Macdonald Brothers Charge to Top 5 Finishes in Charlton, AU
Posted by Joe Willy on
Team Dirt Dog's Macdonald Racing Scores Two Top 5's in Modified Sedan Season Opener at Hi-Tec Oils Speedway
Charlton, QLD AU | Sept. 28, 2017 - The Macdonald brothers got off to a great start for the 2017/18 speedway season. Both Shane and Nathan took to the track for the opening night of the new season at Hi-Tech Oils Toowoomba Speedway. With Shane having added some extra "ventilation holes" to his engine in the # 27 during a practice session 2 weeks ago, the team managed to slap together an engine hoping Shane could at least gather some points towards his goal of taking out the club championship for this season. He did a little better than that.
Nathan started his first heat in the # 32 from position 7 and slowly picked off the competitors one by one, eventually finishing 2nd behind heat winner Greg Worling.
Shane started his heat from pole, and lead from the green to the checkered flag, despite an underpowered car and contiuous pressure from the current Queensland and New South Wales champ Rodney Pammenter.
The second and final round of heats would see both brothers in the same heat, Nathan 
starting from pole and Shane from p9. Nathan would take control from the start, while Shane began to move through the field until Lee Volk got loose and Shane could not avoid contact, but managed to continue on at the restart. At the restart Nathan found himself under pressure from current South Australian and Victorian champ Aidan Raymont while Shane continued his drive through the field, and before long had gone past Raymont into 2nd place. The brothers then put on a great display of side by side racing until Nathan made a small mistake allowing Shane and Aidan Raymont to go underneath . At the checkered flag, Shane would comfortably hold off Raymont with Nathan crossing in 3rd.
2 from 2 heat wins would see Shane start from pole in the 20 lap feature from Greg Worling, Rodney Pammenter, Nathan in 4th , Jordan Biviano with Aidan Raymont making up the first 3 rows. Track preparation immediately before the feature race would catch a few drivers out going into the first corner, but Shane and Nathan capitalized the high line and at the end of the first lap would be 1 & 2. Aiden Raymont and Rodney Pammenter soon found drive on the low line and got by both Shane and Nathan, relegating them to 3rd and 4th respectively.
For the next 10 laps, Raymont, Pammenter and the boys would be nose to tail on a fast track with a distance back to Worling in 5th. A stoppage on lap 13 would see the field bunch up, and with the track starting to change, Pammenter soon found the track going away from him and a small mistake allowed Shane through into 2nd, but Aidan Raymont had too much a lead for Shane to make up by the checkered flag and had to settle for the runner up position, Rodney Pammenter held onto 3rd with a fast finishing Greg Worling getting past Nathan for 4th place.
Next up is Gympie Speedway where veteran racer Sean Black will take the wheel of Shane's # 27.
