CLASSIC AMERICAN PEOPLE THE SWAMMMP RAT - 'BIG DADDY' DON GARLITS
When Don started drag racing in 1950, he struggled to run 100mph sub-20 second standing quarter miles. In 1958 he became the first man to officially break the 180mph barrier and was running in the ‘eights’. With that terrific speed came danger and as we learned in part one last month, Don was badly burned in afiery accident in 1959 at Chester, South Carolina, something that was becoming an all too common occurrence. Don told me: “Right after the Chester fire I had a face mask made that clipped on to the bottom of my goggles to protect the lower section of my face. Then, in ’62, we started soaking our race overalls in Borax solution to make them somewhat fireproof. I wore those for about a year. Then, the people in California saw the aluminised suits that the trackside firefighters wore and made me a fire suit. I was maybe the first to wear those aluminised suits.”
On March 8, 1970 at Lions Drag Strip, Long Beach, California, Don had another massive accident. In the final round of the Top Fuel Eliminator, as he launched his front-engined Swamp Rat XIII off the line, the new two-speed gearbox exploded with such
