The Australian Outlaw Title was held in Mackay on the weekend, with Nathan Macdonald running into bad luck during the night.  After starting 7th in the first heat, Macdonald got to the lead within a few laps, only to pop the right hand front tyre off the rim after sliding across a rut.

We pumped the tyres up after the first heat.  It caught us out as it became reasonably rough very quickly.  We started from 7th position in heat 2.  After just getting into the lead, I tried a different line, which saw the RH front tyre pop off the rim once again over a rut in the same corner.

Back in the pits we beefed the pressures up even more to prevent this from happening again.  Heat 3 I started from pole position.  The straight line speed of the car took us straight into the lead, with this heat the car going exceptionally well as we opened up about a half lap lead and ended up lapping cars up to 4th place.  It was a relief to get at least some kind of result on the board!

Starting from position 7 in heat 4, I was able to pick off cars one by one, once we got to the lead that's where we stayed.  The car didn't miss a beat. 

For the last heat of the night, we started from 4th.  I steered the car into 3rd place behind Myles Gilroy.  I found a way underneath Gilroy into second then moved to the race lead.  Coming into turn 1 I ran wide, (trying too hard!) we then dropped back to 3rd.  I then hit the wall again the next lap, luckily it was only with tail of the car.  I gathered momentum and reeled in the race leader.  After a restart we started in 2nd place.  I moved straight to the outside and went around Myles Gilroy to take the lead and the heat win. 

Three heat wins seemed to make up for poor results in the first two heats due to flat tyres.  I qualified the car on the outside row in 4th position for the 50 lap final.  I thought we would have been further back in the pack as there were a total of 45 cars racing for the title.

When the greens light flashed, we dropped back to 5th in the feature, only to crawl back up to 3rd place.  I was on the outside of Jeff Ohl for a few laps trying to make a pass into 2nd.  It was neck and neck, I threw the car into turn 1, only to hear that irritating noise of a tyre blowing.  After only about 5 laps I was shattered to find out the right hand front tyre had popped off the rim over a rut once again.  Macdonald pulled out with his head hung low.  The car speed shown was excellent and it was a tremendous shame that something like that can fail us at such a critical time.  I have raced on tracks 4 times as rough as this one, but this would be the first time we have had dramas like we did Saturday Night.  It seems there is some sort of Voodoo hanging over me, as I havn't ever completed more than 10 laps in the feature races out of the three years I have contested the title in Mackay.  There's always next year!

Congratulations to Jeff Ohl who won the title for the second time in a row, while Peter Rodgers from Toowoomba come in 4th after starting from 14th.