Round the tracks to crash or crash through

Geoff Emery recovered from a race-one crash to post a pair of good results in the latest round of the V8 Supercars Fujitsu Series at Sandown on the weekend. 15518 Picture: Stewart Chambers

By Stuart Teather
NARRE Warren V8 Supercar driver Geoff Emery’s season is beginning to sound like a broken record.
Emery headed into the most recent round of the V8 Supercars Fujitsu Series at Sandown confident of a good result but, once again, luck went against him.
Coming off a crash at Townsville in the previous round, Emery needed to get through the weekend unscathed to move up the championship rankings.
However, by the end of the first corner in the first race, Emery was off the track with a bent axle, courtesy of a tail-bump from Ford driver Daniel Gaunt.
Emery and his crew replaced the necessary parts in time for the second race and it proved worthwhile, with the driver finishing sixth after starting at the rear of the field, but he said the crash upset the balance of the car.
“It damaged our good diff and we had to use our spares from then on, it upset the whole car balance from there onwards,” he said.
“In the rain we were the fastest car out there, on the wet track.
“We’re starting to show some pace; we’ve just got to get some luck out there – as usual.”
It was almost a mirror image of the previous round in Townsville, when Paul Morris wiped Emery out in race two, ruining another weekend for the driver.
In the final race at Sandown Emery finished 10th, meaning he came in 12th overall for the round with 120 points.
But Emery found another way to keep occupied on the race days, driving in the Mini series as well.
“They just didn’t have anyone to drive the car and I thought I’d give them a hand,” he said.
“It’s very different; they are good fun to drive.”
He collected a third and a fifth in his Mini at Townsville and a fifth and seventh at Sandown.
The next round of the V8 Supercars Fujitsu series is at Queensland Raceway from 21 August and, sitting in 12th position overall, Emery said he had a plan to boost his overall standing.
“Just get out of everyone’s way, I guess,” he said with a laugh.
“The car’s good. We’ve obviously got to get our original rear axle fixed and we should be on the pace again, I would imagine.”