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RIP, Wally Parks

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Wally Parks 1913-2007

The founder of the NHRA and the person who made drag racing what it is today, has passed away. Wally Parks, founded the NHRA in 1951 and served as the governing president for over 2 decades. His passion for side-by-side racing and his ambition to bring it to a safer, more controlled environment is what led to the formation of the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world.Parks still served on the NHRA Board of Directors, and maintained the The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California at Fairplex in Pomona, Calif.

“Today is a sad day in the world of NHRA and the sport of drag racing. Words simply can’t describe the immeasurable impact Wally has had on the sport he created and the millions of people’s lives he touched along the way. The name Wally Parks is synonymous with drag racing, and his vision and direction will guide NHRA for years to come. Everyone in drag racing, and the industries formed to service the sport, will forever be indebted to Wally, his vision, his focus and his desire to create, build and grow NHRA.” –Tom Compton, president of NHRA.

 

Rest in peace, Wally.

Promo Shoot: Herbie Martin 9/2007

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A garage photo shoot with Orlando based photographer, Herbie Martin.  Joined by fellow Horsepower & Heels teammate, Debbie Denny, Erica Ortiz played up the stark contrast between formal and firesuit.

Check out some of the shots below.

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Case Study in Sleep Deprivation

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I used to balk at all those Hollywood B-list stars who complained about how exhausting their promotional schedules were, and laughed at reported “collapses” and “breakdowns”. I mean really…. how hard is it to sit and have your hair/nails/makeup done for you, be dressed in exclusive garments by Hollywood fashion designers and answer some questions for a camera while smiling? It sounded like quite the life…. until I got a small scale dose of what goes into those magazine cover shoots and the 5 minute TV interviews.

This week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the Hispanic Today television show. The show is produced by the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC). Since my car is still a work-in-progress, and since my partner in crime is in FL, we decided that it would be best to shoot the episode at Dennis’ shop,Excessive Engineering in Orlando, FL.

Being the multi-tasker that I am, I decided to capitalize on the fact that Debbie and I would both be there, and scheduled a photo shoot to get some shots for an upcoming feature in Auto A Fondo magazine and a few other magazine spreads that we are working on. So, I arranged for local Orlando photographer, Herbie Martin to come out and do some shots with us. And for all of this, we’d haveExcessive’s Eddie filming the whole thing for a behind the scenes for our PNN show. Talk about knocking out some birds with one stone!

[View the Photo Gallery]

But, being that I still have no vacation time at my new job, I had to cram all of this excitment in to less than 24 hour window. So I booked a flight from Atlanta ->Orlando: leaving at 6:30am and returning at 9:45pm. Simple enough? Wrong.

I live about 2 hours and 45 minutes from the Atlanta airport, which incidentally, also is an hour ahead in time difference on EST. In order to check-in on time for my 6am flight, I had to leave my house at midnight. I tried to grab a few hours of shut-eye after work, but it didn’t work out so well. So, I make it to the airport, depart at 6am as scheduled, and land in Orlando at 8am, where Dennis came to pick me up. Meanwhile, Debbie was driving down from Jacksonville, and also had not slept (her from anticipation). Looked like we were in for a long day.

At the shop, Debbie proceeds with my makeup. I HATE makeup. Moreso that cakey, gooey, scary looking photo makeup than normal makeup, but still. And given that its Orlando Hot… like 100 degree, hot and sticky humid Hot, its doing more MELTING than staying on my face. The shop isn’t A/C’d, and once the TV crew got there, the fans were shut off for the video/sound aspect. I think I lost about 5 lbs of water weight.

All said, everything went very well. I never imagined that a 5 minute segment would take the better part of 5 hours to record. We wrapped around 6pm, and I had about an hour left over before Robert and Shake dropped me off at the airport. My plane departed at 9:45pm back to Atlanta, and arrived at 11pm.

Tired, I was aching to get back on the road and climb into bed. It had now been almost 48 hours that I had been awake. I finally find my car in the daily parking area at ATL, and hop in to head home. But much to my absolute HORROR, there is a welcoming army awaiting me…. yep, ANTS. TONS of them.

Now, you’re probably thinking… “dummy probably left food in her car.” But that’s just it… there was NOTHING in there for them to be attracted to. Apparently, the trees lining the parking lot are infested, and since I parked under one, they decided to jump ship. I made it about 20 itchy, scratchy, painful miles before I finally had to find somewhere, someway to get my unwelcomed friends out of my ride. They were actually all over the exterior, and crawling in through the door jams. So, I found a high pressure wash, and at midnight proceeded to blast those suckers off my car, out of the wheel wells, and out of every nook and cranny. Then, I sprayed the interior with bug spray, and finally continued home.

Problem is, when you’re that sleep deprived, even the simpliest of trips can become far to complex. There are 3 turns I have to make on my trip home, and somehow I passed and got lost on each one. I was so frazzled by the last turn, I was in tears…. trying to stay awake. I didn’t pull into my driveway until 3:30am. And rolled into bed after showering off the funk from the past 24 hours at 4am. So of course, the alarm at 6am came entirely too soon.

Off to work I went, utterly exhausted. I don’t remember getting there actually, and struggled to stay alert all day. I ran straight through a red light and was almost hit not once, but twice… and learned my very important lesson… sleep isn’t optional.

 

 

Fingers Crossed

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This weekend, my travels will be taking me 7 hours north to Highlands, Illinois. Why? To test fit in a Nitrous Pro Mod that I may have a chance to drive some next season.

Late last year, I received an email from a gentleman asking if I’d be interested in driving an Outlaw Pro Mod. Hmmmm, lemmee think about it..umm..YES! Pro Mods are my passion, and of course I’d love any opportunity to drive one, especially a faster one than mine.

The email came from Dennis Price of TEAM Motorsports, Inc. in St. Louis. He has owned/partnered with several very competitive nitrous Pro Mods in the midwest (Donnie Little’s 68 Camaro, Aaron Hodges ’63 Corvette, John Deflorian’s Corvette, Eric Steffey’s Camaro, etc.) over the years. Of course, I promptly returned his call.

Upon speaking to Dennis, I learned that he was in the process of building a new car, and was looking for a shoe to compete in ADRL Pro Nitrous and various Quick 8 Pro Mod shootouts in 2007. With all of his previous successes, and the talent and experience of his former drivers, I would definitely have some tall shoes to fill. Having spent so much time around Dan Parker/Bill George’s Pro Mod, I learned a lot about Nitrous Pro Mods, so luckily I was not completely lost on the idea. I explained my current experience, my eagerness and willingness to learn and work hard, and my belief that with proper instruction, I could quickly adapt to the differences between a 4.36 second (1/8th mile) turbo pro mod, and the 4.00’s that a nitrous pro mod would be running. Initially, he expected the car to near completion in March, so after some discussion, we agreed to touch bases again after the new year.

Of course, the new year came and went, and with everything happening around that time for me personally, I did not have the chance to follow back up with Dennis until recently. Remembering that I had not seen or heard of any new cars in competition, I sent out an email to Dennis to see how the project was coming and if he’d found his shoe.

Much like my own delays, Dennis responded this week that it had taken a little longer to complete than he expected and that they were now nearing completion. He had still not decided on a driver, and asked me to come up and sit in the car and talk further in person if I was still interested.

So, with that, I am off tomorrow to Illinois to meet Dennis and sit in his new car. He described the car to me as having a House of Kolor tangerine paint job with a white gold flake/white pearl strip. It sounds stunning, I am excited to see it.

Cross your fingers for me! More to follow soon!