Wally Parks

Wallace Gordon "Wally" Parks was the founder, president, and chairman of the National Hot Rod Association, better known as NHRA. He was instrumental in establishing drag racing as a legitimate amateur and professional motorsport.

Parks was 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," the first of which toured the United States in 1954, teaching drag race organization and safety at tracks around the country. This was the first concerted effort in getting racers off the streets and onto controlled race tracks.

Subject ID: 31735

More

Wallace Gordon "Wally" Parks was the founder, president, and chairman of the National Hot Rod Association, better known as NHRA. He was instrumental in establishing drag racing as a legitimate amateur and professional motorsport.

Parks was 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," the first of which toured the United States in 1954, teaching drag race organization and safety at tracks around the country. This was the first concerted effort in getting racers off the streets and onto controlled race tracks.

In 1951, he founded the National Hot Rod Association, which stands today as the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world, and became its president 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.

Subject ID: 31735

Less