Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, who was voted No. 16 on the NHRA's Top 50 Drivers list in 2001, died on June 10. He was 81.

Nicknamed The Mongoose in 1964, as part of a campaign to reel rival Don "The Snake" Prudhomme into a high-exposure match race, McEwen won five NHRA national events during his 35-plus-year career that included time in Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters.

Always the promoter, McEwen earned a reputation for being one of the sport's most colorful figures.

Through his long association with Prudhomme, a friendship that survived their racing careers and sometimes bitter rivalry, McEwen helped blaze the trail toward the sponsored drag racing team. Their Mattel sponsorship, which gave way to "Snake" and "Mongoose" Hot Wheels toys, and backing from big names like Coca-Cola and Carefree sugarless gum were of major significance, but McEwen was a drag racer first.

The Mattel deal ran from 1970 through 1972, and in 1973, Wildlife Racing secured Carefree sugarless gum as a sponsor. McEwen and Prudhomme dissolved their corporation at the end of the 1973 season, but it was a very lucrative partnership. They didn't perform badly on the racetrack, either. In 1972, McEwen won his first major event when he overwhelmed the Top Fuel field at the Bakersfield March Meet. A year later, he scored his first NHRA national event victory by outlasting the quickest Funny Car field in history at the SuperNationals at California's Ontario Motor Speedway. "I was the (BSer) and Prudhomme was the racer," said McEwen. "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.

"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." McEwen went on to win four more national events, including his dramatic U.S. Nationals Funny Car victory over Prudhomme in 1978, following the death just a few days earlier of his son, Jamie. He also won the prestigious Big Bud Shootout in 1984 and won Top Fuel at the 1991 Summernationals to become one of a short list of drivers to have won in both nitro classes.

McEwen, a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and many more, remained popular even in retirement, attending car shows and doing promotional work for a long line of admirers, and was a semi-regular presence at recent races. This year, he had a big hand in helping put together the NHRA Legends Tour and had already made appearances in Las Vegas and Houston as part of the program. For more on the life of Tom McEwen, please see the NHRA website. h/t: NHRA.com

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