It was originally red, and she had flaming red hair when I was younger. It’s a 3,000-horsepower supercharged Cadillac Pro Mod named Stella, after my grandmother, my love. We spoke with Parise about racing, aging and staying in shape. Now 52, she’s president of Dina Parise Racing and resides just outside Atlanta, spending her days competing, giving motivational talks, wooing new sponsors, volunteering and arguing over button versus lever shifters with her beloved crew chief, Andrew. In 2015, at age 48, Parise became the International Hot Rod Association Pro Modified World Champion - the first woman to hold the title. She raced Andrew, by this point her husband, the following year. She slowly but steadily began making a name for herself in racing, participating at the Maple Grove Raceway in 2008. Parise attended Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School, earning her National Hot Rod Association license. I found Andrew in the pit and said, ‘I want to do this,’ ” she says. “I had never been to a live drag race, and I fell in love with the sport, the fans, everything. In 1999, the pair headed to Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, where Andrew raced his 1967 Camaro. She started working as a hairdresser and began dating a man named Andrew who had, like her, grown up around cars but, unlike her, had spent years street racing. In these industries, they want you to be younger looking,” she explains. (At just 5 feet tall, she fell short of the height requirement but was so impressive that the auditions director encouraged her to fudge her numbers on the application.) For four years, Parise quenched her need for speed with her trademark layback spin, as well as by soaring over audiences Peter Pan-style and, in one circus-themed number, dangling one-handed from a 20-feet-high rope and being spun over and over, no net or harness to be seen.Īs her 30th birthday approached, Parise was well aware that her days as a pro skater were numbered. Instead, she followed her dream of becoming a professional ice skater, joining the famous Ice Capades at age 22. But as someone who could never sit still, Parise, then a competitive gymnast, didn't envision herself participating in these hours-long races in any way other than as an enthusiastic spectator. An adrenaline junkie by nature, she was drawn to the speed, thrill and camaraderie of the sport. Growing up on Long Island with three brothers, Dina Parise loved watching NASCAR and Formula One races.
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