Macdonald Racing Team make it a 1 2 finish
Posted: 14/12/03

It has been long awaited but it's finally here, Macdonald Racing Team capturing their first 1 and 2 Feature finish.  Heat 1 started Shane on the second row in third, while Nathan rounded up the rear out of 7.  A fairly clean race, but on a wet track saw Shane make his way up to the number 1 spot, while Nathan got up to 4th.  The final positions were 1st Shane Macdonald,    2nd Bill Tronc,    3rd Tanya Blacker. 

Heat 2 was reverse grid, with Nathan on pole and Tony Blacker on 2 and Shane from 5.  Nathan was given the caution Flag after jumping the start which resulted in a restart.  This time Nathan was able to get a better start, leading into turn 1 only to push wide allowing Tony Blacker in the Australia #1 car to go past.  From here on Nathan and Tony were battling for the #1 spot.  Towards the last few laps Tony and Nathan's cars got hooked together which slowly saw them stop down the front straight.  Shane got into 3rd place.  On the restart both cars were relegated back to their original positions.  Now with Shane joining the race to fight for the top position, it saw a 3 lap sprint to the flag with the positions not changing.  They finished as follows 1st Tony Blacker,    2nd Nathan Macdonald,    3rd Shane Macdonald. 

After a good night, Shane come up with points to start off of pole, while Nathan, Tony and Bill drew for points on 2nd.  After a flip of the coin Bill Tronc started off of 2 with Nathan in 3rd and Tony 4th.  Shane elected to start on the high side in position 2, hoping for a better line.  This seemed to pay off for him after he was able to jump into the lead from the start.  Nathan was able to get past Bill Tronc on the first lap, and started to put chase  to his brother, but was unable to wheel in the lead Macdonald had.  With 3 laps to go there was a stoppage after Chris Duffel stopped on the track.  This closed the gap between the 2 brothers with Rodney Pammenter behind them in 3rd.  After sorting out his fuel pump problems, and changing the gear box after discovering the housing was cracked Saturday morning, and rectifying his handling issues with the car, Shane took off when the green flag dropped, Nathan unable to pass him after keeping an even race.  The two Macdonald's keeping an even 2 or 3 car lengths between themselves for the remainder of the race.  Rodney managed to cross the line in 3rd position.  Final positions were 1st Shane Macdonald,    2nd Nathan Macdonald,    3rd Rodney Pammenter.