{"id":12781,"date":"2013-05-24T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=12781"},"modified":"2013-05-23T09:49:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T13:49:44","slug":"emily-packard-motorsports-packard-ready-for-doubleheader-of-holiday-weekend-late-model-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/emily-packard-motorsports-packard-ready-for-doubleheader-of-holiday-weekend-late-model-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"EMILY PACKARD MOTORSPORTS: Packard Ready For Doubleheader Of Holiday Weekend Late Model Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"emily<\/a><\/p>\n

NASCAR Whelen All-American Series: Emily Packard<\/strong>
\n Canaan Fair Speedway Race Preview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vermont State Championship Series: Emily Packard<\/strong>
\n Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl Race Preview<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n

EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. \u2013 Emily Packard of East Montpelier, Vt., has a doubleheader holiday weekend of Late Model racing in store when she returns to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition at Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, N.H., on Saturday, May 25, before heading to Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., for the first round of the Vermont State Championship Series with with Mekkelson RV Memorial Day Classic 100 on Sunday, May 26. Packard finished a disappointing 14th in the season opener at Canaan last weekend, though she left encouraged after having the fastest car in all three practice sessions during the day. After a short turnaround following Saturday night’s 35-lap Late Model feature, she’ll head to Thunder Road, where she won one of four qualifying races for the ACT Late Model Tour event there last month.<\/p>\n

THE FACTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHO<\/strong>: Emily Packard, East Montpelier, Vt.
\nCREW CHIEF<\/strong>: Neal Woodward, Georgia, Vt.
\nTEAM<\/strong>: No. 9x Northstar Fireworks\/Berlin Optical Expressions Chevrolet
\nSPONSORS<\/strong>: Northstar Fireworks, Fecteau Homes, Berlin Optical Expressions, Yipes! of Barre, VT Shifter Karts, GossCars.com, Be The Match, Rutland Regional Medical Center, R.G. Paving
\nBEST CAREER CANAAN FAIR SPEEDWAY FINISH<\/strong>: 2nd (September 2012)
\nLAST RACE AT CANAAN FAIR SPEEDWAY<\/strong>: 14th (May 2013)
\nWHAT<\/strong>: NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model 35
\nWHERE<\/strong>: Canaan Fair Speedway, Canaan, N.H. (.333-mile oval)
\nWHEN<\/strong>: Saturday, May 25 \u2013 3 p.m., practice; 6 p.m., qualifying; 8 p.m., race
\nBEST CAREER THUNDER ROAD FINISH<\/strong>: 9th (August 2012)
\nLAST RACE AT THUNDER ROAD<\/strong>: 18th (April 2013)
\nWHAT<\/strong>: Mekkelson RV Memorial Day Classic 100
\nWHERE<\/strong>: Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt. (.25-mile oval)
\nWHEN<\/strong>: Sunday, May 25 \u2013 10:15 a.m., practice; 1:45 p.m., qualifying; 4:30 p.m., race<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW?<\/strong>
\nEmily Packard scored her first career Top-10 finish in an ACT Late Model Tour race when she finished 10th in the Spring Green 113 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vt., on Sunday, May 5.<\/p>\n

Emily Packard became the first woman in a decade to win a feature event at Thunder Road International Speedbowl when she won a Street Stock feature at the track last summer.<\/p>\n

Emily Packard was voted the 2012 Vermont Motorsports Magazine Rookie of the Year, and she was also named the Vermont Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association Athlete of the Month for August 2012.<\/p>\n

Emily Packard was one of 36 Late Model drivers from across the northeast and Canada invited to participate in the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 weekend last September.
\nEmily Packard Motorsports crew chief Neal Woodward is a five-time ACT Late Model Tour champion crew chief whose cars set track qualifying records at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING<\/strong>
\nEMILY PACKARD, Driver of the No. 9x Northstar Fireworks\/Berlin Optical Expressions Chevrolet, On moving forward this weekend at Canaan Fair Speedway after a disappointing outing last week: \u201cI hope to come out with a car I can actually race the next day. I really want to go in there and use the lessons that I learned this past weekend and apply them. That’s of course what every season is about for me \u2013 I have a lot to learn every time I go out there. I learned a huge lesson last weekend. I want to apply it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how her car performed during the race event at Canaan: \u201cI was definitely was excited about car being so fast. I knew it was going to be fast \u2013 but I didn’t know it would be that good. I was really turning through the corners and pulling down the straightaways.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s probably the best car we’ve ever had there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what last weekend did to her championship hopes at the track: \u201cI think what we saw last year was that one bad finish probably won’t hurt you, but a bunch of them will. We’ll have to work on staying patient and getting the best we can every weekend from here on out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her outlook for the Memorial Day Classic at Thunder Road: \u201cBecause ACT is not there this weekend, hopefully we’ll have a bit of a better chance \u2013 but one important thing to remember is that when the Tour is there, the racing is extremely hard, but when it’s just the Thunder Road guys, it’s still really hard racing. The teams that are there are going to be just as good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve learned something every time we’ve gone on the track there. Having been there last month is just going to help us set up for another long race this weekend. Now that I’m more comfortable with the car, I want to get out there and attack the track a bit more and really get everything out of the car that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/strong>
\nCanaan Fair Speedway returns to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing on Saturday, June 1… Emily Packard will continue competing weekly at Canaan this season while also attempting to run the full Late Model schedule at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., on Thursday nights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASCAR Whelen All-American Series: Emily Packard Canaan Fair Speedway Race Preview Vermont State Championship Series: Emily Packard Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl Race Preview THE STORY EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. \u2013 Emily Packard of East Montpelier, Vt., has a doubleheader holiday weekend of Late Model racing in store when she returns to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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":[4139,26,200],"tags":[15135],"class_list":["post-12781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canaan","category-thunder-road","category-vermont","tag-emily-packard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12781","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}