Emerson Harvey’s trying year continues at the City of Melbourne Titles.
City of Melbourne Titles. It was a challenging start to his first junior year, which included a nasty crash that left Emerson with an injury. Finally he was feeling fit and raring to go at the biggest race of the year.
Practice We had some typical Melbourne weather for practice with a wet & dry session. Emerson was easily in the top 10 of 35 strong class and feeling confident of a good starting position.
Qualifying It was always going to be tough to get a clear lap amongst 35 young chargers but on lap 4 Emerson shot to the top of the lap charts and everything was going to plan. Then we were hit with another qualifying set back that seems to be popping up this year, a bolt on the rear bar broke upsetting the handling of the kart, dropping Emerson to 17th.
Heats 1. Emerson had his work cut out for him starting out 17th but the Shannons backed driver really showed some form and moved up to 12th and secured some valuable points.
Heat 2. Again starting out position 17 and a wet but drying track, Emerson elected to use wets, which turned out to be a good choice. This time he was clearly enjoying the conditions as he made his way up to 8th, a very intelligent drive in tough circumstances.
Prefinal. Starting out P10 for the final was really encouraging for Emerson, knowing that he was now in touch with the front-runners. A great start and he was in touch with the leaders. By half race distance Emerson was making a move for 5th and his pace was obvious but suddenly he started to lose positions rapidly, dropping to 12th. It was later discovered that a wheel had worked its way loose, lucky for him, it stayed on.
Final. Determined to get a good result Emerson made a great start from P12. Unfortunately, in cooling conditions late in the day, the kart just failed to “come on” and Emerson was struggling for grip. One big freight train of juniors saw Emerson come home 13th. The Shannons kart had the pace but really didn’t get to show it. No doubt with a few big meetings coming up soon, a great result is just around the corner.
