The tough love that has Fraser chasing ultimate goal

Being in close quarters with Roland Dane and Paul Morris is clearing the path for Declan Fraser to chase a Finals berth in his first full Supercars season in three years.

The Queenslander is currently two rounds into his comeback season with PremiAir Racing, and sits 18th in the championship behind rookie teammate Jayden Ojeda.

With former Triple Eight supremo Dane at the helm, PremiAir Racing had a lacklustre and damaging start to 2026, but found reason to smile after Ojeda and Fraser dodged chaos in Melbourne to finish seventh and 11th.

In the big break between Melbourne and New Zealand, Fraser sought out extra time with Dane and Morris, who operates Norwell Motorplex, to fine-tune specifics in order to take the next step.

"I've been leaning on basically every single resource that I have in between this break to try and figure it all out,” Fraser told Supercars.com.

“Hopefully we found a little bit in the way that I prep the tyre and just watching what other guys are doing and just trying to learn off of other people who have the knowledge in the sport to figure it all out.

"I have a very close connection with Paul Morris, he's a very knowledgeable person. I’ve been leaning on him.

"And then we've probably got one of the most experienced people in all of the racing world with Roland. He's got his ear to the ground on practically everything that you could ever ask for.

“He's been helping me do a little bit of research in behind the scenes, and Paul's been a massive influence in helping me get through that as well. Leaning on those two guys has been pretty influential for me.”

While finishing 11th isn't what Fraser signed up for, the 25-year-old has been making baby steps throughout the opening rounds, yet nearly flew into the top 10 straight away.

“In Sydney, I got knocked out by a half a tenth. So I was pretty happy considering I've been out of it for two and a half years,” Fraser said.

"I'd say we're trending in a positive direction. So at the moment. I'd probably rate my season so far a seven out of 10.”

When asked what he needs to take it to an eight, Fraser said: “Just sorting out qualifying and figuring out the way the tyre works a little bit better. That's a pretty big one.

“Coming back, there's been new tyres introduced, new tyre compounds, a bit of everything. For me it's trying to get my head around that."

Aboard a fourth Tickford Racing Mustang in 2023, Fraser never truly got to show his potential. By year's end, he was pushed out as Tickford downsized to two cars.

Amid sporadic racing cameos, Fraser partnered with Andre Heimgartner for the enduros. However, that didn't produce much fruit either, with Fraser's career-best Bathurst result of seventh last year overshadowed by Heimgartner's heartbreaking Finals near-miss.

Now at PremiAir, which was somewhat in a constant state of rebuild, Fraser was plucked out by Dane himself. Fraser saw how much Dane wants to win, and that was a culture he wanted to be part of.

Thinking bigger picture, Dane is pushing Fraser and Ojeda along round by round, and both drivers have proven up to the task. The extra effort and incremental goals are all building towards the ultimate goal: getting both drivers into the Finals.

For Fraser, Finals would be just reward after years of professional and personal toil. Sitting 97 points from the top 10 with 2805 to win before the cut-off, there's every chance PremiAir could find the results required to get there.

"There's a lot of pressure when you come back in after being out for a while. I was fighting for my life every year to try and get back into the sport," Fraser said.

"To have three people in Pete, Carmen and Roland trust me to come back after some time off and put their faith in me to deliver results — there's a lot of pressure that comes with that.

"But the reason why I'm so comfortable at the moment, and I know that we're trending in a good direction, is that they set realistic targets for where they expect me to be.

"So far we're meeting them and we're moving forward. There's a plan in place for both Jayden and I of how we're going to move up the grid and get both GM, but especially PremiAir, further down that pit lane.

"Obviously with the Finals system, you've got be in the top 10 come the end of the year. That's a massive goal for us as a team. Jayden's 16th, I'm 18th, but one race for either of us could put us right on the bubble of being in the top 10.

"We're not so focused on into the future that we're forgetting where we are right now. It's very much like, 'okay, this is how we're gonna get to that goal round by round, and this is what you need to improve on every single time you hit the track'."

Fraser will resume his 2026 campaign in New Zealand from April 10-12 at Taupō. Tickets are on sale now.