Jump to content

Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 38.64.64.34 (talk) at 23:45, 29 October 2012 (→‎Museum structure). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, is located at Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Bldg. 3A, in Pomona, California 91768, USA. It houses a collection of memorabilia, automobiles and motorcycles related to the sport of hot rodding. Among other exhibits are one of A.J. Foyt's Coyote Indy Cars, Kenny Bernstein's first dragster to reach speeds in excess of 300 mph (480 km/h), the Bob McClung helmet and photo collection, a collection of Indy 500 credentials and artifacts from early events in the history of land speed records and hot rods. Temporary exhibits have also been created to honor participants in hot rodding including Vic Edelbrock, Don Prudhomme, the 1932 Ford, Track Roadsters, Parnelli Jones and the So-Cal Speed Shop.

In 2008, the Museum began hosting a special exhibition dedicated to Gale Banks and his contributions to the sport of drag racing. The exhibit is entitled "Banks Power: The First 50 Years."

The Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. except on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Museum structure

The Museum is structured as a non-profit organization under the laws of the United States, section 501 (c) 6 of the Internal Revenue Code. The curator is Greg Sharp. The Executive Director is Larry Fisher.

The Museum produces and benefits from two annual Hot Rod Reunions. The Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion is held in Bowling Green, Ky. at Beech Bend Raceway Park, in June of each year. The NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion is held in Bakersfield, California, in October each year. The inaugural NHRA New England Hot Rod Reunion will be held in Epping, N.H. at New England Dragway in September of 2013.

Museum history

The Museum was created by a group of long-time NHRA staff led by founder Wally Parks, for whom the Museum was renamed on his 90th birthday. The Automobile Club of Southern California stepped in as the presenting sponsor of the Museum. Steve Gibbs, now a retired vice-president of NHRA, led the team that reconditioned a WPA-built 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m2). building on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Fairplex to house the Museum. The Museum opened to the public April 4, 1998.

External links

"Los Angeles County, California" is an invalid category parameter for Template:Coord missing.
The problem is usually caused either by a spelling mistake or by an-over-precise category.
For a full list of categories, see Category:Unclassified articles missing geocoordinate data and its subcategories.