{"id":18773,"date":"2015-05-09T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=18773"},"modified":"2015-05-09T04:41:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T08:41:04","slug":"babb-packard-making-strong-impressions-early-in-2015-act-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/babb-packard-making-strong-impressions-early-in-2015-act-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Babb, Packard Making Strong Impressions Early in 2015 ACT Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dfhfghfghfg\"<\/a>Waterbury, VT\u2014The 2015 American-Canadian Tour (ACT) season has reached the quarter-pole of its 15-race schedule. While former champions Wayne Helliwell Jr. and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. find themselves at the top of the standings, a growing crop of new and young racers are making their presence known.
\nWindham, ME\u2019s Brad Babb has been one of the drivers to beat so far. Babb returned to the ACT Tour full-time in 2015 driving a car owned by Joey Laquerre. He scored his first ACT podium finish at the New Hampshire Governor\u2019s Cup, then earned a storybook win in the Merchants Bank 150 at Barre, VT\u2019s Thunder Road. It was the first race at Thunder Road since Laquerre\u2019s grandson, up-and-coming local racer Joey M. Laquerre, died in an ATV accident last October.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wished that I could win at Thunder Road, but before we\u2019d had a hard time just qualifying there,\u201d Babb said. \u201cI really just wanted to make the race on Sunday.\u201d
\nApart from a flat tire in the season opener at Oxford Plains Speedway, Babb says the year has been flawless to date. He currently sits tied with Jeff White for third in the Tour standings, 49 points back of Helliwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have another three or four strong runs right in a row, then maybe it\u2019s time to say we\u2019re a contender for the championship,\u201d Babb said. \u201cBut right now we just have to keep building on the momentum we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, E. Montpelier, VT\u2019s Emily Packard has been authoring a strong follow-up to her breakout 2014 campaign. Packard finished fourth at Oxford in her first visit to the track after starting 20th. She then charged from the 23rd starting position at Thunder Road to finish sixth \u2013 despite her claim afterwards of an ill-handling race car. The 18-year-old now sits fifth in the point standings.
\n“We need better luck in our heat races,\u201d Packard said with a laugh. \u201cBy the end of the (feature), we\u2019re up there ready to contend, but there\u2019s not enough laps left to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packard has also had success at multiple upcoming tracks on the Tour schedule. She led a race-high 115 laps in last year\u2019s ACT event at Speedway 51 while winning three weekly Late Model events at Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway. Packard admitted she thinks a lot about finally breaking into the Tour winner\u2019s circle.
\n\u201cI know the first win is always the hardest to get,\u201d she said. \u201cI just really want to get that first win in the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babb and Packard also rank first and second in the Bond Auto Parts New Champions standings, a program for drivers with one or fewer ACT-sanctioned Late Model wins prior to the 2015 season. 39 different drivers have earned New Champions points in the first three races. The number will grow after S\u00e9rie ACT opens its season at Airborne Park Speedway on Saturday, May 16 as part of a U.S.\/Canada combo event. Babb was the first New Champion to earn the $500 Breakout Award for recording a 2015 win.
\nOther New Champions drivers have also impressed in the first three races. Travis Stearns currently sits sixth in the Tour standings and third in New Champions points with his Richard Green Racing team. Brandon Aktins moved up to seventh in Tour points after recording his best-ever Thunder Road finish this past Sunday. Fellow sophomore Mike Ziter and rookie Rich Dubeau also sit in the top-10 in points and were American Racer Three Star Award winners at Oxford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waterbury, VT\u2014The 2015 American-Canadian Tour (ACT) season has reached the quarter-pole of its 15-race schedule. While former champions Wayne Helliwell Jr. and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. find themselves at the top of the standings, a growing crop of new and young racers are making their presence known. Windham, ME\u2019s Brad Babb has been one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"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":[55,14972],"tags":[15684],"class_list":["post-18773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-touring-series-news","tag-waterbury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18774,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773\/revisions\/18774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}