 Snake vs Mongoose. Click image to enlarge |
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There have been many great driver rivalries on the track: Formula 1 gave us Prost versus Senna, NASCAR gave us Earnhardt versus Gordon, and the competitive tension between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi is the flavour of the day in Moto GP. The sport of drag racing has had its share of competitive match-ups, but there was one in particular that changed the face of the sport: Snake versus Mongoose.
If you’ve ever attended a motor sport event you probably immediately noticed that marketing represents the lifeblood for these high-octane endeavours. Every prominent surface or structure is wrapped in signage and banners; flags and pennants compete with tethered blimps and balloons for valuable airspace above the grandstands and paddock; race vehicles and tow rigs sport the colours and logos of their corporate sponsors; and not to be lost in this sea of communication, the drivers and crew personnel wear uniforms embroidered so heavily with promotional shrapnel that thread count statistics are impossible to tally.
This has not always been the case, especially in the early days of professional drag racing – a segment of the growing car culture that seemed to get lost in the shuffle when it came to gaining widespread acceptance and consumer awareness.
As speeds rose so did costs, and by the late 1960s the two figures began to escalate beyond the means of many members of the drag racing fraternity. Luckily, the arrival of two men on the burgeoning California scene – Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme – would herald a new era in drag racing and change the sport forever.
McEwen and Prudhomme were both managing to eke out a living by running Top Fuel dragsters full-time at tracks across the state. The two friends and rivals quickly became fan favourites, and with their new found popularity corresponding with the emergence of the Funny Car category, the timing couldn’t have been better. Unlike the dart-like dragsters these two men were accustomed to racing, these full-bodied machines offered a canvas on which sponsors could showcase their product and brand names before grandstands full of people.
After a crewmember began calling Don Prudhomme the Snake (some believe due to his fast reflexes), noted racer and car builder Ed “The Mole” Donovan branded McEwen the Mongoose in an effort to counter Prudhomme’s rising popularity and give the growing legions of fans something to cheer for. It was Tom McEwen who came up with the original idea to approach Mattel to create toy cars to help promote himself, Prudhomme, and the sport of drag racing itself, as their carefully crafted rivalry was getting a great deal of media coverage that he felt they should capitalize on.
In 1968, Mattel created the very first Hot Wheels cars. The first releases “emphasized speed and wild designs,” and took their inspiration from the custom cars that were so popular in California during that period. As a result, McEwen’s idea was a hit and would be embraced by Mattel boss Larry Wood. This interesting collaboration would establish the Mattel Toy Company as the first non-automotive company to sponsor a drag racing team.
Designer Larry Wood gave up a career at Lockheed Aircraft to design toy cars at Mattel, and he became the man responsible for developing the various Snake and Mongoose game sets for the company during the three-year period of the program. I was surprised to learn that Mr. Wood’s design work entailed taking measurements of the real car’s actual chassis and body, as even today, the majority of Mattel’s small-scale die-cast offerings are pretty basic.
The natural rivalry between McEwen and Prudhomme and the colourful characters sparked by the nicknames they had so carefully cultivated competing against each other across the state sparked marketing magic for Mattel. Jerry Frye, the director of product planning for Mattel at the time, liked the fact that McEwen and Prudhomme were “real heroes” and were “accessible to the kids.” Company brass also liked the fact that the two men were positive role models. “Put real-life heroes together with kids and toys, and you end up with an exceptional success story.”
The book begins with a couple of chapters to introduce us to each man, followed by a look at the cars, and each chapter is sprinkled with snippets about people associated with the program and/or the drivers.
The relationship between the two now-legendary drag racing personalities remains the real focus of the book, but we do learn a little about Mattel and the company’s involvement in racing. The Snake vs. Mongoose program lasted only for three years, but during this time the two men made hundreds of promotional appearances and helped sell thousands of toy cars, all the while doing what they loved best, competing head-to-head on drag strips across the country.
As a direct result of this successful first foray into the racing arena, the company became involved (to a much lesser extent) in other motor sport disciplines. The company supported Dan Gurney and Swede Savage in Trans-Am, Bruce McLaren in Can-Am, and Bobby Unser at the Indy 500. It was probably this expansion beyond the drag racing that would eventually result in the termination of the sponsorship deal.
Dedicated fans of these colourful characters will thoroughly enjoy reading chapter nine, which is basically a transcript of the face-to-face “smack down” interview the author conducted with the two drivers during his research for the book. It is in this section that we learn some of the juicier details about the relationship between these two men.
McEwen admits that The Snake won more races than he did, but that was because Prudhomme “was more mechanical” and spent “far more time working on the car.” McEwen, on the other hand, “enjoyed the people part,” and dedicated his time to supporting his reputation as a ladies’ man. In reality, the fan-base was pretty evenly split between the two men, and their involvement with Mattel and the exposure it brought them made them two of the biggest names in racing.
One very interesting revelation imparted on the reader is the fact that the first cars (McEwen piloted a Plymouth Duster, while Prudhomme went to battle in a Plymouth Barracuda) were actually designed by the art department at Mattel, not taking into account the properties of aerodynamics! Remember, wind tunnels and computer aided design software (not to mention computers themselves) were not yet part of the motor sport arsenal.
Another big question is tackled during this interview as well. Everyone always wonders whether the match races between Snake and Mongoose were fixed or pre-determined. This apparently was often the topic of debate, especially among press hacks, but both men swear that they “raced to win” each and every time they faced one another.
Author Tom Madigan has been a part of the California car scene since the 1960s, largely through his work as a writer, but he also spent time behind the wheel racing in Top Fuel competition. As a result, his inside knowledge and trackside viewpoint comes through in his casual writing style. His use of colourful language such as “McEwen left hard with all eight candles blazing,” makes the book a fun read, as does the vast collection of period photographs and sidebar snippets about other competitors and interesting characters from the period. An almost whimsical idea would turn into a three year adventure that would help bring drag racing to the masses and establish McEwen and Prudhomme as motor sport icons.
Title: Snake Vs. Mongoose: How a Rivalry Changed Drag Racing Forever
Author: Tom Madigan
ISBN-13: 978-0-7603-3486-7
MSRP: Can$ 43.99
