Ep.306 – Don Prudhomme

So Steve McQueen's stand-in.

Tommy Ivo's used poor kid.

And the second drag racer named Don to be on Dinner with Racers.

Don the Snake for Dome.

If you could describe this lunch we just had in one word, what would it be?

Badass.

Oh really, it is good.

And now for Dinner with Racers presented by...

Continental Tire.

With your hosts, Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman.

Please hold your radio sound.

Radio sound!

I've been driving while I'm very angry.

This is the sound of a driver on the radio during a race.

What do you think I should do?

And welcome to Dinner with Racers.

I'm Sean Eckman.

I'm Ryan Eversley.

And we are sitting in a Johnny Rock hits in the middle of Hollywood, California.

How we got here is another story.

But we are wrapping out our 10th year of doing Dinner with Racers.

10th year, Ryan.

Yeah, 10 years.

Lots, lots happened in that 10 years.

The reason we've been doing that is because you guys have been so awesome.

And being so supportive.

And so we almost feel guilt now.

So we're doing this out of guilt and hate.

Yeah.

That's what fuels this podcast.

You know what else fuels this podcast?

Awesome guests.

Oh, really?

No, okay.

I'm going to go on a limb and say you're talking about Don Frunome.

That's right.

Don the Snake Prudome.

Yeah.

So Don Prudome is a legend of the NHRA.

Long, long, long career in drag racing.

Four consecutive funny car championships from 1975 to 78.

And then another two in top fuel.

He's won the US national seven times.

And effectively he along with guys like Don Garlett ushered in this new era of popularity for the NHRA through the 70s and 80s.

Yeah.

One of the things that we've always tried to do on the show is showcase different forms of racing.

And admittedly both of us would say drag racing is probably our weakest category.

But we've done our research and we always try to put in the extra time to bring you guys some good stories.

And some of those stories you're going to hear about on this episode are.

Thoughts you wouldn't think you would hear from a drag racer.

What he looks for in a driver.

Yeah.

What he looks for in a driver, Ryan.

Interesting.

And becoming a snake.

Right.

So we went down to Rancho Santa Fe, California and we had lunch at the Rancho Santa Fe Bistro.

Yeah.

I have no idea what I had because this was like eight months ago.

It was.

We were headed off to Laguna Seca Raceway or whatever the heck it's called now for some excitement.

And you don't know what you have.

But I know what I had, Ryan.

You had a chicken sandwich.

Now, one of the other things that we've done differently this year outside of you having chicken sandwiches

is we started a Patreon.

So if you go to patreon.com forward slash DWR show, you can sign up for a couple of different levels

of participation where we are doing a fun behind the scenes extra content for you,

the fan, because you guys have been so great and because you asked for it.

So here we are giving you behind the scenes stories, extra stories about the guests,

some of the road trip behind the scenes, inside jokes between you and I that have stemmed for

literally 10 years now and the ability to ask our guests preview questions before anybody

knows they're going to be coming on.

So not only do you know who the guest is going to be, but you also get the ability to ask them

something and make us look like we have a lot of fans watching.

So once again, patreon.com forward slash DWR show.

You'll see there are a couple of different memberships,

but dinner club is the one that will give you all the access.

Speaking of what makes this show happen, Patreon is nice, Ryan.

But you know what's pretty darn good?

I would say continental tire is pretty darn good.

Continental tire, huh?

That doesn't sound familiar.

Is it continental tire?

Hashtag dinner with Conti.

Ryan, I keep using this hashtag.

Why?

Because when you support our show and use that hashtag, it lets continental know

especially on Instagram that you are supporting us and that we are worth being sponsored by them.

So you guys have done a great job of keeping us online for 10 years.

And if you'd like to have more of the show, we'll then keep using that hashtag dinner with Conti

or you can go to dinnerwithracers.com or our Instagram at DWR show.

We have trackable links on both sites that show continental that we have a lot of love

and that we are worth being partners with.

So you guys have done such a great job with that.

Please keep it up.

And while you're keeping it up, why don't you keep it up with none other

than Shane Bankisburg?

You know, Ryan and Sean, it's pretty comforting to know these road trips

have the protection of the WeatherTech floor liners trademark.

Thanks, Shane.

Really appreciate your enthusiasm for this motor vehicle

and our trip to have lunch and dinner with folks like Don Prudhomme.

Take it away.

Also, before we get going with the episode, one other person we should mention,

Alana Cher, who really had a big part in making this happen and getting Don kind of warmed up to us.

She wrote a book with him called Don the Snake Prudhomme.

My life beyond the 1320.

You can get it wherever you get the books.

But thank you again to Alana Cher for really making this a reality.

Meow.

All right.

We're going to start in five, four, three, two.

How are you, sir?

How are you doing?

Oh, yeah.

We came prepared.

How are you?

I'm Sean.

Great to finally meet Sean.

We're the ones who spoke.

Hey, Ryan.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah.

So please take a seat.

We're not journalists.

We like to make that very clear to people.

Yeah.

So you have a car or you drive?

I race for a team.

A team?

Yeah.

I did 10 years with Honda as a factory driver that ended last year.

And then I got picked up by our privateer.

So I'm racing for him now.

Cool.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

I like that stuff.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Apparently you're quite the race fan yourself.

Yeah.

You know, I guess I am.

I've just, you know, drag racing, of course, is why it was my game.

But I always really liked open wheel racing, you know,

Indy cars especially.

Got to know the guys, you know, from Mario to Floyd,

all those guys back in the day.

And I ran a car one time.

It was a Shelby Superstake Dragster.

And Carol, of course, sponsored it.

And it had a Ford camera in it.

And I think it was in 67.

I think that was the year that they won Le Mans, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Mario and our, excuse me, AJ and Gurney.

And so we were at a Ford, oh, god damn.

I guess you'd call it a press preview or something.

And we had our dragster there.

And I took a picture with Mario, AJ and Gurney.

We were all standing behind.

I got the picture at home.

It's a great picture.

It's something that, and I got each one of them to sign it.

Yeah.

So you're still a fan even in 67.

Yeah.

Big time.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Too much, actually, you know.

Yeah.

I should pay more attention to drag racing,

but I honestly don't.

Yeah.

Is that because you did it for so long

that you're kind of burnt out on it?

Or just to find the other stuff more fascinating

because it's of interest?

Well, it's a good question.

I burn out.

Yeah.

Sure.

I get it.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Just doing it all my life, you know.

But there was in, what was it?

We won the championship with our funny car, 76.

Won it four years in a row.

Right.

The Army was sponsoring it.

And it was, we're really on a great run.

Well, there's this fellow that I became good friends with.

Leo Mail.

It ran good racing for such a long time.

And I'd always hit him up around

what's going on.

And, you know, because, you know, back in those days,

nobody knew about Formula One here.

Right.

You know, I mean, it wasn't on television

or anything like that.

And anyhow, he had us go, he set up a deal in Italy

and they shipped the car over there

because it was a championship car.

And it was a big auto show in Bologna, Italy.

The first time I was ever over there, you know.

But they had this, Leo had this journalist by the name

of Bernard Cayet.

Have you ever heard that name?

Bernard Cayet.

Yeah.

Well, a usual name.

But what a great guy, you know.

And Leo set us up with him to take us around.

OK.

And did he ever.

So we did the show.

And anyhow, Bernard Cayet took us over to Ferrari.

OK.

To the plant, you know.

And I really had the hots for a 308 GTB Ferrari.

Absolutely.

When the cars come out.

Hell yeah.

And so I'm good.

You want to hear all this?

Yeah, this is all we want.

This is all we want.

OK.

So I wanted this 308.

But Wally Parks earlier that year, a guy that started it

in HRA, Wally Parks, called me and he had a good friend,

Hera, Hera's museum, you know.

They had a car collection, Hera.

And anyhow, they wanted my, they wanted the museum,

wanted my funny car because it's, you know,

was setting records, I wanted a championship and I thought,

you know, back in those days, not too many people called

about wanting your car.

Oh, I see, yeah, right, right.

So I said, well, this Hera, I knew he had a Ferrari dealership.

So I said, I'll tell you what, I'll trade him for a 308 GTB Ferrari.

Right.

So they all said yes.

And so at the same time of being, we went over to Bologna.

And of course, going to the Ferrari factory was like,

still great.

And not just anybody can do it.

Yeah, right.

Well, yeah, yeah, you're right.

And Bernard, man, he had a lot of pull, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think you're going 250 miles an hour,

probably something too.

Yeah, exactly, like the fast car on the planet.

Well, yeah, you know, I don't really think about that stuff.

No, I understand.

You know, but the so we went to the plant and I didn't know much

about Formula One.

You know, not hardly anything.

Yeah.

But I had 7676.

So I had, I had heard of Nikki Lauda.

Right.

And so we went to the plant and it just so happened when he took me in

to where the cars are at.

Back in those days, they were it wasn't a really a great shop.

You know, I mean, it was it was nice, but they were all lined up

against the wall like you'd walk along.

And these Formula One cars are there.

And the guys in Nikki Lauda was standing there and he had his head

bandaged up.

All right.

And yeah, and it's when he had that big fire, you know, and Bernard

was telling me about it because I wasn't that hip on it.

Sure.

But anyhow, as the day went on, this is really was really a thrill

for me.

He took me into Enzo Ferrari's office and sit down there.

And of course, he didn't speak English, Mr. Ferrari, but Bernard, you know,

he could, you know, he could speak that Italian just fine.

And so they introduced me to him and I sat there and he gave me a book

and signed the book and gave me a scarf for my wife, you know.

And it was a real thrill.

But what was really cool is that we went across, I don't know,

it was a it's been a long time ago, 76, right?

So it was down the street or across the street to a test facility

they had their racetrack.

And and so it just happened to be that day that Nikki Lauda was going to

get in a car and one of the cars around the course.

Yeah.

Now, this is all bandaged up his head and everything, you know.

But before he did that, Bernard said, Hey, would you mind take a dawn

for a ride around the test track?

And he had a 308.

They were brand new at the time.

Yeah.

Three hours.

Yeah.

He has to be allowed to this.

Bernard asked Nikki.

Yeah.

To take me for a ride.

And he allowed it to drive.

He was in a 308.

Yeah.

You know, so I said, hell, yeah, man.

So so he was cool.

You know, we jump in the car and man, yeah, he he he he went fast,

you know, something I wasn't used to in a road course.

You know, I was just highly impressed.

And and he was just a Nikki was just a great guy.

Well, you know, from then on, I was like, I was in love with Formula One.

So I really stuck to really, really close to it.

I don't know.

And, you know, that was that was just a thrill for me, you know,

with Nikki Lauda of all people.

And yeah, and then it just it just went on from there.

And I become a huge fan.

And, you know, went back to the States after that.

And but but I picked up so much from Formula One,

in Indy car back in those days, like Pinsky and all that, the way the way

their jackets were even, you know, we didn't have that drag.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, drag drag racing, it was like t shirts were like the main menu.

You know, wardrobe.

But so I just I thought all that was great.

So I kind of I think it was one of the first guys if not the first to kind of

bring that in to drag racing, you know, the way your pit area

looked, right, the way the cars look, your uniforms.

And so, you know, I was a huge fan and followed it up to this day.

I follow it, you know, and you know, ask me some questions.

Did you ever get that 308?

Oh, yeah. Oh, nice.

Yeah, I got the 308 on the trade.

Yeah, on the trade.

Nice.

And I got what they called the time, which was a big deal, was a European spoiler.

OK, which US cars didn't have that type of spoiler.

I had this special spoiler.

They put on it for me.

Yeah.

You know, I had, oh, back earlier than that when I, you know, I had a 246 Dino.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

Actually, I had two of them.

Yeah.

You know, and I found this one and this had to been in the early 70s, I guess.

Back in those days, they had a magazine.

It was a, I don't want to say auto week, but it was, they had Ferraris and other cars,

whatever, in the back of the magazine, you know, for sale.

Oh, yeah.

And here was a 246 Dino listed.

And I said, oh, man, I love the car.

So I called the guy.

Yeah.

He said, yeah, it's a very nice car.

And he says, he's not, he's the guy says to me, I'll tell you what,

you fly here and you don't like the car.

I'll pay for your airline ticket, you know.

That can't be that.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So that's where you, and you were a name by this point.

I mean, you know, if it's early 70s, yes, you were.

Maybe, I guess.

Yeah.

We didn't really, yeah, I don't know.

I think the guy knew who I was.

So I flew into Houston by myself and the guy pulls up from the airport and the 246 Dino red.

Wow.

And I, you know, I love it, you know, so we went to the bank and it was my car.

But the problem was that I had, you know, I had to go race the next week, you know,

I was like racing during the week, sometimes a match racing and all that.

So I got to know Foyt pretty well, you know, because he was a part of the,

well, I just got to know him, you know, from the Speedway and so on.

And so I called him and I wanted to leave the Dino at his place and I had to go off racing.

And I did, took it over there.

And I didn't want to drive at home.

I wanted to put it in a truck because I didn't want to put miles on there.

I mean, there was a crazy nice car for me back in the day.

For sure.

So bottom line is I left it there and I was going to go back and pick it up.

And it, I did, went off the races, come back and there was a slight dent in the door.

Oh, no.

And I thought the **** but I didn't say anything.

I certainly didn't want to say anything to Foyt.

Yeah, right, right, right.

Well, one of his guys told me that he took it out on the freeway and opened it up,

you know, which was cool with me, you know, Foyt doing it.

You know, I mean, that's okay.

Yeah.

And I didn't say anything about the dent, but he drove it around a little bit, you know,

but anyhow, so that was my first, first Dino and long story short, we went to drive it home

and it flooded rain and we had to leave it on the freeway.

My wife and myself and I was going to put it bottom line as we drove it back to California,

which was bitching.

And yeah, that's one of my Ferrari stories.

Yeah, that's awesome, man.

Yeah.

I loved, I mean, Drag Race was my game, but my, the Ferraris and all that stuff, of course,

I was like every other kid loved all that stuff.

So our fan base is primarily road racing and open wheel and stuff like that.

So I'd like to go back to the beginning of your life because Ferraris probably

weren't in the cards when you were a young kid.

No, no, no.

Yeah.

Well, the young part, I mean, when I started.

Yeah.

When you were like, what was up like your upbringing like, you know,

because it sounds like your family life wasn't your home life wasn't like Ferrari rich.

Oh, no.

That's going to get long ways.

Yeah, exactly.

Long ways.

I grew up out in the San Fernando Valley.

Not too far from me.

My folks are from Louisiana.

Okay.

The Creole part of Louisiana.

Yeah, deep south.

And I was born actually in California, but time they moved out was about,

I think my mom got pregnant back there.

I'm not even sure, you know.

So, but anyhow, growing up, I was like most kids back in the early days.

You had a rough time, you know, no money.

And but we ate well.

I mean, it wasn't like that.

But you know, it surely wasn't a Ferrari parking the drive.

And, you know, I was a young kid and I painted cars.

I was wasn't worth the school, but I was really good at cars.

My dad was in that business in the auto auto repair business.

So I learned to paint cars and I was a painter helper that I learned to paint cars.

And I was really, really digging that, you know, I was making some money.

But I got in a car club in the called the Road Kings of Burbank.

The Road Kings of Burbank.

They're still going to this day.

Okay, that's cool.

Road Kings of the Burbank.

And that turned my life around completely.

They had a club dragster.

And so I go out to the track with the guys.

I thought, man, I like to drive that, you know, so guys would take turn driving it.

And I drove it and fell in love with it.

No, I can honestly remember the first time I drove the thing and what it was all about.

And I was just absolutely hooked.

And so I don't know, man, I just went down that trail of drag racing.

And I mean, you know, just little cars.

They started with a little Buick engine in a dragster and this guy in the club, Tommy Ivo,

you've probably heard of him or, you know, he was a hell of a racer in his day.

You know, he's an actor, Burbank, you know, at the studios.

And he had a little money compared to any of us.

But anyhow, I just, I got into that and started going to Lyons drag strip and all the local,

they used to have like five, six drag strips within an hour or two drive out here in California.

That's what I was thinking is that that era, especially living in the valley,

I mean, that is where drag racing to me really developed.

So Ron Howard made a movie, American Graffiti.

And in my head, that's kind of your era, what that movie was about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cruising Bob's big boy and all that racing on Van Lys Boulevard.

Yeah, we did all that.

So what did mom and dad, dad had a body shop, essentially?

Well, well, my dad worked at a body shop.

Okay, copy.

And I used to walk home from this Catholic school that I hated.

You're my guy.

But, you know, and so I walk over to the shop on Van Lys Boulevard

and I would help sand and mass cars and make a few bucks with your dad.

It was my dad.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

And was your dad much of a racer?

Pardon me?

Was your dad into racing at all?

No, not at all.

Was he against racing?

No, he enjoyed his cocktails back in those days, especially in that business.

It wasn't nothing to see guys walk around with a half a pint in their back pocket,

painters going the booth during the day.

Just enjoying it.

Yeah, I mean, that's the way it was.

You know, no, they weren't into racing at all.

I mean, they didn't know anything about it.

I really didn't discuss it with them.

Well, that's what I was wondering if they're not into it.

Did you have to hide it?

No, no, I never hid it.

I just said I was, you know, it was kind of a real loose situation, my family, you know.

You know, they didn't much know where I was at or where I can't, you know, like that, you know.

Yeah, a different time.

But no, I was hooked and really, really worked at it, you know.

Tommy Ivo, they called him TV Tommy because he was a big TV guy.

How did you get hooked up with him?

Well, he was in the club.

Yeah.

And I, how do you even find a club like this?

Like you didn't have Google.

That's a good question.

Well, I lived in Van Nuys.

Yeah, OK.

OK.

And Burbank isn't that far over.

And I left out this part.

I was in a car club there because I painted cars.

Well, that was kind of known in town a little bit.

Not a lot.

A little bit.

What was that club name?

That was called The Chancellors.

I love all these names.

Tell me that were their jackets.

Oh, yeah.

So yeah, you have to have a jacket.

Right, right.

A club jacket.

We did one of these with Craig Breedlove.

In a plaque.

Yeah.

I knew Craig Breed.

Yeah.

But he had a similar kind of story.

Yeah, he was in the club.

Yeah, yeah.

So cool.

It's like it's out of a movie.

It's such a different time.

So you had that plaque and you had your jacket

and they had club meetings, The Chancellors.

And I'd go to them.

And of course, I knew quite a few of the guys

because I painted some of their cars and whatnot.

But what was your hair game?

What was your hair?

Were you a slick back?

Coal in the back pocket?

Yeah.

Oh, no.

Well, my hair was really bushy and curly.

You know, it wasn't good with a comb, you know.

But there was this guy in Van Nuys.

His name was Skip Torgerson.

And he was a, he had a 27T, a really bad ass T, you know,

with a flathead in it and three carburetors.

It was bad in his day, you know.

But we got to know him, this other buddy of mine,

Tom McCurry and myself was in the club.

He was like my best friend, Tom McCurry.

And he says, hey man, you guys ought to go to the

Road King's meeting with me, a car club.

They're really into racing.

I said, hey, yeah, let's go.

So we went and I had a 55 Buick at the time,

which was a hell of a nice car to stay.

But I was making pretty good money painting cars and, you know,

so I went to the club meeting and man, that was it for me

because they had this club dragster and Ivo and,

oh, it was so bitchy.

Anyhow, I got in the club and where am I going with this story?

Oh, Skip Torgerson, Skip Torgerson.

He's the guy that introduced us and got us in the club.

And then Ivo and I become great friends.

And I'd work over at his paint cars during the day,

go to his place at Burbank at night and work on his dragster with him

to the wee hours of the morning, go home, get a couple of hours sleep,

go back to work.

Remember those days?

Guys like you to remember those days.

So we did that in Ivo was pretty well known in those days.

And he built this.

Pretty well known as like a TV star?

Or what?

TV actor and California TV thing.

So he was a hell of a racer.

He had a twin engine Buick dragster and I helped him build that too,

you know, I mean, we work all night doing that.

So so anyhow, he was he was he was going to go on tour with his dragster, Tom Ivo.

Because no one back in those days was doing that except for a few guys that would go out on tour.

And we had this newspaper and drag racing called drag news.

So that would come out every week.

And you'd read about art, Crispin or Jack Crispin back east of place racing his car.

And so I will say that's what that's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to go on tour and run all these drag strips.

I mean, New York, Pennsylvania, I didn't know where those places were.

This is before sort of the NHRA as it is now.

So you're sort of picking and choosing.

Oh, yeah.

You just like, I want to go here.

I want to go here.

Yeah.

NHRA was going, I guess, well, they started in 51.

Maybe they had one or two races.

So like if you're going to tour, you're making you're you're like a comedian.

You're making your own tour.

Yeah.

We we I we didn't even know anything about that.

Didn't care about that.

But we did care about racing at Lions Drag Ship and all.

Anyhow, we're going on tour and it was him and I.

He had a 57 CAD and you're a mechanic kind of jack of all trades for oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I did everything from polishing the wheels to mountain the tires to pushing pushing the car.

Are you the cheap kid that he can afford and abuse?

OK.

Yeah.

So I mean, we're leaving town and I didn't I had a few bucks.

But yeah, much well, I had to pay for my own food, which I didn't need to deal.

I didn't even discuss with him about things like that.

You know, I never heard of per diem.

No, I was totally green and so was he really.

Sure.

But we were in Pennsylvania and we were racing there and he was quite a draw.

I mean, this car from California with twin engines in it, chrome and, you know, people

back there, they never see anything like that.

California, they look at our license plates on the car.

California.

Oh, that's going to be great.

If you just show up, we were like rock stars.

Yeah.

From a different planet.

So this guy at the end of the night came over the track operator was talking to Ivo and he

started counting out this green money on the hood of his car.

I went, holy.

He's getting paid for this.

Right.

I didn't know that.

And he didn't tell me that.

Of course he did.

It's so yeah.

So wait till the Hollywood guy was a little sneaky.

Yeah.

I would never get.

Yeah.

So he thought it was quite funny and even hold the money up for me, you know, anyhow.

So but what I did learn was a whole lot about traveling down the road, towing a car, racing

a car.

So he really, he really taught me a lot and not even knowing that he did.

And so I thought, holy, when I saw that money, I said, Jesus, maybe I could do this someday.

Maybe I could get a name.

Oh, but it's interesting.

You thought about you could do it for you rather than you need to cut of his.

Yeah.

Well, I didn't.

I didn't even.

I just wanted to pay for my food.

Yeah.

I didn't expect to cut anything.

Yeah.

I would love to put you in a room with a bunch of 23 year olds today.

Yeah.

Really?

They could use a lesson from Don Prudhomme.

I ended up had to borrow money for him to buy my food, you know.

And so you.

But you took a loan instead of.

Yeah.

But back in those days.

I'm just telling you, it was it was an honor just to be there.

I understand.

You know, we all started at some point.

Yeah.

So, you know, I thought, Jesus, could I do that someday?

Well, we get back to California and I went off and, you know, still hung out with him and

ran a little dragster and then this guy by the name Dave Zucho, which was a guy I knew.

He worked at C&T Auto Motive out in the valley there.

And he was building a 392 Chrysler on fuel, a fuel motor.

And at that time I was running a little gas motor in my little nail head Buick in my dragster.

It was called a big gas dragster.

And he says, well, let's put that motor in your dragster.

Well, he'll have a 96 inch wheelbase, which is nothing.

Right.

And we sure did.

I would drive anything.

So, we put this blown engine in this little 96 inch wheelbase.

And we went out to San Fernando Valley Dragstrip, our home dragstrip.

And I ran it down through there, smoking the tires from one end to the other.

I wasn't scared of it at all.

You know, people weren't, it didn't even enter my mind that I could get hurt or anything like that.

Well, you're also starving.

Yeah.

You're not going to have to be straight.

But I run 180 miles an hour, which was unbelievable back in those days.

Right.

Yeah.

So, we had a lot of downforce though, right?

Yeah.

Right.

Downforce.

Never heard of the word downforce in those days.

So anyhow, that's kind of, I got my taste of nitro and a big engine.

And so that's what I strive for after that.

And I ended up driving another car for a guy by the name of Kent Fuller and Dave Zuchel.

They built a car together and Fuller owned it.

He was a chassis builder back in the 60s and stuff.

He was like the guy to go to back in the day if you had the money.

And so I hung out at his shop and sat on the bench and do whatever I could do just to be around the

car. But anyhow, they built this car and asked me to drive it.

I said, hell yeah.

You know, so we went to Bakersfield in 1962, Bakersfield drag strip.

And at the time, that was the track to go to for fuel racing.

Nitro.

Because in HRA, they weren't running nitro, you know.

We didn't even care about it in HRA.

Yeah, it wasn't what you said.

Yeah.

So we went to the Smokersfield and Gas Championship at and Don Garless was there.

Chris Caramassini's, all the guys back in the day, they went there.

And we ended up winning the race with this kid.

No one's ever heard of him.

Yeah.

And that absolutely, that was the biggest race of the year.

Well, then I mean, Caramassini's Garless.

I mean, they all knew my name.

You're right.

You know, we, we, we didn't, I don't remember racing Garless, but we race.

But you know, guys were eliminated.

There was like, yeah, I'm telling you, there was like 32 or 40 cars shooting for 16 spots.

You know, but you would go round after round to race in all these cars.

Anyhow, we ended up winning, got back home and I actually made a little money.

You know, like I got a percentage of the of the purse, you know, what we won.

And so shortly after that, got a call Fuller.

I went to the shop one day and Fuller says, hey, you should call this guy back.

He called here looking for you.

Keith Black of Keith Black Racing Engines, which was, I never, I didn't know anything

about him at the time, but he was a hell of a boat racer.

And he built, he built boat engines mainly.

I called him and he said, yeah, I would like to talk to you.

I'd like you to come down and want to meet you.

So I did.

I was down in Downey, which was quite a ways.

That's right.

Yeah.

And he had a shop, a real nobody had shops back then.

You know, you work out of your garage in the back of the house or something.

Yeah, but he had a shop and he built engines and they were putting this car together.

It was a Kent Fuller chassis and it was unbelievable.

I mean, it was really nice.

And the guy by the name of Tommy Greer had a, he sold machinery and he put the money

up him and Keith were buddies and they built the car and asked me to drive it.

And that was the best thing that ever happened to me.

You know, it was called the Greer Black Fredone top fuel car.

And we beat everybody in Southern California with it.

I mean, every people would call key shop and want to know where we were going to race that

weekend because they didn't want to go there.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

You're killing the purse.

Yeah.

To compete against us.

We were that good.

The car was that good.

And I must say, I did a pretty good job driving it and we won every day.

You made it on this show.

So yeah.

So there you go.

So really that's where my really racing real career started out.

And I started making money doing that.

Yeah.

Well, I kind of want to go back to it because I don't, I don't entirely, you know,

we don't necessarily know the drag scene in that time.

But I would imagine if you're prepping and building the car,

you're also the one racing it or if you're the one who owns it, you're also the one racing it.

Why did Fuller or any of these guys put this kid in the car?

Like why, why weren't they like, let's put, let's put Prunam in the car.

Let's put little Donnie in there.

Yeah.

That's a good question.

Well, I had that connection with Zucho.

Yeah.

When we put the engine in my car, my car in the car, a little 96 inch wheelbase.

Right.

It was a car I bought from Ivo and Fuller built the car.

So basically they saw that you could drive this stupid,

yeah, powerful car with a 96 inch wheelbase and go,

if he can handle that, he's fine in my car.

If I was him, I would have thought the same thing.

Okay.

Because I mean, this car was like.

This kid has a death wish.

Yeah.

Rather he drove it than yeah.

I don't want to crash.

Yeah.

I put that son of a bitch to there with a 96 inch wheelbase, 180 miles an hour.

Yeah.

With the tires smoking like that.

Yeah.

And just at no point.

Yeah.

It was a thrill of my life.

Right.

But anyhow, they like that.

And I did.

I did a good job driving Keith's car, you know, and Keith Black and

do you know Bruce Myers?

Yeah.

Well, Bruce has that car.

Is that the yellow one?

That's the yellow one.

So I met you at Bruce's garage once.

I was staring at your car and your wife, I believe was like,

Hey, would you like to meet Don?

And I was like, yep.

He came around like 10 seconds later.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

I was at Long Beach in 2015.

There was like a last minute everybody get together thing.

I wrote about this in Racer Magazine because everybody in the room was

somebody and I was there, too.

But like Gurney was there, Chip, Dario, Dempsey.

I mean, like I have a photo of all you guys up on the stage.

It was amazing.

Yeah.

So yeah, that car is beautiful.

Yeah.

You know, I'll be honest when you mention all those names,

I did s*** that I know all those guys.

I'm not kidding you.

I was in that room.

I mean, you don't know how cool that is.

Yeah.

You know.

And at no point do you realize you're Don Prudone.

At no point do you realize you're Don Prudone.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

I mean, no, no.

But they, I don't know what the connection was so much.

I mean, they, they all liked like Gurney and stuff.

He'd come out the drags a few times.

They all, they all liked drag racing, but they didn't want to do it.

Sure, sure.

But they were kind of, I mean, it is exciting.

I think, I think from my standpoint as a driver of sports car racing,

like I don't know that I have a big interest in trying it,

but I respect the hell out of it.

You know what I mean?

Like especially back then when the safety standards were horrendous.

And you guys are breaking records that had never been broken before.

Now it's like if they break a record, it's every five years or something.

Maybe you guys are changing it all the time.

Yeah.

And wearing like leather jackets.

You know what I mean?

Watching cars disintegrate in front of you.

So I think for most racers standpoint,

they look at drag racing like you guys are insane.

It's like motorcycle guys.

Same thing.

You look at these bike racers, you're like, no, you guys are badass.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

And so for me, you know, I'm kind of jumping ahead here.

There's no, there's no storyline here.

You do whatever you want.

Yeah.

Well, you say that.

But for me, you know, I think every drag racer starting out,

every young kid, I mean, yeah, they want to drag race,

but they love Indy car racing and Indy 500.

I mean, who doesn't want to run the Indy 500?

So I was one of those guys to just hooked on it, you know.

But I got to know Gurney on all of them.

So, so when does the nickname show up?

Oh, yeah.

Because is it Joel Purcell claims he gave it to you?

Is that is that correct?

Because I'm sure there's a bunch of guys that claim.

Well, no, no, it was this guy, Joe Purcell.

Okay.

Yeah.

He worked.

He was, I don't know, he hung out with us, basically.

And with the queer black car.

And so the name Snake started when I was driving that car

for Keith Black and the Myers car.

That's when it started because he started calling me that.

And I thought, you know, like, don't, don't call me that.

I don't like that.

Wait, why is he doing that though?

And then, but he'll snake you, you know, and he was just a fun guy.

And so the next thing I know, the announcer started calling me that snake.

And so I just kind of went with it.

My last name Purcell was like really a bitch to pronounce back then, you know.

So Snake was way easier.

But why is he calling you this though?

Well, quick off the starting line.

Good question.

Quick off the starting line.

I kind of had a knack.

And even when I go, I must say, even when I go back through a lot of my old pictures

and I look at stuff, I've always got a wheel on a guy that I'm racing.

You know, I'm, I'm, I was very intense and very quick.

So that's the quickness is where it all started.

And a good buddy of mine, Tom McEwen, was driving a car for a guy by the name Ed

Donovan that used to build Donovan engines, aluminum engines back in the day,

which was a big deal.

He was just, we were instant friends when I met him at the drag races, you know.

But he was a good driver too.

And he was, he was real involved.

And he beat us a couple of times.

And so, but he cheated me, you know, on starting.

But I will bring that up right now.

Yeah, do it right now.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

He got, he knew the starter.

He knew the starter and they give us a quick light and he jumped out already on it.

I get down at the end.

I said, God damn bad.

I mean, I mean, I wanted to fight.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, we all fought back.

Yeah, you know, there was none of this.

Get out and kiss a guy and hug a guy like they do.

No, no, didn't even talk to him.

Right.

So, uh, uh, Mongoose, uh, he beat us.

That's Tommy Kuehn.

Tommy Kuehn, yeah.

But then he'd make fun of me.

We get down there.

Ah, you'd laugh.

You know, I said, you son of a, I mean, I took it serious.

You know, I wanted to kick his ass and all his crew guys.

Right.

Anyhow.

Yeah, that's amazing.

So, so Mongoose, uh, oh man, he was, uh, he was a real promoter.

Remember them new drag news I was telling you about?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, he knew the other that owned the company.

The, uh, the paper, her name was Doris Herbert.

And, uh, you know, he had a direct line to her.

You know, he's a real promoter type guy.

Well, he, uh, uh, you know, he started calling himself the Mongoose.

And anyway, and he did that because Mongoose can kill a snake, right?

Yeah, just just to mess with you.

Oh yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

And, um, he would put these little cartoons in the paper of the Mongoose and snake fight.

Yeah.

That's showing it.

Yeah.

And so all of a sudden the, uh, the tracks around wanted to see the, uh, Mongoose and snake race.

You know, they would, they would book us in, you know.

And, um, you know, we did that for quite a, quite a little while.

And then, um, the Mattel thing happened.

Hot wheels.

Right.

So we have a, um, so we have sort of a, uh, we have a club membership in our, we have our own

little club, uh, called dinner club.

Uh, we have a, a big fan who loves you.

His name is Carl Cacuzza.

And, uh, he had a question for you, which is where we're going here.

Uh, did Hot Wheels come to you and Tommy Keown, the Mongoose, uh, or did you guys put it together

and take it to them with Mattel and the whole Hot Wheels program?

Yeah, good question.

Uh, mind you, I'm still painting cars.

Oh, so you still have a day job, right?

I'm still working.

I have a day job and driving the queer car and stuff.

Even though you're in the magazines and you guys are a big deal.

Yeah, but, but I still work.

Right.

And all the money, all the money wasn't that much, but it was more than I'd seen.

Yeah.

We'd win with the queer car.

That money would go to the bank.

Yeah.

And, uh, I had a sponsor, a wind oil company, was, was my first, uh, sponsor that I went to

out here in Azusa and they, uh, uh, and I pitched, um, uh, Carl Wynn, the guy that owned the company.

And we become friends and he, he, he sponsored us, you know?

And, uh, I remember I asked for 10,000 bucks for a sponsorship and, uh, that's when I was

building my own car, you know, and I was going on my own and, um, I'm sure that was huge money.

Oh boy.

Yeah.

And they, they called me back a week or so later and I'm just sweating bullets.

And the gal, uh, the lady that called, she says, you know, it was their sector.

We can't give you a 10, but would you take seven?

And I says, deal.

It's more money I'd ever seen, you know.

So you're, you're barely making this work.

You're certainly not making money.

No.

Yeah.

But you and Tom have this great kind of side show going on.

Yeah.

We have this thing going and, uh, he has, uh, he had kids.

I didn't have any kids.

They were playing with these hot, hot wheels when they first come out.

And, uh, his mother was, uh, worked for a law firm, Ball Hunt and Brown in Long Beach.

And they had a, um, they did work for Mattel.

So he asked her if she could talk to someone there to get a, a meeting.

So they did, he did, and he went in there and had this meeting.

I didn't even know about it.

Tom did.

Yeah.

Then he came out to the shop in, um, Van Iser, where I was working and said,

guess what?

I just came from Mattel and, uh, they want to talk to both of us about a sponsorship

with snake and the mongoose.

Mongoose and snake.

I was like, ah, come on, get the f*** out of here.

I ain't buying it.

And, uh, now were you guys friends or is he kind of a, okay.

So he's not, he's not one of these guys.

You sort of side eye every time he's got a deal.

No.

Okay.

So you're going to take him at his value.

Oh yeah.

We're the best friends.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So he said they want to see both of us.

They want to have a meeting with both of us.

So it was a couple of days later, we went to Mattel.

I was nervous as f***, you know.

And, um, went in and talked to them about the snake and the mongoose.

Mongoose and snake, hot wheel cars, you know, for them to sponsor us.

And here's what we can do for you.

Well, it just so happens, there was a guy by the name of Larry Woods that worked for

Mattel.

That was a huge drag racing fan.

Oh, wow.

We talk about this a lot.

There's a champion.

There's somebody that's championing it from the inside because they're a fan of it.

So we went, uh, went to the meeting and Larry Woods came in and he already had

the pictures drawn up of how the hot wheel cars would look the snake of the mongoose.

Yeah.

So he's, he's motivated.

Yeah.

He's like, he's like totally in and they, it was a done deal.

I mean, it didn't take any time at all.

They sponsored us.

But let me ask you, this is, this is more a lesson for our fans to understand.

Um, Tommy Woods wasn't there.

Would this deal have happened in other words?

Somebody that was very excited about drag racing and wanted to be part of Larry Woods.

Larry, excuse me.

I'm sorry.

Um, I don't, that's a good question.

I don't know because they were all on board.

Yeah.

You know, the, uh, it was like, uh, was Larry a higher up.

He was the head designer.

Okay.

Mattel Hot Wheels.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so man, he had him, he had them all drawn up how the cars would look, you know, and,

um, but the only problem is that Tom pitched them for funny cars and I was a dragster guy.

And we just won, let's see, this was 69.

I won the U S nationals of my front engine dragster and this, so this was 70.

We were in 1970 and I wanted to go back to Indy and try to win it again with my front

engine top fuel dragster.

Yeah.

But Mattel wanted us to run funny cars.

And at that time, funny car wasn't as big of a deal, right?

Well, they were getting that way.

I started to grow.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I never liked them, you know, because, you know, I wanted the fastest and quickest

thing, you know, and all that automatic transmission and all that stuff.

But it's hard to, it's hard to make a 164th diecast of a little frame rail versus an actual car.

Yeah, pretty much.

So bottom line is they, uh, they wanted to run these funny cars.

And of course I wanted to complain and, you know, if they're going to pay for it.

Yeah.

And so really that's how it started, you know, with McEwen approaching them and in the sponsorship

was, it was just really a cool promotion for Mattel.

I mean, they came back years later and said, man, we've never been able to beat this promotion,

you know, with, uh, with what we had going with you guys.

So that really, that really launched us pretty well in the drag racing world, as far as

funny cars, which they were really popular at the time.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, the rest is kind of went on.

Yeah.

With the, with the inclusion of a Mattel Hot Wheels sponsorship, at that point, drag racing

didn't have as big a sponsors like that, right?

Like big corporate ones that were all in on a product.

So from what I've read, that actually opened the door for other companies to come in and.

Yeah.

They were really the first Fortune 500 company that, uh, was in the sport, you know, before that it was,

well, wins, maybe like automotive related.

Yeah, automotive exactly.

Yeah.

Not, not no Fortune 500 company or anything.

So, um, it was a big deal.

I mean, it was the fans, the kids and stuff.

We go around and run these cars back east on tour.

And by the way, that's how we really made money is campaigning all around the country.

I mean, Mattel's backing was great and built the cars and the trucks and all that stuff.

But we still had to go out there and promote their products.

And we'd go to Myland, Michigan.

And we might be at a, um, a store, I don't know, a Kmart or whatever it was, you know,

with cars would be parked out there on display.

We'd be out there signing autographs and, you know, pumping the hot wheels.

And so we did all that stuff.

Yeah.

So this, this is very bottom in the modern era.

It's like touring comedians where you're going to make so much money doing the racing,

but it's really all the ancillary things that the business really.

Yeah.

And no one was doing this before that.

No, not really.

Yeah.

And so we would, uh, and, and did you, I'm saying this to almost to be funny,

but you don't have a, a booker or an agent.

This is you and Tommy.

Yeah.

We never heard of that.

No, definitely.

Tom and myself and we had no agents or anything of the sort.

And, um, he was, he was, he was really, really good that way.

I mean, yeah, he was just a real promoter and I was more the racer.

I just wanted a bad ass.

His motor was all chrome mine, not so, but I had a blower on it, you know,

and a bad ass set of heads, you know, so that's all I cared about.

Well, this is happening.

You, you actually just, to go back a step on a personal level, you met your wife in high school?

Junior high.

Okay.

In art class, is that correct?

Yes.

Yeah.

Seventh grade.

You guys have been together ever since?

Yes.

Yeah.

60, I think it's 62 years, I think.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

61, 60.

Was it one of those things out of a movie where you saw her, you knew right away?

Yeah.

Oh wow.

That's awesome.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah, I walked in my art class and I wasn't really a bad ass or none of that sort, you know.

I was kind of a, I was kind of a, I don't know, I wouldn't call me a squirrel, but I was,

you know, I just wasn't very cool.

I didn't think, you know, compared to a lot of the other guys that wore leather jackets.

Very different from me.

Yeah, I was super cool in junior high, so.

Yeah.

Right.

Sean knows.

So, but I, yeah, I saw her and I walked in my art class and I looked to my left and there she was,

you know, and so I, you know, went to the skating rink and all kinds of stuff where

everybody'd go and kind of won her over, you know, took a few years.

Oh wow, it wasn't immediate on her end.

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

So you got what we call friend zoned.

Yeah.

Where she, you're going to be friends and you're going to slowly make your way.

Or not.

Yeah, or it just failed, which I relate.

Yeah.

Um, wow, that's a long time.

So you, you sold wins on a $7,000 sponsorship.

Uh-huh.

Did, uh, did Hot Wheels change the game in terms of how budgets worked in the sport?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Did you screw it up for everybody?

No, no, not at all.

We, uh, you know, we, we didn't really know the value of it or anything.

We were looking for where, uh, race cars, money to buy parts and pieces and stuff like that,

you know, I mean, it was a, it was a lot of money at the time compared to what we were getting,

you know, from wins and so on.

And I think it was around 60,000 bucks, which was pretty good for two guys.

You know, right.

Yeah.

Uh, we, uh,

that's when all the problems started with the money, with Tom and I.

Yeah.

It, uh, it, uh, we put it in one pile and we would draw out of it to buy parts and stuff

for our racing.

But without communicating.

Yeah.

I see.

And my wife, who's Lynn, who is just excellent with books and everything, she goes, Hey, uh,

Mongoose has spent a lot more than you are over here, you know.

And so, uh, yeah.

So he would, uh, buy these chicks, uh, necklaces and rainbows, all kinds of trick.

Yeah.

So he's spending money not necessarily on the racing.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

He had a briefcase, uh, at the end of the night, he used to like pop that open and there'd be

some chicks hanging out, you know, they were like a lot of them back then, you know, and, uh,

he'd give, give them a little necklace or something and they were in love.

You know, I mean, he was like the guy.

Yeah.

But he, he spent a lot of, a lot of his time entertaining the ladies and spending a lot

of money.

Okay.

Yeah.

And it's shared money.

Yeah.

So we split that up.

We had a corporation, uh, uh, we put together, it was called wildlife racing.

Okay.

You know, and it was, you know, it was cool, you know, but anyhow, we split that up and we,

we went on our, we went on our separate ways as far as spending money, but we, we always

maintain our, uh, our relationship with the racing and all that, you know,

you just didn't want to be accountable for each other.

No.

Yeah.

I understand that.

Well, married old Dom probably not doing that.

Oh, yes.

But yeah.

Would you have been more understanding if it was money towards car parts?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

No good.

Oh yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, but.

If it's on girls.

Yeah.

It wasn't, he was, uh, it just, you know,

we were just both a lot different.

Yeah.

I got a different focus at the time.

Yeah.

Well, his mom, his family had money.

Yeah.

I see.

So I didn't, you know.

So the value wasn't always there at the same time.

No, not even close.

Just a different attitude.

Yeah.

I understand.

So, uh, at what point, what year was your daughter born?

73.

Okay.

Is, is that roughly when the, uh, when the winning street came to an end?

There's a story about this that we were, we were led to believe.

When my daughter was born, she was a premium.

Okay.

Yeah.

They didn't think she was going to make it.

The doctor, no, but shit, you know.

So we're at St. Joseph's Hospital and, uh, and Lynn had the baby.

They didn't want me in the room because they think it would be stillborn.

Hey, you know, it was a bad deal back in those days.

Yeah.

But anyhow, she was fine.

She was a premium.

She's four pounds, four ounces, you know.

Yeah.

But she made it and, um, that, um, pretty much changed my life.

You know, right after that, that very weekend I left the hospital.

I flew back to, uh, Martin, Michigan.

Uh, they were having a popular hot riding race.

It was called back in those days at Martin, Michigan.

We kicked everyone's ass big time.

And I, I was like in this great mood, you know, because, you know, Donna and the,

you know, all that.

And so that kind of changed everything for me.

My, my luck got really good.

I worked my ass off after that because she had another.

Well, now you get exactly right.

Yeah.

You're responsible for someone else.

Oh yeah.

It was bitching.

Yeah.

I loved it.

We understand that you did the first Nora 1000.

You filled in for somebody.

Man, that's back in the day.

Oh, there was a guy out in the valley.

He was, he was quite a bit older than me, but he was, his name was Tony Nancy.

And he, uh, he did a poultry work that was, and he was a drag racer,

but he'd raced at Bonneville and all that in the forties and you know,

but he was a great looking guy, real husky, always worked out and all that, you know,

and, uh, he did unbelievable poultry work.

And, um, I mean, Zach Brown would know that name.

Okay.

You know, Tony Nancy, you know.

And so, uh, anyhow, he was, uh, he kind of took me under his wing a little bit.

You know, I was kind of, guys would beat up on me pretty good back in the day,

you know, roughing you up and calling you or whatever.

But he, uh, he would kind of take me under his wing.

Anyhow, he did a poultry work for a few of my little dragster dragsters and stuff.

But some of his key customers were like Steve McQueen.

Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah.

James Karner.

Yeah.

So McQueen would come in there often, you know, and, um, uh, he had, uh, I remember once

he had a Ferrari, uh, Spider, I forget which one it was, it was a 12 cylinder car,

but he would get a brand new Ferrari, take it to Tony and they'd redo the seats in it.

So Steve could fit in it good.

You know, he didn't like the stock seat.

Sure.

So Tony would redo the upholstery and, um, anyhow, he did a lot of work for him.

And I, and I got to know him pretty good McQueen, you know, and yeah, I was bad ass.

He was like, you know, you hear all this about how cool he was.

He was all that and more.

He was like beyond.

Yeah.

So, um, uh, anyhow, he was, uh, he built Tony built a, uh, an off road car,

uh, uh, what they call him a sand rail back in the day.

You know, it was an off rail car and, um, uh, they, he put a Porsche engine in there to

some sort and everything.

Anyhow, he was going to take it to Baja to run the 1000.

And I didn't know anything about Baja on the 1000 and never even been down there.

I don't know.

But anyhow, bottom line is, uh, uh, McQueen couldn't make it.

You know, he, he couldn't, he couldn't do the race because he, I think it was working on

Le Mans or some movie like that, you know.

So, uh, Tony says, Hey, why don't you go with me?

You know, right?

Yeah, sure.

So anyhow, we did, we went down there and I filled in for Steve, I guess you could say

Tony drove and Steve's guys were there.

Yeah.

It's one kid Mario on, he was there watching over us and stuff.

And anyhow, um, first time I was ever down there and thank God, the thing broke down

before we got off the payment because it was nowhere near cause I've been to Baja

many times since.

Yeah.

And it was nowhere near anything that could have made it on the 1000 mile.

It's been a nightmare.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

I mean, this thing had these little bitty shocks on it.

We were sitting there.

You could fall out of it.

There was no protection.

Yeah.

Anyhow.

But you didn't say no.

You just went for it.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, and you didn't even know.

So, uh, but, but Fearless Domper Dom's right up there too.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I would, I was ready.

Yeah.

No problem.

But you can always say you're Steve McQueen's fill-in driver.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah.

No, it was, yeah, two story.

Yeah.

It was amazing.

So we heard you had a short-lived boat racing career.

Mm-hmm.

You're good.

That was the stupidest thing I ever did.

By far.

Proceed.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Are you a good swimmer?

It was like I was driving the Greer Black Pradone car.

Yeah.

And Zucho, remember that name Zucho?

Yeah.

He built engines for some boat guys.

And he, and he lived out in the valley where I live.

Built this guy's boat, or put the engine into whatever.

Guy by the name of Renee Andre, it was a wooden hydroplane boat.

Wood.

Not, not fiberglass like they have now, but wood.

Yeah, it was a coating over it or something.

Anyhow, I drove that thing.

We went 100, I went 136 in it.

And this is, this is like blown gas in the state.

That was really fast.

Yeah.

I thought, holy shit.

The oxygen.

No, no.

You're sitting in a, like in this chair with a steering wheel here.

Yeah.

And I swear to God, there is absolutely nothing around.

Yeah, right.

The engine, the blower is like right behind your head here.

And so I went back the next day to run it down through there and

it hit a wake or something.

I don't even know what happened.

But I got about almost to the finish line and that thing flew.

I mean, it took off.

It pitched me out of the boat.

Yeah.

Next thing I knew, I was coming up out of the water.

I knew I crashed, but I was coming up out of the water.

And first thing I seen was my helmet floating next to me.

Not good.

And the boat, the tip of the boat was just sinking.

You know, because it just destroyed me.

And I'm like, and I can't hardly move because I'm like,

I didn't know if I was dead or not.

I'm serious.

Yeah, yeah.

So the boats pulled me over to the shore and put me in an ambulance

and on in Mickey Thompson.

Yeah, Mickey Thompson was out there.

And of course, he knew us from drag racing.

He ran lines, drags, tripping everything.

He raced everything.

Right.

He was unbelievable.

And I was on this stretcher, put me in the ambulance and he comes

running up with his bill full and stuck it in my hand.

And he says, you'll have all the money you need right in here.

If you need anything, you got the money to go to the hospital.

Yeah, right.

I don't have no money.

Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I went to the hospital and they had to cut my clothes off me.

And I mean, it was the best.

I laid in bed for a couple of weeks.

I was so tore up, but I didn't break anything,

but just tore all the muscles and body.

But I'll never forget Mickey doing that.

That was just really cool of him.

He had a stand up guy, you know.

Yeah, and also having the thought process.

Yeah, you might have to help him.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's pretty damn cool.

That was big.

So the interesting story about you

is that you didn't realize that you were a mixed race until later in life.

Right.

So how did you find that out for the first time?

Oh, man, you got to know about Creole people.

You got to know about how they were treated in the South.

Yeah.

My folks from an area, they call it Cane River.

OK.

And it's all Creole people basically on this river.

And when my folks came out to California, they apparently they

wanted to leave all that behind, all the prejudice, all the stuff from

Louisiana.

Yeah.

And when you're in California, there's so many mixed,

you know, there's Hispanics and everything, you know.

So they wanted to leave that behind, apparently.

But they didn't really discuss it with me.

So when I'm growing up, I thought I was just white family.

Right.

I have a sister that Joyce, she's actually got blonde hair.

OK.

Yeah.

Then I have another sister that looks like my brother and stuff.

Yeah.

No one, none of them as dark as I am.

Right.

But I used to go to my mom as a little kid and say,

hey, these people are calling me stuff, you know.

Oh, don't pay any attention to that.

She says, all those just mean people.

Correct.

There's nothing more.

No, you don't have any kind of blackness in you.

No, she was really almost mean about it.

Yeah.

You know, it almost wanted to kick my ass because I even asked.

Sure.

But as time went on, you know, I kind of started figuring it out for myself, you know.

And but she was she lived until she was 93 and she lived in complete denial.

And so I went down there to Louisiana, Cain River and my sisters.

We all went down there and there is a cemetery, a church, you know,

the lot of churches, right?

But this on Cain River is a really cute church, you know, and a cemetery there.

And you have to be Creole to be buried in it.

And my grand folks names were on the tombstones and stuff, you know.

And, you know, up to I never she lived to 93, but I never really confronted her with all that.

Why did you lie to me?

And why did you do this?

Why did you do that?

Yeah.

So I'm not the only one that went through that.

I'm sure there's a different time where such a different time, you know.

And my sisters were so great as especially Jeanette, my one says she lives in Maine.

And she's just oh, she likes going down there and she studies the history.

Oh my God, did you know this?

Did you know that?

I don't want to.

Yeah, it's a whole TV show.

So it's been interesting, you know.

But growing up in the in the 40s and 50s for her mother, I assume this was

this her way of trying to protect you?

Yes.

OK.

What's the prejudice would have been at that time?

Oh, absolutely.

I definitely think that.

Yeah.

Yeah, they they were big drinkers, you know.

So it's not something that they'd want to talk about and especially to me.

But man, I had a hard time dealing with that through my through my life, you know, especially

the for early stages, because I had I've had people in the early days come up being the drag

strip, you know, especially black dudes or something.

Say, hey, man, are you a brother?

And I went, I'm everybody's brother.

That's the only answer I had, man.

You know, you know, and but I don't know, it's it's kind of cool now.

I mean, I'm I've been way fine with it.

But I wish I had known because it was it caused a lot of a lot of heartaches and problems

and all that, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not good to keep something like that.

Absolutely not.

It's a identity crisis.

Yeah, really not.

You know, it just I ended up had a really I hate to say it, but really disliking them

because of that, because they're not telling me and like put me out in the world like that.

And, you know, you got to tell your kids what's going on for sure.

But, you know, you had to especially then then I'm getting in the public eye, you know,

people's names, but I don't give a **** now.

That was a big deal.

Yeah.

What I read was that you were really reluctant to discuss it back in the day.

Was that because of any sort of notoriety that wouldn't come from talent?

Like you didn't want to be seen as somebody that was unique other than that you were really

good at what you did?

I think no.

I mean, I think I was really good at what I did.

Yeah.

But man, I didn't know how to handle it back in the day, you know, because,

you know, it just, you know, you'd have to go to press interviews or something, you know.

And you just want to be a raiser.

Yeah, I just want to be a racer.

Leave me alone, you know, but, well, where were you born?

What's your national?

Yeah, right.

You know, who cares, you know, but people cared.

Would Tom McEwen have been able to market that?

Oh, no, no, but McEwen, I got to tell you, man.

He was like, back in the day, he never even brought that up to me as close as we were.

You know, we went to Mattel, any of that, too busy, none of that stuff.

What was, even if you were thinking it, were you asking those kind of questions even at that time

in terms of your background?

From who?

Like, in other words, like you say, Tom never brought this stuff up.

Right.

But what do you have had a reason to bring this up in a sense?

Like, if you never mentioned it, he's certainly not going to ask.

Yeah, right.

I don't know, man.

I don't know why we never read, never ask or maybe he says, I've heard shit like that before,

but Tom and I were like, you know.

Well, if you grew up in Long Beach, he probably doesn't give a shit.

Yeah, he would give a shit, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Different world.

Yeah.

So we don't, as much as we're a racing show, as you're hearing, we'd like to talk about things that are outside of racing.

I can tell.

That's how we get to know you, exactly.

But, you know, you do have no shortage of big accolades.

You've won, I think it's 800 championships and about 1200 national titles.

Do you, if you go home and look at, first of all, do you have a giant trophy case or is it very subtle?

I'm guessing you're not, you don't have an I love me room.

No.

Yeah.

Do you have a favorite thing?

Well, I had a trophy room, I guess you'd call it.

We have some property over here in Vista and I had a shop there for several years.

Even when I quit racing, we kept it for business, but that's where I kept all my trophies and all that.

Well, we, we're not using the building anymore, so we leased it out.

And so I brought a few things home.

But for the most part, for all these years of someone coming to my house,

they had no idea that I was at racing.

Right.

None.

No pictures on the wall.

None.

I have a table there now that that I have stuff on, but it's mainly, I'd say like this, but it's like

Hall of Fame stuff, you know,

you know, that I was presented, you know, in this Hall of Fame, that Hall of Fame and I'm in all of,

you know, when I keep that, I like that stuff.

But the, what they call wallies, you know, the big trophies for winning an HRA event.

Fuck, I had almost 200 of them from all my racing stuff.

You know, now they're just going in storage, you know, I mean, what do you do with them?

Do you have a favorite memento, whether it's a trophy or a thing that you've got to drink it?

Is there a favorite piece in your collection?

That's a good question.

Um, I really appreciate the one, the Hall of Fame and, um, um, Daytona, the, um, the International.

Yeah, I like that.

I got that.

No, I have some special ones.

I got a trophy about this high and it's Baja.

Yeah.

You know, and we actually won Baja one year I did and I got that trophy and I think that's

cool, man.

I mean, how hard that was to get, man.

So your favorite trophy is in a drag racing one.

No, it's the one where you drove like an idiot a thousand miles down the Mexican Peninsula.

Yeah, yeah.

That's the one you're proud of.

You know, I know you're, you know, road racer.

Um, I get a bang out of, um, sometimes guys in drag racing that they think they can do that

because they can go 400 miles an hour, 300, whatever, but road racing and drag racing

are two different animals, man.

I mean, it is, I tried it and it worked out.

It went through bondarounds back in the day.

Uh, uh, I really liked it, but man, was it hard?

I mean, was it, I mean, to, to hit your marks all the time and to don't fall out of the

seat and get tired of, yeah, I mean, it's, I, I just, so that's why I fell in love with

Mario and AJ, Dan Gurney and all those guys, you know, and so our good friend, Terry Lingner,

produced the fast master series in the 1990.

Do you remember this?

No, the Jaguars that raced around.

Oh, sure I do.

And Eddie Hill got to race in that.

Yeah.

And Ed McCulloch and Ed McCulloch, but not you.

Did you, was that something you would have wanted to do?

Yes.

And they didn't call you?

No, and I don't know why I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know why, but they were those real high dollar Mercedes.

Yeah.

They tore them up, but you see Eddie Hill and you're just jealous.

Yeah, you're like, come on, man.

I probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you've done Baja in a bunch of like UTV races and stuff like that.

Recently was last time you did one.

Good question.

Last time, maybe a couple of two, three years ago.

Yeah.

I ran down there.

I ran it three times.

Okay.

And this is Baja or Nora?

Nora, I'm sorry.

Yeah, Nora.

Yeah, I'll run it three.

I like the Nora because you stop at night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But God is in a lot of work.

Yeah.

I mean, getting the cars ready for the next day and the dust and dirt.

I mean, guys think they're badass.

Go down to Baja and run that thousand miles.

Right.

See how you like that?

Especially the Baja 1000.

That's not the real deal.

Yeah, the real deal.

Was that the score?

Score.

The score, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, we might be going this year.

I was back in the day when Sal Fish owned it and Mickey Thompson started it.

And Mickey Thompson used to do some inside stadium racing.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

They raced at Anaheim, maybe.

Yeah.

So I was like totally totally aware of what was going on.

Your UTV program, I was reading had like Walker Evans.

Oh, yeah.

PJ Jones.

Oh, yeah.

He's like badass racers helping you with your side by side.

For fun.

So even when you're doing basically something that's not professional,

you're still doing it at a level of what Don the snake prudone would expect.

Well, I guess PJ Jones and Parnelli, of course.

Yeah.

I mean, I love Parnelli and remain good friends with him till he passed, you know.

And PJ, he built a car too for me.

And he would put on these and still does put on these rides down there.

You know, to Baja.

We haven't been lately, you know, because all the problems.

But he, yeah, that was great fun.

Great fun with all those guys, you know, and people you meet and all that.

It was wonderful.

Yeah.

How do you feel the safety has come over the last 50 years?

In drag racing or in motor sports.

In drag racing, yeah.

I can tell you about both of them.

Oh, drag racing.

Yeah, it really is.

I mean, the, of course, you've seen the John Forrest accident, right?

But I mean, that that accident is going to keep happening.

That's not the last time we'll see someone in a funny car crash like that.

I mean, Caps just had a big one here the other week, you know, was it Pomona or something?

Yeah, Pomona slapped the guardrail there and his head.

Yeah, it was big.

So I'm real, I'm real concerned about motor sports all around.

And especially drag racing, it has changed so much.

It's a kind of thing.

Drag racing is a kind of thing.

I hate to say it like this, but it's not a real difficult thing to do, you know?

I mean, if you got the money and you got a daughter or a kid or something,

you can put them in a car out there and he can get from one end to the other.

It might take a few laps, you know, and, you know, half track runs and so on.

But if you really have the desire, you can learn to do that pretty quick.

And a lot of these people that are doing it now, their family have money.

They spend millions of dollars doing that.

It blows my mind.

I mean, I would never do that.

I mean, never in a million years spend that kind of money or any kind of money.

I mean, I when I did it in Mongoose and Ed McCulloch and Don Garlett and Shirley

Montalini and all those guys, we made a living doing it.

I mean, it was a business nowadays.

It's not a business.

The business is a hobby to those guys.

Yeah, it's a hobby for most of them out there.

I would say I'm not talking John Ford.

That's still a business.

For the top ones.

Yeah, right.

But I'm talking a lot of these guys.

It's a it's a it's a it's a hobby.

Yeah.

Expensive hobby.

Sports car racing.

We call these these drivers gentlemen drivers.

Yes, I bring in the funding.

And a lot of times because there's multiple drivers in the Enduros,

they help fund our careers.

But I've noticed a big shift in that in your world just from watching and seeing

like, I don't know any of these names.

And it's their name on the side of the car and not Budweiser or whatever.

It's all gone.

So it seems like as you were pointing out,

like if you can get the thing down there, you can be in the show,

you know, at least to get to some of it.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

If you yeah, yeah, it don't get me wrong.

I mean, do I want to drive a drag racing car anymore?

Hell, no, I don't want.

I wouldn't even step foot in one.

I started up Ron Kapps's car last year.

We're at it in India.

Yeah.

We were doing this promotion start up, you know,

people want to film you start.

So I sat in it and they started up.

Holy I don't want any part of that.

Yeah.

I mean, those pipes, they think pounds.

Yeah.

And back of my day, they didn't pound like they do now.

It's a brutal amount of horsepower.

Yeah.

So I don't want to do it anymore.

Yeah.

How did you feel when they went away from the quarter mile?

Oh, I thought it was completely necessary.

OK, OK.

I was there in English town.

I forget what year it was, but we were running pretty good.

And Scott Coletta was running down through there and they blew up.

And man, I went down to the end of the track.

I mean, you know, Connie is a good friend of mine and,

you know, and I'm on my motor scooter and they let me go

anywhere I want to go, you know, you know what I mean?

Which is kind of cool.

But I went down there and oh, man, I mean, it killed him, you know, dead.

You know, I thought, wow, what's this all mean here?

You know, what are we doing?

That's the point of this.

So shortly after that, I think in the next week of Graham Light,

who was really running that competition side of the NHRA,

got together with some of the guys and they put it to a thousand feet.

Because after a thousand feet, and I know this from experience happens.

I mean, it gets violent down there.

I mean, after a thousand feet, I used to like to want to shut off at a thousand

when I was driving, especially dragsters.

But man, that extra 300 and some feet,

they don't want to blow the engine up and blow you out of the car.

So they did the right thing.

But now, of course, they're going 341 in a thousand feet.

So I don't know, man, it's been cool, though.

I mean, I dig it still and everything.

I just, I just, I don't know.

I don't want to do it.

Yeah, I hear you.

Well, speaking of the business, so we have another club member, Casey Latham,

who is something that's actually very relevant to the stuff we've done, too.

He wants to get your take on the fact that so many tracks have shut down

in the last 20 years, even places like New Jersey Raceway Park,

that maybe the facility's still there,

but they simply don't hold drag racing anymore.

I'm a student of that.

Well, it's the obvious.

It's the noise.

It's the value of the property.

Like English Township, New Jersey, was a great racetrack.

And we used to race there all the time.

Every year they had a national man and they had match races,

Vinny Knapp, I think, is waiting, you know, the family ran the track.

I was there in 59.

But did he have the noise?

Just run them out of there.

You know, they're building homes around it and people complaining,

you know, so next thing you know, guess what?

God, you know, it didn't.

Then the other thing, I mean, Southern California here,

there's only one track left.

And that's Pomona.

Yeah, and even that's encircled by a lot of homes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

But, you know, back then, man, we had Pomona.

We had Irwindale, Fontana, Colton, Lions Dragstrip, Riverside.

We used to race out at Riverside.

So but it's an adventurable.

Yeah, yeah, that too.

But, you know, that's that's a problem.

And it is what it is, you know, and we got some tracks left and they got national events now.

And that's all that sponsors care about is national events and TV coverage and TV ratings

and all that stuff, which is still in the toilet.

You know, the TV ratings are terrible.

I say terrible, but, you know, compared to Cup and yeah,

yeah, yeah, sure.

When you were getting out of the seat, you put Larry Dixon in your car and he was a mechanic

at the time, right?

Yeah, that's a terrible start.

You want to hear the story?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK.

Well, this was in 94.

Yeah, 94.

Pretty good.

You guys ran it up.

That was in 94.

We got notes.

We did.

We do know you.

So what happened to me.

Is that I'm running for school.

U.S. tobacco.

Yeah.

The glory days.

Yeah.

The glory days.

Yeah.

Harry Gann.

I used to hang with him and he was so cool in all the U.S.T. guys to buy.

I mean, you know, everybody hates tobacco.

We all know that.

No, we're we're big.

We're big.

Yeah.

Me too.

I like funding our sport.

Me too.

But man, they were just they were just cool people.

School people.

Yeah, they were great people.

So, I mean, Foyt race for him too.

You know, matter of fact, that's how I got on board of U.S.T.

I was off in 86.

I took the year off.

I didn't have a sponsor.

The reason I took it off.

And I and I was and I needed some time away.

You know, I was like beat up and anyhow.

But I still like going to the 500.

So I was there.

I was at Foyt's garage and he was sponsored by Copenhagen.

And there was a guy from U.S.T. there, which is Copenhagen.

And just a regular dude, you know, guy my age or something.

He says, you ought to talk to the company about sponsorship.

Get back into drag racing.

Well, I kind of wanted to get back in, but I didn't have.

It's a real process to find a sponsor.

You know that.

Oh, we know.

Yeah.

So I didn't know about anyhow.

He introduced me to the U.S.T. guys.

And they liked the fact that I was older, like Harry Gantt and AJ Foyt.

And we were like, I don't want you to work legends or well known in the.

We can call you a legend.

Okay, I can't.

We are.

I don't know.

Whatever the **** they were going to use.

But anyhow, Larry was a kid that lived out in the valley where I had a shop at Northridge.

A little bitty shop, you know, a nice shop.

And he lived out in the valley, too.

And his dad was quite a drag racer in his day.

Larry Dixon senior.

So Larry was always around it.

And he came to work for us, you know, and he's a good worker.

And I really liked him.

We got real close.

He's young.

He's like my son to me pretty much, you know.

And so we I was going.

Penny Richard was you know, he retired.

He had that tour.

Yes, right.

Yeah, that that where we called his tour the day his last year.

Richard.

Yeah.

And he had a fan appreciation tour.

He called it anyhow.

The UST guys say to me we went to this.

They had a home up in upstate New York, anyhow, in the Hamptons or whatever.

I mean, they had a lot of money, right?

So we were in this meeting up there.

They said, hey, why don't you have a tour next year?

We'll pay you this much money.

You have a tour that should be your last year.

And you're going to retire like Richard.

I went, really?

Plus they gave me a deal.

They gave me five years retirement money.

Oh, five years.

Yeah, right.

So was it more than $7,000?

Oh, yeah.

So I went in and I got done with that.

I went out to the other room and my wife was there, of course,

and we were sitting down for dinner.

She said, what happened?

The deal.

I told the deal and this is the money they want to give us for five years.

She said, take it.

Yeah, you get to be home.

Yeah, take it.

So that was by last year, 94.

It was called the final strike tour.

That's right.

So Larry went with us, of course, on the tour.

He was working for me.

And he wanted to drive.

So we sent him to driving school, Frank Holly School, Lynn paid for it.

And then I told him, hey, of course, this is my last year.

So why don't you make a steering wheel and get fitted in the car so we can test you.

And see if you get your license.

So when I quit, you'll have a top fuel license drive for somebody.

So we went out to we were in Gainesville.

You want to hear all this shit?

Yeah. Yeah.

OK, so we were out Gainesville and we're going to test the next day,

you know, and Western was working for us.

He was really, really good.

And I thought, man, this would be a good time to put Larry in the car.

So I talked to Wes.

He said, let's put him in the car.

Let him do the testing.

And man, he took to it like a duct of water.

Yeah, he just wow.

And I was up in the tower looking at the time slips and he ran better than I did, you know.

And he was just he was just a real we had a real good feel for it.

And so I got so excited that I said, well, I want to stay racing.

You know, well, UST has already said those are your last year and you're gone.

So I had to find a sponsor.

So I want to throw around names here about Rusty Wallace.

Him and I are like really, really good pals.

He's one of my all time best buddies.

So I called Rusty and I said, hey, man, which I had heard that Miller was interested

in getting back into drag racing, Miller Bear.

So Rusty says, let me make a call for you.

So he called Milwaukee and set a meeting up for us myself and Larry to go in there

and talk to them about a sponsorship.

Well, wow, you know, here I am now a team owner and Larry's going to be the driver

and he didn't have a suit or coat or nothing.

So Lynn got him a sports coat and I showed him how to tie his tie.

We woke up in the morning and he got all dressed and got his tie.

And I looked at him as a handsome kid, you know, go, this is a done deal.

A young kid, I'm the owner.

So we went to the meeting and met these guys that become really,

really good friends of mine through the years.

Like we call him Jake, but his name is Steve Lettie.

He worked for a basketball guy, the Nascar Michael Jordan.

OK, yeah, he helped put together that team.

Yeah, he's a he's a real strong guy, you know, and some of the other guys were all still buddies.

Yeah, right.

But anyhow, that was it.

So they they bought into the it was the Miller genuine drive car.

Yeah, yeah.

And he was in Larry was the driver.

Yeah.

And we went out and kicked some ass and he did a great job.

Really, really, really good.

And it really it really opened my life up after that.

Because yes, 1994.

And so, you know, as a team owner, not just well, I always owned the team.

Right.

But now you're not getting the fun of the driving part.

Yeah.

So I didn't miss the driving at all.

Really?

Once he was he did it.

I'm kind of winning three seconds.

I don't think so.

Let him do it.

Yeah, you know, four seconds.

I can take that out of my life.

Let him do it.

So so basically that's what we did.

And and he did great.

And we went on and that was it.

And you continued for basically 15 more years.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I had Ron Capps.

You know, we started two funny cars.

So when we were when I mentioned Larry Dixon, you said that was a bad story.

Well, it you know, it's one of those things that broke my heart.

You know, I mean, we were going through some tough times.

Uh, Dick Lahaye, who was unbelievable crew chief for us, he had medical issues.

He had to quit.

And this other guy, Donnie Bender, took over his spot.

They were he was the crew chief.

He just wasn't as good.

Okay.

Period.

Yeah.

So Larry wanted to quit and go to work for Allen Johnson and the Allen Knobby that

guitar.

Okay.

Yeah, a lot of money.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

And so he had all this, you know,

so he went there and that that kind of situation.

Okay.

Yeah.

Ten four.

Yeah.

So that story in the sense of the timing.

Yeah.

It was really, really hard because we were we needed him to stay on.

Yeah.

Right.

You know, but anyhow, we worked it out.

Sure.

Ron Capps had only won like one big race prior to you bringing him in.

Uh-huh.

Did you what did you see in Ron Capps?

Oh my God.

Yeah.

Because I mean, he's become a monster.

You know, he's just unbelievable.

Oh, yeah.

Well, the so we run the dragster and I kind of was thinking, you know, my, uh, my whole

thing was like funny cars.

You know, I really like funny cars and we won four championships and all that right

on a lot of races.

Yeah.

But I think about a funny car and the UST guys who I left, you know, that were over

me, but I was still getting paid every year from that.

Right.

Yeah.

Severance.

Yeah.

And I, uh, I called them and I said, Hey, how about if we put a funny car on and I got

this guy I'm thinking about, you know, but anyhow, Ron walked into our pit area and I

was in Seattle.

We're racing up there.

I looked over there and there's this guy in a fire suit.

Nice looking guy.

And I can't always look for that.

Yeah.

In talent people.

You know, I look for not so much looks, but yeah, not a lot of that.

That means a lot.

Nothing worse than an ugly race car.

Is there?

And I can name a few.

Yeah.

Right.

But you know what I'm talking about.

I look at shoes now.

If I see a kid come into the pit pit box and his shoes are like destroyed.

I'm like, you wore that to the track today to hopefully sit down with somebody.

Exactly.

No, I used to have to get on that Larry Larry's the same way.

You know, he'd come to the track.

He had these goofy ass pants on and oh shoot.

I says, I says, hey man, you can't dress that way anymore.

You know, race with us, you know, and you got to get with it.

Well, he bought a whole bunch of he sent me the bill.

I didn't like that either.

But anyhow.

Yeah.

So Ron Caps comes in.

Ron Caps comes in and he was talking to Larry.

He had a fire suit on and I went over there and said, who's that guy?

He's that's Ron Caps.

He drives a dragster.

He was driving somebody's dragster and he was just handsome, good looking guy.

And he's a race car driver.

And I thought, boy, he'd be perfect, you know, for the funny car.

So that's how it all started.

And then got to deal with UST and got went back to UST.

And so here's what we want to do and brought Ron Caps with me.

And everybody fell in love with him.

And you know, the rest is history, you know.

So the key would be handsome and love tobacco.

Yeah.

And he and he just well, he's he's perfect.

Yeah.

He's excellent.

Yeah.

You know, we're we're the best of friends now.

I mean, we just, you know, it's all it's real cool.

Yeah.

I'm really happy for him.

He's a cool dude.

I like him a lot.

So did the team shut down just because sponsorship was drying up

and it wasn't worth keep going or?

What's your name?

What do you mean?

When you in 09 when you guys finally.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, I mean, were you kind of over by this point?

So 08 and 09 for people that are listening back in those days, 08 and 09.

That was a terrible time in the economy.

Yeah.

Thanks.

You guys probably got hit by.

Oh, yeah.

Would you like to buy a house?

Yeah.

And we're out looking for a sponsor in.

Oh, God.

In 09.

No one's.

Yeah.

Because Philip Morris bought UST and the president vice president said,

Hey, yeah, you know, we're selling.

I mean, you know, they kept me up on what's going on.

And but we're going to he's going to go to work with them.

Philip Morris.

They're going to keep me on like, oh, fabulous.

Pinsky to, you know, with Philip Morris.

And so, you know, a week later, he had to call me back and said,

now they don't want to do that.

They're out.

So it really ended then.

They did give me some walking away money, which was which was nice.

They didn't have to and they did, which was really nice.

But you couldn't find a sponsor.

I mean, you call a sponsor.

Oh, nine.

They go, we'll get back.

You were closing up 30 of our stores.

Yeah, we're unloading people.

Yeah.

So it was.

Oh, I'll never forget this.

So my last ditch effort for a sponsorship in 09 the end of 09.

We had Spencer Massey when Larry left.

Spencer got in the car, did an unbelievable job.

And I thought to myself, what am I worried about Larry for?

This kid is like just as quick, you know, I mean, or quicker.

So anyhow, we had things going pretty good.

And I needed a sponsor.

So we went to I went to Monster Energy and Bernstein had them the year before

or something.

I don't know.

He was running a funny car and he was driving in and they didn't do very well

and Monster got out.

Well, I knew the guy at Monster, one of the guys.

And so they were the type of company.

And God bless them.

They've done wonderful monster.

They're a great company.

But they weren't real big on making decisions, you know.

And so they went, well, get back to us next week.

Well, next week is the start of the season.

You know, get back to us.

You've been there, right?

So so I was like stressed and, you know, my guys at the shop.

Do we have a job?

All that shit.

And so I'll never forget it.

I went across the street or down the street a little ways.

And I pulled into this gas station and I was driving my wife's car.

She had a Cayenne turbo and a nice car.

And I was getting gas in the car and I was stressed out as a mother or what am I

going to do with this team?

How do I tell that?

Well, so anyhow, I got all done and I pulled out of the gas station.

I had the pump thing.

They pulled it right off.

Right off of them.

It drove off with the with its tail in there.

Oh, I got on the freeway.

I called Lynn and I said, how much money do we have?

Because I'm I think we're we're going to hang this up.

And she said, let me get back to you.

And she called me back.

She said, we'll be OK.

And I said, we're done.

And that was the last.

That was it.

I pulled the plug.

Yeah.

Did you pull the gas tank too?

Oh, that was unbelievable.

I mean, I drove off with that.

But you knew that you were in that kind of head?

Yes.

It's time to get out.

Yes, time to get out.

You don't need this anymore.

And let me tell you something.

It's the best thing I ever did.

Oh my god.

Yeah, it was just I mean, the racing was changing so much.

And when you can race Baja all the time now.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of money guys were coming in.

And you know, it's time to leave.

Yeah.

All right.

So we always have our current guest ask a question

of the next guest.

And so our next guest is Steve Howlin,

who we discussed earlier, who was he's now at TRD,

but he was an F1 engineer for years.

And Michael Walter peracing, he helped run for a few years.

Yeah, he's been all over the place.

I would probably know him by sight.

I'm sure.

You might.

Yeah, he's a Toyota guy.

But we always have our guest ask questions for the next guy.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, are you all going forward to one racing?

There you go.

Toyota.

That's a great question.

He won't answer it.

They pulled out of drag racing.

Yeah.

Yeah, Toyota.

They were big out there.

Did a hell of a job at drag racing.

But did you ever work with Slugger?

Slugger.

I love Slugger.

Oh, yeah.

He's the man.

He is the man.

I did a deal there with him and Slugger and Caps.

Yeah.

Toyota car at India.

And we painted it up yellow like my Hot Wheel car.

Oh, it was beautiful.

Caps.

Oh, you know.

And we end up winning the race.

This is only a couple of years ago.

Winning the U.S. Nationals with this car.

It was a Hot Wheel to replica of the Hot Wheel car.

Paint it up on his current day Toyota.

Yeah, that's cool.

And so, yeah, on Slugger, we had a great time.

Yeah, he's just, you know, I didn't know much about Slugger.

Oh, a legend, yeah.

Yeah, until he was on the Dale Jr. show.

Yeah, yeah.

And man, they talk some talk on that show.

You know, I really enjoyed it.

If you like it, there's this great show.

It's called Dinner with Racers.

There's also a Slugger lobby episode with us, too,

that you might enjoy because he tells a lot of cool tricks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's a cool time.

What's your favorite John Force story?

I hate to say this, but

we, I was real close with him at one time.

I brought him a sponsor, a flavor pack, and it was a nice deal.

And I know this guy, Frank Teague's big, huge potato farmer,

like Drag Racing.

I sold him a car I had and he wanted to get in and I got him in.

Anyhow, John and I kind of had a,

he's a funny dude, you know, he's,

but do I have a favorite story about him?

Not really.

Okay.

No, he, no, not really.

Who's the biggest prankster in your racing career that you were around?

Oh, Ivo, Tommy Ivo.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You want to beat him up every, yeah.

I got the impression you and Tommy as things moved on,

didn't get along as well by the end.

Well, well, it never does, you know, because he was quite a prankster.

And he was the teacher and I was a student and I started beating him.

You know, I'd be running the Greer Black car and he'd run the car

and we'd outrun the hell out of him.

Plus he didn't work at it like I did.

Oh, right.

You know, he would hire kids.

Yeah, he would sleep all day and work all night.

Oh, right.

And but that just, that's Ivo.

You know, he's like 89 now.

Yeah.

You know, so crippled up and everything.

And that's that's really a shame is to watch all your buddies.

Yeah.

Go to, are you closing?

Okay.

We'll be out of the word.

We're almost done.

Yeah.

Only other stuff would be.

So we've actually done a few products now with Don.

Garlets, the other Don.

Oh, yeah, sure.

The other Don we've had.

The other Don.

You guys are very different personalities.

Are we?

Oh, very.

Come on, tell me about it.

Oh, you're very.

Do you believe in aliens?

Yeah.

No, no, I know about all the aliens up there.

Oh my God.

I've been through it all with him on a tangent.

Oh, yeah.

Traveling across the desert.

Yeah.

I saw this light and I pull over and spaceship landed next to me.

Oh, yeah.

That's our guy.

Oh, for sure.

But I'll tell you what, he is the.

He in my book, he is the greatest drag racer that ever lived.

Yeah.

And will always be.

There was no one, no one.

John Forrest, I don't even know who it is.

No one could compete with him and his day.

He could well the pipe together.

Sure.

Bill engines, drive the truck, do everything and was good at it.

I was there when he got his foot cut off.

Oh, yeah.

He told us that story.

Yeah.

I was there.

I was running 1970.

I was running a funny car.

70 or 71.

70, I think was.

I was running my hot wheel car and lion's drag strip.

The thing is car blew up and cut his foot off.

You know, yeah, he's amazing guy.

Do you remember the first time you met him?

Because he would have been Don Garland.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

While was it lion's drag strip?

He I'd heard about him, of course,

because the dragon is, but he came out the lions.

It had to be in 60, early 60s.

And he had burned his hands or something.

Had a fire and Connie swindle.

He was driving for him and he was a cool dude.

He was the coolest dude ever.

And him and I were like this, Connie, you know,

he had back in the day, he had a gold chain around his neck.

That's my guy.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You know, and he had his sleeves rolled up.

With a pack of cigarettes in his t-shirt.

It is, you know, t-shirt.

Yeah, you know, he was cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How'd you and Don get along this time, went on?

Garlets?

Yeah.

Yeah, fine.

Not so much during the time when we raced each other.

That's what I was wondering.

No.

Well, I remember one time, this is in 1966.

I was at Union Grove, Wisconsin,

and they had a three day race there and they booked me in.

And I was driving a car called the B&M Torque Baster car.

Didn't have a clutch in it.

Had a Torque Baster in it.

Didn't belong to me, belong to the B&M automotive guys.

But anyhow, long story short,

I took that car on tour with my wife and myself.

Anyhow, I was just a hell bent wanting to win drag racer guy,

you know, a Garlet.

I don't give a s**t who it was.

Anyhow, we were racing at Union Grove.

And if you won two days, two days in a row,

they give you an extra $1,000 bonus,

which was a lot of money back there.

So I'm racing Garlet in the final and it was dark.

And we were down about three quarter mark

and I moved over into his lane a little bit

because I couldn't see where the s**t I was at.

It kind of bumped him and he went off the track.

Oh, he came back on and I beat him.

The clocks that I beat him,

he got down at the end of the track,

he was screaming at me, screaming.

We came back to the pits and I'm this young guy,

you know, Garlet was a pretty big name.

And coming back to the pits and we pushed the cars back

with our push trucks, you know,

he's pushing his or they're pushing him.

And he's standing up at the seat screaming,

screaming to the fans and anybody who listened

that I tried to kill him.

He tried to kill me.

And so, you can see this.

Greek.

You ever heard of the Greek?

Chris Caramacines.

Oh, I know that name.

He's like a real legend, you know.

Caramacines, why'd you call him the Greek?

Well, yeah.

I went running over to the Greek

because I was working out of his shop

and he was kind of took me under his wing, you know.

A lot older than me.

And I said, Greek, what do I do?

I mean, you know, Garlet says,

hey, everybody hear him screaming.

And Greeks said, ah, f**k him.

That was it.

Yeah, I said, oh, cool, man.

Yeah, the Greeks, my guy.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Garlet would remember that story.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's cool.

He was an amazing, amazing guy.

Yeah.

Yeah, just amazing.

Didn't get along with him all the time.

Didn't get along with him hardly at all.

Right.

But Jesus, he was.

Can't not respect him.

Oh, God.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Well, so we are kind of our last couple things

that we do here.

We always ask about, you know, and again,

a lot of our fans aren't necessarily drag fans,

so they might look at this different.

They don't know who your name is, but for somebody

who listens to this, who may not necessarily know your story,

what would you sort of want to take away of your legacy

to be on something like this?

Honestly, honestly, it is really nice to be included.

You know, I still feel that way.

You know, I don't f**k you.

I don't feel like, like, no, not at all.

I mean, Mario, oh my God.

Well, let's say with that,

continental's got the check.

I'm finished.

Ep.306 – Don Prudhomme

About this episode

NHRA

Funny Car

Top Fuel

drag racing

Laguna Seca Raceway

Continental Tire

open wheel racing

Indy cars

Shelby Superstake Dragster

Ford

Le Mans

Formula One

Ferrari 308 GTB

250 miles per hour

Niki Lauda

Formula 1

Ferrari 246 Dino

27T

flathead

carburetors

car club

Buick dragster

Drag News

dragster

dragstrip

smoking the tires

downforce

Porsche Cayenne

Toyota Car

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