If he were still alive, Wally Parks would have celebrated his centennial birthday this January 23. Motorsports in America owes much of its popularity to Parks, a journalist and longtime Ford hot-rodder and racer, who founded the National Hot Rod Association, still the largest racing organization on the globe, and was an editing founder of Motor Trend.
Parks worked with law enforcement agencies to sanction his work in order to make motorsports a legal, safe activity that could be enjoyed by young and old alike. In addition to his role at Motor Trend, Parks oversaw Hot Rod magazine for many years.
Tags: Drag Racing
About the author: Andrew Greene
Now playing the role of grumpy old man in the foothills of Northern California’s Gold Country, Andrew has had a life-long love affair with vehicles of all sorts, from the bicycle he pedaled across the continent in 1991 to the armored personnel carriers he drove in the Army to the bamboo rafts, elephants, motorcycle taxis, ferries and buses he traveled by during the 13 years he lived and worked in South East Asia. Always eager to learn more about how the people of the world get from here to there in their day-today lives, he, a professional journalist, has been covering the vehicle industry for years.
