Tough Run for Emily Packard

Emily is one of our 2016 members of the :"Woman in Racing" at 6:15pm on the broadcast.

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

With a week delay and Mother Nature not wanting to play nice, Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team braved the cold temperatures and some back luck at Thunder Road on Sunday afternoon, bringing the car home in twenty-second.  "We were unsure for a while if we were even going to get the show in or not," said Packard. "The car was handling great for the first half of the race, but we just had some bad luck towards the end.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the finish we hoped for and it doesn't show how good the car really was."

Waiting out the rain, the American Canadian Tour late models finally hit the track about 2pm for the first of 2 practices.  "We were able to get a little bit of practice in so we could make adjustments, but it was so cold and miserable today," Packard said.  "The car wasn't initially handling very good in practice, but it was progressively getting better.  On the last run of practice the car was awesome, but we came in for a tire change and the car just went bad again."

With weather continuing to threaten, Emily would start in the first heat from the seventh position.  "The heat race was a little brutal," said Packard, "we just really didn't have anything out there."  Halfway through the race the East Montpelier native has lost a position and would finish the 15 lap race in the eighth position forcing her to run the consolation race to try to get into the feature.

Heading out to run the consolation race, Emily would start from the seventh position again, needing to finish in the top 4 to transfer to the race.  At the halfway point, Packard had moved up to the sixth position and kept pushing toward the front.  With the laps winding down, she would get by one more car to finish in fifth place, just shy of the last qualifying spot, setting her up to run in the "B" feature as her last chance to make the race.  "In the consi we went from seventh to fifth, just missing that last qualifying spot," Packard said.  Knowing that she needed to finish in the top 2 to transfer to the feature, Packard started the "B" feature from the second spot.  The 19-year old driver wasted no time moving to the top spot by lap 4 and never looked back, which guaranteed her a starting spot in the 150 lap race.

Starting the Merchants Bank 150 from the twenty-fifth spot, Emily showed the patience of a seasoned veteran steadily moving forward; running seventeenth when the caution flew for the second time on lap 35.  10 laps later, she had moved into thirteenth and continued her drive towards the front.  "The car was handling great for the first half of the race, it had good speed and good control," Emily said.  "On restarts the car was like superman, the car was so great.  We were really lucky that we got to start on the bottom for a majority of the restarts."  The third year ACT driver would find herself as high as ninth by lap 86, but would find herself in tenth when the caution flew again on lap 103.  This forced her to restart on the outside, and would be the turn in the race where her good run would go bad.  On the restart, she would lose a number of positions as cars lined up on the inside passing her, before bringing out the caution on lap 134 when she spun on the backstretch.  "I was pointed straight for the wall," said Packard, "and fortunately, I was able to get her slowed down and get it back under control before I hit it, after that it was just loose and I spun."  Not giving up, Packard took her spot at the end of the field in twenty-third, and started working her way back up towards the front.  She had picked up a number of spots in the closing laps, moving back up to nineteenth, when the caution flew for the final time with three laps to go.  Spotter Steve Tapley came on the radio telling her to whoa up the car, and she had it saved until she was hit from behind by another driver, pushing her into the wreck causing some damage to the front end of the car.  She would duck into the pits to get some quick attention from the crew and rejoin the field to race the final 3 laps.  When the checkers flew, Packard would be twenty-second, a finish that didn't reflect just how good a car she had during the race.  "Yeah, we had the beginning of a good run it was just unfortunate circumstances there at the end," said Emily. "I think moving forward we have continued grow as a team again this weekend. The team has done a really great job and I am excited that we are going to add Airborne and head there next weekend."

"I want to send a special thank you to my parents this weekend, the Polewarczyk's, Joe Sr. and Joey Jr., and Nate, Scott, Kasey and Brian for the help this weekend.  I also want to say thanks to Steve Tapley for coming out to spot for me this weekend.  Kevin (Alden) couldn’t make it this weekend, and he was missed, but it was great to have Steve back again and he did a really good job.  Finally, I want to thank all my sponsors; Northstar Fireworks, Packard Fuels, Creative Visions, Berlin Optical Expressions, Rutland Regional Medical Center, Vermont Country Campers, Be The Match, Yipes! of Barre, Fecteau Homes and GossCars.com." 

Next up for Emily and the Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team is the Spring Green 116 at Airborne Park Speedway on Saturday May 14^th.