Emily Packard
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt – Two thirds of the way through the American Canadian Tour season and Packard is locked in the middle of the ACT championship points battle. Continuing her impressive season, Packard and her 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team set out this weekend to build on their success, including the ACT race at White Mountain Motorsports Park race. Packard finished the race in 5th place, moving her from 4th to 2nd in the championship point standings. “This was my first time at White Mountain in a late model, so I spent practice just learning the track, and where I needed to run,” said Packard.
In the heat race Packard started in the third position, fighting an ill-handling race car she was able to finish the heat in third place. This got her into the race without having to run in the consolation race, which gave Neal and the guys time to work on the car. “We fought a car that was loose in and pushy tight through the center in the heat race,” Packard said “But the guys went back and forth across the spectrum to fix the car for the feature event.”
After tightening up the car for the feature, Packard took the green flag in 12th position, and set out to see how the car would handle. “Coming to the race we knew we would be starting on the outside, so we tightened it up,” said Packard, “knowing the car was going to loosen up as the sun when down.” When the first caution came out on lap 22 Packard had moved up to the 9th position, and continued to move her way forward.
By lap 120, Packard found herself battling side by side, lap by lap with the 58vt for 5 laps, finally getting by him on the outside on lap 125, and moving to 6th place. Five laps later, she passed the 9nh for fifth place, where she would stay until the checkered flag fell. “We had a decent race early on and I passed some cars,” Packard said. “As the race wore on, there were some cars that were starting to spin their tires and I was putting as much pressure on them as I could to try to get them to wear them out and get by them on the outside. The lap cars also played a role in allowing me to make the moves I needed in the closing laps and the end result was a top-5 finish which we are really happy with.”
On Thursday, Packard ran the weekly late model division at Thunder Road, where she finished 3rd in her heat and 12th in the 50 lap feature race. “We struggled with the car throughout the day, but was able to have a good run in the heat race,” said Packard. “In the feature the car just completely went away from me but we were able to finish with a solid 12th place finish.”
Friday the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team hit the track at Devil’s Bowl to continue to show late model support at the local track. Finishing 3rd in the 30 lap race, leaving her tied in second place in the championship battle, only 2 points out of the lead. “We were competitive all day and had a really good race,” Packard said. “We chose not to change tires for the feature and finished 3rd, so I feel really excited about our finish there.”
Wrapping up her weekend on Sunday at Thunder Road in a make-up race, Packard fought the track most of the day, but started 19th in the feature, but was able to make her way up to finish 16th.
“A big thank you to my team; Neal, Sammy, Frankie, Randy and my mom and dad, for the quick turnaround, four races in four nights is a lot, but they didn’t give up,” said Packard. “I also want to thank all my sponsors, Northstar Fireworks, Packard Fuels, Be the Match, R.G. Paving, Rutland Regional Medical Center, Fecteau Homes, Yipes! of Barre, Berlin Optical Expressions, and GossCars.com.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
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