Andrew and Dina Parise (pronounced Pahreesee) are in tune with the fact husband and wife Pro Modified teams aren’t the norm. Sure, there were the Paynes, Jay and Shelly, who made up drag racing’s first known spousal Pro Modified team, but let’s state from the outset, these couples are worlds apart.

He’s a former Super Gas racer turned Pro Modified competitor, who holds down a Long Island, N.Y.-based executive job, and she’s the former Ice Capades skater, who followed the lead of her husband into drag racing.

She’s done a good job of keeping up, too.

When he left to pursue the challenge of Pro Modified racing, Dina jumped into his former race car and started making laps.

Husband Asks What Wife Wants; She Answers, “A Pro Mod.” That’ll teach Him …


Andrew and Dina Parise (pronounced Pahreesee) are in tune with the fact husband and wife Pro Modified teams aren’t the norm. Sure, there were the Paynes, Jay and Shelly, who made up drag racing’s first known spousal Pro Modified team, but let’s state from the outset, these couples are worlds apart.

He’s a former Super Gas racer turned Pro Modified competitor, who holds down a Long Island, N.Y.-based executive job, and she’s the former Ice Capades skater, who followed the lead of her husband into drag racing.

She’s done a good job of keeping up, too.

When he left to pursue the challenge of Pro Modified racing, Dina jumped into his former race car and started making laps.

“I get the hand-me-downs,” Dina said with a laugh.

This time she’s not getting a used car. She has taken delivery of an honest-to-goodness supercharged 1963 Corvette built by former Pro Modified world champion Tim McAmis and powered by an engine prepared by Carl “Big Dog” Spiering.

That’ll teach Mr. Parise the next time he asks his wife if there’s anything he can buy her. He’s convinced that diamonds are not his wife’s best friend, horsepower is.

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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How does a husband react to a wife who requests a Pro Modified as a gift he can buy her?

“After I picked myself up from the floor?” Andrew asked.

“I figured she might want a new [street] car and a few diamond bracelets,” he explained. “In my case, I ended up with the wife who asked for a Tim McAmis race car with a Carl Spiering engine.”

She has a logical explanation.

“If you’re going to answer, you might as well go big,” Dina added.

I called my Mom to tell her I loved it and she said, ‘Damn, I knew that once you got your butt in that car you were going to love it – except she didn’t say butt, she said something else. We are from New York, we don’t hold back. – Dina Parise, on her first experience driving the race car at Maple Grove 

Andrew’s Super Gas racer was as she put it, a “a reasonable” nine-to-ten second bracket racer, but those who have been around the Parises know that their reasonable and the average drag racer’s reasonable are worlds apart. This “reasonable” 1967 Rally Sport Camaro sported a supercharged Chevy protruding through the hood.

Yes, a blower car in Super Gas.

“I was getting almost up to 160 miles per hour in that car,” Dina noted.

The car, they felt was at the edge, of being safe and unsafe. So Andrew went out and forked out a couple of thousand dollars for another Camaro to cut up and make a safer version.

In the midst of this transformation presented the from-left-field revelation of wanting to go Pro Modified.

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Dina’s request came as a complete shock to her husband.

How did he take the news?

“I’m broke,” admitted Andrew, of his two Pro Mod family. “I may have empty pockets now but the reality is that she will probably end up doing better than me.”

The Parises plan on competing in the ADRL’s Pro Extreme division and plan to fill the open weekends with NSCA and Outlaw Pro Modified events. They expect to make their competition debut later this season at the ADRL event in Richmond, Va.

“All of his friends’ wives, they want to go shopping on the weekends, not me” Dina said. “He can’t get rid of me. I’m coming to the track.”

There might be a disagreement or two on the road, but those are admittedly resolved in reasonable time. That’s a good thing for their crewman Dave Jordan, who brings to the team experience working with the two-car team of the Barklage Family.

The bickering experience, Andrew says, is something Jordan could probably do without.

“I think Dave is glad when he gets home because he’s on the road with two Italians screaming at one another,” Andrew said, voice cracking with laughter.

The couple tested recently with their cars and Andrew was impressed with Dina’s growing talent.

“I think everyone had their doubts at first,” he admitted. “But she did really well. She’s a little four-or-five foot nothing, and manhandled that car.”

Andrew and Dina may joke about their skirmishes, but their racing together has many more plusses than minuses.

“It’s challenging because you figure most guys go to the race track to get away from the wives to relax and do what they want to do,” Andrew explained. “I’m riding in the motorhome with her, the dog and our crew chief. There are little battles here and there, but it’s like having a 24-hour job with your wife.”

BY THE WAY, ABOUT THAT MILITARY THEME ...

This patriotic and copyrighted Barney Squires paint scheme represents something near and dear to the Parises hearts, the unselfish sacrifices of this country’s military personnel. Andrew comes from a strong military background. The Parises are strong in charity support benefitting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, an organization that supports critically injured soldiers with head trauma, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Andrew gets really irritated when we are somewhere and the National Anthem plays and someone doesn’t take their hat off or continues talking on a cell phone,” Dina explained. “He’ll go ballistic.”

“We really wanted to let the veterans know that we were thinking about them and to inspire others to do so too.”

The mural on the decklid of Dina’s ’63 Corvette depicting the Vietnam Wall, bears the name of two family friends.