DRAG RACERS…
TOP FUEL DRAGSTER
NHRA LEGEND

SIGNATURE PROFILES
© 1999-2001 Dwight Drum

"It goes up, and it goes on."

Part 1 of 2

Story and questions by Dwight Drum
Photos (c) by Gary Larsen and Dwight Drum
Internet Scheme by Gary Larsen

Home Town: Ocala, Florida

When I first met 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits he reminded me of the stalwart professor, William Strunk, I encountered in my writing studies. A handbook, 'Elements of Style' by Strunk and White has long been a standard for English students and writers. Will Strunk impressed renowned author E.B. White, when he was a student in his class, because Will always knew where he stood, and he was a vigorous proponent for omitting useless words, for speaking out. 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits impressed me in the same way. Big Daddy always knows where he stands, and he speaks out. Big Daddy didn't get anywhere by being sheepish…he raced to it. Along the way he stood his ground, and raced and raced. Share a piece of ground that I was privileged to share with 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits. Huddle up under Big Daddy's canopy and put your feet next to ours…Big Daddy is about to hit it! … Again.

DWIGHT CHATS WITH…DON GARLITS

" Honesty. My word is my bond."

"Other. What people think about you."

"One of my first heroes was Emery Cook of the Cook and Bedwell car, and later Chuck Yaeger."

"Absolutely!"

"Live a long time…to be able to do what I'm doing. I'm not looking to kick the dirt now."

Jim Honeywell holds up the latest shirt

"Yes."

"Yes I do, and this is going to blow your mind. I study aliens. I saw a spaceship when I was young in Tampa. I didn't know it was a space ship. I thought it was a government secret. I've seen more since then. I've seen four, and I've always had a witness. That's the good part. I study it now. I know as much about aliens as the ten per cent of the planet who have knowledge of them. I'm not talking about belief; I'm talking about knowledge. There's a difference in believing about aliens and knowing about aliens. I know about aliens, not as much as the big guys who work with the subject, but I know aliens are here."

"NASCAR!"

"(Laughs) I refuse to answer that on the grounds that it might incriminate me. (Laughs again) It certainly wouldn't be my brain."

"Yorkshire Terriers. I won't be without them till I die. People who have pets like Yorkshire Terriers live longer, I believe, because they have so much love. You gotta have love."

"I take vitamins and I have a special diet…not peanut butter like John Force. I eat fruits and vegetables, fish, and light on the beef."

"Honesty."

"I try to be cool."

"Yes. What I did was…I got to myself about a half an hour before the run. I went through the entire run from the very start of the engine to shutting off the car engine at the end…Every motion that I would make with my body. I did it over and over, until it was just a slam-bam when you went up there. It happens so fast at the start that you'd better have it in your mind what you are going to do."

Don Garlits added…"You have some pretty trick questions." (Thanks Big Daddy!)

"June 20, 1959. My car burst into flames at the lights at 177 mph, and it wouldn't go out. I had no fire protection on. I had on a leather jacket. When I got out of the car at the end, the skin was falling off my hands and arms to the ground. I heard all these horror stories about skin never growing back, and I figured I was a walking dead man. I was young.

The doctor in Chester, South Carolina wanted to take my left hand off about three weeks into the hospital. He said my hand would never be right, and it had to come off. It would get gangrene in it. I told him, I'll just die. You're not taking off my hand. He said, 'You'll have to make arrangements to get out of my hospital, because I'm not going to have you die under my care.' My wife called Tampa, Florida, and a doctor there said you can bring him here. We'll make him comfortable. He can die here.

I road a train to Tampa, and an ambulance to the hospital. The doctor met me at the ambulance and took one look at me and said, 'I need to get you right into surgery.' He fixed it. Doctor Cullen. I'll never forget him. He had operated on 5000 sets of hands during the Korean War, burns from rockets hitting tanks and exploding gasoline. If not for Doctor Cullen, my hand would have dropped off."

I pointed to Don's table full of posters, books, and hats… then said, "None of this would have happened?"

Don responded, " None of this would have happened."

"I go to my library which has 5000 books and grab a good book on aliens or the paranormal. It's all tied together. You need inter-dimensional to go from one star system to another. You can't travel in a linear mode at the speed of light. There's a lot of stones and gravel floating out there. If you travel the speed of light, they'd come through the space ship like a thirty-ot-six. You can travel our solar system in a linear mode, but when you go inter-stellar, you have to go inter-dimensional. It takes a lot of electricity to do that. A power unit in a spaceship would light up New York City for twenty years. It creates a mini-black hole. We know how it works, but we can't do it. We could go back to early Greece and explain to Aristotle and others about computers and Hondas, and they would understand it. They just couldn't do it. The good mathematicians would especially understand."

"Ohhh!…one engine per event. When you qualify, you say that's the one I want. They tag it. That's the engine you have to finish the race with."

"It feels great."

"When my wife and I sit down together. My 91 year old mother lives with us now. After everybody has gone to bed, we have some hot tea and we have thirty minutes or so with no schedule and just chat. That's the most peaceful time for me."

"They have no idea what they are dealing with, and I do. I stay away from people on public highways. I like to ride in the right lane, and let them all go by. They don't know about pieces, chips and bolts on the highway that can knock their tire off. They have no idea about high-speed driving and when a car goes out of control they always crash.

Don drove this beautiful 55 Chevy to the event!

I once got a letter when I wrote a column 'Big Daddy'. This guy got a new Ford and complained about it missing at 105 mph on a highway in the desert. He wanted to know what was wrong with his car. I told him they have a computer in there, and they put an interrupt system, so it won't go any faster. The car is capable of 140 mph. He said driving that fast on a road where nobody drives was safe. I told him what happens if you blow a tire? Suppose you're on fire, suppose you're unconscious. No safety crews out there. You didn't have proper safety equipment. I'm sure you don't wear a helmet, fire suit, or gloves. Ford did that for your protection. Most tires aren't rated at over 100 mph. You can't drive them sustained on a hot desert road. Look what happened to all those SUV's by letting he tire pressure down a little bit."

"The economy."

"The Chester fire in 1959. I wasn't wearing the proper equipment. It wasn't available at the time. I should never have been driving a high speed car without gloves and a face mask."

"My wife, children, my grandchildren, and my museum."

"I'd like to be as smooth as Wally Parks when he talks to people. I'd like to be smart in physics as the late Edward Teller, the scientist who was involved in the development of the hydrogen bomb. I'd like to be as daring a driver as A.J. Foyt was."

"We started together. Our first drag strip in Florida was an airstrip in Zephyrhills, Florida. Our club convinced the city fathers that they ought to let us use that old runway out there in the woods. We had to get the grass off the runway. The same airport is now a regional airport where they do a lot of skydiving."

"God."

On to Part 2 !!!