The Guy Who Took Drag Racing Off the Streets
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NHRA
The NHRA is the main organization that oversees drag racing in the U.S. They help organize races and ensure safety standards are met.
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hot rodding
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National Hot Rod Association
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What's up everybody? This is Nolan Sykes. Actually, it's Joe Weber. Nolan is out this week because he's in Bonneville doing speed week stuff. And speaking of speed, we are talking about Wally Parks and the genesis of the NHRA. The governing body for all drag race in the US.
This dude is like a super interesting character. Was there from the beginning of hot rotting and tuning. And kind of formed it into this safe thing that we know of today.
It's a really interesting story. I'm so excited for you to hear it. So let's jump into it.
A short 100 miles northish from where the Peterson Automotive Museum sits today, there's a very flat bit of land dubbed Rogers Lake.
Formerly, Murock Dry Lake. And that stretch of salt flat is where a young Wally Parks got his first taste of speed. Or at least the 1933 equivalent of it.
This was truly the Wild West of racing. White Earp had died in bed still wearing his shoes just a few short years before in 1929. And the Great Depression was finally, mercifully, crawling to an end.
It was that sweet spot in history where anything felt possible.
Barrels of whiskey were being delivered to dance halls again. The lone ranger was riding the airwaves and the southernmost point in the US.
Sloppy Joe's open for business giving car enthusiasts a new destination.
Back at the salt bed, Wally crammed into a 1925 Chevy and stomped on the long, thin accelerator pushing it across the flats.
He clocked in at 82.19 miles per hour. More than double while your average 1925 American car could muster.
But Wally wasn't there just to feed his need for speed. He was soaking it all in.
The barely controlled chaos of those time trials unfolded in front of his eyes and he was already blueprinting how to improve it.
He saw the dust, the oil slicks, the burning rubber and thought,
I'm the guy who can make this whole fast car thing a safer way of life.
But how did a young kid from a desolate town in the dry plains of Oklahoma set the standards for drag racing across the entire US?
How did curbside carnage result into his desire to save lives and legitimize an entire sport?
And how did say no to nitro help prove the National Hot Rod Association of all people were serious about safety?
This week on PassGas, Wally Parks and the NHRA!
What's up? Welcome back to PassGas. I am your host, Joe Weber.
With me is Bart Bidlingmire. We meet again, Joe. And Steph Gutierrez.
What up? What up? What up? Thank you guys for joining us.
It's been a minute. Yeah. You've been in the studio here.
It has been a fat man. Actually, I'm glad you noticed that, Bart.
I've missed your energy. Thank you. You missed the LeBubu, I think.
Yeah, the LeBubu. If you really loved it, don't you get a tattoo?
Bart's been on a kick, guys. Let me get a LeBubu tattoo.
So I don't know why you wouldn't get one. You're super ahead of that, right?
You have tattoos, so you're not against the concept, right?
Yeah, I just don't know why not a LeBubu?
I think the concept of having a silly little LeBubu right next to all my hard ass tattoos
is not the move. Okay, that's a good point.
You got some hard ass tattoos. And then I'm not going to fill up this one
because then how am I going to flex in the mirror?
That's what you should do. You should put the LeBubu right there.
Oh, on. And you could make it jump up and down when you do that.
Wait, it's actually a really cool tattoo concept.
I know. If someone else is willing to get it, that'd be amazing.
I just want to see it. I should get one of those like mad magazine
for once. The ones where you fold on my fat folds.
And I'll make, oh, look, it's actually like a woman now.
It's a car. Now it's a woman.
I saw it was a post. I don't know why it got served to me.
But it's a lady got the sun, no, the earth and the moon.
And did them to scale. And when she held her arms out,
it was to scale how far the earth and the moon from each other.
Would that just be two little dots?
No, they're about, they're like that.
That's pretty cool. Like quarter sized.
I mean, that's quite a party trick.
Imagine she's just going out places and doing this.
That is, yeah, it's kind of dorky.
Yeah, I mean, obviously she was a nerd.
Yeah, right? There's space.
And if her arms ever grow, then she's going to have to cover up.
Yeah, don't do Pilates.
Today, we're going to be talking about Wally Parks
and the Genesis of the NHRA,
the National Hot Rod Association.
We've done a couple videos with them on the main channel.
I think the finale of last high-low season
was held at an NHRA event, right?
I think it was our own event.
Yes.
But we did have like NHRA dragsters and stuff there.
Yeah, I think it was, they helped us get that track
and set it up and stuff.
Which is a really nice track.
Yeah, Tucson Speedway, great track.
But I'm not super into drag racing.
This is kind of no one's wheelhouse, no pun intended.
Have you guys ever gone to an NHRA event other than that?
You've done pretty good amount of racing, right?
Since starting with Dona, yeah.
And it's been really late.
But wait, can I?
Yeah.
Actually, YouTube just allowed person there.
Oh, okay.
You can say fart.
It's not your daddy's YouTube.
But yeah, I've been to a few NHRA events.
The one that they have in Pomona, Pomona dragsters.
Yeah.
That one is owned by In-N-Out and is strictly only for NHRA dragsters.
I thought you were going to say it's strictly for people buying burgers.
That's it.
It's just a long drive-thru.
You always drag shit on it.
You have to grab it on your run.
I'll take my protein style.
Oh, my God.
That was the track that Brittany Force beat the record on, I think, last year.
And she just beat it two more times this year.
She hit 341.
341 in like three and a half seconds is nuts.
Yeah.
Funny cars scare the shit out of me.
They're wicked.
Do you guys know anything about Wally Park?
It's called Scary Cars.
Yeah.
It's honestly fun.
Yeah.
Why do they call them funny cars?
Actually, wait.
You want to look at Google?
Yeah.
The endomology of funny cars racing.
Okay.
Google AI is telling me because they have clowns in them.
Damn it.
The term funny car originated in the mid-60s to describe a new type of drag racing that doesn't
help at all.
They were just funny cars.
I guess it's just like the actual like the way it looks on the exterior because it's
just a dropped on like body type.
Yeah.
This is telling me that it just means it refers to the unusual or strange appearance.
The proportions are all weird.
It does look funny, you know?
Yeah.
It just seems a little on the nose and underwhelming.
It's like a funny bone.
That nothing funny about a funny bone.
Should we get into it?
Let's do it.
We all know what funny cars are.
Okay.
Wally Parks was born on January 23rd, 1913 in the dusty farmlands of Goldtree, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma was not exactly okay at the time.
The fertile land was starting to dry out and people were starting to notice, people like
Wally's folks.
So when his family like half the country at the time packed up and chased a dream all
the way to California in the early 20s, a whole new world opened up for this curious
kid.
The speed bug was contagious and the wide open expanse of the Mojave Desert just outside
LA became the perfect playground for anyone itching to push all those new machines to
their limits.
Wally had the natural mechanical genius of a hard-scrable farm boy and it showed.
Scrable is hard.
You guys good at Scrable?
I pride myself.
I don't want to say I'm very good at it.
But I will say.
So humble.
People get mad at me.
I either one that like fills in the gaps and does three words at a time.
Yeah.
That stuff.
I do a lot of my wife hates playing games like that with me because I want to win.
Yeah.
I like taking advantage of the rules.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
It's hardwired.
It's hardwired into me.
I'm sorry.
Ain't no shame.
We're trying to win, Bart.
Yeah.
Bart's out there trying to destroy his loved ones and make sure that he's the king.
I'm aware that it's not a positive trait of mine that I want to beat people at
stupid games.
That should be fun.
Yeah.
I'm aware of that.
Well, that has it.
But I'm so good at them.
I can't not do it.
I can't help that I'm so good.
Yeah.
It's a burden.
It's my cross.
Get mad at mine.
This guy.
Amazing educational background.
It didn't take words.
I like words.
Yeah.
So that's, I think that comes up a lot where you're just like, well, the etymology of
this is blah, blah, blah.
And it was the way that you're saying it is actually the wrong context.
Yeah.
Well, especially now in the kid that, like, kids are learning new words.
Yeah.
He's like, well, what does that mean?
And sometimes I'm like, like, make you give an answer and it'll be like, but it's a
little, you know, yeah, I had something she's like, just shut up.
What does bro, deadass cooked mean?
It didn't take long before Wally was a fixture in the early hot rod scene.
You'd find him perched on the edge of the sun cooked like beds throughout the late 20s
and 30s.
He wasn't just watching.
He was learning.
Wally was writing safety manuals in his mind long before he'd made a name for himself
behind the wheel.
But as anyone very involved in any kind of race scene knows, it wasn't just about speed.
It was about family.
Yeah.
By 1937, he was in tight with the Roadrunner's car club, a crew of like-minded speed junkies
and gear heads who weren't just shown up to set records.
They were one of the earliest groups sharing what they had learned racing and wrenching
to help improve the scene.
I remember we talked about the Roadrunners in the Customs episode, but at that point,
I think they had already been around for a long time if this is like the early 30s.
That's crazy.
You have to figure out everything by yourself for this kind of early engines.
I wonder what they were doing to like, sup them up, mess with the timing.
What could you do on those early, like a model engine?
What do you do with that?
Screw with compression and timing.
Yeah.
It probably had like six to one compression or something like that.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
I can even think that far back.
I can smell that car.
Yeah.
Oh, for sure.
These clubs were the soul of early hot rotting.
They were informal fraternities built on a shared obsession with fixing cars and breaking
limits.
The Roadrunners, along with a few other outfits, joined forces and became a Southern California
timing association, or the SCTA, the predecessor to the NHRA, and Wally was right there on
day one.
This was his first true taste of wrangling all that chaos into some kind of structure
and he liked it.
When World War II came knocking, the GM plant he was working at was forcibly converted
into a tank assembly line, and Wally volunteered to put them through their paces and see how
they could be improved.
Wally got so good at tankery that he became part of the US tank exhibition team that showed
off new products and offerings for the US Army.
That's cool.
That'd be a cool show to go to.
Yeah.
And Uncle Sam liked the cut of Wally's jib so much that they sent him to the South Pacific.
Oh my God.
It seems like punishment.
Yeah.
Great job.
All right.
The middle of nowhere.
The middle of nowhere.
Yeah.
Oh, are you sure I can't just keep building these things?
Look, I really like testing tanks.
Can I just stay in Texas?
But thousands of miles and limited resources wouldn't keep Wally down.
He immediately ripped a V8 from a passenger car and crammed it into a Willis jeep.
That's sick.
That's quite a flex right there.
Yeah.
This was no distress.
That's what.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
This was no doubt the first jeep rod in existence.
And it helped to put Wally on the radar of the Army High Command.
It wasn't long before Wally was driving his jeep rod with wide open exhaust all over the
Philippines doing mechanical troubleshooting for the military.
This combo of hands-on experience, a deep-seated understanding of mechanics, and the natural
urge to organize would become the very foundation of his legendary achievements.
When he landed back in the States, he left GM to focus on building the SCTA full time as
their business manager.
All over the US, the hot rod scene was exploding.
Fueled by GI's returning home with all new mechanical skills earned in the field and
a few bucks in their pocket.
As well as a bit of PTSD-fueled need for dopamine hits that office jobs waiting back in the
States just weren't providing.
That's fair.
Yeah.
That sounds alright.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, imagine we've talked about it before because it's the genesis of so many different
car cultures of like, ah, I'm going to blow my head off if I don't feel adrenaline right
now.
Coming back from war and being shot at and then just having to go back to like the suburbs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm in a build of motorcycle whip some chains around and people.
Oh my God.
You got to be all never played road rash on PC.
I didn't know what your reference was.
Yeah.
Road rash was a great game.
Yeah.
But this boom brought side effects, mainly illegal street racing.
The allure of late night sprints on public roads were too hard to resist but the consequences
were brutal.
From bloody wrecks to innocent bystanders gaining caught up in the carnage, hot rotters were
getting painted as reckless delinquents by big media in the police.
While he could easily see where it was all heading, it was a ticking time bomb that
was threatening to blow up legitimate racing altogether.
Enter Robert Peterson.
Peterson was quiet and unassuming but he had a brain for business.
We talked about him, ah, maybe 80 episodes ago.
He started a hot rod magazine.
He started like a media empire and now he has the museum named after him in LA, coolest
car museum in the world.
We'll be right back after these messages.
All right, y'all gather around because Monet exchanged from sibling rivalry is here
with an announcement.
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Google Gemini.
Melison, the girls over at Google said, Monet, tell the children so I'm telling you, US college
students get Google Gemini's pro plan free for one year.
Use the best model in the world for multi-modal understanding, so whether you're uploading
a video to get feedback on your presentation, uploading a photo of your homework to ask
for help, or transcribing notes from a lecture you missed, Gemini 3 Pro can help.
And baby, if I had this in college, oh, she would have been unstoppable.
Picture it.
Monet exchanged in library, uploading picture of my music theory homework like, Gemini
please to help Adiva out or recording my rehearsal videos for feedback instead of crying
at the practice room for three hours.
This would have been a life-changing.
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Now back to the show.
He knew the passionate and misunderstood subculture of hot rotting needed a voice,
and most of all, that voice had to be positive.
Peterson and Wally hid it off right away.
Wally, ever the pragmatist, told him the SCTA was broke, then came the counter from Peterson.
What if the SCTA and Peterson's Hollywood publicity associates
teamed up for the first ever hot rod show?
It would be a straight up PR stunt to try and alter the image of hot rodders from
greasers with switchplates to marketable greasers.
This changed the switchplates to combs.
Oh, yeah.
Hey, that's a good idea.
Has anyone ever made that before?
Patten it now.
Do you wear a...
Do you put pommet in your hair?
No.
I don't think I...
I think you'd see my scalp if I did.
You'd have that like a...
Yeah, yeah.
You're a great hair.
Steam coming up from...
Oh, my God.
This wasn't just some floodruckers' car show.
The hot rod exposition, which eventually launched in January of 1948
at the Los Angeles Armory, was a hail marry for hot rodders.
Before this, car shows were more like the Pebble Beach concourse delgons
and less like a cars and coffee behind a grocery store.
This exposition was to show off and legitimize the greasy, stripped-down loud machines
built in apartment building parking lots and behind barns.
And it worked like a charm.
It was a massive unexpected hit.
While brainstorming the perfect show, Peterson had another light bulb moment.
A magazine dedicated to this burgeoning culture.
I shouldn't have asked if this was before his magazine.
Yeah. He initially toyed with autocraft, but at the end of the day,
he did the right thing and named it hot rod.
Because autocraft could have been like off-putting to the real hot rodders.
I feel like you're like, I don't want to buy this amazing.
I think it's the difference between like...
Sorry, it's an engineering magazine.
You know what I mean?
Autocraft, which is what I think was prevalent.
But then if you call it hot rod, it's like it's a counter, too.
Yeah.
It's like if you're talking to a Gen Z.
Like a mechanic.
And you were like, uh, this guy sucks instead of being like,
Uncle Deadass hooked for real, you know?
That was so gross.
That was crazy.
That was crazy.
I like the way Joe formed that sentence.
It was kind of like second nature to him at this point.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I've been saying that for weeks now, Uncle.
You're getting the fuck out of using those.
Thanks.
If I didn't pull that off, I'd probably have to unalive myself.
Wally was buried under SCTA duties.
And he couldn't jump into the editor's chair right away.
But he gave his full blessing,
recognizing the sheer potential to champion the hot rod cause.
He was deep down a journalist, even if it didn't show yet.
Richard Parks, Wally's son,
summed up his dad's straight shooting writing style
in an interview decades later.
Quote, there were no wild hot rodders in his mind.
They were innovative and creative people
who loved the car and love speed.
They just needed a place to do it safely.
That was Wally's dream from day one.
That was really a nice way to think.
And then we're like, to him, it really wasn't
like these like greasers all badass and shit, you know?
Yeah, they're just misunderstood.
They just needed a place to unleash themselves.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, and I feel like that's still...
That's so true.
A problem that today's youths run into.
I sound like Gen Z yet.
But it is a really big problem where it's like,
that's why they always say they take it to the track.
Cause I mean, in the streets, there's so many variables
that could very easily go wrong.
And yeah, even if there's no one around,
like you could still mess your car up on a pothole,
you could still do damage.
You could kill yourself.
There's not, you know, like, streets are unregulated.
Mm-hmm.
Drag strip is designed for, you know,
you go someplace where it's designed to race for speed.
Wally saw Hot Rod magazine as his church
where he could preach the gospel of organized safe racing.
I suppose it would be his pulpit, wouldn't it?
Back to my stupid word stuff.
Now, what is that?
God, sorry.
That's a good Scrabble word.
Wally just can't turn it off to Scrabble on the mind.
To the last, I'd say five Scrabble games.
Mm-hmm.
I've gotten five E's, two eyes, nothing to do.
I can't, my luck with Scrabble's so bad.
That is true.
There's a lot of luck involved in what you haven't.
Wally eventually took the editorial reins and under his watch,
the mag became more than just glossy picks of tricked out cars.
It became the definitive voice for the Hot Rod community.
The magazine was pumping out positive vibes
and most importantly pushing for legitimate racing venues
off of the public streets where people were getting hurt.
He used the pages of Hot Rod to illustrate
just how dangerous street racing was for the racers
and the innocent bystanders,
laying out the future of drag racing piece-by-piece
with each new issue.
Wally wasn't just pumping out articles.
He was growing an important movement.
He traveled between popular race tracks
and time trial spots,
so he could connect with racers,
track organizers, and enthusiasts.
He was like Johnny Apples doing traveling in the country,
planning the seeds that would become the trees
that he could use to build his empire of legitimate racing on that.
Matter 4 is two copies.
Wally, that was a lot of legwork to get that one to work.
No, don't you see the seeds are like tires.
Any tires to go fast.
And then the apples that fall off that don't get harvested,
don't get too much juice like gas.
His past is a metaphor.
Yeah, it is a really good metaphor.
It's perfect.
I mean, we could understand it.
Yeah.
Well, it's your favorite apple stuff.
My favorite apple.
Let me tell you something.
What's the, I love you really like the green ones.
I don't think apples are like that.
Yeah, Granny Smiths.
Yeah, I'll mess them up.
Those are the best for baking because they stay tart
and they maintain their constitution.
Yeah, I like that.
What's your favorite apple?
You know, for just snacking, I'd say,
honey crisp or cosmic crisp.
For baking, I'd definitely
Granny Smith.
I make a mean tartata.
Bring it here.
Okay, move it.
Prove it, Joe.
Call me Johnny Apple Speed.
His passion was infectious and he started to gather a devoted
following of people who believed in his business.
It's American.
It's tart tartine.
Wally's writing in hot rod wasn't just informational.
It was persuasive.
He took his readers to school as he broke down technical ideas
and laid out all the nuts and bolts.
It's good enough.
The nuts and bolts are the apples.
What do we do?
The nuts and bolts are like seeds.
Are we off to it?
And you need those to grow more apple speeds.
No, I get it.
No, I get it.
Going fast was great, he preached,
but doing it safely was paramount.
He ran stories on organized races,
profiles of responsible racers
and deep dives in a safety gear in techniques
while carefully positioning advertisers
and keeping them happy.
Wally was also fighting a battle of limitations
inside the SCTA.
While the SCTA was pivotal for early hot rotting,
its focus was squarely on land speed records
out on those dry lakes.
It simply wasn't ready for the explosion of drag racing,
which was popping up on airstrips
and purpose-built tracks all over the US.
Wally saw the need for a new organization,
one that was custom-built for the unique challenges
and opportunities of drag racing.
He envisioned a body that would set standards
in forced safety regulations
and build a new national stage for the sport.
I'm envisioning a body right now.
God, I feel naked.
His time at Hot Rod magazine,
his intimate knowledge of the Hot Rod community
and his growing frustration
with a lack of effective drag racing organizations,
all that converged to plant the seed
for his most enduring legacy.
Oh, good. Another seed.
And that seed was the National Hot Rod Association.
So he's so effectively what's happening
is he's saying everybody you guys should all race,
do it effectively and safely,
and all these little organizations popped up
and he's kind of like, oh shit, what have I done?
They're all doing it differently.
Yeah. And so now he's got to take the reins.
And the SETA was kind of behind on like they,
and he wasn't, he was a member of it,
but not in charge of it.
And that's why I was getting frustrated.
And on a dry lake bed,
like you're not going to crash into people,
you're not going to crash into the stands and stuff,
it's a totally different beast
than like what was becoming popular.
And he saw the need for like a governing organization.
That's a fair thought.
If you know car people,
you know they don't like regulations,
they don't like being told what to do.
So like it's a thin line to tread.
And that's what he found out.
The late 1940s and early 1950s were an exciting time
for American motor sports to say the least.
The postwar boom brought faster and faster cars.
Sadly with more speed came more carnage,
especially for those on the sidelines.
Street racing was rampant and becoming increasingly dangerous
and sadly more fatal.
Public outcry hit a fever pitch
and an alternative was needed.
Wally saw this as a golden opportunity.
He believed that hot riding could be reframed
as a legitimate sport full of clear rules,
organized and ticketed events,
and most crucially safety.
He knew that some of the existing organizations
were a good start,
but they all had a long way to go.
The SCTA was great for dry lake runs,
but drag racing needed its own champion.
And so in 1951,
Wally started the National Hot Rod Association.
This wasn't a glitzy corporate launch.
This was a grassroots explosion
fueled by Wally's sheer willpower
and the support of a crew of followers.
The initial mission statement for the NHRA
was straightforward and simple.
Quote, to establish rules and regulations
for drag racing and to promote safety,
dedicated to safety wasn't just some catchy slogan
plastered on a banner.
It was the guiding light of the NHRA,
a principal Wally would champion relentlessly
for the rest of his life.
We'll be right back after these messages.
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Now back to the show.
The early days of the NHRA were chaotic.
Wally was a jack of all trades working tirelessly.
He glad-handed his way across the country
smiling alongside racers, track owners,
and local officials spreading the gospel.
He immediately faced resistance, though.
Old school hot rotters were unsure
about the stack of regulations
Wally wanted to drop in their lap.
They saw it as an affront to their personal freedoms
as we still see nowadays.
Like any kind of change in rules for racing
or like EPA regulations, people are like,
look for freedoms when states made
driving and drinking.
Yes.
I was just thinking about that as well.
Yeah. I've seen those videos of those
interviews. Yeah.
Like, what am I not supposed to have a beer
on my way home from work?
Yeah. Well, yeah, you're not supposed to have a beer.
People freaked out when it went down to
a 55-miner speed limit to the gas crisis.
And I remember they, in Wisconsin at least,
I remember hearing that they like,
where the government was going to withhold
funds for highways and roads
unless they changed it.
I know there was like tons of resistance for that.
I'd be pissed too.
Yeah.
But it's, I think it was for 55
within like metropolitan areas.
So like, it's easy to get out.
The 55 thing was a big government push
because-
For gas money was, yeah.
And we were in the gas crisis.
Wait. So they went down. So they was, oh.
Yeah.
Okay. So in the city areas,
these fools were driving like 60.
If not more.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I thought other states drove slower than us.
It's a lot different now.
Yeah.
It used to be for that reason.
The speed limit was 55 and then it kind of got loosened.
Yeah.
I do remember doing like,
you know, old wheelhouse I was doing research.
I think the average for most cars,
45 is the most fuel efficient.
Speed.
Like anything after that,
the wind resistance is too much
that you're actually like using more gas
to just push through the air.
But like, no one wants to drive 45.
That's boring.
Don't tell me how to drive on my way from work
after a long day.
Yeah.
With my beer.
Yeah.
With my beer.
My road's pretty.
My road, sody.
The, uh, I came back.
This is, I came back from Las Vegas.
And it's, oh, it's such a frustrating trip
because you're just constantly passing people
on their right.
Because no one, it's such a long drive
that it just keeps getting worse in my head
where it's like, I don't think I could physically
get past on my right and stay in the left.
Like, I don't think I can do it.
I don't understand how anyone else does.
Any, it's a frustrating drive.
I don't know if you guys have been seeing these, like,
the Sony car is coming out the Afeela.
Okay.
They're, they're marketing it now as like,
it's got an LED screen
that you can put messages on the front.
Oh, my goodness.
And in the ad that I saw,
it was like, uh, this guy put his,
it was like, it's her birthday,
a clap for her or something.
And all these bystanders were like, walking past.
That's so wack.
Oh, I know.
I would use that for malice.
Well, you know, 99.9% of the time,
if people use that, it's going to be like,
get the fuck out of the way.
You're like, yeah.
I would love that.
We need, I would,
that'd be really, really fun to have around.
Yes.
I don't think we need more distractions
on the outside of our cars.
People are already on their phones.
Crosses.
Only some individuals can own them.
That's what that is.
You have to have like a, uh,
no speeding tickets or.
Yeah, you have to, uh,
pretty decent record.
I don't want to say perfect,
but yeah, it's perfect.
I've, I, I, I have thought about like having,
whenever I drive like my manual cars,
everyone without fail is like a foot away
from my bumper on a hill.
And I'm like, I want to be like,
move the back.
Like sometimes I like roll my, down my window.
I'm like, go back.
But they don't ever look at me.
Like, um,
anyways, I should just get better at driving manual.
Well, you should just use them to push you forward.
And then you don't have to worry.
A little love tap ain't ever heard nobody.
Yeah, that's true.
Should we get back to Wally?
Yeah, please.
So these hot rotters are getting kind of fed up with
all the regulations.
Don't, the man is keeping you down.
But Wally was a master debater and quite persuasive.
Wally knew how to sell his vision
in a way that made people feel empowered
more than put upon.
Wally had his elevator pitch about
how safety would improve the sport,
not limit it because racers
and innocent bystanders would
live to enjoy the spectacle.
That's true. You can't kill your audience.
That's true.
That's bad business, bad business returns if you keep doing that.
One of the NHRA's first tasks
was hammering out consistent rules and classifications.
Back in the day,
drag racing was a chaotic free-for-all
from track to track.
Wally spearheaded the effort to develop
a comprehensive rulebook
working with racers and experts
to craft a system that was fair,
safe and easily understood.
This rulebook became the drag Bible,
providing a desperately needed framework for the sport.
As far as rules go,
it's comprehensive
as an understatement.
Oh, yeah.
It's crazy.
I mean, now it's like
my line by my line.
I've never read it.
Can you tell?
But rules are moot without enforcement.
Wally knew that.
He established a rigorous system of technical inspections
and safety checks,
ensuring that cars were built
and maintained to the highest standards.
He also emphasized track safety,
working with the owners to upgrade facilities
and implement crucial safety measures
like catch nets and advanced
fire suppression systems.
His dedication to safety was absolute
un-negotiable,
and he wasn't afraid to make tough calls
even if they were unpopular.
One of the first times Wally had to put
his rule marker status to the test
was on March 1, 1957.
Wally was setting track records
in a 1957 Plymouth in Daytona,
but back in California,
the cook and bedwell dragster
driven by Emory Cook
set three new records in its first three runs.
First, Cook bested the track
elapsed time record.
Then in his second run,
he tied for track speed record.
And on his third run,
he beat the world record
which was set by Bobby Alcens
in Kenny Lindley's
Miss Fire 2.
That's a cool name.
Miss Fire 2.
At the NHRA Nationals
in Kansas City the year before.
Track officials and everyone else watching
were stunned that this car blew
through all the records held at the track
and beat the world record.
When they found out the dragster
was running Nitro,
C.J. Hart, the owner of the Santa Anna Strip,
put his foot down and banned the gas,
citing the short stopping links
at the SoCal strips.
He wasn't a hater to me.
He helped.
I mean, as an owner,
like if you had a house party,
you don't want anyone dying there.
They don't have a house party.
You know, they're really
still having a house party.
You just have to take away the ever clear.
I want to go to some of your parties,
because they sound wild.
You don't want anybody to die.
You don't want anybody to die.
Don't have a house party.
You know how house parties go.
No, that's not how they go.
They're not supposed to go like that.
Now imagine that you own the house
and your livelihood is having these parties.
Oh.
So you don't want people bringing in crazy shit
and possibly dying,
because that means you're going to lose your house
and lose your business.
Right?
Does something like a
grabber right now?
But it's funny.
No, I just thought,
have we threw you telling me that?
I just thought it was so funny
that you're explaining this to me.
You're thinking,
damn,
I'm waiting to see it with my arm.
I just raised my arm right now.
I know.
He wasn't worried about world records
or upsetting other racers.
Heart was concerned about insurance premiums
and drag racers splatting themselves
against the end of the quarter of a mile.
Wally returned from Daytona
and found himself neck deep in a
gold-fashioned feud between racers
eager to go faster
and everyone else who wanted it safer.
Racers were on a tizzy,
but Wally said no way and stood his ground
and putting health and safety over
going a bit faster shine to light
on the entire NHRA
and legitimize them in the public's eye.
So good overall.
You got to be the dad once in a while.
You'll be like,
that's maybe a little bit too much
for the limitations of the track.
Let's just keep it to race gas.
Yeah, that's not so horrible, is it?
Isn't it?
But I'm going to go to the other Unk's party
and maybe someone might die there.
It's going to be...
Unk is cooking over there.
Over there? Yes.
Let him cook.
I'm so aware of how old I'm getting
and you know, I'm just trying to relate to
the bull.
You're doing a good job at it.
I'm telling you, Joe, you could be let out
on the streets like Joe, you're dead ass killing it.
Oh, thanks.
Thanks, Unk.
We can't catch other Unk.
We can't call each other Unk.
Why not?
That would have to imply
that you see him as your Unk.
What's wrong with that?
Well, Unk.
If my mom...
If my...
I am not Unk.
If my sister gave birth to him
and his sister gave birth to me,
then we would both be Unk's to each other, right?
Is that possible?
I mean, that situation is possible
but I don't think we're each other's uncles.
Chat, let us know if you can be your friend's uncle.
Wally's personal touch was woven
into every part of the NHRA.
He wasn't a being counter
or an uninterested boss.
He was a constant, visible present at races,
chatting with racers,
listening to their gripes,
offering his own words of wisdom.
He genuinely cared about the people
who made the sport work
and they respected him back.
Quote, he knew everyone,
his son said later after Wally passed.
He remembered their names,
their cars, their families.
He made everyone feel important.
I think that's super important for
especially a small business
to remember everyone.
It's like a personal touch.
You want to feel that homey feeling, you know?
Yeah, especially with being a track.
Because you're going to be there a lot
if you're really doing this, you know?
Yeah.
Garner's goodwill.
So like you're saying,
everybody's like,
there's s*** in there.
These rules suck.
Well, and then it's like,
yeah, but I know him.
He means well.
Yes, that's the whole thing is like,
he's not behind the desk somewhere
out of state.
Like he's on the ground, talking to everyone.
He's kind of franchising all these communities
into one thing.
Yeah, he's literally just trying his best guys.
Yeah, I can't blame him.
This personal connection was the secret sauce,
building the NHRI into a unified powerhouse organization.
Wally fostered a genuine sense of community.
That feeling that everyone was pointing toward a shared goal.
He crafted an environment where racers felt heard,
felt valued,
and where safety was a collective pact.
His influence grew beyond the strip.
Wally became a revered voice
in the broader Motorsports world,
advocating for safety and legitimacy across all disciplines.
He sat on committees, served on boards,
and dished out his expertise and passion
to drivers who went beyond the straight line.
He was a tireless champion for the radical idea
that Motorsports could be both thrilling and safe.
The NHRI under Wally's unwavering leadership kept growing and evolving.
The safety safari launched in 1954.
A traveling roadshow that hauled NHRI officials
and safety experts to tracks all over the US.
This directly helped to get new drag strips off the ground
with a set of pre-cooked safety practices.
It was a brilliant grassroots stroke of genius
that brought marketing and education together
to solidify the NHRI's national footprint
and its fierce commitment to helping the sports grow safely.
The very first NHRI national event,
the Nationals, went down in great Ben Kansas in 1955.
This was a landmark moment,
planting the flag for a premier event
that would become a cornerstone of the NHRI's schedule,
a showcase for the absolute best of the best.
The first NHRI national championship drags meet set the bar high.
It was dubbed America's first acceleration championship.
The event honored drivers in their records
as well as tested out kilometer runs on concrete.
Even the worst storm in 30 years
couldn't keep the NHRI crew from parting hard and going fast.
Richard parks often wax his poetic
about his father's relentless work ethic
and his unyielding dedication to the NHRI.
Quote, he lived and breathed the NHRI.
Richard says it wasn't just a job.
It was his life's mission.
This level of personal investment,
this sole deep commitment is what set Wally apart
and what allowed him to build an organization
that has not just survived but thrived over 70 years.
Wally's personal life, though often inextricably entwined
with his work, also shaped his worldview.
His burning desire to make racing safe
wasn't just a professional checkbox.
It was a deeply personal crusade.
He wanted future generations of racers
maybe even his own grandkids
to taste the thrill of speed without risking it all
by living one quarter a mile at a time.
This personal motivation added an extra layer of passion
and almost desperate urgency to his safety mission.
As the NHRI grew, it spawned its own traditions,
none as incredible as the Wally trophy,
handed to the big winners at NHRI national events.
Affectionately named in his honor,
the Wally is more than just metal.
The award is an ultimate badge of honor for drag racers.
Its very existence is a direct,
chrome plated annual shout out to Wally Parks
and his foundational world shaping role in the sport.
Wally eventually stepped down from the NHRI in 1984
but is bond with the sport he formed never loosened.
He remained a guiding star, dispensing wisdom
and perspective like a seasoned sage.
He was a driving force behind the NHRI
Motor Sports Museum in Pomona, California,
a temple dedicated to preserving the epic history
of drag racing and celebrating the trail basers
who carved its path.
The museum stands as another towering monument
to his commitment to the sport's heritage
and its unwavering desire to educate future generations
about its roots.
Even in his golden years,
Wally was a familiar, beloved,
facet NHRI events.
He was still there mixing it up with racers and fans,
his passion undimmed,
burning as brightly as ever.
Wally passed away on September 28th, 2007
at the age of 94 due to pneumonia.
Wally Parks is more than just a guy
who founded the NHRI.
He was the conscience of drag racing.
He took a chaotic,
dangerous subculture of backyard tinkerers
and transformed it into a legitimate,
respected, thunderous sport.
His relentless, uncompromising commitment
to safety saved countless lives,
making it possible for generations of gear heads
to chase the thrills speed
in a controlled environment.
And we thank him for that.
Thank you, Wally Parks.
Because you haven't been in an NHRI event,
go.
Because they're nuts.
It is life changing.
It is life changing until you're there here.
It's, yeah, it's one thing to see it on ESPN, the Ocho,
but to see it in real life
and breathe the fumes and cover your ears.
Yeah, oh my gosh.
You feel that rumble in your soul.
Yeah.
And just the technical aspect behind it,
the fact that they like rebuild an engine
between runs is insane.
I also think you,
you could never have gotten to that point
if it wasn't for Wally's rules and regulations
and starting it.
Because you'd never be able to keep pushing
in a controlled environment.
You'd be doing it somewhere else.
And, yeah.
And who's to say like how many lives he's saved
just by creating a rulebook
and creating these technical inspections?
Like it's just the fact that people are like
building their own cars at home
and not thinking about safety,
they're going to get checked at these events
and they can't race because of it.
But maybe they go home and like they close stuff
and bring it back.
Right.
And the things that are rules in NHRA,
some of it is, well, if I want to do this,
this is the rule I might as well put,
you know, this shut off in the trunk.
Yeah.
But it also is now your car's safer, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, I think, you know,
his rules were super, super needed
and we are where we're at with racing now,
which is honestly amazing.
Yeah.
I love our modern day, like NHRA events and stuff.
With rules and regulations,
I feel like you also set the bar a lot higher.
And you get, that's now, that's why there are classes.
And that's why it makes it almost even more remarkable
that you could do what you're doing
with the known restrictions that everyone is under.
Yeah.
They're also documenting like the records
and setting that kind of bar
and maintaining the records for it.
So I think that's cool.
I love a good record keeper, you know?
That's our show.
Thank you so much, Steph, for joining us this week,
and they get a bar.
Absolutely.
Where can people find you on Instagram?
At Radical Unscore stuff.
Go for her and Bids at Bardo.
Bids at Bardo.
At Bids Bardo.
And I'm Joji Weber, follow us on Instagram, follow.
Doing a podcast on Instagram.
Like and subscribe.
And we'll see you next week.
Thank you.
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About this episode
Wally Parks, a pivotal figure in American drag racing, transformed the chaotic world of street racing into a legitimate sport by founding the NHRA. The episode dives into his early life, the birth of the NHRA, and his relentless pursuit of safety in racing. Through engaging anecdotes, the hosts explore how Parks advocated for organized events, created a comprehensive rulebook, and fostered a sense of community among racers. His legacy continues to influence motorsports today, making the episode a fascinating look at the evolution of drag racing.
Original notes
Get After It! Enter for a Chance to Win a Custom Car Co-Built by Donut and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. All brought to you by NOS Energy. For more details visit: https://bit.ly/3Jb9w2LThanks to Allstate for sponsoring today’s episode! Click here [https://bit.ly/4kk8WwW] to check Allstate first and see how much you could save on car insurance.Also thanks to Hankook for sponsoring today's video! Click here [https://bit.ly/44p5YAF] to learn more about Dynapro tires!This week on Past Gas, we’re talking about the man who took drag racing from outlaw chaos to legit sport: Wally Parks. In the ’40s, hot rodders were crashing on city streets and scaring the hell out of cops and civilians. Parks had a crazy idea — make racing safer, organized, and bigger than ever. From Hot Rod Magazine to founding the NHRA, Parks didn’t just save drag racing — he gave it a future.
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