Coulthard in contention for full-time Supercars return

Fabian Coulthard has emerged as a contender for a full-time Supercars seat at Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2024.

Coulthard has been a co-driver with the Clayton-based squad since he lost his seat when Tekno Autosports was bought by Peter Xiberras and morphed into PremiAir Racing ahead of the 2022 season.

He finished second with Chaz Mostert in last year’s Great Race and was confirmed as a WAU enduro driver during the most recent pre-season, to partner Nick Percat this time around.

Speedcafe understands that the New Zealander is being considered as a potential replacement for Percat in addition to WAU’s Dunlop Super2 Series rookie Ryan Wood, who has been linked to the #2 Mustang for some time now.

Notably, it was Coulthard who was called upon to complete 10 laps in Car #2 when Wood undertook an Evaluation Day last week at Winton, as reported at the time by Speedcafe.

The team had to obtain permission from Supercars for that activity, given an enduro co-driver of Coulthard’s experience would ordinarily be barred from driving in an evaluation.

The stated reason from WAU at the time was that both are left-foot brakers, although the laps which the two-time Bathurst 1000 podium finisher laid down would have served as a useful comparison with Wood’s.

Cameron Waters had been heavily speculated as a replacement for Percat, but it is understood that Tickford Racing has a sufficiently tight contract that it is able to keep its lead driver for 2024.

There had been rumours that Wood, who is currently fourth in the Super2 Series and swept the Wanneroo round, had already been signed by Team 18 but the Evaluation Day is a clear sign that WAU thinks he remains in play.

Event 7 of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship takes place this weekend.