendix brakes. Good morning, Nick. How you feeling, mate? Couple of days away from the big one. But here we go. I'm good just enjoying the beautiful weather at Mount Panorama at the moment, waiting for practice one. Yeah, what's the scenario? I was doing a bit of weather forecasting. And as you and I both know, you can look at the forecast and then you can get to the top of the mountain and stiff from what the forecast tells you. And it's different sometimes what your team will tell you in pit lane. Yeah, 100% you need some people at the top and you need some people in a town about this and some people in orange. Give you the info. So yeah, so far it looks good, but it's just be nice to, yeah, hit the track in some nice sunny conditions and get a feel for it today. And yeah, ramp it up as obviously tomorrow heading into quality and in the race. This will be your 14th crack at Bathurst, mate. And obviously there's so much focus on that 2011 race and the win. I don't know if I've ever spoken to you about what happened before the win, because that's the talking point of that weekend. But what do you remember about that first Bathurst? Before it became so damn good at the end, were you scared? Were you nervous? What was the thought process for that young Nick Percat who went up there for the first time as a supercar driver? Oh, probably just shooting myself. Yeah, it's obviously pretty daunting. It's your first one with that team in the situation. So yeah, I tried to work my way into it slowly and then I was too polite with Lindsey and ran myself up into the marbles when I probably could have just driven around ahead of him. But yeah, that was all a massive learning and a lot of info coming in that day of how to run that race because I found myself racing against Craig Lounds at one point, Mark Skafel at one point, and obviously in Wing Cup. So it's not like I was just out there with some other curry drivers that had never done it before or some guys that weren't in those types of positions. I just went up straight up against the best, which was pretty crazy upon reflection. And yeah, decided that one little slip up, you know, held my own and kept us in the race all day and it had a great, great time. Hey, mate, what is it like when when you're that young and you're that green and you are in the cut and thrust of trying to keep the thing on the track and making sure that you do your job and then you come up alongside or near a lounge or a Wing Cup or another legend of the sport? How do you get your mind back onto the job of what you've got to do? Because it's not like driving around, you know, in the streets and you see somebody famous next to you can't sort of have a gawk and and take your time. You got to get back to business, otherwise you're in the wall. Yeah, 100% it was probably lucky. Obviously we did Phillip Island is a warm-up to Bathurst and, you know, normally it's sand now, but that year it was Phillip Island and I was really quick there and I passed Skafey in the right in the co-driver race and stuff like that. So it wasn't too daunting, but I just remember thinking to myself, you know, I kind of know these guys from watching them and I know they're tactics and they're driving styles from watching them. So yeah, it kind of felt like I was pretty well educated on that side. It was more just the speed of the race when you're saving for your wind saving tires when you have it at crack and stuff like that. All right, it's been a good season so far for you. You've featured heavily in the top 10s. You've had a couple of race wins along the way. Didn't work your way in sand down. What's the focus from a team perspective and what do you and Dylan sit around talking about and what's the strategy here? Oh, it's no different to any other weekend. We're here to try and win it. And yeah, put our best foot forward and have a big crack and yeah Dylan's been good. He's obviously got a cup car this weekend as well. So he's getting plenty of track time and then when he jumps to my curry, you know, the job he needs to do and he's looking for a bit of redemption from sand down. So yeah, he's worked really hard between events and with the team and with our engineer, Jack. So it's, I think we're in a good spot and looking forward to you know, seeing how we all, we both roll out. Obviously, we're here at the start of the year and we're at the front then. So yeah, I'm hoping it's pretty similar to the start of the year. We can drive around, you know, in that top five comfortably would be, would be just a nice weekend. Keep it simple. Keep it nice and easy and just roll out 160 odd laps on Sunday and away you go. Just how much of a benefit is having the season this year start at Mount Panorama. So we had the two races, the Bathurst 500 there. What it means in pure, you know, geeky terms is what it means, mate, is that you've got relative and fresh data from the track and your performance at the track in this car this year, as opposed to turning up this time around and going, okay, what did we do 12 months ago? Is that a benefit? It definitely would be benefits, obviously, in the off season, you know, the car's got aero testers and the parity change. So, you know, when we rolled up this year, the cars were that little bit different compared to how we raced them 12 months ago here. So yeah, I think the main thing is we've probably got more relative fuel numbers, probably know a bit more about the tire deck. And then from the driver's side, it's just another race around Bathurst where you get you get to have a go around here because the more laps do, the better. So yeah, I think it's good for my side, obviously, the last time I drove here was in my MSR car, not in the previous car, so it's just all kind of noble. And yeah, it'll be a little bit different, obviously, the fuel loads will run this weekend versus what we ran at that sprint kind of format will be a little bit different. But other than that, it's pretty status quo. All right, so practice today. There's two sessions. There's one coming up at 20 past one, daylight saving time. That's for all drivers. And then the one later on in the afternoon is for co-drivers only. So there's basically what two hours worth of practice out there. What do you go in search of today? What answers are you looking for today? And how much track time will you get today? So from my side, it's probably more just go through the procedures, make sure everything is good, make sure the car feels right. The track could be obviously very green in comparison to what we would have come Friday afternoon for quality. So yeah, it's probably more just get your eye in, make sure the car is fine, give Dylan plenty of laps. I think we got to practice start at the end of practice one. Yeah, it's more just ticking the boxes, make sure we're ready to go. You're going to come Friday after quality. So yeah, it's probably a procedures day. I think it's less risk taken. It's really not really looking at the timesheet so much more thinking about the race car balance and where you're stuck up. All right, and just a final one. So we'll have qualifying as you say on Friday afternoon, then Saturday by then we'll know the full grid with the shoot out. How do you sleep on Saturday night? I remember speaking to Scafy mate and he said to me like seriously, you wouldn't imagine the amount of laps I do in my head over and over and over, or even when I'm trying to get to sleep or I'm sound asleep. So do you park it all right on Saturday night or are you a bit of a toss and turn wreck? Anytime I have a nearly alarm, it's a disaster. So it doesn't matter if I'm flying somewhere or what, if it's a nearly alarm, you kind of feel like you've forgotten to set it. So yeah, there's been a disaster where I feel like I rocked up with three hours sleep and then there's some there, very slept good eight, nine, but it's probably like at the draw to be honest and yeah, yeah, if you're at the front, you're probably pretty comfortable because your car's behaving. But if you're probably in the 20s or outside the top 15, you're probably not comfortable with the car. So you probably have a little bit of a nervous sleep because you know what the heck is the following day? All right, mate. Well, listen, drive safe, go well, have a great weekend and we'll catch up next week. Awesome. Sounds good. Nick Perk out there for Bendix Racing. Bendix breaks, proud sponsor of Matt Stone Racing. And of course, Nick, just one of those drivers that, like I've said, time and time again, gets it. He's pretty chilled as you can hear. But it's a very unique week too. So you think about it today, they've got their first practice session in, let's call it a couple of hours. They'll have one practice session there and they'll have another practice session where it's co-drivers only. So think about it from a, from a driver's perspective, there's a lot of stopping and starting that goes around from Thursday into Friday. They'll have a little testing session in the morning tomorrow, then you've got a bit of qualifying going on, a bit more practice. It's broken up over a very long schedule. Then Saturdays are super long day because you've got to get all the way to the afternoon if you are in the top 10 to be part of that shootout. That's on at five past five local times. So five past four Queensland time. So think of that. And then on Sunday morning, another long day, they don't sleep. They rarely sleep and they're up very, very early in at the track when it's pitch black. Warm up is from 815 and it's 20 minutes and it's probably one of the nastiest sessions because it's so weird. You want to roll the car out there and just get a handle on it so to speak. You don't want any dramas. You're not really going to learn too much. You just got to go through the process. As Nick said, that's from 815 local time till 835 and then the race doesn't start for another three hours. Well, there are abouts. It's an 1130 start for our Sydney listeners, 1030 start for Queensland. So it gives you an idea of just how checkerboarded this whole process is from the Bathurst 1000. Great to catch up with young Nicholas Perkett. It's 20 minutes after the hour.