The Wally Parks Motorsports Museum was packed with celebrities; none bigger than the man whose name is on the building. Shown visiting with NHRA’s founding father are (L-R) Dave Wallace Sr.; Joanie Hart (C.J.’s daughter); Dave Wallace Jr.; Pappy Hart. More than 120 people paid $20 for the presentation and lunch. (Photo by Chris Ouellette/Good Communications)

Mike Jones, who came out of nowhere to create Orange County International Raceway in 1966-67 -- then returned to obscurity six years later—entertained with stories of rival-

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promoters Hart and Gibbs (then running Irwindale) playing tricks on the young newcomer. Jones also confided that construction of OCIR consumed approximately $750,000, an unheard-of amount at the time.

NHRA events are typically all too easy to criticize, but the only shortcoming of this one was its short duration—a situation made worse by McClelland, who chewed up valuable time telling stories of his own track-management escapades in Texas and Louisiana. (Yawn.) Mac’s unquestionable announcing talent is welcomed by almost any audience, but his annoying inclination to insert himself into the show played poorly with this discriminating crowd. Call us a bunch of SoCal snobs, but everyone else in attendance realized that our part of the planet was the center of the universe from 1950 through 1970, and couldn’t care less about how they were doing it elsewhere.