By Jim Bloch
What’s up with drag racing’s Big Daddy Don Garlits at age 92?
On March 13, at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida, a knot of people formed near the dragster Swamp Rat 34, which Garlits and Murf McKinney built in 1992.
It turned out that the producers of a new documentary about motorcycle stunt jumper Evel Knievel were setting up to shoot an interview with Garlits. But Garlits wanted to talk about fellow drag racer Conrad “Connie” Kalitta, a Michigan native.
The National Hot Rod Association named Garlits as the best drag racer ever in 2000, the sport’s 50th anniversary.
Big Daddy strolled through the museum, attracting a small crowd of guests as he walked to a chair in front of Swamp Rat 34.
Swamp Rat 34
Nearly all of Garlits’ dragsters are called Swamp Rats, beginning with Swamp Rat I, in which Garlits topped the previously unbeaten team of Emery Cook and Cliff Bedwell at the World Series of Drag Racing in Cordova IL in 1957. After some modifications to the top fuel rail, Garlits became the first drag racer to top 170 miles per hour. In November 1957, he set the world speed record at 176.4 mph and the elapsed time record for the quarter mile at 8.79.
His goal for the last few years has been to break 200 mph on a quarter mile track in an electric dragster. He hit 184.01 in Swamp Rat 37, an EV, in 2018. Steve Huff beat Garlits to the 200 mph mark in Tucson, AZ in May, 2020. Garlits’ new EV, Swamp Rat 38, still hasn’t topped 200, but he’s running faster elapsed times for the quarter mile than Huff, 7.3 second passes compared to 7.4s.
Garlits walked with a limp from his 1970 crash at Lions Speedway in California, when his transmission in Swamp Rat 13 blew up and took off part of his right foot. To protect himself from exploding engine parts, Garlits relocated the engine in Swamp Rat 14 behind the cockpit. The move triggered a revolution in dragster design and soon became universal.
Dressed in blue jeans, a white t-shirt adorned with a Garlits EV dragster and a denim cap with “1932 Model” stitched on it – his birth year — Garlits answered questions from the growing crowd before the formal interview began. Deaf after decades of ear-blowing drag racing, Garlits used his iPhone to turn audio questions into text, which he then fielded.
“Yeah, they’re doing an Evel Knievel documentary and I’m going to be asked some questions about it,” said Garlits, his voice strong. “OK. I knew him casually. Yeah, he was fearless.”
Like you, said one of his fans.
“No, no,” Garlits said. “I was never fearless. I took calculated risks.”
Garlits said that he’s never had many heroes – Cook, the first drag racer to top 160 mph in 1956, who would hold six world records and 46 track records and who died in 1983; John Force, who won 12 NHRA national championships, including 10 straight, 1993-2002, and whose daughters, Ashley, Courtney and Brittany all raced; and drag racer and safety innovator Don Schumacher, who died in 2022 at 79, and his drag racing son Tony.
But Garlits counts Mount Clemens native Kalitta among the few.
Garlits said Kalitta is a person who is fearless in the same way Knievel was fearless. The NHRA pegged Kalitta as the 21st best drag racer of all time in 2000. He graduated from Mount Clemens High in 1957 and became famous for driving the Bounty Hunter, a top fuel dragster with a “Wanted” sign painted on the tail featuring the names of the drivers he wanted to beat.
“Kalitta is 6 years younger than me,” Garlits said.
Today Kalitta is the owner of Kalitta Air, formed in 2000, an air transport company based at Willow Run Airport and flying two dozen B747-400 freighters and eight B767-300 freighters.
“Connie Kalitta flew all the nitroglycerin across the Atlantic Ocean for them to build the North Sea pipeline,” Garlits said. “He made hundreds of trips in his twin engine Cessna completely loaded with nitroglycerin.”
Nobody would ride with Kalitta. When he needed to sleep, he put the plane on automatic pilot.
“He would put an alarm clock up on the dash of the system and set it so when he got within sight of the British Isles, it would wake him up,” Garlits said. “I can’t even wrap my mind around that.”
On March 7, the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, a branch of Garlits’ museum, inducted Connie’s son Scott into its fold. Scott was killed in 2008 when his funny car exploded at Old Bridge Town Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. He was 46.
That same night, Garlits presented Connie with the Hall of Fame’s first lifetime achievement award.
“It’s awesome and brings tears,” said Kalitta, as heard on the CompetitionPlusTV recording of the ceremony, held in Gainesville.
“Connie made so much of his own life,” Garlits said. “He’s a multi billionaire. But he still never took his eyes off drag racing, and he’s a major part of modern drag racing – him, John Force and the Schumachers. Amazing people. Without them, there wouldn’t be much top fuel today.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
