PAST IHRA CHAMP REMEMBER PARKER FOR "THE PICTURE"
Parker was wrestling the steering wheel of his '48 Fiat altered, muscling it all the way to the right -- and the car was on a straight-arrow run down the lane.
"He was haulin'," Cannister said, marveling at the perilous pass at Maryland International Raceway that was the Pro Outlaw class' first in the five-second range.
Two-time International Hot Rod Association champion Laurie Cannister saw Neal Parker whip down the dragstrip in September 1999, but she didn't appreciate fully his superb driving until she saw the photo of that run.
Parker was wrestling the steering wheel of his '48 Fiat altered, muscling it all the way to the right -- and the car was on a straight-arrow run down the lane.
"He was haulin'," Cannister said, marveling at the perilous pass at Maryland International Raceway that was the Pro Outlaw class' first in the five-second range.
"That was a typical Neal Parker trip down the racetrack," Cannister said. "He drove it until the wheels came off. He knew how to handle a car. The short wheel base was his specialty.
"He ran wide open all the time," she said. "Nothing fazed him. He got in a car, and he commanded it."
But the envelope-pushing Parker, a South Jersey excavating-company owner from Millville (Cumberland County), made his final pass Friday during qualifying for the National Hot Rod Association SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
He died in a high-speed run in his "Excavator" '05 Chevy Monte Carlo, covering the quarter-mile with a 5.732-second elapsed time at 249.90 mph -- numbers that ironically were his career best.
School teacher wife Betsy was not at the track when the crash occurred at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. She was accompanying her students on a field trip. The couple had no children of their own.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Neither has the New Jersey State Police, which is conducting the accident investigation, determined the cause of Parker's crash or his death.
