If there’s one common thread that runs through the sport of drag racing, it’s that “quit” is a word that doesn’t exist. Nowhere is that more true than in the case of “Hollywood” Gary Parker, who overcame a laundry list of issues in order to win the Modular Muscle class at last weekend’s NMRA World Finals. 

Parker, who sustained a broken back in a tree-trimming accident on June 29th, saw his season slipping away through a series of doctor visits and immense pain. “Carole and I were in the backyard trimming trees, and I was up about 10 to 12 feet with a few more limbs to cut down. I got to one limb, and when it hit the ground, it knocked the ladder out from underneath me, and I fell and landed on my back. I rolled over in the leaves there, and the next thing I knew I was on the backboard, and in the ambulance. I was in so much pain I was shaking,” he explains.

After spending five days in the bed, time in a “turtle shell” brace, walking with a walker, and struggling through a few months of pain, Hollywood was cleared to race just three weeks ago. 

However, he wasn’t able to work on his car. And after the NMRA’s Norwalk event, he had pulled the transmission from the car to have the transbrake and transmission repaired, and the transmission and its attendant pieces were still sitting on the garage floor.

Enter Tim Matherly and Bart Tobener, who had heard through the grapevine about Parker’s “return to racing” clearance and remembered that the transmission was still out of the car. Matherly called, and the pair graciously offered their time that Saturday to re-install the transmission so Parker could go testing, which he did the subsequent weekend.

You’d think that’s the end of the story, but it’s not. During that test session at Silver Dollar Raceway in Georgia, Parker completed a run and realized that all of a sudden, the transmission was basically freewheeling and not operating properly.

Remember – he still couldn’t work on the car due to his injury. Another friend and longtime racer, Charlie McCulloch, came to the rescue by offering his help. Parker called up an old friend, Richard Spinks, to borrow the lift in his garage. McCulloch took two days of his own time to pull the transmission out so Parker could get it repaired, then put it back into the car so Hollywood could go racing.

Carole accompanied him to the NMRA‘s event at Bowling Green to act as head cheerleader, but her job turned into much more. She was in charge of preparing the car for each round, as Parker couldn’t even lift the tailgate on the truck. Carole made sure he was ready to run – which he did, with stellar results. After the first round of qualifying, he sat atop the ladder with a .005 reaction time, only to be knocked to number two by Susan Roush-McClenaghan’s perfect reaction time.

Eliminations found Parker running through the field to meet up with McClenaghan in the final round, where he turned on the win light as McClenaghan lit the angry red bulb. Parker would have been tough to beat in a straight-up race as he carded a .007 reaction time and ran right on his number. Perseverance and the help his wonderful wife along with a number of quality friends helped to put him in the winner’s circle just three short months after taking an ambulance ride that could have ended his racing career.

Congratulations to , Hollywood on a remarkable racing season and comeback.