DECLAN Fraser is keeping his options open on how to convert a potential Dunlop Super2 Series crown into a 2023 Repco Supercars Championship seat.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver has a 114-point lead in hand after four of six rounds in the second tier, with consistency and smarts having been his forte.
With brutal venues at Bathurst and Adelaide still to come it’s far from a fait accompli – nor is a graduation if he is triumphant.
Fraser, 21, has been touted as a contender for a PremiAir Racing seat, and the Blanchard Racing Team could now be a chance too with early favourite Lee Holdsworth out of the running.
It’s not clear whether the former Mackay resident would entertain doing Super2 again, a path which Garry Jacobson took even after clinching the 2016 title.
“There’s seats still available and I’m completely open to talk to anyone about any seat,” Fraser told V8 Sleuth.
“I’m just waiting and hopefully something comes up sooner rather than later and we can lock something away.
“I’d love to stay with Triple Eight but whether or not there’s an opportunity to stay here in the coming years, I’m just keeping my options open at the moment.
“The team have been fantastic with allowing me to just introduce myself to some people and they have been facilitating a couple of meetings and stuff like that, so I’m ridiculously grateful for everyone at Triple Eight for all their help.
“We’ll just see what 2023 brings. We have just got to wait and see where it all pans out in the silly season.”
What is certain is Fraser does not want to take a gap year, like what Thomas Randle did between winning Super2 in 2020 and making his full-time debut this year.
“It’s not the end of the world but at the same time it’s not the preference,” said Fraser, who was at Queensland Raceway today for the second of three test days for the Triple Eight/Supercheap Auto wildcard he’ll share with Craig Lowndes in the Bathurst 1000.
“We have just got to play it smart, keep our options open, keep looking around, and I’m sure by hopefully before Bathurst or just after Bathurst we should know what next year is starting to look like.”
On his Super2 bid, Fraser is hoping for less mayhem than has become the norm when the series turns up at Mount Panorama in October.
“At the moment it’s just trying to stay out of the carnage that is Super2,” he said.
“The driving standards haven’t been 100 percent where they should be, I believe… so I’m hoping that when we get to Bathurst it is going to be a little bit less chaotic.
“Just trying to stay out of trouble as much as possible and make sure we keep banking championship points and not get involved in everyone else’s problems.”
