Drag racing and betting can make for some interesting war stories and former Blue Max crew man “Waterbed” Fred Miller remembers very well his experience with two of the key figures in the U.S. 30 betting system.
“There were two African-American guys that were well known around U.S. 30 and let’s say they oversaw the wagering, among other things in the grandstands,” Miller said. “They answered to the names of ‘Dog’ and ‘Rabbit.’”
Miller’s boss, Raymond Beadle, and the Blue Max team, had been booked in to match race a seemingly unbeatable Don Prudhomme. The promoter was paying $5,000 to the winner of the best two-out-of-three match race.
Beadle had already prepared himself to leave with some sort of revenue and just for the event, had boxes of Blue Max T-shirts printed up to sell. At least if he lost to Prudhomme, he wouldn’t leave empty-handed.
Moments after unloading the car, Miller said, the team was visited by Dog and Rabbit to get a feel of the evening’s match race — and they noticed the boxes of shirts.
“They pulled up to our trailer with this Cadillac full of guys and they all got out,” Miller recalled. “Rabbit pulls his pant leg up and he’s got those high socks and in there he had rolls of cash. He pulled out the money and asked Beadle how much money he wanted for the T-shirts. Beadle said they were about five bucks each.
“Rabbit then asked how many did he have. Beadle told them how many and Rabbit decided he wanted to buy them all. They took every T-shirt we had and we never had to sell a one.”
The heavy betting money that weekend was on Prudhomme. When Prudhomme smoked the tires in the first race, the outlook on the match race changed.
“One thing you have to understand is that Dog and Rabbit were racing smart,” Miller said. “This was not just a bunch of dumb guys in the stands betting. They knew what they were doing. One thing about Prudhomme, at that point in his career he took everything seriously, including match races.
“Prudhomme was no-nonsense,” Miller said. “He was there to race, no T-shirts, no socializing – get there and race, win it, get your money and leave.”
Beadle, according to Miller, had a plan of his own and the second race went anything but textbook.
“Beadle pre-staged, Prudhomme crept in there and was slow getting into the pre-stage and Beadle lit the stage light and boom, he left and Prudhomme followed,” Miller said with a laugh. “I’m not even sure if he got staged. I’m not even sure the tree came down. There was no red-light.”
It wouldn’t have mattered, because as you will recall, red-lights in the grand scheme of betting didn’t matter. All that mattered was the win-light.
“At the other end, Prudhomme gets out – throws his helmet, pissed off at the world, cussing and saying every profanity you can imagine. He was hotter than hell,” Miller said.
It didn’t matter that Prudhomme won the last run of the match race with his best run of the night, Miller said, because Beadle had been declared the winner and got the $5,000.
“That was a big weekend for us,” Miller said. “We sold every T-shirt, won the match race and got a favorable nod from Dog and Rabbit.”
At U.S. 30, that nod was worth its weight in gold. – Bobby Bennett
