Emily Packard Ends Season with 10th Place Finish at Thompson Speedway

Posted by Wayne G. Barber
Photos from Wayne G. Barber Collection

What could have ended disastrously, a little perseverance and help from other teams turned the day around to get Emily Packard and her Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team back on the track and a top ten finish in the American Canadian Tour finale. 

 

During the final practice on Saturday, with just a few minutes left in practice, Packard headed back out to the track to feel out the latest changes made by the crew.  Headed into turn one, a slower local driver spun right in front of the 18 year old, leaving her no place to go but into the side of him, demolishing the front end of the car.  "He just spun out in front of me," said Emily. "He started to back up the track so I thought I would be able to clear him, but he started rolling back down right in front of me.  The impact destroyed the car, I mean it ripped out every single bracing we had on the nose and trashed the radiator." 

 

As the team stood in the infield assessing the damage, almost immediately teams began offering their help.  Not ready to give up, Packard got the car back into the pits and Neal (Emily's crew chief) and the team starting pulling the broken pieces off the car.  Members of Brad Babb's crew came right over to see what they could do to help, and off they went to gather spare parts and equipment from other teams to get the car repaired.  The team and their fellow competitor's team worked furiously to repair the car in time for Emily to make the heat race.  "I would really like to thank the guys on Brad Babb's team, especially Bobby Babb and Todd Croteau, they were great about jumping right in and helping us out.  I also have to thank Joey Polewarczyk's team for lending us a welder and Dave Farrington for lending us a torch, there are just so many people that helped or offered to help us, it was just really great."

 

With repairs to the car completed, the East Montpelier native was able to get lined up in time to make the 3^rd heat race as scheduled.  Starting in tenth place, Packard had only eight laps to get up to the final transition spot of sixth.  At halfway, Emily had only moved up to the eighth position and the laps would run out before she could advance any further.  Using the heat race to feel out the car after the repairs, Neal made some minor adjustments to make the car better for the consolation race.  "Obviously the car wasn't quite what it was in practice," Packard said, "but is gave us an idea of what changes would need to be made for the consi, but for the damage that the car saw, it ran pretty good in the heat."

Lined up in the sixth starting spot all Emily had to do was maintain her starting position throughout the race and she was in the feature, but she was ready to race.  Feeling out the car after the changes made, Packard was able to move up through the field and was in third place by halfway.  She would continue to try to move up, but was as far forward as she would get.  "I found some clean track and got up to third," said Packard, "which qualified us into the race.  The car was pretty decent in the consi, so I was fairly confident it would race well in the 100 lap feature."

 

Taking the green flag for the feature from the thirteenth position, Packard settled in and got into a rhythm, while her spotter Kevin reminded her every few laps to continue hitting her marks.  "I just tried to ride around a little bit," said Emily.  "I wanted to see what was going to happen up front.  The night before, we stayed to watch the local race and saw that it was a little bit rough so we knew it was probably going to be rough towards the end of our race.  Plus this was the last race of the season, and those tend to be a little rougher, so we took all of that into consideration as part of our race strategy."

 

At the halfway point in the race, Packard found herself in the fourteenth spot battling with the same few cars for position.  Lap after lap Emily and the Keith Rocco 88 car would race side by side, with Emily edging a nose out front of him through the corners only for him to battle back strong on the straightaways.  Finally on lap 74, Packard would clear the 88 and pull away from him, regaining the thirteenth spot.  "I had heard a lot about the 88 car and how great a racer was, he drove me hard and was a little rougher than I expected, so I was happy when I was finally able to get by him, and take off."  Once she cleared the 88, Packard continued to pick off cars, but was running out of laps.  When the checkers finally fell, Emily would cross the line in tenth place, which would secure her fourth place finish in the American Canadian Tour Championship points.  "This was my first time racing at Thompson," said Emily. "It's definitely a fast track and a lot of fun to race, and hopefully we will return to race here next season. 

DRIVERS STANDINGS
1. WayneHelliwellJr. 1362
2.JoeyPolewarczykJr.1296
3. Brad Babb 1154
4. Emily Packard 1070
5. Brandon Atkins 1063
6. Jeff White 985
7.RowlandRobinsonJr.975
8. Kyle Welch 970
9. Jimmy Hebert 968
10. #Rich Dubeau 910

"We had a pretty good season overall," said Packard.  "We started off really, really good, but had some rough patches mid-season and I felt like we just couldn't get a break. This race ended it on a good note for us, despite the wreck in practice.  I want to say thank you to my whole team for all their help this entire season, Neal, Frankie, Sammy, Kevin, Shawn and all the others that helped out throughout the season.  I also want to thank my mom and dad for continuously letting me do this and for their constant support and encouragement.  Lastly, none of this would have been possible without the support of all my great sponsors; Northstar Fireworks, Packard Fuels, Rutland Regional Medical Center, Be The Match, Yipes! of Barre, Fecteau Homes, Vermont Country Campers, Berlin Optical Expressions, Creative Visions and GossCars.com. I cannot thank them enough for all the continued support and belief in me." 

 

Emily and the Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels 9x team will race one more time this season, heading to Speedway 51 in Groveton, NH to compete in the Fall Brawl on Saturday October 24^th.

Brian Hoar 42nd career victory and will retire. Wayne Helliwell Jr. is your 2015 ACT Tour Champion

 

 

AMERICAN CANADIAN TOUR FINISH (TOP-10): 1. Brian Hoar (Williston, CT); 2. Brad Babb (Windham, ME); 3. Jimmy Hebert (Williamsville, VT); 4. Ray Parent (Tiverton, RI); 5. Brandon Atkins (AuSable Forks, NY); 6. Rowland Robinson, Jr. (Steuben, ME); 7. Wayne Helliwell, Jr. (Dover, NH); 8. William Wall (Shrewsbury, MA); 9. Mark Jenison (Warwick, RI); 10. Emily Packard (E. Montpelier, CT) only race cars on the lead lap at final flag