Jul 16, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, NE Racing News, Touring Series News
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.
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Jun 1, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – In a hard fought run towards the front by Packard in her Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car, it was rain that finally won out on Saturday night. Her 15th place finish was not the results that she had hoped for and not a reflection of just how well she ran the race. “I am pretty happy with my finish,” Packard said. “I wish we could have ended in 9th place and not had the rain delay and that restart after the rain fell. I believe that the car was good enough that had the race gone to the scheduled 151 laps, I could have picked off a few more cars and maybe had a top-5 finish.”
With 5 practices on Saturday to get the car dialed in, Packard and the team took advantage and used each practice to make the car faster each time she went out on the track. “We had a decent car in practice,” said Packard, “and we knew that we would have a good car for the race.” Drawing the 8th starting position in the 3rd heat, Packard knew that she had her work cut out for her to finish in the top-3 and qualify to the feature. “We went out for our heat race and just got stuck in the wrong line and was not able to make any progress forward,” Packard said. With a large turnout of cars for this race, Packard started in 8th position in the second of three consolation races, where they were taking the top-2 to qualify and 2 to fill out the back half of the field. With only 15 laps to make her way forward, Packard tried the inside and the outside, but was only able to make her way to 5th as the checkers fell. Now it was on to the “B” feature. Starting 5th in the “B” feature race, Packard had to finish in 3rd or better to transfer into the Generation Next 151 race. “I knew I had to get to 3rd in order to make the race, and I went out and set my sights on moving forward,” Packard said. As the race ended, Packard was in the 3rd and final transfer position into the feature race.
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May 28, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Flashback one year to the former Riverside Speedway in Groveton, Packard starts last in the final heat and drives her way to the front capturing her first American Canadian Tour pole. A few hours later, the 18 year old East Montpelier Vermont driver has led the most laps and has a 5th place finish.
This year, Emily and her Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels 9me team is headed back to (newly re-named) Speedway 51 with the hopes to continue to pick up where she left off there in 2014, but with better finishing results. “I am really looking forward to heading to Speedway 51 this weekend,” said Packard. “Last year we had such a good run there, and unfortunately towards the end we just pushed the car too much and ended up with a fifth place finish, but we were able to lead some laps and run really well there. The track is moderately banked and is a place that I feel instantly comfortable at.”
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May 4, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Thunder Road is always a challenge for any driver, but this weekend Packard was up to the challenge. Starting back in the 23rd starting spot, Packard, driving three wide right up the middle at times, found herself finishing 6th when the checkers fell on the 17th Annual Merchants Bank 150. Packard and the 9ME Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team spent Saturday working on getting the car tuned in and to Emily’s liking. “We had a pretty decent day of practice,” said Packard. “We had limited tires to practice on, so we kept the number of laps that we ran fairly low. We weren’t that far off and our practice times were consistent all day.”
With two additional practices on Sunday, the team went to work on the set-up to meet the ever changing track conditions. In the final American Canadian Tour practice, Packard went out and posted the second fastest lap and was confident with the car heading into the heat race. Starting fourth in the final heat race Packard knew that if she was to transfer into the feature, she was going to have to make her move early, but unfortunately it didn’t go quite as she had planned. “We got put three wide on the first lap and I had to drop out or it was not going to end up well for me,” Packard said. “After that we got run up into the wall, the car lost the drive off and I just maintained the car finishing the heat race in seventh.”
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Apr 20, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Race Tracks, NE Racing News, Oxford Plains Speedway, Touring Series News
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – After a disappointing run at New Smyrna, Emily Packard and the Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team spent the last 6 weeks focusing on bettering the car for the American Canadian Tour opener, and it looks to have paid off. In Packard’s first trip to Oxford Plains Speedway, a track that really suits her driving style, the sophomore driver in the ACT tour showed patience of a veteran, which paid off with a fourth place finish. “When we returned from New Smyrna, we found a few little things that were wrong with the car, but we made those changes and just seeing how it ran this weekend makes me feel a lot better about going forward through the season,” said Packard.
With limited practice on Friday, the team unloaded the car Sunday and readied it for first practice. Packard took to the track for a few laps, posting the fourth fastest time in that first practice then brought the car back to the attention of crew chief, Neal Woodward, to see if they could make any changes to get it a little tighter through turns 3 and 4, but all in all the car was really good. “After the first practice, we knew that we had a really good car at that point, and we just spent the remaining practices trying a couple things to see if we could make the car better or how the car changed after each adjustment,” Packard said.
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