NHRA FOUNDER DIES..........Wally Parks

**LS2Tuner** · 09-30-2007, 11:31 PM

A huge loss for the world of drag racing!!!! Wally will be greatly missed and never forgotten!!!
DRAG RACING BY NO MEANS WOULD BE WHAT IT IS TODAY IF IT WASN'T FOR WALLY!!
I first meant Wally when I was 12 at the US Nationals and he was a very down to earth guy. He would make the time for ANY kid he meant at the track knowing they were the future of his NHRA.........Once again my words can not even begin to state the loss we have encountered........

Wallace Gordon ("Wally") Parks (January 23, 1913 – September 28, 2007) is widely known as the Father of Drag Racing. He was the Founder, President, and the Chairman of the Board of the National Hot Rod Association, or better known by the acronym NHRA. Mr. Parks was also an accomplished automobile writer and hobbyist, and co-founder and first editor of the magazine Hot Rod in the late 1940s. He was also instrumental in the founding of Motor Trend magazine in 1948. As editor of Hot Rod, he began to promote safety in the organization of drag racing, both in the magazine and by organizing "safety safaris," which taught drag racing organization and safety at several tracks around the country. This was the first concerted effort in getting racers off the streets and into controlled race tracks.

In 1951, he founded the National Hot Rod Association, the largest drag racing sanctioning body, and became its head for several decades after leaving the magazine business. His wife, Barbara, who preceded him in death in 2006, worked for the NHRA as its Chief Secretary in its formative years.

Prior to his death, he was Chairman of the Board of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California.

Winners of National Hot Rod Association national events are awarded a trophy statue nicknamed the "Wally."

---WALLY AND A YOUNG VIC EDELBROCK