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This early event was several years before I went to work for Doner but I’d heard the story about the wild fireball funny car in the lights at SIR. Prudhomme had blown up his funny car and just about flew through the quarter mile lights in a ball of fire. As I recall, it was in the final round and it destroyed just about everything except Prudhomme. I had heard that Prudhomme was very fortunate to walk away from the dramatic explosion which destroyed the car and motor. I could only imagine what that must have all looked like.

Ironically, in early 1994 I had a guy walk into my office at SIR to give me something. He was at that early ’70’s event at SIR as a young man going to the drags with his father. When they were ready to leave, this guy told his father to back the convertible down near the finish line so he could see Prudhomme, who was just getting ready to run. This guy was in the back seat of his father’s convertible and, as the two funny cars roared down the track, he took his little camera and snapped one picture, the only one he had left. That photograph was of Prudhomme’s funny car exploding and on fire with the front wheels several feet off the ground. What an amazing picture this young boy took that night.

All these years, he had kept this photograph and now stopped by to give it to me. It is a one of a kind, for sure. Immediately, I felt that I needed to enlarge this photo and then present it to Prudhomme when his “Last Strike Tour” arrived in Seattle that August . . . that would be perfect!! A one-of-a-kind present with a lot of meaning to the Snake, I’m sure.       

Once I had the photograph, I thought maybe I could go one further than just produce a poster of it. I called Kenny Youngblood, a well-established drag racing artist, in Southern California. Youngblood’s artistic work is the best there is that I knew of and he was the perfect guy to paint this photograph. He was the guy who could make this perfect gift for Prudhomme. Later, Youngblood told me that this whole project really regenerated his
career in drag racing painting because it was so exciting to do.

Once in awhile, the NHRA Northwest Nationals and the Seafair Hydro race on Lake Washington would end up on the same weekend….early August. Scheduling is always so complicated in this sport but this year turned out to be so perfect. Bill Doner was the Commissioner for the Unlimited Hydros and good friend, Steve Woomer, had a hydro team of his own. Woomer had been the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) President along with being the President of his own Competition Specialties in Auburn, Washington. Both of these guys had a long relationship with Prudhomme. They are both in the area….how can we bring them to the race at SIR and not impact their own efforts at the hydroplane races?

What if we could get a helicopter and land it at SIR in the shut-off area and then whisk the two of them down to the starting line for a photo shoot with Prudhomme?  That sounds crazy because two racing events would need to come to a halt at the same time. Hey, why not?  If, some way, we could pull it off it would be even more special to Prudhomme that two of his friends flew right in to the race track and shut down the event.  Wow, how cool is all of this?

In came the helicopter and the NHRA event was shut down, with both Doner and Woomer receiving a special ride to the starting line. A photo-shoot presentation took place right on the starting line and it was as smooth as could be. Kenny Youngblood was there along with his gorgeous painting of that incredible moment in time in the early ’70s. It was a special moment in time for the “Last Strike Tour” which must have really had a lot of meaning to Prudhomme.

I’ll never forget when Prudhomme looked me up in 1988 with the arrival of the inaugural NHRA Northwest Nationals to Seattle. He congratulated me on getting this new event and I always appreciated that effort. I felt the least I could do for his Last Strike Tour was to do something that he would remember for a long, long time. He could now close the driving chapter of his life and start racking up the wins as a team owner.  

ROCKY’S ROAD: Next edition - “We can’t run a final here in Eugene?… Eeeek!”

 

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