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."
Milton, VT’s Scott Payea took the lead for the second time of then afternoon on lap 117 and never looked back winning the NH Governor’s Cup 150 at Lee USA Speedway.
Payea drove a smart and patient race from his third starting spot, running upfront all day, the leading laps 49-54 and saving his tires for the late run sprint to the finish. Defending race winner and 2015 ACT Champion Wayne Helliwell Jr., raced to a second place finish coming from the 9th starting spot with Rhode Island’s Ray Parent ending a strong weekend in third. St-Albert, Quebec’s Alex Labbe finished fourth with Quinny Welch of Lancaster, NH rounding out the top 5. Nineteen year-old Emily Packard raced to a sixth place finish with last weeks Oxford 100 winner Bobby Therrien finishing seventh. The “outlaw” Eddie MacDonald was eighth with Kyle Welch and Brad Babb rounding out the top ten.
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."
On race day, Packard headed out to the final practice with high confidence that the car was going to be good. She would post the eleventh fastest time, and both she and the team were happy and ready to race. Starting in the fourth position in the third heat, Packard would line up on the outside, knowing the preferred line would be the inside. Emily and Kevin (her spotter) had a quick discussion on the radio, with him telling her he would clear her down as soon as a spot would open. On lap one of the heat race, the yellow would wave for a spinning car out of turn 2 and with no official lap in the books, they would revert back to the original starting line-up for the restart. Packard would restart in fourth, but at the halfway point of the 12 lap heat race, she would be in the third spot, several car lengths over the fourth place finisher. As she crossed the line on the final lap she would finish in the third position, transferring her into the feature race, where she would start eleventh. "We started fourth and were able to get to the bottom and hold it there in third place," said the East Montpelier driver. "I ran hard for a couple of laps, and the car didn’t feel quite as good as it did in practice. I knew I wouldn't catch the second place car, and I had a little room behind me over fourth, so I just relaxed a little and finished in third with a plus one."
The 150 lap Governor's Cup feature was next, and Packard started on the inside lane in eleventh position. "Our stagger went really crazy during the heat race," said Packard, "and we made some adjustments to the air pressure to bring it back to where we were. When we started the feature, I kind of just went because this is the type of track that by the end of it we are lined up single file, so we knew that if we were going to make any passes we needed to do it right away." By lap 50 the young Vermont driver would find herself in the eighth position, and would battle the two cars in front of her for the next 60 laps. She would eventually move up to seventh when the caution came out with 10 to go. On the restart, Emily was able to make a move to advance to the sixth position, only to have the caution wave one more time. The green would wave for the restart on lap 141, and Emily would continue to hold on to that sixth position as she took the checkered flag. "My goal coming into this race was, last week we finished outside the top ten, so this week I wanted to finish inside the top ten," Emily said, "and next week I'd really like to finish in the top five so we can keep progressing and growing as a team."
"This week I want to say thanks to Joe and Joey Polewarczyk, they did an awesome job getting the car ready this week. Joe Sr. was on the radio with me on Saturday and it was nice to have him there to give me advice," Emily said. "He coached me on how to drive the track, especially getting down into three and getting up off of turn four better than I ever have, so I can't thank him enough. I also want to say a big thank you to my mom and dad, Shawn, Jamie Sr., Jamie Jr, Nate, Scott, Kasey, Brian, Nicole and Kevin for all their help at the track this weekend. I also have to send out a huge thank you to all my sponsors that help to make this happen; Northstar Fireworks, Packard Fuels, Rutland Regional Medical Center, Be The Match, Vermont Country Campers, Yipes! of Barre, Berlin Optical Expressions, Creative Visions, Fecteau Homes and GossCars.com."
Next up Emily and the Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team head to Thunder Road for the 18th Annual Merchant's Bank 150 on Sunday May 1st. The weekend kicks off with the Barre Car Show on Saturday April 30th from 9 to noon. From there the cars will parade up to Thunder Road for an afternoon of practice in preparation for the American Canadian Tour race on Sunday.
| 1.Scott Payea | Miton, VT |
| 2.Wayne Helliwell, Jr. | Dover, NH |
| 3.Ray Parent | Tiverton, RI |
| 4.Alex Labbe | St-Albert, QC |
| 5.Quinny Welch | Lancaster, NH |
| 6.Emily Packard | E. Montpelier, VT |
| 7.Bobby Therrien | Hinesburg, VT |
| 8.Eddie MacDonald | Rowley, MA |
| 9.Kyle Welch | Newport, NH |
| 10.Brad Babb | Windham, ME |
| 11.Nick Sweet | Barre, VT |
| 12.Todd Davis | Claremont, NH |
| 13.Jimmy Hebert | Williamstown, VT |
| 14.Dillon Moltz | Waterford, CT |
| 15.Ryan Olsen | N. Haverhill, NH |
| 16,Devin O'Connell | Madison, CT |
| 17.Mike Ziter | Barre, VT |
| 18.Corey Mason | Groveton, NH |
| 19.Matt Anderson | Franklin, NH |
| 20.Luke Hinkley | Claremont, NH |
| 21.Miles Chipman | Nottingham, NH |
| 22.Rowland Robinson Jr. | Steuben, ME |
| 23.Rich Dubeau | Lebanon, NH |
| 24.Adam Gray | Granby, MA |
| 25.Brandon Atkins | AuSable Forks, NY |
| 26.Bryan Mason | Stark, NH |
| 27.Claude Leclerc | Lanoraie, QC |
| 28.Jeff Morse | Cornish, NH |
| 29.Mark Jenison | Warwick, RI |
| 30.Oren Remick | Warner, NH |
| 31.Mark Hudson | Norton, MA |
| 32.James Linardy | Somerville, MA |
Lap Leaders: Rowland Robinson Jr., 1, Todd Davis 2-48, Scott Payea 49-54, Ray Parent 55-76, Quinny Welch 77-103, Parent, 104-116, Payea 117-150 (6 lead changes among 5 drivers)
Time of Race: 59:23 Margin of Victory: 2.086 seconds
Cautions: 3 (laps 46, 140, 141)
Heat Winners: Jimmy Hebert, Alex Labbe, Wayne Helliwell Jr., Ray Parent
Consi Winners: Matt Anderson, Dillon Moltz
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