Narre Warren’s Geoff Emery showed good early pace in practice before striking trouble in round three of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Sandown over the long weekend. By Marc McGowan
TWO promising practice sessions at Sandown on Saturday had Narre Warren Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series driver Geoff Emery thinking his fortunes had turned.
But by Sunday, Emery was back cursing his luck after being involved in another incident he could not avoid.
In the previous round at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park, errors in separate races from rival competitor Joel Spychala left Emery’s car with major damage.
At Sandown a truck burnout demonstration before qualifying was the catalyst for Emery’s problems.
Moments after leaving the pits, his VZ Commodore crashed into the wall after slipping on fluid the trucks had left on the track.
Emery was unable to take part in qualifying, leaving him at the back of the grid for race one.
He managed to make up 10 places to finish 19th, and moved into 12th spot midway through race two before a braking error saw him drop back in the field.
Emery fought back again to end up 17th and then completed the long weekend with an 18th in race three.
Spychala again caused some issues for the TAG Motorsport star in the final race and officials are expected to speak with the former at the next round.
While Emery emerged unscathed from Sunday’s crash, his vehicle was not so lucky and will require further work ahead of the next trip to the track.
“We had to replace the front of it because there was a fair bit of damage,” he said.
“We were lucky that our local panel beater, who does all our normal work, was there.
“We’re struggling at the moment … we’ve had a couple of incidents that have been out of our control that have hit us pretty hard.”
The biggest disappointment for Emery was that he believed his prospects were looking good early on.
“We had a lot of speed initially and looked on track for a reasonable result,” he said.
“Obviously, we had a bit of bad luck and you need to qualify up the front to give yourself a good run.”
Emery has five weeks before the fourth round of the championship, which begins on 18 July at Queensland Raceway.
“It was all bad this weekend and the car’s taken a fair hit, so we just need a bit of luck to go our way,” he said.
