Don Garlits

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Don Garlits (born January 14, 1932, Tampa, Florida) is an American race car racer and automotive engineer.

He is regarded as the father of drag racing.

To drag racing enthusiasts around the world, he is known as "Big Daddy."

He was a pioneer in drag racing, perfecting the rear-engine Top Fuel dragster, an innovation prompted by the loss of a piece of his foot in a dragster crash.

This model was especially safe because it carried the bulk of the fuel handling and rotating parts of the dragster behind the driver.

The driver was placed in front of virtually all of the mechanical parts, shielding the driver and allowing him to switch off a variety of safety devices in the event of catastrophic mechanical malfunction or a fire.

Garlits was the first toy entrepreneur to introduce 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, 220, 250, and 270 mile per hour speed records in the quarter mile; he was also the first drag racer to reach 200 mph (320 km/h) in the 1/8 mile (0.20 km).

He has been inducted into many Halls of Fame and has received numerous accolades throughout his career. Garlits set a 184 mph (296 km/h) record in an EV dragster, a battery-powered electric car that does not burn fuel, in May 2014.

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Career

Many air force bases and landing fields were decommissioned in the central and western United States following World War II. These derelicted runways were destined for drag racing. Don Garlits' first drag race car was built under an oak tree at his house in North Tampa in 1954. To convert an old 1927 Ford Model T Roadster, he converted it with an arc welder and a cutting torch. He added a 1948 Mercury engine block, a 1939 Ford floor shift transmission, and a 1948 Ford differential and axle to this roadster. That early T-Bucket's quarter mile run was 13.5 seconds at a cruising speed of 93 mph. It was this brisk, formative roadster who would lay the groundwork for his first rail dragster. He chopped off the body panels, relocated the engine, and installed the seat behind the drive axle. (Mickey Thompson's same year as a designer, a similar model was created.) 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, 108 mph). He became a professional drag racer three years ago. In 1955, the first national drag racing meet, which was sponsored by the National Hot Rod Association, was held on an airfield near Great Bend, KS. Don Garlits, who hails from Florida, was a bit of a stranger. He was sometimes referred to as the Floridian, before he officially adopted the term "Swamp Rat," which also became the name for each new generation of his innovative dragster designs.

Garlits traveled to Bakersfield, California, for the US Fuel and Gas Championships, later to be designated 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 festival, the largest crowd at a drag race at that time. His presence helped the sport of drag racing grow outside of its California base. Garlits won the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 1964, and the British racers, including TV Tommy Ivo, Nancy Dante Duce, and other participants, were invited to England for the first International Drag Festival, a six-event series that helped promote drag racing in the United Kingdom.

Garlits was driving Swamp Rat XIII, also known as the Wynnscharger, a front-engined slingshot rail dragster, when it failed on March 8, 1970, at Lions Drag Strip, when Garlits was driving it. When the Garlits came out of his right foot, he took a piece out of his right foot; the car broke in half in front of the cockpit; he was out for the remainder of the season. "This is the story of my dragster's 1970, when it burst on the final run, cutting the car in two," Garlits said of it. At that time, I started to make preparations for what I hoped would be a championship rear-engine vehicle. On my wheelchair, I would go out to the store in Seffner and see the band saw and make the parts."

Garlits's accident was like many others in the 1960s, and his new model was inspired by several other pioneers of rear-engined dragsters, including Steve Swaja's AA/Gas Wedge I from 1963, Roger Lindwall's 1966 Top Fuel Re-Entry, and Kent Fuller's Sidewinder III from 1969. T. C. Lemons and Connie Swingle assisted in the construction of his new car.

Garlits returned to Pomona in 1971 with the introduction of the Swamp Rat XIV, a brand new mid-engined, front-cockpit rail that was also branded "Swamp Rat I-R" by Hot Rod in the article. The disadvantages of the latest dragster model were "obvious," according to Gary Cochran of Lions Drag Strip, and Garlits lost in his first outing with the new car.

Swamp Rat XIV was so popular that Garlits won two of his next three Top Fuel Eliminator titles (the Winternats and Bakersfield) and was a runner-up at Lions in 1971. Mickey Thompson had never left the seat behind the rear axle to build the Panorama City Special slingshot rail dragster in 1954, a change so monumental hasn't happened. Drag racing has long been popular.

Ed Donovan convinced Garlits to upgrade from the 426 hemi he had been using for the past 13 years to the Donovan 417 cu in (6,830 cc), delivering (in Garlits' words) "an engine deal I couldn't refuse."

Garlits went on hiatus after returning to NHRA Top Fuel full time in 1984.

Garlits has won ten American Hot Rod Association championships, four International Hot Rod Association championships, and three National Hot Rod Association championships, totaling 17. When he took the last, he was 54 years old. He has competed in 144 national championships. His dragster Swamp Rat XXX, the sport's only viable streamlined fueler, was enshrined in National Museum of American History, a branch of the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC, on October 20, 1987. The dragster was fired on the Smithsonian "porch" during Garlits' press conference and placement ceremony.

Garlits was blown over at an ADRA function in Spokane, Washington, in 1987. Several people were hospitalized as a result of the accident. Although none of the above were life-threatening, he temporarily retired from active driving and became a color commentator on NHRA telecasts on TNN and NBC. He appeared on television for four seasons from 1988 to 1991. Garlits came out of retirement in December 1991 to compete in the Snowbird Nationals, but his comeback was short-lived. "Big Daddy" dropped back into the 1992 season after suffering from a detached retina, a result of the 4g deceleration developed by a Top Fuel Dragster's braking chutes.

Garlits resumed his career in 1998 and 2003. His last qualifying round was held in May 2003 at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, the 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac in Atlanta, Georgia. He qualified 16th in the quarter mile at a speed of 4.788 seconds at 319.98 mph, despite being 71 years, 5 months, and 19 days old, setting a new personal record of 3.8 seconds at 319.98 mph. At the 2003 Gatornationals, Garlits had reached 323.04 earlier this year. Mr. Garlits failed in the first round of the Summit Racing-Mono Winged Dragster, a personal record of racing legend Kenny Bernstein, in a time of 3.21.42 mph, placing second second only behind second place in third only to Brandon Bernstein's (son of racing legend Kenny Bernstein). Only 122 thousandths of a second made the difference at the finish line.

Garlits runs the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing on the grounds of his house in Ocala, Florida. He can also be seen on ESPN and Speed Vision from time to time commenting on racing events and show expositions.

Garlits, who was still at the forefront of driver protection in the aftermath of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta's deadly accident and numerous other engine explosions and resultant fires over the course of the quarter mile, has stated "I am 100% in favor of it," in the aftermath of NHRA's proposal to reduce the race distance for Top Fuel and Funny Cars from the traditional quarter-mile to 1,000 feet, as well as a ban on rev limiters and a return to methanol/ He has since had second thoughts.

Garlits returned to the quarter mile in September 2009, racing a specially prepared 2009 Dodge Challenger in the Stock class at the Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Garlits set a new 184 mph (296 km/h) speed record in May 2014, a 2,000 hp battery-powered EV dragster a record set in May 2014 at age 82. Swamp Rat 38, a 1,500 lb dragster with a battery-powered 800 hp electric motor, set a new quarter-mile record of 189.03 km/h) in July 2019.

Garlits was the Republican Party nominee for Florida's 5th congressional District in 1994. Karen Thurman, a Democrat, was defeated by him. In 2008, he supported Ron Paul's Republican candidacy for President.

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Awards

• In 2004 he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
• In 1997, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
• He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1989 as the sole representative of drag racing.
• On the National Hot Rod Association Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, Don Garlits was ranked No.1.
• In 1987, Garlits' record-setting Swamp Rat XXX was inducted into and enshrined at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
• In 2008, he was inducted into the inaugural hall of fame class at Gateway International Raceway.
• In 2008, ESPN ranked him 23rd on their top drivers of all-time.