When Beech Ridge Motor Speedway owner Andy Cusack turned on his cell phone Sunday morning there was a voicemail waiting for him.
On it Cusack heard the voice of 8-year-old Emma Bernier telling him that she was going to be okay.
“It warmed my heart,” he said. “It was cute.”
Eight hours earlier Beech Ridge was eerily quiet as Bernier’s car sat motionless on the backstretch. Bernier, who has become a track icon racing in the Whiz Kidz division, and Arsene Lizotte had made hard contact.
“She was passing (Lizotte) on the outside,” said Craig Bernier, Emma’s dad. “(The impact) basically tore her left front suspension off. She came to a stop on the track. It jolted her good.”
The impact was enough to set off the passenger side airbag in Bernier’s pink Dodge Neon.
Bernier was complaining of back and neck pain when the safety crew arrived, prompting them to take no chances. In a dramatic scene the roof of Bernier’s car was cut off so she could be lifted out with her back and neck stablized.
Spectators in the pit area gathered along the track wall opposite the car, a few wearing “Go Emma” T-shirts, an indication of the young driver’s popularity.
A cheer erupted about 15 minutes after the crash as Bernier was lifted from the car and loaded into an ambulance that had pulled onto the track.
Sunday morning, there was nothing but good news regarding the Westbrook girl’s health.
“She had CAT scan and X-rays,” her dad said. “Everything checked out fine. She walked out of emergency room around 2:30 a.m. We stopped at McDonalds, ate and then she wanted to see her car.”
According to her dad, Bernier walked up to the car and slapped it a couple times while saying “My baby, my baby.” before turning to him and saying she thinks it can be fixed.
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