Motorsports Newsletter 3/27/23

1) March 31-April 2, 2023 Camping World NHRA Winternationals, by Lucas Oil, Pomona Raceway, Pomona, California
2) From Tim Kraushaar (aka Weed): I watched the Motor Sports Hall of Fame program from start to finish. It was very well done with a lot of masterful introductions and acceptance speeches. As you know I have done a wee bit of public speaking in my life, so I do understand who really hits the mark. Without question Ms. Noeth’s (Landspeed Louise Ann Noeth) presentation for Ab Jenkins simply knock the ball out of the park. Nothing else in the program came close. One of those “I wish I had said that” things for me.
3) Are you FAMOUS? Or INFAMOUS? Or simply a normal hotrodder or car lover? If so you too can be on Mark “CarsYeah” Greene’s Podcast. Check out CarsYeah.com and contact Mark at Mark@CarsYeah.com. It’s an audio only interview; he asks questions, and you talk about your life. I’ll be on it soon too.
4) WE DID IT OUR WAY: the story of Wally and Barbara Parks (and the NHRA) is available free by email. Just email me at RNPARKS1 and let me know and I will send it to you. It’s FREE.

5) A Celebration of Life of John Bennett Date: 17 Mar 2023

“John Bennett, organizer of early British drag racing events including the first International Drag Festival, founder of Santa Pod Raceway in England, and chairman until 1970 of the British Hot Rod Association and British Drag Racing & Hot Rod Association, sadly passed away recently. Mike Lintern has written the following words and wonders if you can kindly endorse or add to them as a tribute to John, who is mentioned several times in your father’s memoire?” Simon Groves

“John Bennett’s life in the world of hot rodding was a history of firsts. In 1963, as chairman of the recently formed British Hot Rod Association, he put on the first custom car show seen in Britain — in his own engineering business’s workshops! The next year saw the Association put on the UK’s first officially recognized drag race meeting, at Duxford Airfield. Incredibly, just three months later, John was to be instrumental in the staging of a series of racing events around the country that took the motorsport fraternity by storm — the First International Drag Festival. This pitted fledgling British drag racers against some of America’s top cars and drivers, while tens of thousands of spectators got their first taste of this wild sport from the States, and they loved it.
In 1966 John was able to make the historic announcement at the BHRA’s AGM that a suitable site had been found for Britain’s first permanent drag strip — an ex-USAAF base at Podington, in the middle of the country — to be called Santa Pod Raceway. The track was up and running the following year and today is one of Europe’s top-class racing venues. It would not have happened were it not for John’s driving enthusiasm 70 years ago.” Mike Lintern

Richard Parks adds, “It seems like so very long ago and far away when my father, Wally Parks, made the long journey to a country that he often yearned to see. He always wanted to do those special British hillclimbs and to see the famous racetracks. He noted how young the people were in drag racing in England and the continent and yet we were not that much older. Perhaps it was the enthusiasm shone to him by local drag racers and their family, friends and fans. Drag racing in the UK was decidedly a rebellious sort of sport and it was so similar to what Americans felt. John Bennett and a myriad of other volunteers worked themselves to exhaustion, battling uncertainties, weather, costs, crowds and venue sites, but their sacrifice was truly appreciated by my father. We always felt this special bond with dragracers in your country and on the continent. We were in awe of those early day land speed racers who risked life and limb for what they loved to do and it affected us in America. Today, whether it is dragracing or land speed time trials our hearts are united with the British in their zeal to do the impossible and make it seem easy.”