DECLAN Fraser was eight years old when the Repco Supercars Championship raced on the streets of Townsville for the first time.
By then, the Castlemaine-born kid was living in Mackay.
He and his family made the 385km trek north to watch the inaugural edition of the then-known Townsville 400, in 2009, and it proved an unforgettable memory as Fraser’s future (2022) boss Jamie Whincup and now teammate James Courtney shared the spoils.
“It’s actually pretty funny, Dad was working on a car the very first year that the Townsville street circuit started, it was a Mini with two brothers racing it,” he reflected to V8 Sleuth.
“I was too young to actually be in the pitlane and the bus driver from the support category at that time, she was a lovely lady and she let me sneak in on the back of the bus and hide in the seats to get past security.
“So I ended up sitting in the support vehicles in pitlane and watching it from there for the first ever time that Supercars actually hit the track in Townsville.
“From then we nearly went up every year, so I have been there from the beginning which is really cool and now I am actually racing in the main game there.”
It has been a challenging rookie campaign thus far for Fraser, who was signed in the off-season by Tickford Racing to replace Jake Kostecki.
He currently is 25th and last of all full-timers in the championship.
“It’s pretty hard to look at the championship results at the moment and see yourself so far down after what we did last year,” Fraser, the 2022 Super2 champion, admitted.
“But we have made really good gains, I think I have closed up to the guys in the team; it’s my first year in the category which is a very difficult thing to do with some guys that have been in there for so long now with JC and Cam (Waters), and Tom (Randle) being his second year.
“It has been a massive and steep learning curve and all the tracks we have been to bar Perth have been my first time there.”
He does have a history of success in Townsville though, having taken his first Super2 race win there last year.
“I think the whole atmosphere of going to basically my home event just makes me feel right at home and I get a lot better energy when I go there and have my friends and family bumping me up and supporting me the whole way,” he said.
“Last year was my first Super2 win and it means a lot to me to go back and that Tickford have allowed me to go back to my home number when I was back in the go-karts over in Las Vegas all the through to 86s, the Dunlop Series and now I get to bring #777 to the main game.
“It’s a cool thing and I’m super grateful for Tickford allowing it.”
Qualifying today kicks off at 10:15am.
