The Leader in Diesel Performance
It’s Friday, but not an ordinary Friday by any means. It’s actually a day that I have waited for most of my life. I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m somewhat of a nerd and a child at heart. Today, both of those traits are in for a treat as I use up a half day of vacation and split work early to catch a showing of Speed Racer! Yep, the show that gave me the automotive bug when I was just four years old is finally a movie!
Straight Talk With the Man Largely Identified as the Creator of the Diesel Aftermarket
This is one of many remembrances of the NHRA’s late Wally Parks which were published in the January 2008 edition of DRIVE! magazine. Wally Parks was a
Wally Parks was a friend to thousands, and I am pleased to have been numbered among them. His gentlemanly demeanor was an example that I have tried hard to emulate in my career. His sense of humor was always a pleasant surprise. His leadership was the stuff of legend. In my life I have had few heroes…but Wally Parks was one of them.
Last Friday (really my “first day on the job”, even though I had only come in to fill out some employment papers), I was invited to sit in on meeting with Gale Banks and a number of members of the engineering staff.
My (just-bestowed an hour earlier) title is the lofty “Corporate Publicist” and so, I was pleased to be asked to be a part of the action so soon after signing on with the company.
Hollywood is at it again: they’re filming a movie in my neighborhood, but down the street from me. So close, yet so far away. The movie and television companies always seem to do this to me… they tease me knowing full well that I was meant to be immortalized on screen. I personally think that they’re afraid of my vast talent. I mean, why else would I always get picked from the audience at one of those shows at Universal Studios? I do a mean falling off a building, and I was even a “Red Shirt” fighting a Klingon in a Star Trek stage show once. I have the VHS tape to prove it.
I have to tell you all that Ginger Ale is just about my favorite drink… period. It brings back fond memories of days long past. I’ll usually partake in a plastic Dixie cup of Canada Dry’s version of the beverage on business flights, but on recent trip to Oregon I was treated to a Verner’s. Ain’t that a something? I mean I thought that brand went away when I was a kid, at least that’s the way it is in California anyways. Then another blast from the past… I got on a plane with propellers. Yes folks, the futuristic world of the 21st Century is here… and without the flying cars, robot butlers, an Astro-Base on the Moon or the rocket-pack I was promised as a boy. Airplanes still have propellers.
It’s been a while (again), but here’s my latest entry. I’ve got about four more in the can, only it’s just that they’re only half done each. Since the last time I wrote I’ve been to pulled over, went to visit a guy we’re selling engines to, went on vacation, went to Indy for the big race, and met with GM a few times. Although those “adventures” are something to write about… I bet your wondering how we did with the truck this weekend?
Some of you might know (and most of you didn’t have a clue) that we actually went out and put some miles on our little red pick-up a couple of weeks ago. “What, you went out and raced without telling me?” you say. Well, the answer is “yes”, I guess. We didn’t really want to make it a big production since she was going into combat for the first time, and in all reality we are still in the testing phase of this grand experiment. I mean we all like being in the spotlight, but who wants to get burnt? I’d kind of say it was like being a great singer and going to a Karaoke contest at a local club, rather than going on American Idol and bombing out on national TV while getting crushed by Simon (not that I ever watch the show… I hear things about it. Really).
