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After losing his seat when Tickford Racing downsized to two cars for the 2024 Supercars Championship, the Queenslander has joined BJR to partner Andre Heimgartner at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
Fraser had plenty of seat time in the R&J Batteries Camaro in this week’s Winton test, including being handed the wheel during the late-afternoon ‘happy hour’ when temperatures ease off, and reporting that he was even given two sets of ‘green’ tyres during the day.
He drew a comparison to his year with Triple Eight, when he won the Dunlop Super2 Series and finished eighth on his Great Race debut with Craig Lowndes in the Supercheap Auto car, a record result for an official wildcard.
“It was really good,” the 23-year-old told Speedcafe.
“To tell the truth, I feel like I’ve just sort of slotted in very nicely to the whole dynamic of what the team’s like.
“It brings me back to 2022 vibes [in terms] of how they operate and even the driving style inside the cars and how they like their philosophies, so it’s really good to have that environment back again.
“With this pairing, and the way that we’re progressing already this early in the season, I feel like, by the time nine months comes, we’re going to be pretty strong and one of the favourites to be on that podium at Sandown and Bathurst.”
Heimgartner finished fifth in the 2023 Sandown 500 but was a DNF at Mount Panorama after co-driver Dale Wood got involved in a tangle with Scott Pye, and then an engine failure which may have been connected to that trip to the gravel trap.
However, the New Zealander ended up a career-best seventh in the championship whereas, for Fraser, the entire season was a frustrating one.
The only time the 2022 Super2 Series winner finished in the top 10 last year was an altogether bizarre affair at Albert Park and he was 24th in the drivers’ standings at season’s end, by which time Tickford had decided it needed a two-car model in order to be a genuine championship threat.
Fraser has not given up on future full-time Supercars Championship competition, and believes his BJR gig can be the springboard.
“Yeah, always,” he affirmed.
“I think my one year that I had in Supercars wasn’t enough to show what I can actually do.
“I feel like a lot of circumstances just weren’t in favour and it is what it is, with the Gen3 introduction.
“I feel like, this year, I’ll be able to rewrite what my history books say at the moment and really show people what I can actually achieve, and I think that pairing up with Andre gives me the best opportunity to do that.
“If I can show people what I’m really about, and the way that I go about my racing, and even with the other stuff that I hopefully can get across the line in other categories, I think it should really put me in good stead to get back in the series eventually.”
‘Decca’ is hoping in the next week to finalise that additional racing to which he referred.
He is not the only new face at BJR, with Jaylyn Robotham taking over as Bryce Fullwood’s co-driver in the Middy’s Camaro, while the Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys pairing in the Pizza Hut machine carries over from 2023.
In the SCT Motorsport entry also run out of Albury, experienced Porsche driver Jaxon Evans has moved into the primary driver role for what is officially his rookie Supercars Championship campaign.
