NHRA Story » United Association to sponsor Chicago and Englishtown events

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United Association to sponsor Chicago and Englishtown events

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA) has secured title-rights sponsorship of NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events in Chicago and Englishtown.

The United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals will be contested June 4-7 at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, and the United Association NHRA SuperNationals will take place the following week, June 11-14, at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown.

“Through NHRA’s unique platform and proven ability to personally reach out to fans attending a national event, UA hopes to build awareness for the International Training Fund (ITF) and United Association as well as recruit new members,” said Gary Darcy, NHRA senior vice president-sales & marketing.

In addition to sponsoring NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events in Chicago and Englishtown, UA will receive display space at three additional events: the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Castrol at Gateway Int’l Raceway in Madison, the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX at Heartland Park Topeka, and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The interactive display space features welding booths and virtual simulators and is designed to drive awareness for and showcase the benefits of United Association and ITF.

“The UA team is thrilled with the partnership we have developed with NHRA,” said Michael Arndt, UA director of training. “The UA through this new partnership will have access to a yet unexplored group of apprenticeship applicants. These applicants will become a part of our ongoing recruitment effort and supply additional applicants to pipe-trade apprenticeship programs throughout the United States. These apprenticeship programs are in the welding, plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, and sprinkler-fitting industries of the pipe trades.”

In addition to the title-rights sponsorships to the events in Chicago and Englishtown, UA is an associate sponsor on the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Top Fuel dragster driven by Spencer Massey and owned by Don Prudhomme Racing.

IMG, NHRA’s strategic marketing partner, identified the opportunity and provided assistance to NHRA in procuring the sponsorship package at both the sanctioning-body and team level.

For tickets to the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Chicago, call 815-727-RACE (7223) or log on to ticketmaster.com. For tickets to the United Association NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, call 732-446-7800 or log on to ticketmaster.com.

About UA Training for the Future: No other organization serves the training needs of the piping industry like UA. For more than a century, UA has been training the most highly qualified workers in the United States and Canada. In the past several decades, UA’s training programs have produced a stable, skilled workforce responsible for building and maintaining piping systems in the various industrial and residential facilities that make up the North American landscape. No one can match UA’s commitment or investment. The UA spends more than $170 million annually on training-program efforts involving approximately 300,000 journeymen and apprentices in more than 400 local training facilities at any given time. In addition to five-year apprenticeship programs, UA offers continuing education opportunities that include journeyman training and certifications in valve repair, welding, backflow prevention, medical gas installation, safe removal of refrigerants, and many more.

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