At that 1971 event at SIR was a young boy going to the drags with his father. They had heard about the Northwest Open on the radio with all the big-time racers and decided to check it out.
The father and son duo had spent the whole day at SIR taking in the sights and sounds of the drags and just having a great time. The pits were socked full of fuel dragsters and funny cars as they were readying their machines for the finals.
When the pair were ready to leave SIR back then, this young boy had asked his father to back down the convertible, with the top down, near the finish line so he could see Prudhomme making his run.
Gene Beaver and the Condit Brothers in the L.A Hooker and Prudhomme were getting set for the final round of competition. This young boy 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 final picture, the only one he had left.
That photograph was of Prudhomme’s funny car exploding, and on fire, with the front wheels (and even the back wheels) completely off the ground. The “fireball” race car came roaring by dad’s convertible and the young son was standing on the back seat aiming his camera. One little click by this young boy and an amazing, one of a kind photo had taken place. What incredible timing!! It took about 5 seconds for the funny cars to travel the quarter mile back then. This one photo was taken when the both cars were directly in front of that young boy
Kenny Youngblood was commissioned to make that photo into a painting, and that painting was given to Don in 1994 as he retired from driving dragsters, and switched to owning a race car team
http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-3-of-5.htm
http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-4-of-5.htm
http://www.jefferson61.com/The-Prudhomme-Story-5-of-5.htm
Hat tip to https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2015/05/fuel-leak.html
That magic moment just before everything comes apart and starts to hurt really badly.
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