The unheralded 1115-day streak snapped in chaotic NZ finale

A maiden top 10 finish of the season for Declan Fraser capped off a quietly promising weekend for PremiAir Racing at the ITM Christchurch Super 440.

Making the most of the late race Safety Car for Ryan Wood's expired Toyota in Race 13, Fraser worked his way from 13th to 11th in the three-lap sprint to the flag, which became 10th after Chaz Mostert's 30-second penalty was applied.

Fraser's top 10 result came a staggering 1115 days after his only top 10 finish of his rookie campaign in 2023, which came at the Australian Grand Prix.

Making the feat even more impressive was a mysterious power steering gremlin that had plagued the #777 side of the PremiAir garage all weekend, with Fraser starting the finale from way back in 23rd.

A big beneficiary of the opening lap chaos, Fraser made the most of the nine spots he gained through the opening exchange, and pushed on to claim a breakthrough result.

“We’ve just wrapped up a pretty big weekend here in Ruapuna, and it’s been a really cool track to race on it definitely made for some good racing," said the 2022 Super2 champion.

"To come through from P23 to P10 is a strong result for us. The team has worked really hard to iron out a few issues we’ve been dealing with, and it’s starting to come together now.

"Hodgie [Simon Hodge, Race Engineer] and I have been chipping away at understanding what we need from the car, and I feel like we’re starting to get on top of that, which is encouraging.

"Massive thanks to everyone at PremiAir Racing for their effort. We’ll take the positives from this one and keep pushing, hopefully we can keep knocking on the door of the top 10 and take that next step soon.”

Meanwhile, teammate Jayden Ojeda had the best weekend of his season to date, twice qualifying inside the top 10 and claiming a best finish of eighth.

Whilst he was caught up in the lap 1 pile-up in the finale, he got away without major damage, and was able to salvage 14th after making a third stop under the final Safety Car, whilst also being delayed by a slow puncture at the end of his first stint.

As a result, the Sydneysider has quietly worked his way up to 14th in the points standings, and is now the first of Chevrolets looking to join Anton De Pasquale and Jack Le Brocq inside the Finals bubble.

“Today was definitely challenging, but there are a lot of positives to take out of the weekend," said Ojeda.

"We had two top 10 qualifying results and came away with an eighth, an 11th and a 12th, so we’ve been right around that top 10 mark most of the time, which is encouraging.

"The car speed has been strong, and it shows we’re heading in the right direction. There were a few mistakes on my side and a couple of operational things we need to tidy up, but once we get on top of those, the results will come.

"We’ve got a bit of time before Tasmania now, so we’ll go away, do our homework and come back ready to have a proper crack.”

Fraser and Ojeda continue their campaigns in Tasmania from May 22-24.