("Big Daddy" Don Garlits speaks to the assembled media Friday at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte. Garlits, along with Shirley Muldowney, Kenny Bernstein, and Connie Kalitta, represent NHRA's legends this weekend as part of the year-long celebration of the sanction's 60th anniversary. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)
zMAX is a little different than the drag strip you built back in the day.
“Back in 1959, in Tampa or just outside of Tampa, we built a drag strip. We got this piece of property out in this field from this guy and put a piece of asphalt down through it and put in a tiny tower. We thought we really had something. It was a little better than those airstrips that we were running on. I look at this place here and it just boggles my mind. I’ve never seen anything quite like it for drag racing. It really shows you how far the sport has come in the last 60 years.”
What’s it been like to be a part of NHRA’s 60th anniversary?
“First of wall, I’m really enjoying this year because I’m doing a lot of participation with NHRA at some of their events. I had kind of slowed down as little bit and didn’t do too much last year. I’ve got a real sick wife at home and I’ve been staying pretty close with her. Her sister’s helping me out with her, (my wife’s) got a younger sister. But I just wanted to get out here and help celebrate this 60th. It’s a milestone in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot in drag racing. I remember when all it was when the guys would come out to the race at one of those old airports that were given up by the government when the war was over, World War II. Everybody drove to the event. We didn’t have clocks. All the speedometers read about 80 miles per hour at the end and we were happy with it! We never had any idea it would do what it did. It was so funny. Each major breakthrough, I remember when we broke a hundred miles per hour, we got a big fancy jacket, a silk jacket, the Century Club. We never thought, maybe a little faster than that. Then there was the 150 mile per hour club. That was really something. A California guy did that with two engines in a car called the Bustle Bomb. We really thought that was the most we were ever going to be able to do. Then it went right on up to 200, 250, 275, 300, 325, 335. I guess they were going to go 350 and then they decided, hey! They’re going a little too fast for what we’re trying to do and I think that was a good move because that’s when they put the brakes on them. But now they’re doing about the same speed in the thousand foot, so my question is, what’s next?”
Are you disappointed that you didn’t get to race 4-Wide on this level?
“Kinda. I got out of it just as the really big sponsorships were coming in and they were building the real fancy facilities. I did come back and make a few runs in 2003 and got to go 300 miles per hour and I enjoyed that. But I had gotten a little bit too old for that kind of racing. It puts a lot of strain on your body, your eyes, everything about it. I knew that I couldn’t continue on, so I dropped out. I do Sportsman racing now just for fun, you know? Actually, it wasn’t me, it was my wife who really insisted that I quit. She said it just scared her so bad to see me get in the car and go 300 miles per hour. Then when they came out with this drag pack car, she said, ‘Honey, why don’t you get you one of those? They only go 130, that would be OK. That wouldn’t scare me!’”
Are you disappointed that they didn’t have 4-Wide racing back then?
“Now see, you’re not informed. I raced a lot of 4-Wide. Not at this level, but Top Fuel. We put four Top Fuelers on the drag strip and went down at York, Pennsylvania; Detroit Dragway; Fresno, California; it’s exciting to do that, go 4-Wide with four cars on the track at the same time. It was the same deal, it’s just that this is much faster.”
What was it like to run 4-Wide back then?
“The one thing was, the difference was they didn’t have the single-lane timing like they do today, so the winner was the only one who got a time. The ET that was recorded was the winning car. Everybody else, they didn’t know what they turned and that was one of the things we didn’t like about it. But the crowds loved it! They ate it up. The problem we were faced with back then usually when we had the 4-Wide, it wasn’t usually a big national event where there was a lot of cars. There was maybe only eight cars that were scheduled in. So you did two runs and you only did the two cars, the two winners, so the show was shut off a little bit soon. I think that’s why it didn’t really catch on back then, they didn’t really have enough cars to participate. Now they did 4-Wide in Bakersfield (Calif.) back in 1965 where they had 125 Fuel dragsters. That might have really got some attention. They could have done it there because it was a nice, wide track. I don’t know why they didn’t. We were all concerned because—you all got the big barrier in the center here and you’ve got two separate drag strips and we didn’t have it that way. The four cars were on the track there side by side much closer than we have here. The tracks were a little bit wider, but not as wide as this facility. I think they thought about it all and there was some danger involved and it was just kinda done away with. This was quite a deal when they came back with it here. I have to make this observation of what I’ve seen. I think there’s something that should be really considered is to run these stockers 4-Wide, like the stock classes, the Stock Eliminator that I’m in. There’s 59 cars here in that class. We could have some real good racing 4-Wide due to the fact you’ve got a lot of cars. I think it would cause the stock Sportsmen classes to be a lot more exciting to send four of them down at a time versus the two and you’ve got plenty of cars so it would be a big show. I think it would create a lot more interest in that division. You’ve got a lot of cars back there with a lot of money involved in them, they just don’t go as fast. With four on the track at the same time, it would be a lot more exciting. That’s just my personal opinion. That’s just what I see.”
Your thoughts on the evolution of the sport.
“It’s a fantastic thing that has happened to the sport. The exposure that we’re getting, the television, we never dreamed we’d get that kind of exposure or even acceptance by the general public. When I got started, drag racers were considered black-leather jacketed hoodlums racing through school zones. For the sport to reach this plateau that it’s at now with the professionalism, the sponsorship, the television. When someone would spend the money to build a facility like this, it really speaks highly of the sport that they’re talking with their pocketbooks that we believe in the product. So there’s a lot more left. I would have never thought it. We’re living in a little economic downturn right now, so I don’t think we should pay attention to what’s happening right this minute. I think that’ll change, it always has. There’s a lot of people who like this sport. They enjoy it. I was talking to some people, there’s been a lot who have come over by (our pits) and they said, ‘We were just going through going home on our way to Canada, we thought we’d stop and watch this 4-Wide.’ So the word is getting out that it’s getting exciting to watch. It’s going to be interesting.”
How is your racing this weekend?
“They ran the class off this morning and I got beat and the guy that beat me won the deal. These guys are good. I mean they know exactly what their car will do every time. I don’t have enough seat time in my car because I’m not really in it to win championships or anything. I’m just out here having some fun. (Saturday) we have Stock Eliminator and that one, you dial what you think your car will run and then you gotta leave first and run pretty close to whatever time you put on your windshield. I’m gonna put like a 10.15 on mine and that’s what I hope I can run, leave with the competitor and run a 10.15 and that will keep me in there. There’s 59 cars in my class so there’ll be a lot of rounds to go. It’s really different. I have to say about the Sportsman racing, they’re a really nice bunch of people back there. It kind of reminds me of the old days because when I started, it was just stock automobiles. It was all Sportsman racing. There wasn’t any money involved and everybody helped if you broke something. Everybody come over and worked on your car. That’s how they are in the Sportsman pits. If anything happened to my car, I can go back there to any one of those guys, they’ll help me, they’ll give me parts, they’ll let me use their lifts or trailer or whatever. The professional drag racing got away from that. It got a little bit tough because the corporate sponsorship. You just can’t do that. You can’t have your team going over and helping someone else. That would be really bad. So I kinda enjoy that in the Sportsman racing because it reminds me of the old days.”
Could you imagine racing like they do today with the big corporate sponsors?
“In 1986 and 1987 when the major sponsorships were coming in and I had a taste of it. I was with Mopar and Kendall and it was starting to really get tough. Your team had to be dead on, everybody had to be uniformed up and all cleaned up real nice and you had to say the right thing when the television cameras were on you. It was very controlled and it was corporate. Without the corporate sponsorship, you weren’t going to be able to do it, so you had to keep your sponsor and there were lots of little rules. You’d be surprised back there in those pits. I won’t call any names, but some of those teams have some very serious rules for the workers, the people who do the work. Some of them aren’t even allowed to stand around with their hands in their pockets! They’ve got to be doing something and be busy. It’s their rules and it’s all because of the corporate involvement now.”
