Ford star Mark Winterbottom says it isn’t Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes or even teammate Chaz Mostert who looms as his biggest threat in this year’s V8 Supercars championship race.
Instead, Winterbottom believes people need to start paying attention to Holden’s Fabian Coulthard.
The Brad Jones Racing driver moved into second in the championship standings after a third-place finish behind Winterbottom and Ford’s David Reynolds in Saturday’s 200km race in Townsville.
Winterbottom says Coulthard is his most in-form rival and the one to watch as the championship enters its second half.
“He was quick in that race, he was catching the both of us at a rate of knots,” Winterbottom said.
“You’d be silly not to think that he’d be up there.”
However, the New Zealander isn’t so sure about his title credentials.
The big points on offer at the endurance races in Sandown and Bathurst are usually definitive in any title race and Coulthard admits he’s yet to prove himself in those longer events.
Only if he comes out of that period still in contention will Coulthard start to believe he’s a title contender.
“My track record at the enduros has been pretty tough,” he said.
“I’ve struggled to get results there, we’ve been fast enough but haven’t had the luck.
“We’ll start looking at it after then.”
