PODCAST: Perkins ready for Xfinity attack!

Jack Perkins, son Supercars’ legend Larry, is excited about taking on a pair of Xfinity Series road races in the US starting this weekend at Chicago.

Perkins received a last-minute call up for Sunday’s event having already secured a drive in the race at Portland in August.

Perkins’ drives in the second tier NASCAR series come hot on the tail of him signing to co-drive in this year’s endurance races – The Bend 500 and Bathurst 1000.

The son of a gun will share a Blanchard Racing Team Mustang with James Courtney. It will mark his 20^th start in the Great Race.

Perkins caught up with Mark Fogarty in this week’s episode of Supercars Travel Race for the Championship podcast.

“It has turned into a busy year racing, which is awesome,” Perkins told Foges.

“And to think I read on the press release that it’s my 20th Bathurst, kind of makes me feel like a pretty old man, if I’m honest, but it’s going to be exciting to get back up to Bathurst.”

The event will also be the last, as a full-time driver at least, for the retiring Courtney and could even be his last ever as the 2010 Supercars champion has indicated he may walk away from racing all together to focus on his fledgling career as a real estate agent.

Perkins says he would love to help Courtney get a good result on what could be the latter’s final Bathurst 1000 attempt.

“It would be really cool to have a good, solid run with James,” he said.

“You know, you can’t shoot for the stars with your expectations, but we’ve put in a lot of effort behind the scenes and it’d be just great to finish it all off on a nice positive note, whether that’s a top five, top ten, a podium, whatever it may be… (but) anything can happen in this game as it’s a bloody competitive championship.”

Perkins described his Xfinity drives as a “pinch myself” moment.

“You know, we went over to the States last year and I was luckily enough to go with Earl Evans from Shaw and Partners and Steve Blackmore from Southern Cross Truck Rentals to Sonoma to watch Will Brown, who they were supporting in the NASCAR Cup Series race there,” Perkins said.

“And we loosely started chatting to a couple of teams about potentially doing something in the Xfinity Series instead of what we’ve done here in Australia in the last few years with a Super2 program.”

Perkins will race in the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibb Racing’s Toyota outfit. Fellow Australian James Small works with the team and put Perkins’ name forward.

Small is the son of Les, who was a famous mechanic on the Australian Touring Car scene when Jack’s dad Larry was racing.

“I was thankful that James was able to recommend me,” Perkins said.

Despite not having a full-time drive in Supercars, Perkins believes he still has a long career ahead of him.

“I’m still in my 30s, so I feel like I’ve still got a little bit to give as a driver,” he told Foges.

“I’ve got to take the opportunity that I’ve got and it’s not something I take lightly. I work pretty hard behind the scenes. I’ve been incredibly hard on the fitness side this year.”

Perkins has even been developing his NASCAR skills on a simulator even though it’s not something that comes natural.

“I’ve never really been a simulator guy, because I feel like it’s not really me. When I was younger, the simulators weren’t very good and now obviously they’re quite good and the young kids use them to their advantage,” he said.

“But I was able to buy a little simulator off Facebook Marketplace, which was more about preparing me for the sim over in America as opposed to preparing me for the race itself.

“So, when I was able to get over to the Joe Gibbs and the Toyota Racing Development simulator, at least I knew the track and had done some sim time here… (it was) a great benefit to me to be able to hit the ground running on the sim and that side of things.”