Long time between drinks for Conway
Posted: 16/05/04

Saturday night at Brisbane International Speedway, the East Coast A grade sedan club held the last race meeting for seasonal points at the Brisbane Track.  In the first heat, Nathan started from the rear of the field.  Macdonald made his way up to 3rd position when the yellow lights come on because Steve Conway had stopped on the track after a racing incident.  Nathan was behind Shane Hollyman on the restart with Darren Lester in car #25 in 1st.  Lester drove away from the rest of the field, opening up a 10 car length lead over Hollyman.  Macdonald went underneath Hollyman in turn four for 2nd spot, but drifted up into the Holden Commodore, the two cars rubbing panels up the front straight, which resulted in the two cars getting hooked together which shot Macdonald up into the wall, bending the strut in his suspension.  Whilst Shane Hollyman kept going but his right rear wheel and axle come out of the car in the next corner. 

After the dust had settled, the race leader Darren Lester was found on the infield after his car caught fire due to oil leaking out of the rocker cover.  Macdonald's car was still driveable, which moved him up to 1st position.  The current Queensland champion took the race win with Steven Conway 2nd, Chris Duffel 3rd and Tanya Blacker 4th.  1st Nathan Macdonald     2nd Steve Conway    3rd Chris Duffel. 

Heat 2 found Macdonald off the front row beside Tanya Blacker.  Macdonald smoked 'em on the start, streaking away to nearly half a lap lead.  While Darren Lester drove through the pack up to 3rd, until midway through his race, started smoking again, which forced him onto the infield.  Steve Conway finished a comfortable 2nd with Chris Duffel 3rd and Allan Williams 4th, who was struggling with clutch problems all night.  1st Nathan Macdonald     2nd Steve Conway    3rd Chris Duffel. 

In the feature race, Macdonald was highest point scorer and opted to start from outside front row, with Steve Conway on pole, Chris Duffel out of 3, Darren Lester 4, Shane Hollyman 5 and Allan Williams from position 6.  While in the pits, getting ready to line up, Macdonald found that Alternator belt (which also runs on the water pump), had come off.  Macdonald threw the bonnet off the car, but by this time the other cars were going out onto the track, Macdonald couldn't get the belt back on in time which made him a Did Not Start for the feature race.  This moved Tanya Blacker up on the front row beside Steve Conway. 

Conway got the better start, going straight into the lead, with Darren Lester following him.  Lester was chasing the better line, trying out the whole track to find a way past Conway.  But Conway in the Holden Torana held on, until Darren Lester in the Holden Commodore once again had to pull onto the infield as his car started to smoke again.  Lester's car was found to have a blown head gasket, which was forcing oil out through rocker cover gaskets.  Steve Conway then drove away with the race win, with Shane Hollyman coming in for 2nd, Allan Williams 3rd and Tanya Blacker 4th.  1st Steve Conway     2nd Shane Hollman    3rd Allan Williams.