STEVE Frazer, best known to Australian motorsport fans for his time managing the career of Peter Brock and running the Advantage Racing team, has passed away.
The long-time sports manager died suddenly on Monday last week (March 25).
He was 68.
The Age obituary from his family read: “Steve was taken from us on Monday morning suddenly and without warning – a man who had achieved so much and yet had so much more to give.
“A great light has been turned off and our lives will never be the same …”
Since leaving the world of sports management Frazer had run the Stones of the Yarra Valley restaurant, wedding and events venue in Coldstream, Victoria, with wife Vonnie since 2006.
Frazer started Wheatley Sport management with the late Glenn Wheatley in the early 1980s which later morphed into becoming Advantage International’s Australian arm managing a range of top-line Aussie sports stars including golfers Ian Baker-Finch and Wayne Grady, basketballer Andrew Gaze and motorsport ace Brock.
Advantage Racing was formed in 1992 and run by Frazer after Brock and Mobil departed after a single season racing with Larry Perkins’ team.
Advantage ran Brock and Neil Crompton in a two-car Mobil 1 Commodore team in 1992, though slimmed down to a single car for Brock partway through the season.
The Melbourne-based team won on debut, winning a race in the opening round of the ’92 Australian Touring Car Championship at Amaroo Park.
The team was closed when Brock and sponsor Mobil moved to the Holden Racing Team for the 1994 season.
Frazer and Advantage (later renamed Octagon after another buyout) stayed in Australian motorsport, promoting the 1995 TAC Peter Brock Classic at Calder Park, the 1998 Round Australia Trial, the 1999 Bob Jane T-Marts Bathurst event and a brief period running the Future Tourers category.
The business and Frazer went on to run Targa Tasmania (of which he served as Chairman) and the Australian Safari as well as, briefly, the Queensland 500.
V8 Sleuth extends its sympathies to Steve’s wife Vonnie, sons David, Ryan and Ben and the extended Frazer family.
