Wally Parks

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The Mission: To research, record and preserve the personal histories of the young people from here in the Fox Valley, the Midwest, who played a vital role in merging land speed racing and hot rodding creating modern drag racing. And simultaneously noting the positive benefits that accrued to the lives and avocations of these young people by the very nature of their activities and labors at the track. Jay Thompson

"Every major historical milestone in hot rodding has Wally Parks' name inscribed on it."

- From Wally Parks Edited by Bill Sessa, The American Hot Rod Foundation that appeared in the July 2006 issue of Hotrod & Restoration

The NHRA plans to transform the hot rod movement from a disorganized, sporadic, rudderless activity into a integrated, regulated and supervised sport.

- Lee Ryan, For the National Hot Rod Association, 1952

Jay:

Wally .. truly the father of the sport ... a class act .. the biggest operation in the business and still is .. Wally retired to AZ about 10 years ago. Moved back to California about 2 years ago after his wife Barbara passed away. Nothing but respect ..

- Bob Doss The Gold Agency

Wally Parks

'A Guiding Light' who casts a long shadow and has for a long time.

The SCTA, NHRA the Bonneville Salt Flats & the "Momentous" day when racing transitioned from the dry-lakes time trials to the side-by-side racing at Great Bend, Kansas in 1955 .

Maybe only Don Garlits has any where near as much impact on drag racing for so many years.

AutoWeek | Published 03/01/07, 3:03 pm et

By Mark Vaughn

If there is someone in the world who does not love Wally Parks, we have never met him, and that person has certainly never met Wally Parks.

The founder of the National Hot Rod Association, first editor of Hot Rod magazine and living icon of motorsports in America turned 94 a few weeks ago, and a few hundred friends dropped by to celebrate. The birthday party was held, appropriately, in the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California, a few quarter-miles away from the NHRA season-opening Winternationals going on that same weekend.

The museum was packed with everyone you've ever heard of in drag racing and hot rodding, as well as a large number of people you haven't heard of but all of whom love Wally Parks.

Carroll Shelby was on hand for the festivities. He and Parks took the stage in nice, comfy chairs and swapped a few stories.

I'm only seated because Carroll was tired, said Parks.

Shelby told some sports car stories and some chicken-farming stories. Parks told a good one that doesn't translate well to the printed page but ends with a waiter saying to Shelby, You've got your foot in the pie.

And then the tributes began. First, Alex Xydias, a hot rod hero in his own right, said, What a dear, dear friend he is. Then drag-racing legend Don The Snake Prudhomme said pretty much the same thing. Frank Hawley, another drag-racing icon, told a story about the time Parks allowed him and his dad into the first Gatornationals even though they didn't have credentials or even tickets. (Frank, I want you to know that I only did it because I liked your mom and your dad, not you, Parks quipped.) Vic Edelbrock Jr. thanked Parks for creating a sport that allowed him and so many others to make a living doing what they loved. And John Force, who normally talks for about a week and a half, said only, Wally, you're the reason that we're all here today.

One of the many things Parks does so well is to give all the credit for anything good to everybody else, and so he said, There's been an awful lot of praise of Wally Parks today, and I'd like you to think of where we'd all be if it was just Wally Parks. There's an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of work.

But then he described how much it pleases me to be with you all here tonight.

And saying that pretty much pleased everyone else, too.

SCTA

Hot Rod Magazine

NHRA

Safety Safari

Official ERA Biography Forms

Available at

Aurora Historical Society's David L. Pierce History Center

Aurora Regional Fire Museum

Little White School House Museum - Oswego

The National Hot Rod Association was founded by Wally Parks in 1951 in the State of California to provide a governing body to organize and promote the sport of drag racing. The first nationwide NHRA sponsored event was held in 1955, in Great Bend, Kansas. (Typical for the era, this race was held on a World War II-constructed training air field.) The "Nationals", held in the summer and the winter each year, are the premier events in drag racing that brings together the best cars and drivers from across North America. The Nationals are now held at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis in Clermont, Indiana and are officially called the U.S. Nationals. Winners of national events are awarded a trophy statue of Wally Parks. The trophy is commonly called by its nickname, “Wally”.

Winston was the title sponsor of the series from 1970 until 2001, before a new governing rule stated the Master Settlement Agreement restricted R. J. Reynolds to one sponsorship of a sporting event; they chose NASCAR. In 2002, The Coca-Cola Company took over sponsorship of the series, which is now known as the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series and has the slogan "Very Real Power."

In 2001, the NHRA brought out NIRA (National Import Racing Association) and renamed it the Sport Compact category featuring such cars, and while Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Subaru are very popular, the NHRA has also permitted General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler cars to participate in Sport Compact.

The series has four main classes, and a series of other sportsman classes for individuals who wish to compete. The classes are Top Fuel Dragster, Top Fuel Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Bike. Top Fuel was the first category, with Funny Cars added in 1966, Pro Stock four years later and Pro Stock Bikes in 1987. Both Top Fuel and Funny Cars regularly see top speeds in excess of 325 mph today, and quarter mile times anywhere from 4.4 to 5 seconds. Both these cars are 85% nitromethane and 15% methanol. The Pro Stock record is close to 210 mph with times often in the 6.6-6.8 second range and the Pro Stock Bikes usually run at 190+ mph with times in the low 7- to high 6-second range.

Some of the popular racers to come through the series include "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and Shirley Muldowney. Those three gained much attention from the 1960s through '70s with their speed and personalities, a combination rarely achieved today through the political correctness of sponsorship in today's drivers. Nonetheless there are still colorful characters today, such as 14-time Funny Car champion John Force.