Nathan adds Track Championship to his name
Posted: 01/02/04

Saturday night saw the running of the Brisbane Speedway Track Championship.  After a few repairs to the cars from Mackay the weekend before, both Macdonald cars were ready to go.  For heat 1, Nathan started out of position 5, with Shane in position 7.  The first lap saw Shane Hollyman jump into the lead from position 4, only to have the yellow lights come on after Paul Zoubakin and Bill Tronc come together.  After a restart, Shane Hollyman raced up to 2nd, only to retire after about half the race distance after he blew a head gasket.  Paul Zoubakin lead from start to finish and Nathan managed to get into 2nd position, with Darren Lester behind him and Shane Macdonald in 4th. 1st Paul Zoubakin    2nd Nathan Macdonald    3rd Darren Lester. 

In heat 2 Shane Macdonald started out of 4, with Nathan back in 7th.  Shane managed to make his way up to 1st, only to drop back to 3rd, after finding some ruts on a very rough track.  Tony Blacker was able to take the lead with Darren Lester in 2nd.  Nathan was following Shane in fourth but couldn't make any more positions.  1st Tony Blacker    2nd Darren Lester    3rd Shane Macdonald. 

Darren Lester had enough points to start on pole for the Track Championship feature race, with Paul Zoubakin on 2, Nathan Macdonald on 3, and Shane Macdonald on 4.  After everyone settled into position, the race saw Darren Lester in front with Paul Zoubakin in 2nd, Shane in 3rd and Nathan 4th.  Through the whole race these four were battling for position, with Zoubakin at one stage taking the lead, only to have Lester take the lead back.  Shane was also on the outside of Zoubakin a few times, but couldn't quite get around him.  Coming into turn 3, Shane went on the inside of the Mazda of Zoubakin's, but got tangled up, while this allowed Nathan to go around the outside of both cars and into 2nd. 

Shane ended up getting past Zoubakin, only to get a little crossed up, which allowed Tony Blacker in the Australia #1 car to get passed and into 3rd.  Shane had to settle for 4th.  Nathan was able to catch up to Lester, and on the final lap, went around the outside to steal the lead to be first across the finish line.  Macdonald added the Track Championship to his list of achievements.  1st Nathan Macdonald    2nd Darren Lester    3rd Tony Blacker.