The Magic of Drag Racing, Seattle 1971
By Steve Ojard
Al Keen's photo of Don Prudhomme's fire in Seattle in 1971 is a haunting memory for me. I was there, at almost the same spot as the photo from the looks of it, and missed seeing it by minutes.
My lifelong love of drag racing started early. During second grade, a school counselor taught me to draw front engined slingshots. I was mortally terrified of going to school, a bully thing. Drawing and dreaming about drag racing pulled me out of it. Pretty soon the simple side-view scribbling gave way to 3/4 view detailed pictures in color. I still dabble...
Mattel Hot Wheels got going the next year, 1968. They were just so cool, being patterned after real cars, but more colorful, and with zoomies & blowers! I was hooked hard. Who wasn't back then? About a year and a half later, when the Wildlife deal was struck with Tom McEwen and Don Prudhomme, Mattel started running the ads showing their full sized cars. Marketing genius; I was done for.
My Dad, a motorhead in his own right, thought it would be fun to go to the drags since we'd never been there before. Either that or because I was begging him! I couldn't believe I was going to see the real cars and the people that operated them. I want to say the Snake and Mongoose were booked for Seattle in 1970, but the Northwest National Open that April was a rainout. We went to an air show instead, at Thun Field, Wa., near the old Puyallup Raceway Park. I appreciated it but it was definitely not the same. As disappointed as I was then, it's funny to me now because I later wound up falling in love with military aircraft. They are my livelihood to this day.
Anyway, a whole year (!) later in April 1971 I got to go to SIR. 10 years old. Certain things from that time- music especially - take me right back there. I was walking on air, man. We parked my dad's truck near the top end under the trees. I heard my first fuel car there as it went by at probably eight grand, ripping by as the guy gets off the throttle and pulls the chute. I can't see it! Run to the fence! Oh my God, is this like heaven or what? We met the drivers, got their autographs, shook their hands. The Hawaiian, Kenny Goodell's Challenger, the Snake II Cuda, the Mongoose II Duster. Jerry Ruth's Pay-N-Pak Mustang, Herm Peterson's dragster. I recall hearing that in one of the rounds, Prudhomme and Butch Maas in the Hawaiian were so loud they were breaking bulbs off the tree. Don't know if that was true or not, but it's part of the memory.
After spending all day there, we thought we ought to hit the road for home. We left minutes before the finals- Snake vs. Condit Bros. L.A. Hooker Maverick- for some reason, but it really wasn't an issue because we'd had such a great day. All I could think about was telling my friends about it. It was sunny that late afternoon, and we had a nice ride south going back to Olympia. But right in front of where we parked, right about where Mr. Keen's photo was taken...
Draglist's caption for the photo describes it as a surreal, scary ride. My Dad many years later said that he was glad that we weren't there to see it. Mr. Prudhomme no doubt would say that riding in a flaming, out of control, airborne hemi-powered bomb was no fun and something he'd like to just as soon forget. To so many of us he had celebrity and hero status. Today I admire his focus, pursuit of excellence, and achievement.
I saw Don Prudhomme many times afterward including the Final Strike tour in 1994 at Seattle, where during a ceremony he was presented with a Youngblood painting of that day. I couldn't see the picture from where I was sitting. Don, Roland Leong, Steve Evans, and others signed my April 1971 Hot Rod Magazine, the funny car issue.
Tragedy did not happen that day in 1971, when it easily could have. Viva the Snake.
Steve Ojard
Lacey, WA
sjojard@comcast.net
