We were privileged to set up a large slot car track at the Pure Storage conference in our hometown last week. The theme of the conference was “Accelerate”, so what better that race cars to go along with the theme? We set up a 6’x18′ slot car track in the middle of the conference, and racers from all over came to enjoy the breaks between seminars and vendors to race with us. If you were there, please feel free to tag yourself on the Races2U facebook page here
Legendary Funny Car and Top Fuel racer Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen passed away Sunday at the age of 81.
McEwen had been beset by health issues in recent years, including a battle with colon cancer for the last several months, but no immediate cause of death has been given.
Fellow drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein spoke exclusively with MotorSportsTalk about McEwen and both his impact upon the sport as well as his influence on Bernstein’s racing career.
“Oh man, this is terrible,” Bernstein said. “The Mongoose was an icon in the sport. He probably brought the first marketing ideas and thoughts to the sport in the late 1960s. He was one of the first.
“I bought my first dragster chassis from Tom in 1968. I was in Dallas, racing for Ace Muffler Company. Tom and I teamed up, where I bought the chassis and he furnished the engine and ran the car for a short time before I moved over to the Anderson Brothers with the same car.
“I bought the car in 1968 for $2,000. It was called “the Preying Mantis” because it had a real screwy front end that looked like a preying mantis. He had originally built the car for himself and I remember the first time I drove it, I said to myself, ‘Man, I’m driving the ‘Goose’s’ car!’ He was already a star in the sport at the time.
“It was a front-engine dragster and I actually won my first two Top Fuel races in that car. They weren’t national events, local races in Texas, but that was the car I was driving and it was McEwen’s car. Then we moved to the Anderson Brothers (team) and we won our first two races with them in Tom’s car, as well. So our first four wins overall were in Tom’s car.
“We cared about Tom a lot. He was just a great sounding board for me over the years, especially when it came to PRO (Professional Racers Organization), dealing with NHRA, dealing with other owners and drivers and people like that. I had a lot of respect for Tom, I really respected the marketing side of him because that was non-existent before that.
“He was absolutely a big influence on me, more so even off the track than on the track because he showed me how you could very well could get an outside company that wasn’t motor-driven to be in our sport. He was so far ahead of his time.”
It was McEwen, along with one of his closest friends — and biggest rivals on the drag strip — Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, who helped bring NHRA drag racing into the mainstream with their fabled Hot Wheels cars sponsored by Mattel Toys in the early 1970s.
“He was just a serious icon in the sport, no question,” Bernstein said. “I’m very sad, by all means.”
McEwen enjoyed numerous honors in his career, including being inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and others. While he earned just five wins in NHRA national event competition, including a huge upset over Prudhomme in the 1978 U.S. Nationals just a few days after the death of McEwen’s son Jaime, the Mongoose was a noted barnstorming racer who competed primarily on the West Coast.
His rivalry with Prudhomme began in the mid-1960s and became the biggest ticket on the national match-racing circuit.
“I was the [BSer] and Prudhomme was the racer,” McEwen told NHRA.com. “I’d set up the deals, then we’d go out to the track, and he’d usually beat me. There were times when he was beating me so regularly that the only way I could have beaten him was if he got lost on the way to the track and I got to single (a solo run without a rival).
“We were a good team; we complemented each other. Don was the serious guy, spent a lot of time with his car, and I was more like the wrestlers today; saying how bad I was going to beat him to build interest in the deal.”
Former team owner and crew chief Roland Leong once said: “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.”
NHRA President Glen Cromwell released this statement on McEwen’s passing: “We are all saddened to learn the news of Mongoose’s passing. He was truly one of the most brilliant pioneers of NHRA Championship Drag Racing and continued to support the sport through a number of initiatives including our current NHRA Legends Tour in which he played an instrumental role. Everyone at NHRA will miss him deeply. Our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences are with the McEwen family at this difficult time.”
The longtime but good-natured McEwen-Prudhomme rivalry was made into a successful movie, aptly named “Snake and Mongoose” that was released in 2013.
May is a great month for racing, beginning with horses at the Kentucky Derby and ending up the month with the last Sunday in May. Today is the day race fans all over the world wait for each year, with the Indianapolis 500, Monaco Gran Prix, Coca-Cola 600, and NHRA Drag racing all taking place on the same day. Whether you like Formula 1, NASCAR, Indy Car, or Top Fuel, today is all about speed. We will be streaming live racing action while doing our own racing at Races2U all day today. Closing at 8pm tonight! We are Open Memorial Day 11am to 7pm!
Yokohama tire who not only makes tires for almost everything from sports and race cars to big rigs and commercial trucks is introducing some new aggressive off-road tires at the Big O Tires conference in San Antonio Texas, including the new gorgeous Geolandar X-MT (not yet available in stores). So, to help promote their off-road line, they hired us to set up an off-road style slot car track. We used the Ninco digital system and off-road vehicles from Ninco and SCX. These slot cars have four wheel drive and independent suspension just like the full size models, which helps them navigate the rough terrain on our slot car track. Our gracious hosts at Yokohama and many of the attendees from Big O Tires had fun racing on the track during the conference. Of course there was some fierce competition too! This slot car racing really was bringing out the kid in a lot of the adults. Thank you to the wonderful folks at Yokohama and Big O Tires for having us be a part of your event.
The Risk Management Society (RIMS) held their annual conference in San Antonio April 16th-18th. Acrometis, one of the exhibitors, hired Races2U as an attraction for their booth. Their theme was “Get on the Fast Track to Success”, so our racing was a natural fit. This conference had thousands of attendees, and it seemed that many of them came the booth to race and learn about Acrometis’ software platform Claim Expert while they were racing. While Races2U certainly provided one of the more popular attractions at the conference, the biggest attraction in the literal sense was the world’s biggest bobble-head, a giant St. Bernard dog that could be seen across the entire convention center. Races2U owner Warren is pictured taking the beast for a walk. It was a wonderful educational experience and we got to work with some wonderful people. The whole team really worked well together and everyone enjoyed the racing. Thank you to everyone at Acrometis for the opportunity to work with you, and we look forward to doing it again!
Races2U participated in the Lean Digital Speedway event hosted by CI&T at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin this week. We coordinated with the event management team from OneNine Design to be a part of the racing themed event at the Courtyard Marriott., and we set up a slot car track for the attendees to race on. As you can see from the pictures, everyone had a great time, and our hosts were very gracious. A great event right here in our hometown!
One of the most misquoted movie lines ever, from the Bogart classic “Casablanca”. What does this have to do with slot car racing? Nothing, except that Races2U participated in the Casablanca Gala fundraiser for CASA of Travis County this past weekend. It was a lot of fun for a great cause, and CASA raised close to a million dollars to help children in the Austin area.
At Races2U, we don’t generally comment on politics and trends outside of racing. However, we are very dismayed that the recent spate of sexual harassment claims seems to have lead to the demise of the time honored tradition of Grid Girls at Formula 1 racing. This is an example of political correctness run amok.
F1 announced its decision to ditch the grid-girls tradition on Wednesday. “While the practice of employing grid girls has been a staple of Formula 1 Grands Prix for decades, we feel this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms,” said Sean Bratches, F1 managing director of commercial relations.
Grid girls have always served as an important part of the racing events. They represent the community, culture, and fashion of the countries where the races are held. The uniforms were generally tasteful, colorful, and reflected the style of the various localities. For example, at the race in Texas, the girls wear boots and cowboy hats. The women are all willing volunteers and almost without exception love their role at the races.
Even if Formula 1 feels that they are no longer relevant, we at Races2U have no plans to replace our lovely ladies at our events. Check out OUR grid girls here
Home of the famous Indy 500, we set up our own miniature race using Scalextric Indy cars at the annual IPSA conference at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis. A big THANK YOU to our sponsor Dow Agrosciences for having us be a part of the event, and the awesome staff of Bader-Rutter marketing and media for organizing this event.
The digital track was roughly 18′ long by 6′ wide, with several spots for overtaking and lots of places to crash! It was a lot of fun watching these novice drivers get these ultra fast and ultra light cars airborne as they tried to outdo each other. It was a fun event and we got to meet and race with a lot of really nice people in America’s Heartland. We’re looking forward to doing more events with these great folks in the future.
The UMA Motorcoach Expo was held at the Henry Gonzales Center in San Antonio Jan 6-10. Races2U was hired by ABC Companies– the exclusive distributor for VanHool coaches in the US, as part of their booth entertainment. Since the show had a strong focus on touring coaches and companies, we set up a track featuring well-known US landmarks someone might see when traveling the US via coach. Of course, with the show taking place in San Antonio, The Alamo was featured prominently on the track. The cars and track were decorated with the logos of ABC, VanHool, and other sponsors of the booth, and we had many racers come by and test their skills. It was a lot of fun working with the great folks from ABC, and a lot of people got to not only race, but learn about all the new technology on these luxury motor coaches.