photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – As the American Canadian Tour heads to Airborne Park Speedway for the 3rd annual ACT International 500, 18 year old Emily Packard and her 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team are getting the car ready for a full weekend of racing. “I’m looking forward to heading to Airborne Park Speedway this weekend,” said Packard, “It’s a pretty racy track and the American Canadian Tour always puts on a good show there. It’s always fun when the teams from the Série ACT race with us, it should make for a great weekend of racing.”
This is Packard’s third time racing in this event, which in the past was broken up into three segments, but this year has changed to a straight 200 lap feature race. Back in 2013, a then rookie in the series, Packard was caught up in an accident in the second segment of the race and ended up with a 32nd place finish. Last year, Packard’s results were much better, with her finishing in the 10th spot over the multi-segmented race.
This year she hopes to have similar success at the 1/2-mile, D-shaped asphalt oval. “Segment racing was so different than long distance racing,” Packard said. “You would have to get the car set up for three short runs, making sure that you don’t hang it all out there in the first segment, so you had the car to run in the final segment. Going back to a long distance race suits me better, and it lets us continue to set the car up as we have all season, for the longer run. We will have plenty of practice time to get the car dialed in and ready for the race.”
Late model practice is scheduled to begin on Friday, with the first practice for the day going off at 3:45pm, with the final ACT practice at 6:15pm. On Saturday, the American Canadian Tour practice starts at 10 am and continues throughout the day. All divisions will be running heats, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 Saturday night. Sunday, the ACT 200 lap race is scheduled to begin approximately at 4:30pm.
The American Canadian Tour is joined at Airborne Park Speedway this weekend by the Pro All Star Series SLM teams, and that should make for an exciting weekend of racing at the track.