Bathurst 1000 star Declan Fraser breaks his silence after his house burned down just hours before big race – and reveals double tragedy

  • Declan Fraser’s Gold Coast home was destroyed by a fire
  • Fraser was given the news just a day before the big race
  • Says he regrouped with the help of a sports psychologist

V8 Supercars star Declan Fraser has spoken about the horror of finding out his Gold Coast home was destroyed by a fire just hours before racing in the Bathurst 1000.

The 24-year-old Brad Jones Racing driver was told on Saturday while preparing for the big race at Mount Panorama that the luxury Hope Island house had burned down.

Nobody was hurt in the blaze, but it’s left Fraser with nowhere to live and destroyed nearly all his clothes and personal belongings – and he’s far from the only one who’s suffering.

‘It’s been a wild 24 hours … I found out yesterday in the middle of the day and that was pretty gut-wrenching,’ Fraser told News Corp.

‘My main concern was the people I live with there, who own the house, I was just renting it off of them. They were in the house at the time that it happened.

‘They got out all safe, which I am very, very grateful for …. for them to get out safely is remarkable, I think it was a very quick fire that happened. That was my main concern over everything.

‘They are some very good family friends of ours, who I moved in with when I left Melbourne and came to Gold Coast. I have lived with them for about six months now.

‘It’s absolutely devastating for them because it’s their house and their whole life in there as well and also my life as well.

Declan Fraser (pictured) has spoken about the horror of finding out his Gold Coast home was destroyed by fire just hours before he had to race in the Bathurst 1000

Fraser says the news of the blaze (pictured) was 'gut-wrenching' and he's just happy nobody was hurt

Fraser says the news of the blaze (pictured) was ‘gut-wrenching’ and he’s just happy nobody was hurt

Fraser's clothes and personal items were destroyed in the fire, which also devastated a family he was sharing the house with

Fraser’s clothes and personal items were destroyed in the fire, which also devastated a family he was sharing the house with 

‘I’m very glad that they’re OK. The items can be replaced, but it’s pretty gut-wrenching.’

Fraser says he sought out the help of a sports psychologist to help him deal with the shocking news and focus on his job.

‘A lot of hours on the phone to my sports psych got me through it,’ Fraser said.

‘The biggest thing is just trying to refocus and do the best job I could.

‘The plan was to bring home a trophy for them, but obviously just a few things in the race didn’t go our way and luck wasn’t on our side.

Fraser said he regrouped for the race with the help of a sports psychologist

Fraser said he regrouped for the race with the help of a sports psychologist

‘It was all over the news so they (my family) decided that it would be best to tell me early so I had time to process it.

‘So they told me yesterday around lunchtime … if it was up to me I would not have wanted to know until post-race, but it was all over the news and I had a lot of people messaging me, basically 10 minutes after my parents told me.

‘I was probably lucky they told me when they did.’

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