Nick Percat has signed with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. Photo: Supplied. Source: Supplied
NICK Percat has catapulted from victim to victor in V8 Supercars' off-season musical chairs as a shock signing for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2015.
The 26-year-old South Australian appeared destined to miss out on a full-time drive next season under a sponsorship funding shortfall with Walkinshaw Racing.
But a late deal with a likely two-car Lucas Dumbrell entry has given the 2011 Bathurst 1000 winner a chance to capitalise on a rookie V8 Supercars season that left him an impressive 12th in the championship.
"Extremely excited, and somewhat relieved," Percat, in Adelaide with family for Christmas, said. "After a solid year I thought I was definitely going to get a good drive in something.
"It's great that Lucas wanted to get a good driver in and help boost his team, so it's the perfect result for me.
"It's really encouraging that he wants me to be that guy that helps him improve the team."
Percat effectively replaces retiring motorsport veteran and fellow South Australian Russell Ingall in the LDM entry.
The Dumbrell garage downscaled to one car in 2014 but has committed to fielding two in 2015. It was thought that Percat would remain locked in to Walkinshaw Racing — which runs four cars including the two Holden Racing Team Commodores — but the team's failure to provide a full-time drive released him from a multi-year contract.
Percat finished with 1921 championship points in his debut year, just 18 points short of a top-10 finish. He ranked second among rookies, behind only Bathurst 1000-winner Chaz Mostert.
Despite a year that featured two podium finishes including a third at Bathurst, Percat found himself on the outer through no fault of his own earlier this month. His 2014 entry was underpinned by the racing entitlements contract of James Rosenberg, a long-time backer of young talents including Tim Slade.
But Rosenberg was forced to return his licence before 2015's December 1 entry deadline when a lack of commercial backing meant the SA entrepreneur would have had to have funded the shortfall for a second successive year.
Linking with team owner Dumbrell strengthens a long-time friendship between the pair.
"To come here and be lead driver is a different scenario to what I have been used to, but LDM has very good equipment, a Triple Eight Race Engineering-built Holden Commodore, and all the right people," Percat said.
"This team has grown up considerably in the past 12 months and I want to help it continue building momentum — we can show everyone what we are all truly capable of."
Dumbrell said signing Percat was a key step in his team's competitive development.
"Nick thought, through no fault of his own, it was going to be a pretty average Christmas for him so I'm thrilled that we've been able to bring him some joy for the festive season," Dumbrell said.
"I believe Nick's signing with LDM is the next step in our development as a team. It's an understatement to say I'm excited. The whole team is, and we all go away for the Christmas holidays knowing we're going to hit the track running in 2015."
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