Ex-Team Sydney driver Fabian Coulthard has revealed he had offers from other teams to drive full-time in the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship.
However, the Kiwi said he didn’t entertain those offers out of respect for his deal with Jonathan Webb for this year before the squad’s untimely demise.
Last year, Coulthard joined Team Sydney alongside Garry Jacobson, each on a two-year deal.
After a turbulent 2021, the team folded at the start of 2022 and offloaded most of its assets to PremiAir Hire owner Peter Xiberras who has since started PremiAir Racing.
That left Coulthard in the lurch and without a full-time drive.
“The thing that probably annoys me the most is I honoured my part of the agreement,” Coulthard told Speedcafe.com.
“I got offered by other teams to drive for them for this year, which I turned down because I had an agreement for 2022.
“That’s probably the most frustrating of all. I could still be in the series full-time and we wouldn’t be standing here talking about it.”
Coulthard is the latest in a list of Supercars veterans to find themselves on the outside looking in.
Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, Tim Slade, and James Courtney have all in one way or another found themselves out of a full-time drive only to get back on the grid full-time within a year.
Coulthard remains hopeful he’ll be able to follow their lead and quickly cement his place for 2023.
“First and foremost, I’d like to focus on this year and Bathurst and hopefully put on a good showing and then have the support of other teams to potentially get back into the series full-time,” said Coulthard.
“All those names that you rattled off, they shouldn’t have been out of the series anyway. They are very capable drivers that should’ve remained in the series full-time. I’d like to think I’m one of those.
“I had an agreement for 2022 to be racing full-time, so we wouldn’t really be having this discussion if they had stuck to their word. Obviously, actions speak louder than words.”
When it became evident Coulthard wouldn’t be back in a full-time capacity, the 39-year-old said his phone began running hot.
He now finds himself in a strong position for this year’s Bathurst 1000 with Walkinshaw Andretti United, which won last year’s event with Chaz Mostert and Holdsworth.
“It was crazy,” he said.
“It’s nice for people to call you and for other people to value your worth.
“They obviously know what I can offer within a race team. I’ve driven at a lot of different teams over the years.
“Just to have that support and the feel and have been wanted again was quite nice.
“It’s nice. It’s good. I’m very fortunate that I’ve ended up here at Walkinshaw Andretti United. It’s a great team, great infrastructure. Two quality drivers. I’m pretty excited.”
As yet, Walkinshaw Andretti United hasn’t announced whether Coulthard will drive alongside Mostert or Nick Percat.
That announcement is expected to be made in the lead up to this year’s Bathurst 1000, which takes place across October 6-9.
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