A CLOSE COMMUNITY :: Drag Racing Action Online!

A CLOSE COMMUNITY

Kiersten Cocuzza is a normal seven-year old girl who enjoys Hannah Montana and the Disney Channel. And naturally she enjoys drag racing. Her father, Joe, is a competitor at Atco Raceway in New Jersey with his Camaro, of which both Kiersten and her mother, Sandy, help out with.

At the beginning of this year, Kiersten complained of stomach pain which doctors were unable to diagnose. A trip to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia confirmed their worst fears. Kiersten was suffering from anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer, which when caught and treated early enough has a 75-percent recovery rate.

With the NHRA Supernationals held in Englishtown nearby the Cocuzza’s, Super Gas racer Wayne Meli contacted Funny Car driver Jack Beckman who knows firsthand the rigors of disease and recovery. While, Kiersten continues to receive treatment for her disease, Beckman and others gave Kiersten and her family the VIP treatment as a guest of Don Schumacher Racing that included meeting several of the drivers and participating in some of their activities.

Fellow New Jerseyite (is that even a word?) Bob Frey also met with Kiersten and spoke of her numerous times during his broadcasts on the public address system.

Beckman said, “Kiersten was such a sweet girl and very much into drag racing. She even helped me pack my parachutes after one of my runs. It was so nice to meet with her and her family.

“Wayne actually did all of the leg work to make it possible for Kiersten to visit us at the races,” Beckman said.

“And while I get credited sometimes for visits like this, it really is Mike Lewis and LuAnn Bishop of DSR and of course, Don himself who make things like this happen.”

Several local businesses which include Craws Racing, Johnson’s Powdercoating and KCS Race Cars have built a Jr. Dragster for Kiersten, who will start racing it next year after her eighth birthday. It just proves how close the drag racing community really is.