Fraser vows to lift, Dane lashes mistakes

Roland Dane has lit a fire under PremiAir Racing recruit Declan Fraser following a Darwin Triple Crown that featured 'far too many mistakes'.

On a weekend where Jayden Ojeda's star continued to rise, finishing ninth in the final Triple Crown standings, Fraser had top 10 potential throughout the weekend, but was unable to convert, with a best finish of 15th on Saturday.

It continues a tough return season for the popular Queenslander, who is being outshone by rookie Ojeda in the qualifying head-to-head battle (down 14-3) as well as races (down 15-4).

PremiAir have made no secrets of their intentions to rise to the front, the headline acquisition of the formerly retired Dane as Team Principal signalling a new era for the young Gold Coast squad.

But with that comes a shift in expectations, of which Dane felt weren't met in Darwin.

"We didn't live up to our own expectations this weekend. We felt we should have been solidly inside the top 10 in each race, and we weren't, so we need to go away and understand what we could have done better," said the former Triple Eight supremo.

"We certainly expected more from the #777 car, and there were simply too many mistakes across the weekend. That's not acceptable by our standards.

"Now it's about learning from it, improving and coming back stronger in Townsville. That's what sport is all about."

Fraser was knocking on the door of the top 10 on Saturday when he encountered a recovering Zach Bates on the run to the Turn 6 hairpin, Bates having fired off at the previous corner.

Fraser attempted a move around the outside of the hairpin, only to be squeezed up on to the kerb and sent spinning off the circuit. Bates would be penalised, whilst Fraser would recover to 15th.

Sunday was also promising initially, storming from 18th to 15th on the opening lap, before contact with Todd Hazelwood saw him off the road once again in the Valley.

Fraser was deemed at blame for the incident, having 'moved off line to reduce [Hazelwood]'s racing room', with the #777 Chevrolet ending up mired back in the pack before finishing 18th.

Fraser reflected on the Equip Super Cool Down Lap: "I got a mega start for once, I feel like PremiAir as a whole has been trying to figure out our starts as well, and I got a really good start.

"I was really aggressive off that first lap, I think I went from 18th to 14th or something like that, and I was stoked with it. Unfortunately, I just got turned around. Everyone has their own perspectives on it, but it is what it is, so that's ok.

"Moving forward, I think I probably should have been just a little bit more narrow going into there, and then we had really good pace at the end. To be fair, I think the pace was there throughout the stints, not just the end, so I think for us it's positive."

Fraser is confident that his fortunes will turn around however, with the 2022 Super2 champion recording a career-best qualifying result of 12th on Saturday.

"100%, I mean if you look at Tasmania, I was the fastest on track or top three in pace for the whole last stint. The pace is there, it's just about qualifying and nailing that.

"Being out of the seat for two years, obviously it's going to take a bit of time to get back to doing some green tyre runs. The only thing you can do to get green tyre runs is green tyre runs.

"I think as the season progresses, I get better and better, and I've already shown that. I got my best qualifying result of my career this weekend in 12th, and nearly made it into the top 10 by half a tenth of a second.

"So I think I've made a massive progression in myself forward in both that and also my racing and my race craft and everything. It's all starting to come together.

"I think consistently, we'll get close to that 10 and it should be fine."

Fraser continues his season ay his home event, the NTI Townsville 500, from July 10-12.