By Matthew Agius

Fabian Coulthard will succeed ඣthe retired John Bowe as the driver of the #111 Glenfords Tool Centres BF Falcon, when Paul Cruickshank Racing today announced him as the lead driver of the single-car team.

T🍎he New-Zea🍌land born driver is a distant relation of Red Bull Racing Formula One star, David Coulthard.

He began racing in karts at s꧋ix years of age, before winning his Formula Ford title and then contesting the 2003 Formula Renault Championship in Britain.

Returning t൩o Australia in 2004, Coulthard contested the Australian Carrera Cup championship - claiming the rookie of the year award in his first season, before tak💎ing the title in the following year.

The twenty-four♈ year old was one of many drivers signed to the Holden Young Lions program in 2006, and participated i✱n several championship rounds with Paul Morris Motorsports.

He com🔯pleted an increased workload with PMM in 2007, but was dropped after Bathurst, replaced by Owen Kelly in the #39 Comm💃odore.

Coulthard joins Paul Cruiꦏckshank Ra🍒cing's Glenfords team on a two-year contract, ensuring stability and security for the operation's racing future.

"I🉐'm really excited about joining the Glenfords team for '08 and '09," said Coulthard.

"V8 Supercars is such a hard category to break into; the V8 racing I've done in ꦇthe last couple of years gave me good g🌺rounding and made other people take notice and I'm really stoked that Paul (Cruickshank) has given me this opportunity.

"The main focus is definitely to move up the order from where we were this year, and Glenfords Racing is going to give me a more competitive car than I've ever had before, with a great engine pac🧸kage and now it's up to me to repay their faith.

🌜"As a team, I think we've all got the same goal in mind and that's to go out💃 and do the best we can and to get some great results."

Paul Cruickshank Racing will utilise an ex-Triple Eight Race Engineering chassis in 2008, and Coulthꦬard is adamant that he will have no excuse for poor performance.

༒"So far, I've driven PCR's 2007 V8 aꦕnd it's a lot better than what I've raced in the past, which is definitely exciting for me.

"We're looking forward to an even bigger step forward with the new Triple Eight chassis. It's a pro🤪ven car that's had results this year, so there'll be no excuses.

"I've got to knuckle down and dri🦂ve to the best of my abꦉility and we should be alright - it's very positive."

Team♌ Owner, Paul Cruickshank, is looking forward to a strong 2008 campaign, after two difficult seasons in the seri❀es so far.

"We are reallไy excited to have a new talented young driver in our car for next y🐈ear," he said.

"We have gone to great lengths putting things into to place to allow our team to develop and moving the V8 Supercar further up the grid, and Fabian is one key element in th🌳at process.

"Obviously, this is a tough game and we've had two ౠdifficult years ℱgraduating into the category, but we've paid our dues and learnt a lot of valuable lessons in the last couple of seasons.

"Weꦑ are now firmly focussed on the future and moving forwarಞd."

Glenfords Racing will kick off its 2008 Vꦓ8 Supercar Championship campaign at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide ౠfrom February 21.