{"id":10770,"date":"2012-09-04T21:52:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T01:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=10770"},"modified":"2012-09-15T21:53:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-16T01:53:53","slug":"emily-packard-earns-rookie-of-the-year-at-canaan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/emily-packard-earns-rookie-of-the-year-at-canaan\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Packard Earns Rookie of the Year At Canaan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Packard Earns Rookie of the Year At Canaan
\nLate Model 100 Run, ROY Title Highlight Busy Week For 15-Year-Old<\/strong><\/p>\n

In five days, Emily Packard logged nearly 200 laps of racing, countless hours of practice and testing and tackled some of the most challenging tracks in the northeast.
\nFrom a test on the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition at Canaan Fair Speedway to another Top-5 finish at Thunder Road International Speedbowl, the 15-year-old high school sophomore experienced virtually every type of track and every kind of emotion associated with racing in New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great week. With all the ups and downs, it definitely equaled out,\u201d Packard said. \u201cWe definitely had a good week and a great end to the season. I’m already excited for next weekend.\u201d
\nPackard started with a day-long test session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Wednesday as teams prepared for the fourth annual Bond Auto ACT Invitational on September 22. Though Packard has not been formally afforded an official invite yet, she posted the sixth-fastest practice speed of the afternoon session at NHMS in just her first trip to the track.
\n<\/p>\n

Three nights later, Packard was at her home track in Canaan, N.H., where she earned her second consecutive runner-up finish in the season-ending Late Model 100. The finish clinched fourth in the overall standings Late Model standings at Canaan and locked up the 2012 Rookie of the Year title at the .333-mile oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a huge deal for us. We always wanted to get that Rookie of the Year award throughout the year,\u201d said Packard, driver of the No. 9x Northstar Fireworks\/Fecteau Homes\/GossCars.com\/VT Shifter Karts Chevrolet. \u201cTo get it just means the world to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than 12 hours later, Packard headed for double-duty at Thunder Road \u2013 the notoriously tricky-quarter mile nestled in the heart of the Green Mountains. Though her qualifying draw put her at a disadvantage, she ran all three rounds of ACT Late Model Tour Labor Day Classic 200 qualifying and came away better prepared for her debut in the People’s United Milk Bowl at the end of the month.
\nHer day was not done after ACT heat racing, however. She hopped into her weekly Street Stock ride at the track and, after battling for the lead in the second half of the race, finished fourth in a 25-lap event. Earlier this summer, she became the first woman in over a decade to win a feature event at Thunder Road when she won a 25-lap Street Stock feature, and she followed that with a 10th-place finish in her Late Model debut at the track on August 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot about the track (on Sunday),\u201d Packard said. \u201cYou can definitely tell with the Tour that there is a lot more competition. The ACT is just very, very tough, competitive competition.
\n\u201cI would have loved to have gotten another (Street Stock) win, but I’m really happy about a fourth-place finish. I’m very happy when you look at the beginning of the season and how we did at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season is not over yet, however. Packard will be in action at Devil’s Bowl Speedway this Friday, before returning to the track the following week for the Vermont State Championship Series 100 there the following weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Packard Earns Rookie of the Year At Canaan Late Model 100 Run, ROY Title Highlight Busy Week For 15-Year-Old In five days, Emily Packard logged nearly 200 laps of racing, countless hours of practice and testing and tackled some of the most challenging tracks in the northeast. From a test on the one-mile New Hampshire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4139,126,112],"tags":[15135],"class_list":["post-10770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canaan","category-new-england","category-new-hampshire","tag-emily-packard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}