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Geoff Emery has declared he will take the court case regarding the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Pro-Am title further if necessary.
Speedcafe.com yesterday reported that the 2021 Pro-Am honours were still yet to be finalised, following an incident between Emery and Sam Shahin at the final corner of the season, last month at Mount Panorama.
Whichever driver finished ahead in the race would take the crown, and Emery only seized the advantage with a move at Murray’s Corner as Shahin appeared to slow.
The latter then spun on the exit of the corner, with Emery being handed a five-second post-race penalty which relegated him back behind Shahin.
While Emery protested the penalty at the time, it proved unsuccessful as the time penalty itself cannot be appealed. A subsequent appeal was also dismissed.
A fired-up Emery told Speedcafe.com he has been “getting stitched up” and claimed telemetry has yet to be properly assessed.
“Obviously we had had a pretty good race weekend with Sam,” he said.
“Coming into the last corner, I only went down the inside of him to let him hear some footsteps and then he slowed right up and then I thought I may as well take the inside of the corner there because obviously he was to the far right-hand-side of the corner.
“So I have manoeuvred through, he then tried to crowd me coming into the corner, so I moved across and the back of the car had the slightest little chink and that’s what they have called careless driving.
“Now, I tried to produce all that evidence at the initial hearing and with the DSA [driving standards advisor] being interstate and without the usual tools available to him to analyse all the evidence, it was decided that was careless driving and there was going to be no review of any data or external footage.
“They only had two in-car cameras and that was all they were going to review on the day, and they deemed it careless driving from the two in-car cameras, and they have charged me with careless driving for no contact whatsoever.”
With his appeals thus far being dismissed “on the grounds it was unappealable”, Emery has stated he will take the matter to the Australian Motorsport Appeal Court.
“Now I’m going to AMSAC, and I’ll take it further if I have to,” he added.
The AMSAC is the highest judicial body in Australian motorsport, with no further options for Emery to pursue within the motorsport framework as Porsche Carrera Cup Australia is a national competition.
As such, the appeals process through the FIA is unavailable, meaning Emery’s next move beyond AMSAC would likely be to take the matter into the civilian legal system should he be dissatisfied with the outcome.
A determination on whether AMSAC will hear or dismiss the case is due to be made by the end of this month.
Should it agree to hear the appeal, there is no guarantee the penalty Emery received will be overturned.
