DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

Veteran Pro Stock Bike rider Connie Cohen and her husband Marc of C.C. Rider Racing, will be at the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals in St. Louis with a new sponsor, CMKM Diamonds, a frontrunner of diamond exploration in Canada. CMKM Diamonds also sponsors the CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car piloted by Canadian driver Jeff Arend (above). Urban Casavant is the founder and current Chairman of the Board for CMKM Diamonds. His brother Ron will be the team manager for the race. [6-25-2004]

UBDRA TO BE HONORED AT GATEWAY

Gateway International Raceway and NHRA will present an award to the United Black Drag Racing Association on June 27 during the Sears Craftsman Nationals. The organization

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has hosted their "Black Sunday" event at the track for the past 15 years and have donated almost $250,000 of proceeds to various charities.

"The UBDRA is a magical organization that has created a truly one-of-a-kind event," said Gateway Vice President and General Manager Matt Strelo. "To think that our racetrack and our community hosts the largest African-American motorsports event in the world is a tremendous honor."

The 2004 Black Sunday event will be held September 17-19 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, IL. [6-25-2004]

PSB TEAM REACTS TO EXTRA 40 LBS.

Star Racing owner George Bryce, who along with George Smith, part owner of S&S Cycle, Incorporated, are partners in G Squared Motorsports which field the G2/S&S/Star Racing Buell driven by Fred Collis, had the following comments regarding the NHRA rule change adding 40 pounds to the V-twin engines, which was announced June 23.

"Even though we don't necessarily agree with the severity of the rule change and we don't like how quickly it was imposed upon us, Star Racing, G Squared Motorsports and S&S Cycle always play by the rules," said Bryce. "We're going to do our best to make the changes required to the motorcycle so that we can compete this weekend. But the NHRA has forced us to make our test runs under national event conditions."

George Smith, Bryce's partner, added, "We'll do the best we can under the new rules but since we are in a development stage with the G2/S&S/Star Racing Buell, this will definitely extend our learning curve. We don't have any data running 40-pounds heavier. It isn't something we can't overcome, but it certainly is something we can't fully accomplish in just four runs this weekend." [6-25-2004]