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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.

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