Two thirds of the Ashley Seward Motorsport team in Carrera Cup will look to put a bruising Winton behind them as Geoff Emery and Dean Cook target the Pro-Am title. Scott Taylor meanwhile continues to build on his experience with a car he’s so far struggled to fully understand.
Emery is second in the Pro-Am points, 15 away from the lead, with Cook in sixth a further 59 points back.
The pair achieved a stunning one-two finish in the opening race last round in Winton before both were forced into a DNF in the second race. The lack of passing opportunities around Winton Raceway saw the pair only rise to finish eighth (Cook) and ninth (Emery) in the final race.
“We need to start banking some solid points and not get involved in all the silliness,” said Emery.
“I’ve never raced anything properly in Darwin, I did a commodore cup race there over 10 years ago and that’s it. It should race a bit better than Winton, being a one-make series it’s never easy to pass but there is at least an obvious opportunity in turn one this weekend.
“I know if we just stay out of trouble we will have a good weekend, because we’ve got the pace to run in the first couple of spots every race,” concluded Emery.
“Winton was disappointing without a doubt, especially given the pace we had in qualifying and the race one result,” said Cook.
“I’m planning to focus a lot more on practice this round and be more aggressive, pretend it’s a qualifying session and that should give me an edge to really be on the ball when the action ramps up.
“I love Hidden Valley but it’s often quite a demanding event with the heat. We’ll lose a good couple of kilos every race.
“It will all go much easier if we get ourselves to the front from the outset,” concluded Cook.
Taylor is returning to the venue for his best ever result in Carrera Cup so far, when we finished 11th outright and 14th for the round. The new 992 model has however proven a challenge to understand for Taylor who’s putting in the hard yards to get on top of it.
“The 992 has been a challenge for me so far this year and I need to step up to it,” said Taylor.
“I’ve been doing some work with Alex Davison, doing some track time at Norwell and really homing in on the details of understanding the race craft aspect of it all.
“There’s been some simulator time as well, we’ve certainly been working very hard to make some gains.
“Fortunately, we’re going to Darwin which is an event I really enjoy and have performed well at in the past. My favourite bikes and drag cars will be there so I’m looking forward to checking them out.
“In terms of the Hidden Valley track itself, it’s relatively short and has that big main straight which offers an inverse king opportunity at the end of it so the racing is usually pretty close.
“I like the track, I like the event, we’ll look to come out with a clean weekend and hopefully make those gains we’ve been working towards,” Taylor concluded.
The Ashley Seward Motorsport trio will be in action from June 17-19 at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown with the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Championship.
Weekend Schedule:
Friday
Practice 1 – 10:10am
Practice 2 – 1:30pm
Saturday
Qualifying – 10:10am
Race 1 – 2:10pm (18 laps)
Sunday
Race 2 – 9:15am (18 laps)
Race 3 – 1:10pm (18 laps)
