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Teen wins coveted drag racing trophy Hailey Picciuto follows in big sister’s steps to the track TAMARA SHEPHARD tshephard@insidetoronto.com Thirteen-year-old Hailey Picciuto took home her first National Hot Rod Association Junior Drag Racing League trophy last month. And it’s not just any trophy. The “Wally” is drag racing’s most prestigious, coveted trophy, named in honour of the late National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) founder Wally Parks. It’s the first time the “Wally” has been won in Canada. Picciuto beat Nicole Albin to win the “Wally” at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga’s Junior Dragster masters’ category by just 0.16 of a second on the eighth of a mile track. “It’s such a thrill,” she said Wednesday, before she showed a reporter and photographer her stuff in a parking lot. “I just like the rush it gives me. Racing is not really popular, like soccer.” The “Wally” is a 12-pound
metal trophy of Parks in a racing suit posing with a giant dragster tire. “It’s the Oscar of drag racing,” Hailey’s mom, Kim, said of the trophy. There’s a Br iggs and Stratton, 22-horsepower motor fueled by methanol in her KCS-built 14-foot long, 218-pound fiberglass chassis painted Mustang red with automatic snowmobile clutches. It costs approximately $10,000 used. Junior drag racing runs in the Picciuto family’s blood. Hailey’s older sister, Rachel, 17, holds five junior drag racing championships in her blue dragster. The Guardian profiled Rachel in a June 2006 article when the then 11-year-old took the red dragster her younger sister Hailey now races to their school, Holy Angels Catholic Elementary School, on the last day of school. Rachel is in her final year of junior drag racing. Soon, she >>>RACERS, page 8
Staff photo/MARY GAUDET
Hailey Picciuto, 13, recently won the National Hot Rod Association's "Wally" award for drag racing. Picciuto started competing as an eight year old, and this year won against a field of competitors after she covered an eighth of a mile in just 7.9 seconds.
Bat swings $4K for charity TAMARA SHEPHARD tshephard@insidetoronto.com The modest Mississauga woman asks to remain anonymous about her charitable giving. But when she donated a baseball bat signed by former
Major League Baseball phenom Roberto Alomar back to the south Etobicoke outreach centre that auctioned it off at its first annual charitable golf tournament in June, its officials were far from speechless. “It’s u n h e a rd o f . It’s
The Etobicoke Guardian - A Metroland Community Newspaper
incredible,” Bev Hynek, Haven on the Queensway’s executive director said of the woman’s generosity. “She was great. She’s a believer in what we do here at the Haven. She has a real passion for it.” >>>HAVEN’S, page 7
Working with residents key: Urbancorp Mini-community planned for Alderwood site CYNTHIA REASON creason@insidetoronto.com A mini-community within the community is what Urbancorp has envisioned for its recently acquired site at the long-vacant Alderwood
Collegiate Institute. “We want to fit into the community. It is a big site, so in a way we’re creating a mini-community within the site and within the area there,” Urbancorp’s Director of Development Ann Lam
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