Adelaide driver Nick Percat back for Bathurst redemption with HRT Holden driver Nick Percat looks on from the pits during practice for the Bathurst 1000. Picture: Brendon Thorne. NICK Percat has regained the faith of the Holden Racing Team inner sanctum, he knows that much - now there's just the small matter of winning back those millions of fans of the famed lion badge. "This year I have to try and redeem myself and show HRT fans why I'm back alongside Garth," Percat said. Last year didn't go to plan. We had a fast car and I made a mistake over the top. But HRT have pulled me back into the main team, they've got the confidence in me to do the job, so that gives me a lot of confidence. There is a lot of pressure, being HRT, but everyone here is like my family, so I'm actually more comfortable here than if I was to rock up and co-drive in another team. Two years ago Percat became the first South Australian since Russell Ingall in 1997 to stand on the nation's grandest motorsport stage when he co-piloted the Holden factory entry with Garth Tander to victory at Mount Panorama. The Flagstaff Hill boy, now 25, also became the first debutant to win at the iconic street circuit since Jackie Ickx in 1977 - although "rookie" Ickx was closing in on his 100th Formula 1 start and already had four Le Mans 24-hour crowns. But for Percat, the mountain bit back hard in the HRT pair's title defence last year. The 2009 Australian Formula Ford champion was at the wheel on the 37th lap when Holden's flagship car ran wide on the difficult descent and brushed the outside wall at the dipper. The impact was enough to bust the front-right wheel - and the No. 2 car's plans of back-to-back victories. Percat has refused to beat himself up, rationalising that mistakes are as much a part of motorsport as petrol fumes and paint-swapping. But at the start of this year he was subsequently shuffled out of HRT's endurance pairings to Tony D'Alberto's Walkinshaw Racing customer Holden, and lost his place in the second-tier Dunlop Series. Instead, Percat took a drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia series - where he now sits second on the drivers leaderboard. But in July Percat was reinstated as Tander's co-driver for the enduros, restoring the successful combination for the flagship Commodore. "Every year up until I raced here, Dad and me and a group of friends we would be up at 6am, have the morning warm-ups on TV, cooking bacon and eggs," Percat said. The atmosphere comes through the TV for a lot of people, so we'd all be really soaking it up. Then when I was about five Dad and I came here, up the top of the mountain. I've got photos of me sitting on the gates watching the race. Full HRT kit - yeah, HRT tragic. So for me to drive at HRT, it's unbelievable. And to be driving at Bathurst, I never thought it would happen, not in my wildest dreams. Tander and Percat suffered mechanical issues, body damage and pit-lane penalties on their way to a disappointing 22nd in the season's opening enduro at Sandown last month. But three-time Bathurst winner Tander said having Percat as his co-driver was a bonus for the team. "I was curious as to why he wasn't part of our squad in the first place so I couldn't be happier about having him back," Tander said. He did the job for us in 2011 and obviously learned all about Bathurst last year. I was disappointed we didn't get a result last year because I thought we had a better car than we did in 2011 but I have been in Nick's position, I have made that mistake, I have let the crew down, so I knew what he was feeling. So to have him back this year was not a concern of mine at all because that is part of the learning process. Tomorrow's 161-lap, 1000km race is the natural priority for Percat, but the main event is also the culmination of a marathon week. Percat, along with Carrera Cup leader Craig Baird are both pulling "double duty," driving in both the Porsche and V8 categories. The meeting's final Carrera Cup race is set for tomorrow morning, before "The Great Race," but Percat said sitting out the Porsche event had never crossed his mind. "I've done double duty with the Dunlop Series the last two years, so I don't think it's too much," he said. In saying that, I'll be going from a German-built Porsche, left-hand drive with a rear engine and extremely sticky tyres to an Australian-built VF Holden, right-hand drive, front engine with a heap of power and a tyre that probably doesn't match the power ratio. But I've got backers and this is the biggest weekend of the year. They look after me so I was always going to look after them. That morning race in the Porsche gets more views than any other support race in the year, so I'm 100 per cent in it no matter where I was in the championship. I think it's actually a good thing because driving the Porsche in the morning will be a bit of a warm-up. And as for a Bathurst prediction? "It'll be a HRT one-two - what sort of a question is that?" he laughed. HRT comes to Bathurst to win and we'll be disappointed if we're not on the podium at the end of the day. We know we can do it, we've got the right formula with Garth and myself, we've won it before and had good pace last year, so we're here to win it.