POMONA, CA — SEMA and the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum are supporting the rebuild of a 1954 Dodge station wagon that will be an exact replica of the original NHRA Safety Safari vehicle which traveled across country 50 years ago to spread the word on drag racing safety to local car clubs, skeptical civic leaders and police.
Back in 1954, former Pomona police chief E.J. “Bud” Koons led the Safety Safari team (Bud Evans, Chick Cannon and Hot Rod magazine photographer Eric Rickman) on an historic journey that helped legitimize the sport. Together they blazed a trail, crisscrossing the nation with timing devices, measuring equipment, car classification and inspection gear, along with perhaps the most important ingredients of all, optimism and hope. They were armed with basic safety regulations, rules and the ability to perform technical inspections in the field, and they were able to expand on these as they went along, making racing safer in the long term and from race to race.
The rebuilt vehicle will make its debut in Indianapolis Sept. 1-6 at the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Nationals – honoring the first NHRA national event. For SEMA and the Parks Museum, the vehicle represents the beginnings of drag racing as a national sport. The Safari’s efforts contributed greatly to the rapid and dynamic growth of the performance aftermarket.
“Thanks to the Safety Safari, drag racing, the NHRA and the performance aftermarket blossomed,” said Sam Jackson, executive director of the Parks Museum. “We owe these guys a great deal of gratitude. Thanks to SEMA, we can honor them and tell the story of their accomplishment with this vehicle.”
Speaking at a recent reunion of the original Safety Safari, Wally Parks, founder of the NHRA and then editor of Hot Rod, said: “Our primary goal was to legitimize the racing that was already occurring on city streets and back roads. Communications in those days were primitive, but we managed to reach a lot of folks through Hot Rod and by constantly corresponding by mail and telephone as the Safari progressed. Thanks to this great team, we reached many of our goals much faster than I initially thought possible.”
Chris Kersting, SEMA president and CEO agreed. “Back in the early 1950s, drag racing and its supporting industry were growing rapidly and needed to show the country, especially local law enforcement agencies, that the sport could thrive with well-organized events following solid safety rules and regulations. The NHRA’s Safety Safari, along with SEMA pioneers such as Edelbrock, Holley, Iskenderian, Weiand and a host of others, helped an entire sport and industry develop and prosper. We’re proud to be saluting our origins with this historic vehicle.”
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