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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.

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