WALLY PARKS
He helped‘ create order from chaos,’ whichis what drag racing needed
Even though he was from
a small town, Wally Parks meant speed. In a straight line.
But even if you wanted to try drag racing in Goltry, Okla., the folks there would tell you it’s probably impossible to go much faster than the speed limit through this town of about 250 people (give or take).
Finding that necessary straight line is the problem, plain and simple. The way that old State Road 45 does that hard right onto Main Street when you approach town — some folks call it a “coat hanger” right turn — the old road just isn’t conducive to doing more than about 35 mph
The “coat-hanger” turn. That’s about as exciting as Goltry gets. Perhaps ironically, Wally Parks — the founder of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), the governing body of drag racing — was born there.
“Sure. He’s the father of drag racing,” says one man at a table inside a cafe on Main Street in Goltry. “Nothing else needs to be said.”
Except that over the years, his foresight and determination helped turn reckless recreation into legalized sport. Today, drag racing is one of the largest participant forms of motorsports in North America.
“No one could have conceived what has happened,” Parks once said of the NHRA’s growth and success. “We weren’t planning or marketing geniuses or anything like that. Things happened and we went with our instincts.”
What has happened to sanctioned drag racing — TV
deals, major sponsorships and big money — can be credited to Parks. His blood has always boiled for racing.
After moving to California from Goltry as a kid, Parks began racing fenderless Model T and Model A roadsters in high school and then modified and raced his own Chevrolet while working at a General Motors assembly plant. When World War II began, Parks also did a stint as a military tank test driver and served in the South Pacific.
When he returned to the United States, Parks helped organize the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), a sanctioning body for speed trials on California’s dry lake beds.
Parks had a vision for drag racing and began putting together the first hot-rod shows for owners to display their machines.
In 1949, he also helped organize the first SCTA “Speed Week,” where participants raced for the first time against a stop watch at the Bonneville, Utah, Salt Flats. That popularity spread to the Santa Ana Drags on an airfield in Southern California in 1950, drawing hot-rodders from all around.
But the turning point came with the help of another lakes racer, Robert E. Peterson, when Peterson and Parks formed a publication in 1951 called Hot Rod Magazine. Parks finally had a forum to “create order from chaos,” as he once said. It was exactly what the hobby needed.
Hot-rodding had been a taboo subject in the 1940s and ’50s. Teenagers usually raced on public roads and Parks was determined to change the image through standard quarter-mile-length races from a standing start between cars in the same class.
That year the NHRA was born and drag racing began to flourish. Within a decade, the NHRA was organized in every state and had moved overseas.
A tall man with a deep voice, Parks continued driving up until the 1960s, but spent more time growing the sport in new markets and through new methods.
He left the publishing business in 1963 to take over the NHRA operation full time and was named to numerous racing bodies.
Today, drag racing has grown to include tracks from New York to California. Many of them are multi-million dollar facilities built to handle 100,000 spectators and more than 1,000 entries. The NHRA is the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world with about 80,000 members, 35,000 competitors and 4,000 yearly racing events.
Almost until his death in 2007, Parks could still be found at certain NHRA events and even occasionally drove. A few years before, he even drove a rebuilt 1957 Plymouth to celebrate a Hot Rod Magazine special edition.
“Just for the fun of it,” Parks said at the time, flashing his ever-present warm grin.
Something says a small part of Oklahoma smiled a bit that day, too.
Steven Reive is a feature writer with Wheelbase Media. He can be reached on theWeb at www.theoctanelounge. comby using the contact link. Wheelbase supplies automotive news and features to newspapers across North America.