PODCAST: Path to Supercars too complicated!
Current driver and young gun mentor believes the motorsport ladder needs tweaking
Matt Stone Racing Supercars pilot, Nick Percat, has called on the powers-that-be to re-visit the path young up and coming drivers are expected to take on their climb to the pinnacle of the sport in Australia.
Percat, who runs his own karting program for young gun drivers, says the ladder to Supercars has become too crowded and complicated.
“When I came through and Chaz (Mostert) came through and others it was karting, Formula Ford and then Supercars; it was pretty simple,” he told Allan Edwards in the latest episode of Supercars Travel Race for the Championship podcast.
“But for whatever reason there’s a lot of different steps now… I still really believe that a category like Formula Ford is teaching the most in terms of how to set up the car how to drive a car. They have a H-pattern gearbox, no ABS or any of that kind of jazz. I’d love to see a good open-wheeler category again like we had.”
Percat says there are now just too many categories and he often has conversation with his karting drivers’ parents about which classes they should focus on and which ones they should avoid.
“It’s difficult when there’s two levels of Porsche Cup and there’s two levels of (Toyota) 86s, which blows my mind.
“I think having two Toyota 86 categories and two Porsche categories honestly is a waste of time.
“The three most successful people out of Australia in recent years all went from Formula Ford to (Supercars) main game. SVG went Formula Ford to main game, as did McLaughlin and Whincup. These are the best we’ve had out of the last 15 years…”
Percat is concerned that decisions on what classes are promoted to youngsters are being driven more by financial gain for the category owners than what’s right for the sport or the young drivers themselves.
“(There’s) definitely money being made in certain areas … the way we run our program is not to sit there and make money off all these families. It’s actually giving the right service to try and set up the future (for the young drivers), so it’s interesting when you can see what’s happening behind closed doors…”
Percat also gives his thoughts on Supercars new for 2025 ‘Finals’ points system and spends a little time going down memory lane.
As per usual, Supercars Travel Race for the Championship also has all of the Supercars news covered.
