Sydney Supercars: Percat denies Whincup milestone win

The two milestone drivers were locked in combat for much of the 32-lap race, Whincup getting a fast start from pole before being reeled in by Percat as the first stint wore on.

There was only a few tenths between them when Percat made his mandatory stop on Lap 14, taking four tyres on his Brad Jones Racing Holden.

Whincup pitted a lap later to cover the undercut, Triple Eight opting to fit his car with just two new tyres on the right-hand side.

That gave Whincup a couple of seconds breathing room, but it didn't last long. With the better tyre condition Percat was quickly on Whincup's bumper, before executing a smart move at Turn 4 on Lap 22 to snatch the lead.

From there Percat charged to a 3.1s victory, his first since Adelaide 2016 and BJR's first since Winton 2016.

"It’s amazing. I can’t thank Brad [Jones] and the whole team enough," said Percat. 

"Obviously Brad can’t be here – first thing, thank you Brad for having the faith in me. 

"It’s taken a few more years than I would have wanted but BJR, [engineer Andrew Edwards], everyone did a mega job and the Dunlop Super Dealer car is hooked up. 

"Obviously as soon as we were in a good position we just threw everything at it because [we wanted to] live for now and see how we go in Race 3."

Scott McLaughlin finished third after a thrilling four-way battle with Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds and Cam Waters in the closing stages.

Having dropped back through the field on older tyres early in the race, McLaughlin managed to claw his way onto the back of a battle between the other three. 

It wasn't until the final few laps that McLaughlin managed to work his way through, better tyre condition when it counted helping him pull three seconds over Mostert by the finish.

Reynolds finished fifth, with Waters slipping from third mid-race to sixth by the finish. The Tickford driver was almost overhauled by Shane van Gisbergen too, the Kiwi having dropped like a stone on poor tyres in the first stint, from third to 10th, before having better rubber for the run home.

Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney and Andre Heimgartner rounded out the Top 10.
Race 2 results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time
1	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB
2	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	3.181
3	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	16.446
4	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	19.768
5	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	21.962
6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	23.046
7	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	23.502
8	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	24.372
9	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	28.983
10	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	33.569
11	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	37.595
12	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	38.526
13	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	39.181
14	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	39.361
15	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	43.011
16	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	49.857
17	Alex Davison	Holden Commodore ZB	53.312
18	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	54.059
19	Rick Kelly	Ford Mustang GT	56.801
20	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	57.581
21	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1'00.121
22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'05.837
23	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.796
24	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
View full results