Donald Glenn Garlits (born January 14, 1932, Tampa, Florida) is an American race car driver and automotive engineer. Considered the father of drag racing, he is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. A pioneer in the field of drag racing, he perfected the rear-engine Top Fueldragster, an innovation motivated by the loss of part of his foot in a dragster accident. This design was notably safer since it put most of the fuel processing and rotating parts of the dragster behind the driver. The driver was placed in front of nearly all the mechanical components, thus protecting him and allowing him to activate a variety of safety equipment in the event of catastrophic mechanical failure or a fire. Garlits was an early promoter of the full-body, fire-resistant Nomex driving suit, complete with socks, gloves, and balaclava.
Garlits was the first drag racer to officially surpass the 170, 180, 200,[citation needed] 240, 250, and 270 mile-per-hour marks in the quarter mile; he was also the first to top 200mph (320km/h) in the 1⁄8mi (0.20km). He has been inducted into several Halls of Fame and has won many awards during his career.
After World War II, in the central and western United States, many air force bases and landing fields were decommissioned. These abandoned runways were perfect for drag racing. Don Garlits's first drag race car was built under an oak tree at his home in North Tampa in 1954. He used an arc welder and a cutting torch to modify an old 1927 Ford Model T Roadster. To this roadster he added a 1948 Mercury engine block, a 1939 Ford floor shift transmission, and a 1948 Ford differential and axle. That early T-Bucket's quarter mile performance was 13.5 seconds, at a top speed of 93mph. It was this successful, formative roadster that would become the basis for his first rail-job dragster. He cut off the body panels, moved the engine back, and installed the seat behind the drive axle. (A similar design was built that same year by Mickey Thompson.) This was the legendary slingshot dragster with which Big Daddy would win the first NHRA race he entered, the NHRA Safety Safari in Lake City, Florida (12.1 seconds, 108mph). Three years later, he became a professional drag racer.[1] The first national drag racing meet, sponsored by the National Hot Rod Association was held on an airfield near Great Bend, KS in 1955. Don Garlits, being from Florida, was something of an outsider. He was sometimes referred to as the Floridian, before permanently adopting the nickname "Swamp Rat," which also became the name for each new generation of his innovative dragster designs.
In 1959, Garlits traveled to Bakersfield, California for the US Fuel and Gas Championships, later to be named the "March Meet", to show that the times he was setting were as legitimate as those set by the west coast racers. Over 30,000 people attended the event, the largest attendance at a drag race at that point. His presence helped to grow the sport of drag racing beyond its California base. In 1964, after winning the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Garlits traveled to England, with TV Tommy Ivo, Tony Nancy, Dante Duce and other racers, to participate in the first International Drag Festival, a six-event series that did much to promote the sport of drag racing in the UK.
Accident leads to innovation
On March 8, 1970, at Lions Drag Strip,[2] Garlits was driving Swamp Rat XIII, also called the Wynnscharger, a front-engined slingshot rail dragster, when the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure. The two-speed transmission Garlits was developing exploded and took a piece out of his right foot, while the car broke in half in front of the cockpit;[3] he was out for the remainder of the season. In an interview by Florida Trend, Garlits said this of the incident: "In 1970, the transmission exploded in my dragster on the final run, and it cut my foot off and cut the car in two. That’s when I drew up plans for what I thought would be a championship rear-engine car. I would go out to the shop in Seffner on my wheelchair, saw stuff out on the band saw and make the parts."[4]
Garlits's accident was like many in the 1960s, and his new design followed several other pioneer designers of rear-engined dragsters, including Steve Swaja's AA/GasWedge I from 1963, Roger Lindwall's 1966 Top Fuel Re-Entry, and Kent Fuller's fueller Sidewinder III from 1969.[5] He was aided in the construction of his new car by T. C. Lemons and Connie Swingle.[2]
The first modern "back-motor digger"
Garlits returned to Pomona in 1971 with Swamp Rat XIV, a brand new mid-engined, front-cockpit rail, also dubbed the "Swamp Rat I-R" by Hot Rod in the article introducing it to their readers. The rodding magazines considered the disadvantages of the new dragster design "obvious," and, indeed, Garlits lost in his first outing with the new car, to Gary Cochran at Lions Drag Strip.[6]
However, Swamp Rat XIV became so successful that in 1971, Garlits won two of his next three Top Fuel Eliminator titles (the Winternats and Bakersfield), and was a runner-up at Lions, all in the new car.[7][8] A change so momentous had not happened since Mickey Thompson moved the seat behind the rear axle to create the Panorama City Special slingshot rail dragster in 1954.[9] Rear engine dragsters have since become mainstream in drag racing.[10]
In 1977, Ed Donovan persuaded Garlits to switch from the 426 hemi he had been using for the last thirteen years to the Donovan417cuin (6,830cc), offering (in Garlits' words) "an engine deal I couldn’t refuse".[11]
Garlits took a brief hiatus, returning to NHRA Top Fuel full-time in 1984.[12]
Further accomplishments
Swamp Rat XXX
Garlits has won ten American Hot Rod Association championships, four International Hot Rod Association championships, and three National Hot Rod Association championships, a total of 17. He was age 54 when he won the last. He won a total of 144 national events. On October 20, 1987, his dragster Swamp Rat XXX, the sport's only successful streamlined fueler,[citation needed] was enshrined in National Museum of American History, a branch of The Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC. In true Garlits style, during the press conference submission and placement ceremony, the dragster was fired up on the Smithsonian "porch."[13]
Retirement and post-racing career
In 1987, Garlits suffered a blowover at the AHRA World Finals in Spokane, Washington.[14] He received several injuries from the resulting crash. Though none were life-threatening, he temporarily retired from active driving and became a color commentator for NHRA telecasts on TNN and NBC. He announced for four seasons, from 1988 through the end of 1991. In December 1991 Garlits came out of retirement to race in the Snowbird Nationals, but his comeback was to be short-lived. "Big Daddy" retired again before the end of the 1992 season because of a detached retina, a product of the 4g deceleration produced by a Top Fuel Dragster's braking parachutes.[15]
Garlits resumed his career briefly in 1998, and again in 2003. His last qualifying race was in May 2003 at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 71 years, 5 months and 19 days he qualified 16th, setting a personal best speed in the quarter mile with a time of 4.788 seconds at 319.98mph. Garlits had reached 323.04 earlier in the year at the 2003 Gatornationals. Mr. Garlits lost in first-round competition with his Summit Racing-Mono Winged Dragster, clocking in with a 0.064 reaction time, a personal best 4.737 elapsed time, and 307.44mph, second only to Brandon Bernstein's (son of racing legend Kenny Bernstein) Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster 0.079 reaction time, a 4.615 elapsed time, at 321.42 miles per hour. The difference at the finish line was only 122 thousandths of a second.
Garlits operates the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing on the grounds of his home in Ocala, Florida. He can also be seen from time to time on ESPN and Speed Vision doing commentary at racing events and performance expositions.
Always at the forefront of driver safety, in the wake of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta's fatal crash and numerous other engine explosions and resultant fires, occurring in the last 300 feet of the quarter mile, Garlits declared "I am 100 percent in favor of it", regarding NHRA's proposal to trim the race distance for Top Fuel and Funny Car from the traditional quarter-mile to 1,000 feet, also suggesting that he would support a ban on rev limiters and a return to a 70/30 nitromethane to methanol ratio.[16] He has since had second thoughts.[17]
In September 2009, Garlits returned to the quarter mile, racing a specially prepared 2009 Dodge Challenger in the Stock class at the U.S. Nationals at the Indianapolis Raceway Park, losing to Dan Fletcher in the first round.[18]
In May 2014 at age 82, Garlits set a 184mph (296km/h) speed record with Swamp Rat 37, a 2,000hp battery-powered EV dragster .[19] In July 2019 at age 87, he set a new quarter-mile record of 189.03mph (304.21km/h) with Swamp Rat 38, a 1,500lb dragster with a battery-powered 800hp electric motor.[20]
He is a mentor of current NHRA Top Fuel racer and fellow Ocala, Florida resident, Josh Hart.
In 2008, ESPN ranked him 23rd on their top drivers of all-time.[24]
Related Research Articles
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1⁄4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1⁄8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.
Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.
Top Fuel is a type of drag racing whose dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of 341.68 miles per hour (549.9 km/h) and finishing the 1,000 foot (304.8 m) runs in 3.62 seconds.
Shirley Muldowney, also known professionally as "Cha Cha" and the "First Lady of Drag Racing", is an American auto racer. She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. She won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She won a total of 18 NHRA national events.
Tommy Ivo, also known as "TV Tommy" and "Instant Ivo" is an American actor and drag racer, who was active in the 1960s racing community.
The front-engine dragster is a type of racing car purposely built for drag racing. Commonly known as a "rail", "digger", or "slingshot", it is now considered obsolete, and is used only in nostalgia drag racing. Wheelbases ranged from 97 to 225 inches.
Don Prudhomme, nicknamed "the Snake", is an American drag racer.
Pacers Auto, Inc.® was a popular, record-setting drag racing team in the early 1950s and 1960s.
Eddie Hill is an American retired drag racer who won numerous drag racing championships on land and water. Hill had the first run in the four second range (4.990 seconds), which earned him the nickname "Four Father of Drag Racing." His other nicknames include "The Thrill", "Holeshot Hill", and "Fast Eddie". In 1960, he set the NHRA record for the largest improvement in the elapsed time (e.t.) when he drove the quarter mile in 8.84 seconds to break the previous 9.40-second record.
Jack Chrisman was an American drag racer. He was a drag racing pioneer and 1961 champion. He was influential in the formation of the Funny Car class, as he introduced the first blown injected nitro-burning Funny Car. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) ranked Chrisman 23rd on their Top 50 drivers in 2001.
Bruce Larson (1937) is an American retired drag racer from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. He became nationally known for his match races. He quit funny Car racing in 1972 after a bad fire and raced in the Pro Stock class for 2 years. He then returned to the Funny Car class and match racing until 1987 where he fought his way to the NHRA Funny Car Championship in 1989. He led the points chase from start to finish collecting 6 National Event wins, 5 runner ups and the Car Craft Funny Car Driver of the Year award. That championship car is now one of only 2 drag race cars in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, the other being Don Garlits' rear engine dragster. He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2006. Larson is remembered for his red, white, and blue USA-1 Chevrolet Camaros.
The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is located at 13700 SW 16th Ave, Ocala, Florida, just off Interstate 75. Opened in 1984, it chronicles the history of the sport of drag racing. Some 90 racing cars can be seen in the Drag Race building, while a further 50 vehicles are in the Antique Car building. Many of the Garlits "Swamp Rat" cars are here, but he also turns out to be a pack rat with an accumulation of cars and memorabilia from other top names in the sport. The iconic cars of Dean Moon, the Mooneyes gas dragster and the Moonbeam sports car are on display.
Chris Karamesines is an American drag racer and one of NHRA's early pioneers and nicknamed "The Golden Greek" or just simply "Greek". In 2009, he became the first driver in NHRA history to compete and become the fastest driver at over 78 years old at the final event of the 2009 season at Pomona driving in the Top Fuel category. But he would lose in the first round against Brandon Bernstein. The following year, he made an attempt at Firebird International Raceway in Arizona and made the field, but again lost in the first round. Karamesines would break his own record in 2018 at Brainerd Raceway, running a 305-mile per hour pass at 86 years old.
Jerry Ruth is a former professional drag racer who raced in the "golden age of drag racing" in the 1960s and 1970s. He was known as drag racing's "King of the Northwest".
A dragster is a specialized competition automobile used in drag racing.
Altered is a former National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing class and a current drag racing chassis configuration that forms the basis of many classes of NHRA Competition Eliminator.
The 1968 NHRA Winternationals were a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing event, held at Auto Club Raceway, Pomona, California on 4 February.
Ed Donovan (1928–1989), commonly called "The Mole", was an American racing engine and parts builder.
The Donovan hemi is an American Top Fuel drag racing engine, designed and built by Ed Donovan and first appearing in 1971. In the 1970s, it was the most popular engine in Top Fuel dragsters.
Steve Reyes is an American photographer and storyteller from Oakland, California. Reyes has been included in Don Garlits' International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2002), NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion Honorees (2009), and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame (2011).
↑ Taylor, Thom. "Tony Nancy Gas Dragster", "Roger Lindwall Re-Entry", and "Kent Fuller Sidewinder III", in "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone", pp.34, 38, and 42.
↑ Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "Remembering dragster pioneer Dode Martin", written February 9, 2018, at NHRA.com (retrieved September 19, 2018)
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