Above and below: The dramatic scenes at Wakefield Park on Sunday, which forced Narre Warren racecar driver Geoff Emery (number 36) out of the final race of round two in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.By Marc McGowan
CHAOTIC scenes greeted Narre Warren’s Geoff Emery in round two of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Wakefield Park in Goulbourn on the weekend.
An eventful round culminated in a huge crash on the first corner in race three that ended Emery’s Sunday afternoon early.
The incident capped off a disappointing event for the TAG Motorsport driver, who met trouble regularly throughout the weekend.
And most of it centred around rival competitor Joel Spychala.
Emery qualified 16th for race one, but a Spychala error resulted in the latter smashing into the back of the local star and sending him spinning into last position.
Emery recovered to finish 20th and made a quick start in race two.
But a driving mistake of his own sent him to the back of the field again and he wound up in 18th spot after a rough race.
With one last trip to the track in the final race, Emery was hoping to salvage something from the round before Spychala intervened again.
Several cars brought up dust on the first corner, leaving Emery with little sight and as he burst around the corner he ran into Spychala, who had spun out of control.
A host of drivers were caught up in the crash, including Emery’s team-mate Tony Bates, and there was a 20-minute stoppage.
Emery was unable to continue, leaving him 22nd overall for the weekend and 20th in the championship standings.
“We ran fairly well and have got within a second of the front guys now, so we need to find another second a lap and we’ll be up there,” he said.
“But there was not much we could take out of the round.
“It’s just one of those things in this category – drivers trying to prove themselves and driving beyond their capabilities and it’s getting fairly rough out there.”
As for his vehicle, Emery played down the extent of the damage.
“It looks a lot worse than it really is. We’ve done an assessment and it’s not that big of a deal – we have all the facilities here to fix it up,” he said.
“Financially, it eats into our racing budget, which is the hard part.”
The high-powered car will be fixed over the next few weeks and Emery will fit a testing day in between now and the next round at Sandown International Motor Raceway from 7 to 9 June.
“We just need to concentrate on a few driving techniques that need to be addressed and then hopefully we can move up the grid a bit further,” he said.
