YOU don’t need to tell Declan Fraser that it was only Friday practice, but the 2022 Super2 champion’s promising Perth form couldn’t have come at a better time.
Fraser was second-fastest in the opening session of the weekend, bested only by his PremiAir Racing teammate Jayden Ojeda.
He backed that up to rank sixth in final practice, making him the fastest non-Ford driver from the 25-minute hitout.
“I’m not hanging my hat on anything this early in the weekend, but it’s a step in the direction we want to go,” the 25-year-old told V8 Sleuth.
Pressure has been intensifying on the #777 pilot, who has been outshone by Ojeda and is yet to be signed for 2027.
There’s even been murmurs of a possible mid-season exit, which have been quashed by team principal Roland Dane.
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The key for Fraser has been to build on a recent rookie test at Ipswich.
“It is just practice but I’m happy that the progress we made on the test day, I can translate straight over,” he said.
“We were able to think about things a lot slower. Whereas not having the testing throughout the year and then you get to a round and it’s like bang, bang, bang, bang – you’re trying to learn as much as possible in a very short period of time.
“Being able to slow everything down and talk to my engineer (Simon Hodge) really helped, and then coming here I was able to tell him ‘no I don’t want that, I want this’.
“So just having that communication with Hodgey, we learnt a lot in our communication skills to each other, and I feel like it’s helped a lot.”
Declan Fraser with engineer Simon Hodge. Pic: Supplied/Kass Brumley
As for the outside noise?
“I have just got to do a good job,” Fraser responded.
“I can only control what I can control. I go out there every time and I try my best. I feel like I just needed to learn a little bit more about these cars, and I feel like we did that at the test day.
“I don’t go into a round thinking about my contract or my future or anything like that.
“Obviously it’s a part of our sport and everyone else is going to talk about it, but I can only control what I can control, so I go out there and do the best job that I can and hopefully it’s good enough.
“Today I feel like it was, but it’s just a step, it’s nothing to hang our hat on just yet.”
Supercars gets straight into qualifying this morning from 9:45am local/11:45am AEST.