May 17, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, More Maine Racing News
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.”
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May 13, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News, Thunder Road, Touring Series News
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – After a tough finish to a good run at Thunder Road, Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team are prepared to head to Airborne Park Speedway this weekend for the Spring Green 116. “The car had some damage, but the guys fixed it up this week,” said Emily, “and we are ready to see what we can do this weekend at Airborne.”
This year the American Canadian Tour returns to half-mile track for the Egglefield Ford Spring Green 116 presented by Interstate Batteries, where Packard brought her Northstar fireworks sponsored car home in fifteenth place last year. This race was not originally on the schedule for the East Montpelier driver, but having kept the damage to a minimum last weekend the team decided to make the necessary fixes to the car and ready it to race this weekend. In addition to the car being set-up by last year’s winner, Joey Polewarczyk Jr, Emily and the team enter this weekend’s race riding the momentum from their good runs so far this season and high confidence that they will have another great showing at the track. “I am excited to return to Airborne this weekend,” said the 19-year old. “This is our only race at this track this season, so I am looking forward to going out and have a good race, as well as to continue to gel as a team and hopefully have a top-5 finish. Our finishes don’t reflect the how good a car we have had so far in the first three races, but my confidence remains high knowing that we are continuing to run well and that we are heading in the right direction.”
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May 10, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – With a week delay and Mother Nature not wanting to play nice, Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team braved the cold temperatures and some back luck at Thunder Road on Sunday afternoon, bringing the car home in twenty-second. “We were unsure for a while if we were even going to get the show in or not,” said Packard. “The car was handling great for the first half of the race, but we just had some bad luck towards the end. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the finish we hoped for and it doesn’t show how good the car really was.”
Waiting out the rain, the American Canadian Tour late models finally hit the track about 2pm for the first of 2 practices. “We were able to get a little bit of practice in so we could make adjustments, but it was so cold and miserable today,” Packard said. “The car wasn’t initially handling very good in practice, but it was progressively getting better. On the last run of practice the car was awesome, but we came in for a tire change and the car just went bad again.”
With weather continuing to threaten, Emily would start in the first heat from the seventh position. “The heat race was a little brutal,” said Packard, “we just really didn’t have anything out there.” Halfway through the race the East Montpelier native has lost a position and would finish the 15 lap race in the eighth position forcing her to run the consolation race to try to get into the feature.
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Apr 26, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Seems a mid-week decision to run the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car at Lee USA Speedway this past Sunday was the right call for Emily Packard and her team as she posted a sixth place finish in the Governor’s Cup 150. “I think us working together (with the Polewarczyk’s) again this weekend was a great way to keep the momentum going for the season,” said Packard. “The more fun we have together and the more we work together and get use to each other the better we are going to be and that showed in this weekend’s results with our sixth place finish.”
On Saturday, taking advantage of an entire day to practice, the team spent much of the day working the set-up of the car, while Emily logged laps, providing feedback to the crew on the adjustments that would help to make the car better. “Saturday we started the off the day not quite where we wanted to be on the time sheet. We were running too soft in the springs and we were bottoming out bad, combined with running on old tires,” said the 19-year old. “The guys kept making small adjustments to the car throughout practice, making sure not to go too far. Finally, they gave me some new tires and got me up off the track and we were second fast on the sheet in the fourth practice of the day.” In the last practice, Emily found herself to be eighth on the time sheet as she ran lap after lap to see how the car would change under a long green flag run. “I decided that there was a half hour of practice left, let’s put some older tires back on and go run a 50 lap run,” said Packard. “So we did, and we were able to get a feel for how the tires would hold up, and we found that there wasn’t too much fall of as far as our lap times went.”
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Apr 25, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – After leaving the American Canadian Tour season opener last weekend with the car relatively unscathed, Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team made a mid-week decision to add the Governor’s Cup 150 to their season schedule. “After Oxford we talked it over and decided that we would benefit from running the Lee race,” said Packard. “Last week was a learning curve, and we believe that running this week would help us to continue to gel and work towards getting the car more comfortable for me.”
The 19-year old returns to the 3/8 mile track for only the third time in her late model career, where she has had two top-15 finishes. This year she hopes to better her best finish of twelfth, and is looking for a top-5 finish. “Last year I finished fifteenth,” Packard said. “Hopefully, this year I can finish in the top-5, and if not, at least a top-10 would be great. I like running Lee, I am really glad that we decided to add this one to our race schedule this season. Although I haven’t had the success at Lee USA Speedway that I would like, I feel confident going into this race that we are going to have a really great car, so I am excited to be racing this weekend.” (more…)
