GETTY IMAGES
The 2018 Supercars season could be as wide open as last year.
This surely is the golden age for New Zealand drivers in Supercars.
The new season kicks off with the Adelaide 500 this weekend and they’ll be five Kiwis on the starting grid.
There have been that many New Zealand drivers in the category before, but rarely so many in competitive cars.
Daniel Kalisz
Fabian Coulthard feels confident about the new car he has for this season.
Shane van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin will be back hunting for the championship, while Richie Stanaway is a full-time driver for the first time and Andre Heimgartner returns after a year away.
Stanaway is one of the four drivers for the big budget Tickford Racing team (formerly known as Prodrive Racing Australia) and Heimgartner gets a drive with Nissan, who should be more competitive this season, given that they’re a well resourced team and now have Todd Kelly focusing fully on improving results, rather than also competing in races.
Last year’s championship was enthralling throughout and reached its climax in Newcastle, with Jamie Whincup just pipping McLaughlin to take the title. Although he was helped by a dubious pitlane penalty given to the young Kiwi in the final race, which ultimately cost him the championship.
This season it’s again likely to be another battle between Whincup and van Gisbergen at Triple Eight, Coulthard and McLaughlin for DJR Team Penske and Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert at Tickford.
Stanaway and Heimgartner can finish on podiums and even race wins, but it’ll be the other three Kiwis in the hunt for the title and it wouldn’t be inconceivable if there’s a Kiwi one-two-three in the championship.
Van Gisbergen will be out to make amends for what was an unspectacular failed title defence last year, while McLaughlin, who is arguably the fastest driver over one lap, will be looking to convert more pole positions into race wins.
But Coulthard is the dark horse. He came third in last year’s championship and at the age of 35 and in one of the quickest cars, knows 2018 will be one of his best opportunities to take the title.
“I’m looking forward to it, last year was very good, but I’m looking to improve on it a bit,” Coulthard said.
“We can only build on what we learned last year and continue the momentum into 2018.”
Coulthard has a new Ford Falcon for the campaign and if his DJR Team Penske team can make a similar jump to the one made between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, then it could be a memorable year.
“The boys built the car in the offseason and it’s been running faultlessly, they’ve done a great job,” Coulthard said.
“We’ve had a good amount of time to quantify things from last year and put them into practice for this year.
“It’s been a long time since Newcastle, which was the end of November.”
The Adelaide 500 certainly doesn’t allow the drivers and teams to ease their way into the new season. It’s the biggest and toughest race outside the three endurance rounds.
With the drivers, particularly the five rookies this year, still getting to grips with their new cars it can be a high action event, butt Coulthard believes it’s the perfect way to begin a season.
“This is the right race to start the year with,” Coulthard said.
“We’ve been out of the car for two and a half months and it’s a real shock to the system. The high ambience, the long races.
“It separates the men from the boys, it’s a tough one and I’ve always had good success here.”
Meanwhile, it has been announced that there will be a top 10 shootout on the Sunday at this year’s round at Pukekohe.
The last time there was a shootout for the New Zealand leg of the series was in 2013.
– Stuff
Source :Stuff.co.nz
Comments
