EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Not one of her original planned races this season, Emily Packard and her Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team decided to add the Spring Green 116 race, but a tough outing at Airborne Park Speedway would result in a 20th place finish. “Not the outcome we had hoped for,” said Packard. “The car was pretty good throughout a majority of the race, but it just went bad towards the end of the final run. I still feel like we are headed in the right direction, unfortunately, the last couple of finishes just don’t reflect how good a car we have had.”
As the 19-year old rolled out for the first practice of the day, it only took a couple of laps to realize that the team needed to get the car up off the track to keep it from bottoming out. Fixing the initial issue, the team spent the rest of the three practices working on the car, getting it comfortable for her to drive. “Unfortunately, the car was so tight in practice,” said Packard. “We spent two practices loosening up the car, and by the third practice it was still tight, but was a little better than it had been.”
Emily started the third heat from the second starting spot but with an ill-handling car, she slid back to finish in the fourth position. “We were still pretty tight during the heat race,” Emily said. “I was doing all I could to try keep the car down so I could get it to drive off the corner.”
With rain imminent, the field took the green flag with the East Montpelier native starting on the outside in twentieth. Knowing that they could be racing to the halfway point only, drivers wasted no time leaning on each other, and eventually Emily would be caught up in an early spin, bringing out the caution. Assessing there was no real damage to the car, Packard rejoined the field in eighteenth and set out to move her way through the field. Just past the halfway point, a lapped car would send Emily spinning again, avoiding contact with other cars she would continue on only to have the caution fly again. On lap 60, Emily would find herself in eleventh place as the rain began to fall.
After a twenty-five minute rain delay, the teams headed down pit road so a crew member could wipe down the windshields and Emily headed back out to restart from eleventh place. While the race would see its longest green flag run at this point, Packard would slowly drift backwards as the handle of the car just went completely away. With fewer than ten laps to go, Emily would go down a lap to the leader, eventually taking the checkered flag in the same position that she started in, twentieth. “It wasn’t the race I had hoped for,” said Emily. “The car was decent for the first half of the race, as the team had loosened the car up after the heat race. However, as the race wore on, it began to tighten up again and by the end the car was just a handful. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have a better finish, but we are already looking toward next week’s race.”
“I need to thank my mom and dad, Polewarczyk’s, Joe Sr. and Joey Jr., Mike and Nate, as well as a huge thanks to Scott and Kasey for all of their help this weekend. Kevin (Alden) wasn’t available this weekend, so I want to send out a thank you to Barney (McRea) for coming out to spot on short notice. Lastly, I want to thank all my sponsors; Northstar Fireworks, Packard Fuels, Be The Match, Creative Visions, Vermont Country Campers, Berlin Optical Expressions, Rutland Regional Medical Center, Yipes! of Barre, GossCars.com and Fecteau Homes.”
This week Emily and the Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team head to New London/Waterford Speedway on Saturday May 21st, 2016 for the first race of the American Canadian Tour Southern New England Tripleheader.