This weekend sees the running of the 2022 Bathurst 1000 and marks the 300th start for legend Craig Lowndes. If he were to win the race he would edge closer to his mentor Peter Brock’s record of nine Bathurst wins.
Lowndes currently has seven Bathurst wins and believes he is a real chance with his newly appointed co-driver, current Super2
Championship leader, Castlemaine born Declan Fraser.
Fraser moved away from Castlemaine with his family when he was just 4, Declan or Decca as he is known by his sponsor Supercheap Auto has always had a passion for supercars and racing.
Declan started racing at his local karting track in Mackay at seven years of age and quickly rose to the top of his class in the local area. With competition hard to find locally the family would travel throughout Queensland chasing the best drivers and after conquering the state with multiple state titles he set his sights interstate, back to Victoria where the competition was tough and race podiums were even tougher. But the tenacious racer had his fair share of podiums, wins and became the first Queenslander to take out the Victorian Golden Power series.
Declan’s karting career spanned 10 years: racing throughout Australia and representing his country three times in Las Vegas, before making the switch to cars as a 16- year-old when he started competing in the one make ‘Toyota 86 Racing Series’. His first year was a baptism of fire finishing mid-pack with few highlights.
In his second season of Toyota 86 racing Declan became a regular on the podium and scored his maiden win the same year at the Newcastle street meet under the watchful eye of Paul Morris.
Declan’s third and final year in the category saw him win the opening race from a packed grid of 40 cars at Phillip Island and multiple podiums to eventually finish fourth in the championship series.
Declan then made quick work of his rise through the V8 pathway taking out pole position in his first outing in Super3 and going on to finish second in the race and by season end second.
In 2021 Declan moved up to the very competitive Super2 class with MW motorsport, where everyone is vying for a “main game drive in Supercars”. Fraser was consistently in the top 10 and by the third round (surprising everyone, bar his inner circle ) he had a podium and ‘Rookie of the Round’ in his first year of Super2.
But that was to be his last hit-out for the year as a mechanical fault sent his Super2 spearing backwards into the wall at over 200 km on the treacherous Mt Panorama circuit which was to be the last round for the season.
Roll on to 2022 and Declan announced his appointment with his new team Triple 8 Engineering as their Super2 driver.
From the get go Fraser was fast and the new kid on the block taking a pole position in his first round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Next round across to Perth Fraser was consistently in the top three and by the rounds end had banked enough points to be sitting second in the championship, following the round, Triple 8 Engineering’s Jamie Whincup made the huge announcement that Declan Fraser was to co-drive for Craig Lowndes at the Bathurst 1000 in October.
Townsville was next on the calendar and would be the turning point in Fraser’s championship as he raced to his first win in Super2 and left the venue as the new championship leader.
Another race win in Sandown Victoria consolidated his championship standings, before heading to the mountain (Mt Panorama) where Fraser will preform double duties both in his Super2 and as co-driver for the legend Craig Lowndes aboard the Triple 8 prepared ZB
commodore in the main event on Sunday October 9.
This will be Fraser’s first appearance as a ‘main game’ driver where he will be out to impress.
Fraser said the lead-up has been a full schedule of three full blown test-days, a lot of gym work, media commitments and sponsor meetings.
“Although its been exhausting at times I believe my preparation has been the best I could have hoped for. Lowndes has been great guiding me through the lead-up and how to handle the constant workload both in and out of the car,” Declan said.
Racing will commence today, October 7 in his Super2 with the main race beginning 11.15am Sunday morning on Ch7.