Prior to being the man whose name became tied to statues won by the hardest of the hard-charging drag racers in the world, prior to his titular role as the founder of the NHRA, and prior to leading two of the world’s most recognizable automotive magazines that fueled the fires of this hobby that we all enjoy, Wallace G. Parks was a simple hot-rodder who had a knack for organization. He grew up during the time when guys who built, tuned and raced old Model Ts and whatever else they could get their hands on were considered on-par with low criminals and gang members…there was a strong push against hot-rodding in any of it’s forms by interest groups, police and safety minders who viewed these hoodlums with a very dim view. But Parks made the move to approach the police, to gather up racers who were running illegal street drags all over the area surrounding Los Angeles, and the rest is history.

But something that isn’t well known about Parks is his military service. When World War II broke out in the Pacific Theatre, Parks, who at the time was a test driver for Chevrolet turned tank-tester when automobile production shut down, got snapped up by the Army and found himself shipped out to the Philippines. At some point during his service out in the Pacific, then Sgt. Parks managed to get his hands on a Jeep and a flathead Ford V8 from a Japanese vehicle and paired the two off. Yep, far as anybody can truly pin down, Parks is the creator of the first Jeep rod. The vehicle, named “Sigue Na” (best we can translate it is something like “follow me” or “follow on”), garnered a reputation for being one of the fastest vehicles in theatre and got Parks a gig as an on-call troubleshooter for vehicles throughout the Philippines.

Once the war ended and Parks got back to California, the real fun began: his work with the SCTA, his partnership with Robert Petersen, and his work forming the NHRA laid the bedrock for where we are at today with several diciplines of motorsport and the media that covers it. It’s not surprising that the little flathead Jeep isn’t better known…it’s amazing that there is even a picture of it…but as someone who has done something similar, even the blunt face of war cannot stop a true gearhead from doing what they love doing best.