|
Subject: WALLY PARKS NHRA FOUNDER PASSED AWAY AT 94
|
Author:
HRC
[Edit]
|
Date Posted: Friday, October 05, 08:14:am
September 29, 2007
Wally Parks, the hot-rodder & entrepreneur who curbed drag racing on city streets by steering drivers onto legal racing strips & founded the National Hot Rod Assn., has died. He was 94.
Parks died Friday at St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank (CA), the NHRA announced, w/out specifying the cause of death.
Today, the NHRA is the world's largest motor sports sanctioning body, best known for its professional race car drivers locked in 300-mph duels over a straight 1/4-mile stretch of pavement in 23 national events held each year.
But the Glendora-based organization also has at the grass-roots level more than 80,000 members & 140 member tracks from coast to coast catering to drag racers & their lust for speed.
"Today is a sad day in the world of NHRA & the sport of drag racing," NHRA President Tom Compton said in a statement. "Words simply can't describe the immeasurable impact Wally has had on the sport he created & the millions of people's lives he touched along the way."
As a young man, Parks was one of those hot-rodders. Since the early '30s, racing fans had gathered at impromptu exhibitions on dry lake beds, back roads, even city streets in SoCal.
Parks started out by racing a modified '24 Chevrolet at what is now Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB. After joining the Road Runners car club in '37, he was part of a group that formed the SoCal Timing Assn., one of the nation's 1st hot-rod car clubs.
"The SCTA began getting heat from government & the media over the incidents of racing on city & country streets, so some of us decided to start a campaign to get racers off the streets," Parks recalled a few years ago. "Back then, the clubs were racing on the dry lakes, but after WW II, we found that abandoned air strips, or ones used only part time, were available."
An unused runway at what is now John Wayne Airport in Orange County became the Santa Ana Drags, the 1st professional track to charge admission in SoCal. (A strip adjacent to a landing field in Goleta is recognized as the 1st drag strip of record in SoCal.)
There was no set distance for side-by-side races in those days. It was whatever was available, but Parks determined that a 1/4-mile was best because that was about the distance suitable for racing on an airport runway, w/enough room after the finish line to stop the cars. He felt the need for a specific distance so that times from any track in the country could be compared to others.
In '47, Parks, Bob Petersen & Bob Lindsay established Hot Rod Magazine in L.A., w/Parks as its 1st editor. Two years later, he gained nationwide recognition for his proposal to open the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah for speed trials, featuring drivers racing against a stop watch, not just against each other, & emphasizing quickness in addition to speed.
Using Hot Rod Magazine as a forum, Parks promoted legal drag racing for enthusiasts of speed & power, as well as for a mainstream audience. In '51, he formed the NHRA & became its 1st president.
Parks organized Safety Safaris led by NHRA field officers who traveled around the country showing members how to conduct a safe & standardized drag meet. They also met w/local law enforcement to explain their goal of getting racing into a legitimate, controlled environment.
The NHRA's 1st official race was held at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona in '53, & 2 years later the 1st national event was run in Great Bend (KS). Drag racing became standardized, w/cars in similar classifications racing a 1/4-mile from a standing start. The rewards were modest.
"Just trophies," driver Don Prudhomme told a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter in '01, on the NHRA's 50th anniversary. "We never even thought about making a living doing it, let alone it turning into what it has become. We never dreamed of that."
Nicknamed "the Snake," Prudhomme lined up against Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen & "Big Daddy" Don Garlits.
"There's no question that we had colorful characters," Parks said. "They were part of the foundation, the building of the popularity of drag racing. They developed the show business element of the sport."
By the time Parks left Hot Rod Magazine in '63 to work full time for the NHRA, the sanctioning body had organized in every state across the country. Drag racing fans were attracted to the personable drivers & the exotic cars that had been modified to their powerful essence.
"Being in the pit area is something you can't explain to people & you can't show them on TV," Parks told the Contra Costa Times in '01. "You have to be there & feel the ground shake & see for yourself the magic of these vehicles."
As performances pushed the limits -- w/speeds ticking above 300 mph & topped by Tony Schumacher's 337-mph run at Brainerd (MN) in August '05 -- sponsors signed on & TV networks struck deals.
Today, the NHRA trails only NA$CAR in U.S. racing popularity. It has an established fan base attending races at stadiums w/luxury boxes, its major corporate sponsors include Budweiser & Powerade, & ESPN has a contract to televise its events thru 2011.
"It's still a little awesome to me," Parks told The Times in '01. "None of us had any vision it was going to develop into what it is today. We were trying to create an activity for our particular interest in cars that would be safe & fun."
Parks came to love cars at an early age. Born 1/23/1913, in Goltry (OK), he was 8 years old when his family moved to California, settling in South Gate. At Jordan HS in Watts, his auto shop instructor had 2 Model T roadsters that students stripped down to hot rods as class projects.
After HS, Parks became a test driver at a GM assembly plant. During WW II, plant production was converted to military vehicles, & he tested tanks for the Army. He later served in the Philippines, where he toyed w/a hot-rod Jeep in his free time.
After the war, he returned to work for GM as a road test driver & engineer until '47. He also jumped right back into the hot-rod scene, becoming GM of the SCTA, organizing races & car shows. Then it was on to Hot Rod Magazine & the NHRA, where he was president until '84.
A tall man w/a deep voice & a statesman-like presence, Parks remained on the NHRA BoD as its chairman emeritus until his death. He also was chairman of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, where a 7' statue of him stands at the entrance.
He was drag racing's 1st inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in '92 at Talladega (AL) & the Motorsports Hall of Fame in '93 at Novi (MI).
Within the NHRA itself, Parks was the 1st recipient of the Don Prudhomme Award in '94, given to an individual who made a profound impact on the growth of NHRA drag racing.
In '57, Parks drove his Plymouth Hot Rod Special to a speed record for closed-bodied cars at Daytona Beach during NA$CAR's Speed Weeks. Forty years later, at 83, he drove the same car over the Bonneville Salt Flats & the Rogers & El Mirage dry lakes in SoCal. "I did it just for the fun of it," he said. "And to prove to some folks that I could do it."
The '57 Plymouth was honored too. After being displayed at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum's exhibit saluting Chrysler's early Hemi engine performances, it was put in the NHRA museum that carries Parks' name.
Parks, a longtime resident of Glendale, is survived by 2 sons, Richard & David; 5 grandchildren; & 3 great-grandchildren. His wife, Barbara, a secretary at Hot Rod Magazine & the NHRA, died in January '06.
|
|
