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(RIP) Tom "Mongoose" McEwem


R I P Tom


Tom autographing


Tom hanging in the pits


Tom directing traffic


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom with an NHRA Wally


Tom


Tom with his car


Tom with Don Prudhomme


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom adn Don in 1972


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom interviewed at the Snake and Mongoose movie premier


Tom and Art Malone


Tom and don on the cover of Stock Illustrated


Tom and Don and a motor


Tom and Don


Tom and Don


Tom by his car


The Hurst girls posing with Tom's car


Tom with Lou Baney


Tom and Don


Tom and Don with the stars of their movie Snake and Mongoose


Tom and his Yeakel fueler and crew


Tom and his crew


Tom and Don


Tom with his 57 Chevy racer


Tom posing with his Chevy


Tom with his fueler


Tom's car


Tom with his funny car


Tom with his fueler in the now gone Lion Country Safari park in Southern California in 1972


Tom by his funny car


Tom with his helmet


Tom standing in his car


Tom with his Brand motors fueler


Tom and Don with their fuelers


Tom in the seat


Tom


Tom


Tom smokin' it


Tom with the victory sign


Tom


Tom in his fueler


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom smokin in this unique view


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom in a funny


Tom


Tom


Hot Wheels Top fueler


Another view


Tom's fueler


Front view


Waiting


Another view


Tom's car


Another view


Tom and Biven's car


Same car


Biven's car ready to go


Yeakel fueler


Another


Yeakel


At the Bakersfield reunion


McEwen & Lindley car


Yeakel car and helmet


An early ride


The Brand fueler


Another


Rear view


Adams and McEwen


Super Mustang


Super Mustang


Super Mustang


Super Mustang


Tom in the Biven's car


Tom's fueler


Tom's fueler


Tom with the chute out


Tom's Hot wheels car


Another


Tom getting pushed along


The McEwen & Rea car


The McEwen & Rea car on gas 1960


The McEwen & Rea car running on Nitro for the firat time


Tom in the Baney Ford car


Tom and crew pushing the car to run


Tom with the Super Mustang


Tom in the Baney Ford car


Tom in the McEwen & Adams car


Tom in 1962/3


Tom in his fueler


Tom at Lions in Gene Adams car on gas


Tom getting pushed back to the pits


Tom getting backed up on the line


Tom in the Yeakel car


Tom on the gas


Tom smokin' the Hot Wheels car


Tom off the line


Tom in the Brand Ford car


Another smoky


Tom smokes it


Tom off


Nice


One more


Tom in Gene Adams car


Tom in Adams car


Tom in Adams Shark car that became the Mangler Danny Ongias drove


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom with Broussard


Tom with Crossley


Tom in the Brand Ford car


Another shot of the Ford poweered car


One more


And the last of these smoke shows


Plymoth dealers car


Another shot


Hot Wheels blue car


Another shot


Another


The body up


The car with and without the body


Tom ready to blast off


Another starting line shot


Hot Wheels white car


Car parked


Tom's "fleet" of two cars


Hot Wheels red car


Body up


Car getting maintenance


Car without the body


Tom's car with a blond


Car on a ramp


The car in a car show


English Leather car


Moving up for a run


Car is ready


Off the line


Relaxation time


Maintenance


Car getting ready


In line to run


Coors car


Car in line to race


Tom with the chutes out


Tom's Coors car


Tom moving to the line


Tom's car on display


Tom blasting off


The car in the pits


The Hurst girls with the Vette


In the pits


Parked


Ready to launch


Tom lifts the wheels


Tom's car parked


Tom's car at peace


Rear view


Another view


Front view


Car with body up


Tom's funny


Tom


Tom


Tom


Tom on the line


Tom's headers flaring


Tom


Tom blasting off


Tom's 57 chevy exhibition car


Car on display


Another display


And another


The 57 parked


Car with body up


Car parked


The car getting cleaned


launching


57 Chevy


Tom doing a burnout


Tom boiling the tires


Tom on it


Tom ready to roll


Tom's hauler


Tom in his car

Tom's Smoky runs



















Tom's Rear engined Hemi Cuda funny


Parked


Again


On the gas


Tom ready to race


Tom in the Hemi Cuda


Tom smokin' it


The car after a crash


Tom with an award


Tom, farside, racing the Snake


Tom out ahead of Pete Robinson


Tom against Don Prudhomme


Tom in the Adams car against Tommy Ivo far side


Tom in the Yeakel car ahead of the Sandoval Brothers car at Lions


Tom in the Brand Ford against the Beebe Brothers and John Mulligan


Tom, nearside, against Gordon Collett in a top gas battle 1961


Tom leading Pete Robinson


Tom, nearside, against the OCMP car


Tom out on Connie Kalitta smokin' it


Tom, nearside, against Tommy Ivo


Tom ready to blast off


Tom against Kuhl & Olson


Tom leading a front motored fueler


Tom out on Cannon & Soares


Tom in the Coors car against John Force, who is still racing today


Tom against the Army car of Don Prudhomme


Another Snake and Mongoose battle


And another battle


And one more Hot Wheels race


Logo


logo


Logo


Logo on front wing of tom's car


Logo


Logo


Hot Wheels logo


Poster


Poster


Hot Wheels cartoon


Lions poster for last race


Poster


Tom won the last race at Lions


Hot Rod magazine


Coors ad


Tom's book


A Mongoose cake


Logo


T-shirt art


Helmet


Art work of Hemi Cuda


Tom's name on a car


A graphic of Tom's funny car


Hot Wheels poster


Poster


Fan card


Fan card


Fan card


Kit


R I P Tom

I did not know Tom Personally, but I spent some early afternoon casual times talking with him, and many other drivers over those years, as I wandered thru the pits following drag racing. Tom and Don Prudhomme were very much part of the weekly Drag News paper "hullabaloo" that showcased the Mongoose and Snake featured battles with bold advertisements and headlines of results. Drag news also had the camshaft wars going one and other pretend conflicts to build interest in the sport. They even had top ten lists where you raced the car above you to take over their number.

The Snake and Mongoose match races were much anticipated and they traveled all over the country bringing their fierce battle to the fans. Their Mattel sponsorship was the first big time deal for any drag racer and it just helped to grow the rest of the big time drivers success along the way. Match racing was extremly popular with the fans as drag racing grew drastically from the mid 50's until the mid 70's. Then the advent of successful rear engined top fuelers, started by Don Garlits epic crash at Lions and his then going home to florida to build one that worked, and the sky was the limit from there on. I basically grew up in that fast paced world and watched the weekly speed and et changes in Southern California as they went from 160 MPH with 9 second et's up to what was then over 200 mph with et's under 7 seconds. I went from strip to strip each week and when Tom and Don came back to town to run the big races at Lions, Fontana, Riverside, Irwindale, Orange County and Pomona, it was pretty spectacular as it also attracted other stars from around the country, and yes I was there!

The local scene had dozens of outstanding cars added to the mix like the Frantic 4, The Surfers, Warren and Coburn, Stellings and Hampsire, the Beebe Brothers, The Hawiian, Larry Dixon, Tommy Ivo and many more. Around the country Don Garlits led a strong group like Art Malone, Chris Karamesines, Lou Cangelose, Bob Sullivan, Bobby Langley, Connie Kalitta, Connie Swingle, Eddie Hill, Vance Hunt, Pete Robinson, Tom Hoover, Shirley Muldowney and many more. When they all got together with their sleek and beautiful swoopy bodied cars, it was the bomb! A night race at Lions was the best of the best with quarter mile billowing smoky runs, headers Belching flames high, the smell of nitro in the air and a heart thumping noise that is unequaled on this planet. The place was closed because of a strip of apartment buildings that forced the city to close the gates. It is a storage lot now, too bad!

I really became involved as a fan, and rarely missed a race at Lions so I saw the growth of drag racing up close and personal. Now looking back I realize it was very special polerizing times. The changes from "those days" when every racer put together his own equipment in his garage, often from parts from the junkyard to compete with. As the face of drag racing changed, chassis makers like Kent Fuller and Woody Gilmore created new style longer cars and motor builders like Keith Black provided better bullets than the home made variety. From there the costs of everything racing went up, up and away until today it's astonomical. Back then it was so fun to watch and experience, and I didn't really understand the evolution going on, just sat in the grandstands and enjoyed it!

Todays extremely expensive race cars changed those fun days I loved so much, to where now big money is required to compete. The days when over 100 fuelers would compete at each race is long gone. The popular Top Gas class was abandoned leaving us without that outstanding brand of racing, but alas, it is what it is! Only two fuel classes are left, Top Fuel and Funny Car, and they have barely enough cars for the 16 car fields they now run with NHRA. In the 60's the only time you touched the motor at the track was when something catastrophic happened. Today, they totally take apart and rebuild motors between rounds or swap out the busted bullets. This all means it takes cubic dollars to run the circuit and most racers don't have that unlimited budget to compete, so there are way less cars.

Today, even with all the latest high dollar technology, the racing doesn't always give the fans consistant side by side action because of the "up in smoke" tire problems, because it's hard to keep the tires hooked up. You hold your breath at the start of every green light, waiting to see if both cars can keep from going up in smoke. Too much horspower makes it very difficult to hook up every time. So to me, it's not at all like the old days when they didn't have to be rocket scientists to hook their cars up and make full passes.

I like going to the Bakersfield reunions where the cars of the 60's and 70's return to show off and do the cacklefests under the lights. There is a front motor top fuel class run at the reunions, but even those are pretty expensive to run. Tom and Don were from the time where you had to keep up with the constantly improving equipment as people like Don Garlits, the Greek and the So Cal boys pushed technology to where the cookie cutter cars of today are a must to keep up. There are still many other classes that compete at NHRA events, but most can't compete with the speed shows of 330 MPH, 1000 foot passes of today's 10,000 horsepower motor monsters of Top fuel and Funny cars.

Tom and Don were there at the start of what happened to the hot rods that ran on city streets to beat each other. The old hot rods never stopped improving and just continued going quicker and faster until today where they are the quickest race cars in the world. I still go once in a while, but it doesn't have that MAGIC of the early days. The story of the Mongoose, may he rest in peace, is just one of many from back in the day. There were so many hero's from all over the country, but So Cal had their share of them and I was one of fans that saw it all.

The following is from wikipedia:

Tom McEwen (January 14, 1937 – June 10, 2018) was an American drag racer who was a winner of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals. His racing career spanned 45 years. He is ranked at number 16 on a list of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years. He received the nickname "the Mongoose" in 1964 from engine builder Ed Donovan. It was originally used as a device to entice Don "the Snake" Prudhomme into a high-exposure match race

In 1965, he faced Hot Wheels teammate Don Prudhomme at the Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races, held at Riverside Raceway, "one of the most significant drag racing events" of that era, even though the Top Fuel Eliminator (TFE) trophy went to Jim Warren.

McEwen won five NHRA events, but his gift for gab and promotional ability made him one of the sport's most influential and controversial figures.

As stated by Roland Leong, "McEwen was the smartest of the bunch. When he came up with the Hot Wheels deal using the Snake and Mongoose characters, it shook the world of drag racing big time. He produced a sponsorship package that allowed him and Prudhomme to buy the best equipment, pay expenses, make money and sell their image all over the United States. I hate to admit it but McEwen and Prudhomme showed us the way to the future. They were a lot smarter than most of us who didn't see past the end of the quarter-mile."

Tom McEwen had three sons, two of whom are deceased, (Jamie and Joe), and Tom Jr., who is involved in the entertainment industry and lives in Southern California.

McEwen gained his early experience in a variety of cars, beginning in 1953 with a '53 Oldsmobile at Santa Ana Drags in Irvine. He then went on to race a '54 Olds at Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach.

He went from the stock ranks to gas coupes, altereds, and eventually dragsters and funny cars. Among the cars he drove were the Stone-Woods-Cook '50 Olds fastback, the Bader & Ferrara Cadillac-powered Crosseyed Crosley, Art Chrisman's Hustler II, the Bud Rasner and Gary Slusser Fiat coupe, Dick Rea's Chrysler-powered, super-charged gas dragster, and Gene Adams' Albertson Olds.

McEwen continued his relationship with Adams for several years. In 1962, he drove Adams' Shark, which was one of the first dragsters to use a streamlined body with an enclosed parachute pack. This would turn out to be one of McEwen's best known dragsters.

In 1963, McEwen achieved his first notable success when he posted a second place finish against Art Malone at the Bakersfield March Meet in California. He also drove the Donovan Engineering Special dragster, and it was in this car that he first raced against Don "The Snake" Prudhomme.

McEwen won the race against Prudhomme at Lions Drag Strip on September 12, 1964. He beat Prudhomme's bright-orange car in two consecutive runs, inspiring what may be the most famous match-race pairing in the history of drag racing.

Later in 1964, McEwen drove Lou Baney's Yeakel Plymouth dragster to victory at the 32-car UDRA meet at Fontana Raceway in Fontana. He also took Top Fuel titles at Lions Dragstrip and Pomona Raceway. McEwen's 1980 funny car

Because their first contest had received so much attention, two more races between McEwen and Prudhomme were scheduled at Lions Drag Strip in 1965. McEwen drove his Plymouth dragster against Prudhomme and his Hawaiian, winning two runs out of three in the first heat, but then losing both runs in the second.

Because McEwen raced only on the West Coast, he and Prudhomme faced each other only once in 1966, at the Winternationals, site of their first national event meeting. There, Prudhomme in the B&M Torkmaster Special took the win, with a 7.59 e.t. to McEwen's 7.69. They would not meet again for the rest of the decade.

McEwen won the 1966 Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside Raceway and then went on to win the 1968 Stardust National Open in Las Vegas. He also recorded the lowest ever elapsed time to date with a blistering 6.64 at the Orange County PDA Meet in 1968.

McEwen also continued to build on his reputation as a colorful promoter. The Plymouth Hemi Cuda he unveiled in 1965 was featured in every major car magazine. He convinced the Southern California Plymouth Dealers Association to support him and displayed the car all over the West Coast.

In 1967, McEwen took the same approach with one of drag racing's great one-shot wonders, Ford's Super Mustang. The car stole the show when it made its debut at the Winternationals.

McEwen's strong promotional talent and Don Prudhomme's success on the racetrack eventually led the two to form a national touring team, sponsored by the toy company Mattel, and in mid-1969, McEwen and Prudhomme became co-owners of "Wildlife Racing." The Mattel Hot Wheels sponsorship deal ran from 1970 through 1972. Wildlife Racing then signed with Care Free Sugarless Gum as a sponsor in 1973. McEwen and Prudhomme dissolved their partnership at the end of the 1973 season.

In 1972, McEwen won his first major event when he dominated the Top Fuel field at the Bakersfield March Meet. A year later, he scored his first NHRA national event victory by topping the fastest funny car field in history at the SuperNationals at Ontario Motor Speedway.

He went on to win four more national events, including his dramatic U.S. Nationals funny car victory over Prudhomme in 1978. The win came only a few days after the death of his son Jamie, who had battled leukemia.

McEwen won the AHRA World Finals at Spokane Raceway Park in 1982, the prestigious Big Bud Shootout in 1984, and Top Fuel at the 1991 Summernationals at Englishtown, New Jersey.

McEwen solved his Corvette funny car's stability problems by adding tip fences to the rear spoiler.

His gorgeous 1957 Chevy replica was built as a tribute to the iconic Chevrolet. It was run as an NHRA exhibition vehicle and was responsible for creating the Nostalgia Funny Car class. The car ran just three years, and was popular with fans and media alike.

He retired from racing in 1992, and later worked as motorsports director for "Drag Racer" magazine, based in Southern California.

McEwen died on June 10, 2018, at the age of 81.

Snake and Mongoose, a movie portraying the story of Prudhomme and McEwen, was released in the summer of 2013. It tells the story of the rivalry between the two great Southern Californian racers.

Created 7/11/18

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