We can't think of anybody who has contributed as much to hot rodding as Wally Parks, who passed away on Friday, September 28.
He is probably best known for the establishment of the National Hot Rod Association. Drag racing was just taking off as an organized sport when the NHRA was established in 1951. The organization quickly became its prominent sanctioning body, helping to solidify race classes and rules, building dragstrips around the US, and sponsoring local and national races. Today, Wally Parks' name is associated with drag racing in many ways, from the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California, to national event trophies, which for years have been informally called "the Wally." Even so, his contributions to hot rodding extend much further.
Wallace Gordon Parks was born 94 years ago in Goltry, Oklahoma. His family moved to South Gate, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, in 1921. When teenage Wally started building stripped-down Model Ts, the term "hot rod" didn't exist, but that's what his cars were. He drove them on the street and raced them on the desert dry lakes. In 1937, Wally and Ak Miller helped form the Road Runners, which joined with other local car clubs to establish the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) later that year.
Wally was working as a test driver for General Motors when the United States entered World War II. Even while serving in the Philippines, he stuffed a V-8 engine into his Jeep. After the war, he returned to his job at GM, and to increased involvement with the SCTA, becoming the General Manager in 1947. That same year, he worked with Robert Petersen and Bob Lindsay on the creation of Hot Rod magazine, and soon became the editor. In 1949, he was leading the move to open up the Bonneville Salt Flats for speed trials. Wally left the Petersen Publishing Company in 1963 to become the President of the NHRA. He held that position until 1984, but continued to be involved on the NHRA board of directors.
Hot rodding exists today, and will continue to exist, due in large part to the contributions of Wally Parks.