The season opener for Charlton Raceway produced a demanding track, but Macdonald took up the challenge and secured his first win at the track for the new season.

Heat 1 saw Nathan start from the rear, the track was already showing dust but was watered down beforehand which saw dry and wet patches over the track.  Nathan managed to make his way into 5th place.  The heat was won by Stuart Fricker who put in a top drive as this being his first race on the Charlton circuit, followed by Martin Cross, Darren Ciesloka and Peter Rogers.

Nathan was to start from position 3 in heat two, with Martin Cross and Darren Ciesolka off the front row.  As the race got underway, Macdonald started to make a move on Cross as Ciesolka took the lead.  Cross and Macdonald went on to fight for the number two spot, as both cars swapped positions numerous times.  With a few laps to go Macdonald ran a bit higher which allowed Martin to through and then into the lead.  Nathan ended up finishing in 3rd place.

The feature race was pre-drawn, which saw Nathan Macdonald starting from pole position with Peter Campbell out of 2, followed by Peter Rogers, Shane Hollyman, Peter Gray, Darren Ciesolka, Stuart Fricker and Martin Cross from the rear.  By this time the track had become fairly rough and starting to go dry.  After making some adjustments to the car in the pits, Macdonald jumped straight to the lead into the first corner, while Martin Cross had a dream run coming from 8th to 2nd in the first lap, only to bend a steering control arm on the rugged track which forced him out.  Macdonald powered his Commodore on to take the feature win with Peter Rogers coming in 2nd and Shane Hollyman 3rd.

Macdonald felt unusual or unfair, taking the win under the circumstances, with the starting positions being pre-drawn, but said "we'll still take the win!"

Nathan and the team are heading up north to Mackay for the north QLD Outlaw sedan title next weekend.  "We know the car is quick up there, we just hope all the bugs are ironed out of the car".  As from the previous three times Macdonald raced up there, he had been running strong in the feature races but has been let down by mechanical failure and tyres.  Hopefully this time round we will have a good package.  The competition will be tough with around 35 cars nominated.