Holden’s Nick Percat is confident he can build on the Supercars momentum he gleaned from his first podium finish for Brad Jones Racing.

The 28-year-old and his Holden have been through the ringer in his first season with BJR, but turned things around by finishing third in Darwin’s opening race on Saturday.

Crashes at the season-opening meet in Adelaide, Australian Grand Prix and Tasmania, as well as tyre failure at Phillip Island made for a chequered start to life with a new team.

But with relatively trouble-free rounds in Perth and Winton and a strong performance at Darwin, Percat said he was back on track.

“We went through two rounds without having written off cars and crazy things going on so we’ve actually been able to sit down and look at some data and go through the cars,” Percat said.

Changes implemented were directly behind his podium finish, he said.

“We didn’t test but had a lot of information and a direction we wanted to go in,” Percat said.

“I think we’re actually two rounds behind where we should be.”

Percat signalled more improvement to come as the season goes on after the boost at Hidden Valley Raceway.

“We’ve still got a few things on the drawing board that we want to get in the cars pretty soon but the first step was just to make sure the direction was correct,” he said.

But despite changes being made to his Commodore, Percat wasn’t expecting instant results at Darwin.

“We knew we had big work to do to get our cars back into that purple patch they were having when Fabian (Coulthard) was driving,” he said.

Percat will be aiming for further improvement during Sunday’s 70-lap race at Darwin, a track where he excelled in other disciplines before switching to Supercars full-time.

“I’ve had good results here and I enjoy the place. BJR cars traditionally go well.”