Thursday night, and the team has had their practice session.  With a pleasing result in the end, the car is circling around the track how it was before, hard and fast.  Trying plenty of different set-ups and adjustments to see what the car would do, has given the team an idea of what direction we are heading.  Using old tyres for the night so to save the good ones for the racing, Shane Macdonald managed to grab the 11th quickest time of the night out of 48 cars there., which is a top effort after the horror smash last weekend at Charlton.

Being happy with the car, there is no need to take the car off the trailer Friday night for the official practice.  Shane will save tyres and fuel and be ready to take on the rest of Australia come Saturday night.

Friday Night - Deciding to have a run with brand new tyres on the car to see if it changed the handling at all, Macdonald went out for one run, as he stormed around the banks of Maryborough he posted the fastest lap time in his group and 4th fastest of the night so far.  Shane was happy enough with the car and put it on the trailer.  Macdonald ended up falling back to 7th fastest overall for the night.

Times won't mean much come Saturday night, as the important thing will be making clean passing moves to move forward in the heats.  Macdonald knows it will be tough to qualify and is also hoping for a bit of "luck" to go his way.

Saturday Night - A quick shower passed an hour before the racing was due to commence, which actually done the track a lot of good, proving to be a little greasy for the first few races but held together beautifully all night.

Shane started in position eight in his first heat, quickly moving into sixth, then started finding some pace up a bit higher, making some of the boldest moves ever seen on a greasy track, Macdonald went around the outside of former Queensland Champion Jonno Collins, then around Tom Johnson and Gavin Lorensen on the outside.  David Jacobi had cleared out in front as Graham West from Victoria in his Torana was second, until a flat tyre saw him slow as Macdonald annexed 2nd place.

Heat two Macdonald had a second row start in position three.  Shane settled into second place behind Adam Jorgensen, as Macdonald was all over the back of Jorgensen looking for a way past.  Macdonald had a good run out of turn four and made the pass stick to take the lead.  Macdonald never looked back as he drove away with the win. After the second round of heats Macdonald was leading the points table so far with a 2nd and 1st placings respectively.

The third heat for Macdonald found him starting out of position seven, as Shane quickly found a rhythm and managed to advance to 4th place.  Macdonald held on to cross the line in 4th for another great result.  With a 2nd, 1st and a 4th, Macdonald is 5th in points so far, which is a fantastic result for the team, and with a pole position for the final heat on Sunday night, all fingers are crossed for a clean result tomorrow night and hopefully a win to create a good starting position for the 40 lap feature.

Sunday Night - Sitting in 5th place in points with one heat to go, Macdonald had everything leaning his way with a pole position for his final heat.  Macdonald got straight on the job, leading the field away into turn one.  Shane soldiered on to open up a few car lengths over his rivals, looking good for a heat win, until Macdonald slowed dramatically drifting back through the pack after having no power steering.  Shane rolled around the track and still managed to finish in 8th position.  A quick change of the power steering pump with a replacement thanks to Rodney Pammenter who retired the night before with engine dramas. 

The cruel blow cost Shane dearly in points, dropping him from 5th to 15th position with fellow local Robert Trapp in 16th, the last two direct transfers to the A-main.

Reigning champion Todd Doyle was the top qualifier, and was going to be hard to beat up front.  The 40 lap final was going to be a test of speed and reliability, with the C and B-mains resulting in half the field not finishing. 

The 2007/2008 Handy Hire Australian Title was underway, as Shane slotted into 14th place once the lights went green.  Macdonald managed to avoid several incidents and at one stage lost two positions to Troy Ware and Darren White but fought back twice as hard to regain those positions.  Making his way through the field Macdonald was in 7th with a handful of laps to go.  Macdonald was all over Aiden Raymont looking for a way past, trying the high and low line.  Coming off turn four, Raymont and Macdonald come together were hooked up, at the same time Steve Price come to rest up the back straight, bringing on the yellows.  The stewards put both Raymont and Macdonald back in their positions. 

With seven laps to go Macdonald pressed on, as Macdonald followed Raymont past Trevor Mills for 5th and 6th respectively.  Macdonald had an excellent run up the back straight and flew past Raymont to snatch 5th place.  Macdonald was gaining on the front runners of Todd Doyle, Greg Worling, Andrew Blackwell and Paul Hussey, when two laps to go Macdonald's engine shut down down on him as he rolled to a halt up the main straight on the infield.  Todd Doyle won back to back Title's with Andrew Blackwell in 2nd, Greg Worling 3rd, Paul Hussey 4th, Aidan Raymont 5th and Robert Trapp 6th.

A devastating end for Macdonald who looked to have 5th place in the bag, but a faulty crank angle sensor on the engine was at fault with two laps to go.  Timing was at an all time low for Macdonald on the final night, with the power steering pump failing in the final heat and a sensor in the A-main, but to firstly qualify in 15th position out of 90 plus cars was an achievement in itself, and to move forward in the A-main up against the best in Australia to 5th place was a remarkable achievement.

Sweeping up the sorrows and misfortunes, there is a lot of positives the team can take away from the weekend, as well as enjoying every moment of this fantastic event.  Congratulations to Robert Trapp who started in 16th position and finished in 6th place, which is a fantastic result for Trappy who has helped us immensely over the years.