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PRI Serves Up Breakfast Of Champions With Despain, 'Snake & Mongoose'
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The 2014 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show kicked off with a full house for an annual tradition: the famous Grand Opening Breakfast, where well over 3000 racing businesspeople filled the Indiana Convention Center’s enormous Sagamore Ballroom to fuel up for the busy day ahead with a hearty breakfast and a casual Q&A with a couple of racing legends.
This year, in a segment that has come to be known as “Good Morning, PRI,” veteran motorsports journalist and MAVTV reporter Dave Despain sat down to talk with two of the most colorful figures in the history of drag racing: Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwan, whose famous rivalry and off-track friendship became the subject of a Hollywood film, “Snake & Mongoose,” in 2013, featuring vintage footage from the pair’s racing hey-day.
With 49 career victories, Prudhomme ranks sixth in NHRA history for wins. Beginning his driving career in 1962, he was the first driver to win the NHRA series title four consecutive times. McEwen started racing in 1953 and is listed as number 16 of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years, winning five NHRA national events.
While PRI attendees forked up scrambled eggs and bacon, Snake and Mongoose dished out racing stories about their famous rivalry, which was 100 percent real on track, sometimes putting a dent in their life-long friendship. “The fans knew we were really racing each other, it wasn’t a show. I really wanted to beat him,” explained Prudhomme. “Our teams didn’t speak to each other sometimes.”
“Like brothers, we’ve had a love/hate relationship,” laughed McEwen. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve been together a long time.”
Their nicknames, taken from the rivals in a famous “Jungle Book” story, helped promote a running series of Funny Car match races between them. McEwen said, “All of the racers had nicknames back then, and I think it would be a lot more fun if they did that today.”
In the days before big sponsorships, McEwen said that receiving as much as $1000 a year was a big deal. In 1969, he used his promotional abilities to strike a deal with Mattel to produce Hot Wheels replicas of the pair’s race cars, which became one of the most successful promotions in racing history. “Mattel has sold millions of them worldwide,” he told the crowd.
Much has changed since the days Snake and Mongoose scorched quarter-miles across the country. Both Prudhomme and McEwen marveled at the number of racing aftermarket companies exhibiting at PRI—1175 of them, to be exact.
“Back when we were racing, there were just a handful of companies like Cragar Wheels,” said Prudhomme. “To watch the industry grow over the years and feel that we were some small part of that is really satisfying. We started out with junkyard parts and made a living racing and brought guys along behind us who are now making a damned good living. I’m proud of that.”
This year, in a segment that has come to be known as “Good Morning, PRI,” veteran motorsports journalist and MAVTV reporter Dave Despain sat down to talk with two of the most colorful figures in the history of drag racing: Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwan, whose famous rivalry and off-track friendship became the subject of a Hollywood film, “Snake & Mongoose,” in 2013, featuring vintage footage from the pair’s racing hey-day.
With 49 career victories, Prudhomme ranks sixth in NHRA history for wins. Beginning his driving career in 1962, he was the first driver to win the NHRA series title four consecutive times. McEwen started racing in 1953 and is listed as number 16 of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years, winning five NHRA national events.
While PRI attendees forked up scrambled eggs and bacon, Snake and Mongoose dished out racing stories about their famous rivalry, which was 100 percent real on track, sometimes putting a dent in their life-long friendship. “The fans knew we were really racing each other, it wasn’t a show. I really wanted to beat him,” explained Prudhomme. “Our teams didn’t speak to each other sometimes.”
“Like brothers, we’ve had a love/hate relationship,” laughed McEwen. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve been together a long time.”
Their nicknames, taken from the rivals in a famous “Jungle Book” story, helped promote a running series of Funny Car match races between them. McEwen said, “All of the racers had nicknames back then, and I think it would be a lot more fun if they did that today.”
In the days before big sponsorships, McEwen said that receiving as much as $1000 a year was a big deal. In 1969, he used his promotional abilities to strike a deal with Mattel to produce Hot Wheels replicas of the pair’s race cars, which became one of the most successful promotions in racing history. “Mattel has sold millions of them worldwide,” he told the crowd.
Much has changed since the days Snake and Mongoose scorched quarter-miles across the country. Both Prudhomme and McEwen marveled at the number of racing aftermarket companies exhibiting at PRI—1175 of them, to be exact.
“Back when we were racing, there were just a handful of companies like Cragar Wheels,” said Prudhomme. “To watch the industry grow over the years and feel that we were some small part of that is really satisfying. We started out with junkyard parts and made a living racing and brought guys along behind us who are now making a damned good living. I’m proud of that.”
