Macdonald Pleased with car after first run
Posted: 19/03/06
 Shane
Macdonald's first outing in his new Modified Production car, was an
excellent night which the car showed some promising speed for its
first night out. Shane is used to racing a V8, as well as an
aluminium wing on the roof in Sprint Sedans. With Modified
Production, Shane has to change his driving style dramatically as he
steps into his Production car. Macdonald started from 9th in the
first heat. The track looked real good and very hooky. Shane
managed to get the car going around nicely, with its handling of the
track looking real good. Thanks must go to Trappy for helping set
up the car.
The #27 VS Commodore of Macdonald passed two cars and was keeping
with long time Production driver Bob Worling. Shane finished 7th in
his first heat.
Being his first race meeting in the class, Shane must start at the
rear of the field in all his heats. Shane started out of 8th
position in heat 2. Coming into turn 3, Macdonald's right hand
front tyre caught a rut and the car was on two wheels, he managed to
bring it back down and re-compose himself. He then charged on to
pass a car, then another one around the outside in turn 3. Shane
finished 6th in this heat.
Heat 3 found Macdonald starting from 6th right behind fellow
competitor Robert Trapp. Shane Moved up into 3rd place after the
first lap, as the car started to blow a trail of smoke. This was
from the power steering pump losing oil, which made the car real
heavy to steer. The current New South Wales title holder Michael
Hally went underneath Macdonald who now dropped back to 4th. He
managed to hold his position and finish. Robert Trapp finished in
2nd place.
For the feature Macdonald qualified in 13th position out of a total
of about 20 cars for the night. Robert Trapp performed well in his
heats to qualify on the outside front row beside Mark Raymont. As
the filed of 20 cars got underway, Trapp got shunted by Dale Grother
in the first corner while running 2nd, which bent the steering in
Trapp's car, forcing him out for the night. It was a shame to see
one of the front running cars being taken out like this.
After the restart for that incident, the race was started suddenly,
with several cars passing people underneath the witches hat on the
front straight, which they should be penalised for but were not.
After about 10 laps Macdonald's car developed a smoke trail again,
as he seemed to be struggling with the car. Macdonald was shown the
machinery defect black flag caused by the smoke. This time around
Shane had lost all his power steering fluid, making it merely
impossible to steer.
The night was one of a learning curve for Macdonald Racing, and is a
step forward in Shane's Speedway career. We can only get better
from here on and learn from our mistakes. Shane was happy with the
car for the night and is already looking forward to his next race at
his home track at Charlton Raceway on the 16th April. See you
there!
Shane would also like to thank his sponsors who helped him get this
far-
Linmac
Automotive
Dorrs Engineering
Leicht's CIA
Toowoomba Steering Service
Downs Radiator Service
Mac1 Designs
| 
