The husband and wife Pro Modified team of Andrew and Dina Parise will continue their tradition of spreading holiday cheer to the wounded American military.

"We would like to remind everyone about our nation’s wounded Military personnel who are not fortunate enough to be home for the holidays," said Dina. "It has been Parise Racing’s mission, in part with The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, to raise awareness for our nation’s Military, past and present through our ‘Vettes for Vets’ program."

The Parise's program includes fundraising as well as having veterans spend a day at the track.

Pete Berner will fly Summit Racing Equipment sponsorship in 2010 as he pursues the ADRL Extreme Pro Stock Battle for the Belts Championship.

“It is truly an honor to be associated with Summit Racing Equipment,” said Berner. “They are one of the finest businesses in the industry. Besides being the top mail order company, they are an upstanding business that puts the racer first. I feel privileged to have Summit on the side of my car in 2010 and beyond. I’ve gotten to know Jim Greenleaf [Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports and Event Manager] and his team well, and they are excellent individuals who have a passion for the sport of drag racing. It’s great to have people like this supporting the industry and racers from grassroots to professional level.

“The Summit team and I have a similar vision and passion for racing and a commitment to excellence, so I feel like this is truly a great fit for both of us. We are both excited to run the full ADRL schedule in 2010 and pursue the next level for Summit and Pete Berner Racing. Summit has a strong presence in every drag racing venue and we hope to only increase that in the ADRL.”

Just what does it take to move a USA based Nitro Funny Car outfit 11,559 kilometers, or 6235 nautical miles, across the world to Australia for two rounds of USA vs AUS Nitro Funny Car racing at Willowbank Raceway for the International New Year Series?

The answer? A lot…just ask Jack Wyatt, who along with his crew recently spent two days packing everything for the trip into containers onto the ‘Cap Palliser’ container ship which is currently ferrying the precious cargo and Gary Densham’s Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car across the seas for the January 2 and January 16 twin-events.

This is just some of what it takes to get the operation to Australian shores:

CompetitionPlus.com reader Harold Bradey raced for many seasons at Spartanburg Dragway and admitted that he could relate strongly to Bobby Bennett's editorial It Used To Be My Playground.

Bradey, of Spartanburg, SC, raced a series of Modified Production entries at the track, the latest of which was this Stingray that he later sold to Garfield Freeman.

He sent us a few of personal photos and we felt it would be neat to do a few comparisons as well as a sampling of extra snapshots.

Triple O Promotions has announced that the 3rd Annual Ohio Crankshaft No Box Nationals will be held June 25-27th, 2010 at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.

“We are thrilled about moving this race to the home of the ‘Big Go,” said Greg Dillman, who co-owns the event with Allyn Neff. “Allyn and I have been racing together; mostly competing, for many years and now we are able to move this race to a place that has been home to us for a long time.”

The first two Ohio Crankshaft No Box Nationals were held at Bunker Hill Dragstrip in Kokomo, IN. “Steve Daniels and his crew at Bunker have been great to us and guided us from what started out as just an idea to the making’s of one of the best No Box races in the Midwest,” said Neff. “We felt apprehensive about switching venues but felt it was necessary in order to build our race up to its highest potential.”

God Speed Ministry’s third annual Conference and Seminar is quickly approaching. The date is set for January 15-17, 2010 at the Courtyard Marriott in Gastonia, N.C., just a short distance away from the God Speed Ministry offices. This year the seminar will be on “Calling the Sons and Daughters of God.” Becoming a son or daughter of God has very special meaning and responsibilities along with great resources and potential. It is the desire of God Speed Ministry to equip believers to understand and be ready to fully participate in the work of God as He transforms the Church “that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

The Conference will begin with Open House on Friday evening at the God Speed Ministry offices. Saturday will be a full day of teaching and fellowship. The Conference will conclude with a Sunday morning worship service. The deadline to register is January 6th. To register, go to www.GodSpeedMinistry.com and download the online registration form.  Cost is only $25.

With two victories and his second Division 3 Top Dragster championship in the last three years, John Coughlin is quick to label 2009 as one of the most successful seasons of his career.

Coughlin began the season with a new dragster that carried him to numerous personal bests in the six-second zone at more than 200 mph and ended it with a thrilling victory in Las Vegas, a must-win event that secured the championship.

"Coming into this season, my goal was to win another championship," Coughlin said. "Last winter we made a lot of changes in order to make my car faster and it was. I went from running 7.20s to 6.70s; that's a big difference. It took me a while to get used to the speeds I was running but we managed to get lucky and win a few races. A couple of times, I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to pull off the championship, but it happened."

Demand to appear on PINKS: All Out, a drag racing reality show that airs on SPEED TV, resulted in phone system and Web site outages in Norwalk Monday, December 7. An estimated 9,000 racers from the Midwest United States tried to grab one of 425 available openings when they went on sale at noon at Summit Motorsports Park. The 425 openings sold out in two minutes and were only available by phone or online.

The episode of PINKS: All Out will be filmed at Summit Motorsports Park August 27-28, 2010. The reality show last filmed an episode at the track in June, 2008.

“We had a lot of people simultaneously trying to get one of these 425 racer openings,” said Bill Bader, Jr., president of Summit Motorsports Park. “We were amazed when we looked at the logs for our Web site. When you have that many people calling and using the Web site at the same time, it creates a large spike in demand on the equipment. I apologize to anyone in Norwalk that may have been inconvenienced.” Many residents in eastern Norwalk reportedly lost phone service and Internet access mid-day Monday as demand interrupted service.

Team Mopar® driver Allen Johnson's 2010 NHRA Pro Stock Mopar Dodge Avenger, revealed last month at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, will be on display this week near the Mopar Stage at the 22nd Annual Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show. Mopar will also display a number of "Moparized" vehicles and new Mopar parts in the Mopar exhibit on the PRI show floor. The trade show is scheduled to take place Dec. 10-12 at Florida's Orlando Convention Center.

George Ray, 85, owner and operator of George Ray’s Hot Rod Wildcat Drag Strip outside of Paragould, Ark, passed away on December 5, 2009.

He is survived by his wife Bonnie Ray.

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