"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man" Ralph Waldo Emerson

There seems to be a right time & a right place for almost everything. Yet, some ideas might never have seen the light of day without someone to see them to fruition. Someone to make it work. We often say those people who make ideas realities are committed to a purpose, idealistic, and visionaries. Wally Parks was such a person.

He was a competitor on the dry lakes of southern California, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Pikes Peak, & Daytona Beach. He helped organize the SCTA, and was the editor of Hot Rod Magazine after suggesting it's creation to the late Robert E. Peterson. It was on the pages of that magazine that he launched the idea of a national organization to govern the activities of hot rodders nationwide. Thus the NHRA was born in 1951, and became the guiding hand that formed the sport of legitimate organized drag racing. The NHRA worked in tandem with car clubs across the country to organize races and drag strips, and adopted the motto "dedicated to safety". Law enforcement agencies embraced the new organization, and an epidemic of dangerous street racing activities was soon seriously curtailed in most communities. As the NHRA grew, an entire industry of speed equipment and aftermarket automotive parts was made viable and flourished in response to the passion for high performance. Detroit auto makers took notice of the NHRA, and responded with a whole new class of automobiles that were affectionately called "muscle cars". In short, everything that we take for granted as part of "our" current car culture is inexorably linked to the pioneering efforts of Wally Parks.

Obviously, there were many other significant players in the development of this "thing" that I refer to as our "car culture". Ingenious people who raised the bar a bit higher with each new idea. Sadly, a lot of these people have left this mortal coil as of late, but many of them are still around, still innovating. But the fact is that Wally Parks' ideas gave it all a way to endure, and gave everyone else a way to grab the brass ring. This is why I've always felt that however specialized your automotive passions may be, you cannot deny the link to drag racing and hot rodding as the foundation that makes it possible for you to enjoy the experience as you do. Even if your thing is driving to the local car show and power parking for a dash plaque while resting in your fold-up chair, you owe Wally a nod as the guy that got the whole thing rolling.

I can't say I ever meet Mr. Parks and engaged in a personal conversation, but I do vividly recall witnessing him serve as a spokesperson for us all on one occasion. I had somehow managed to acquire press credentials (long story) at the first ever NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. A tall man wearing white pants and a mustard colored blazer bounded out of the tower suites and took a position at track side for a television interview which was to be a segment on an Autoweek magazine TV program. It was Wally Parks, and he was standing about three feet from me. He had top fuel racer Eddie Hill at his side. This was soon after Hill had become the first man to travel a drag strip in less than 5 seconds, and I suspect the focus of the story was on this accomplishment, but I was dumbfounded to see the founder of the NHRA in my hometown, and standing in my line of sight. There was a buzz of something important happening when he appeared, and it felt somehow historically significant to my gearhead mind. Seeing Parks was akin to seeing the President of United States show up at the drags on that particular afternoon, and his presence lent instant credibility to the notion that this then new race in Memphis was a major big deal. As my interest in historical hot rodding has grown over the years, I regret not getting a chance to talk to this man about the start of it all, and the current state of what it's all become. I'm also saddened to know that this direct link to the beginning is gone, and that we've lost someone who truly cared about our pastime.

Wally Parks was the NHRA. He ran the organization for decades as a father figure and never stepped totally out of the picture even after retirement. The NHRA has been a very successful shepherd of competition based hot rodding and is on solid ground to see it well into the future. Let's hope the vision is never lost with the current caretakers of the sanctioning body. Sometimes, it's best to remember where you came from, so that you can know where you're going.

LK