The labor was onceone of love, but for Pete Ward, it's now a job that's not as fun as it once was.

Ward used to coordinate the souvenir stand operated by his best friend Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen at the gate to the area known as "The Grove" at Auto Club Famosa Raceway.

"It’s just a very unusual, uncomfortable situation," Ward said as he paused from setting out the numerous autographed pieces of memorabilia.

This weekend wasn't the first time he's set up the stand without McEwen, but it is the first time he had no chance of speaking to the legend drag racing fans knew as The Mongoose.

"We were here a couple of years ago, when Goose had his pacemaker put in he couldn’t make it, so this is the only time that he has officially not been here in a long, long time and we miss the hell out of him," Ward said.

Ward and McEwen go back a while, 1982 to be exact. McEwen hired him when he raced the Coors-sponsored Funny Car.

"We’ve been through so much together, good times and bad times," Ward reminisced. "He’s always there. He was a hell of a guy. You could always count on the Goose. If he said he was going to do something, he’d do it. He’d always honor his word whether it was to his own detriment or not."

Meeting and greeting the fans has been a mixed emotion of sorts.

"There are folks here that didn’t realize he’s gone, and quite frankly we’re just another sideshow for them, we’re just another elephant at the circus," Ward said. "But for the folks that have been here before that know Tom or have crossed paths with Tom, they can tell that there’s a different feel to it.

"There’s kind of a reverence if you will. Sometimes you just look at them and they look at you, and you can just see it in their eyes."

Ward said he's unsure how long the memorabilia stand will exist.

"We might come back to the March Meet, but this can’t go on much longer I wouldn’t think," Ward said.

As Ward sees it, the stand just isn't the same without its inspirational figure.

"Tom was the heart and soul of this deal," Ward explained. "He’d sit here and hold court and entertain us and the fans. Of course at the Reunion, the best part of the Reunion are the people that show up. Just all of the old racers that would be here and it was always kind of like a reunion, and unfortunately, we’re losing a lot of them."