CLASSIC AMERICAN PEOPLE Don Prudhomme ‘The Snake’
Don Prudhomme, famously known as ‘The Snake’, is one of America’s most successful drag racers. He was born in downtown Los Angeles in 1941 and grew up on a smallholding in Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley, California, with his older brother and three younger sisters. As a car-mad teenager, he worked as a paint sprayer in his dad’s paint and body shop. He hooked up with a bunch of local hot rodders and then joined The Road Kings drag race club which ran a home-brewed dragster at the nearby San Fernando Raceway. Don started driving that and proved to be a natural.
He became friends with fellow club member and extrovert showman drag racer ‘TV’ Tommy Ivo. Tommy had been a child movie star and then starred on television, so he was able to afford good equipment. The two of them decided to go barnstorming, touring and racing at drag strips around the country for a year, after which Don bought a front-engined dragster from Tommy and launched his own driving career, notching up his first major win at the 1962 Smokers March Meet at Bakersfield, California. This led to some highly successful collaborations, and the wins and records just kept coming…
In 1970, Don switched from dragsters to Funny Cars, having been invited to team up with fellow drag racer Tom ‘The Mongoose’ McEwen. They struck a lucrative sponsorship deal with toy car makers Hot Wheels to tour and match-race a pair
