Co-drivers take wheel at Sandown in first of series' enduro rounds

Fabian Coulthard is the best placed of the New Zealand drivers.

The V8 Supercars championship is about to hot up this weekend at the first of the Pirtek Enduro Cup championship rounds (a series within the main series) for the Sandown 500.

The opening half of the season is all down to how well the individual driver does behind the wheel, but now they have to hand over the keys to their respective co-drivers.

After a hard-fought battle in the preceding eight rounds, Mark Winterbottom leads the title race from Chaz Mostert and Craig Lowndes, with best of the Kiwis Fabian Coulthard tucked neatly into fifth, 355 points off the lead.

Coulthard enters the first of the three endurance rounds (Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast 600 the other two) after a great result last time out at the Sydney Motorsport Park round at Eastern Creek.

"We're looking forward to the weekend and I'm comfortable with Luke [Youlden] as my co-driver," said Coulthard on his way to the track.

"Luke has done about 15 endurance campaigns and he knows what's required.

"Handing the car over to someone who has experience is a lot easier than handing the car over to a rookie.

"This is our third year together. There are minimal changes to the car and it's pretty easy.

"We had a good last round with two podiums and good car speed. It's given me a lot of confidence for this weekend that we can go well."

The rest of the Kiwis - Shane van Gisbergen (with Jonathon Webb), Scott McLaughlin (with Alexandre Premat) and Andre Heimgartner (with Ant Pedersen) - are ninth, 11th and 20th respectively in the title race.

Today has two qualifying races with co-drivers taking the wheel for a 20-lap shootout before the main game drivers jump in for a place on tomorrow's 500km grid.