Apr 16, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Race Tracks, Oxford Plains Speedway, Touring Series News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – It’s been 2 long months since Emily Packard had her car out on a race track, and she cannot wait to hit the track this weekend. The team has spent the last couple of months working on fine tuning from what was learned during Florida Speed Weeks in February. “New Smyrna was a great opportunity for us to shake down the car and find any issues that we needed to work out prior to the first points race of the season,” said Packard. “We found a couple small things that we were able to fix over the last few weeks, and the car is ready to go this weekend.”
Packard and the team are focusing on running the American Canadian Tour full time this year, and not running a weekly series at a specific track, allowing for the team to really focus on preparing the cars for each individual race track. “I am thrilled to be running the American Canadian Tour again this season, with the anticipation of going to new tracks as well as returning to tracks that we race at last year,” said Packard, “Concentrating on the ACT Tour will allow us to set up the car just once a weekend, and really give us the chance to dial it in during practice.”
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Feb 21, 2015 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Excited to be back in the race car, Packard rolled the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car out of the hauler for the first practice of the 2015 American Canadian Tour season. “We have never been racing down south with the ACT car and New Smyrna was a different track than what we have up north,” said Packard. “The track was really fast, but a lot of fun to drive and a great experience for me and the team.”
With the sun shining and warm temperatures, Packard began getting acclimated with New Smyrna Speedway. Since her fellow competitors already had an advantage of practicing and racing 100 laps the day before, Packard spent the first practice learning the track and dialing the car in. “We were a little behind by not racing on Sunday, and all the things that we fought in practice on Monday; the other teams had already been able to overcome,” Packard said, “but we spent the day gaining on the car and getting it ready for the race.”
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Oct 1, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
photo by RPM
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Emily Packard, the 17-year old East Montpelier Vermont late model driver, has been chosen as one of the 20 finalists to compete in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity (#NASCARD4D) Combine being held this October 13th through 15th at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia. The Drive for Diversity is a program that helps with the development of minority and female drivers and crew members. The Combine will look at five components from the diver, including: their physical fitness, media skills, their resume, driver communication/knowledge, and overall driving skills (both on and off the track).
The annual Combine is where it all starts for the next potential NASCAR star, as both Kyle Larson and Darrell Wallace Jr. have graduated from this program and are currently having success in the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series’ respectively.
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Aug 26, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
Emily Packard
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt – First time out at the Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix Quebec with the American Canadian Tour, and things did not go how the 17 year old East Montpelier, VT driver had hoped. Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team spent the three practices working on the handling of the car to make Packard more comfortable getting around the track. “It was definitely a track that took some getting used to,” said Packard, “and it took me some time adapt to it, but we eventually go the car to my liking.”
When the heat races rolled off, Packard started ninth in the third heat, and struggled to gain any ground on her competitors. When the heat race ended, Packard had moved up to seventh place which meant that she would need to run one of the two consolation races to try to get in the feature. Starting in fourth in the second consolation race Packard continued to fight her race car and the track, and finished the race in fifth place.
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Jul 16, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
Emily Packard
Becomes First Female and Youngest Driver to win here
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt – History was made on Friday night, as Emily Packard found her way to victory lane at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, becoming the first female and youngest driver to win a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series event in the Late Model division feature race here. Following up her second place finish from the week before, Packard was hungry for her first win of the season, and drove her 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car with determination to accomplish just that.
“The guys had the car set-up perfectly tonight and I was able to drive it to the front,” said Packard. Packard had started third in her heat race and won, giving her the outside pole for the feature race. When the green fell, Packard wasted no time driving to the lead, and never looked back. Packard dominated, leading all 30 laps of the race, and winning by three quarters of a straight away over the runner up.
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