Pammenter - new Australian Title holder
Posted: 06/06/04

The running of the Australian Title was held last night in Brisbane.  After 3 qualifying heats last weekend for the title, there was to be another heat, and a Pole Shuffle for the top 5 cars.  Heat 1 saw Nathan Macdonald start from position 7 and Darren Lester from position 10.  After a few laps had been done, Macdonald and Lester come together around turns 1 and 2, which resulted in Macdonald having a flat left rear tyre.  Macdonald kept going but was struggling with a flat tyre.  Darren Lester had then passed Macdonald and caught up to Tony Blacker and gave him a tap, which was enough to spin Blacker in front of Macdonald.  Macdonald having nowhere to go and ended up slamming into Blacker.  Macdonald then decided to pull out because of his flat tyre.  Darren Lester went through the pack to finish 3rd, with Rodney Pammenter in 4th.  Steve Conway finished ahead of Peter Rodgers to take the win.    1st Steve Conway     2nd Peter Rodgers    3rd Darren Lester. 

For the pole shuffle, Peter Rodgers and Rodney Pammenter went out first. The winner out of this after 2 laps would then take on 3rd place point scorer, and so on.  Pammenter started on the outside, and beat Rodgers into the first corner.  Pammenter never looked back and took the win easily.  Pammenter then had to face Darren Lester.  Both cars were lined up and the yellows lights went off suddenly. Pammenter got a better start on the inside and pulled away from Lester.  Pammenter was able to hold on for the 2 laps, moving up another position.  Next up was  Tony Blacker.  Pammenter moved back up on the outside, and got a better run than Blacker.  Rodney Pammenter lead for the first lap but made a mistake around turn 3 and 4 which allowed Blacker up on the inside, but Pammenter never gave up and retained the lead and crossed the line first. 

The last competitor was Steve Conway, Pammenter was back on the inside again and pulled away from Conway into the first corner.  Rodney in car #8 wasn't troubled and won the Pole Shuffle to be on pole.  Pammenter chose to start out of position 2, which saw Steve Conway on pole, Tony Blacker out of 3, Darren Lester 4, Peter Rodgers 5 and Nathan Macdonald 6.  On the start and into the first corner, Peter Rodgers had a hit from behind which put him into the fence.  Rodgers rejoined in his position on the restart.  Rocket Rodney Pammenter once again jumped into the lead on the start, while Darren Lester and Steve Conway come together which resulted in Lester hitting the wall and losing his power steering oil, which forced him to pull out. 

Macdonald then hit the wall up the back straight in Lesters smoke, which affected his steering even more after coming in contact with other cars previously.  Another stoppage saw Paul Zoubakin and Tony Blacker come together.  Pammenter was still leading with Steve Conway in 2nd and Nathan Macdonald 3rd.  Macdonald's car was blowing smoke and he had also lost power steering.  But he kept going and passed Conway into 2nd.  But after running 2nd for a few laps Macdonald pulled out after having oil pressure problems.  He later found that oil had been pushed out of the rocker cover gasket and the engine had lost too much oil.  Pammenter kept on his winning form and was unbeatable, and won the Australian Title by over half a lap.  Steve Conway got 2nd, Peter Rodgers 3rd Paul Zoubakin 4th and Tanya Blacker 5th.  1st Rodney Pammenter     2nd Steve Conway    3rd Peter Rodgers.