He makes an effort to keep everyone up to date from top to bottom as to where things are, what the current objectives are and whats the future look like. [12], Garlits has won ten American Hot Rod Association championships, four International Hot Rod Association championships, and three National Hot Rod Association championships, a total of 17. The couple would have celebrated their 61st anniversary on Feb. 20. Here's the. Often called drag racings first lady, Pat Garlits was a constant fixture at her husbands side as he become one of the sports all-time greats. We want to pull the best of the world of motor racing and beyond. Rail jobs with the engine behind the driver were as old as drag racing, more or less. We started from a team that had always been competitive and hungry to find the very last bit, and that is still the backbone here that came from the small, really hungry team. 2, 2021:Steve Torrence won the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in a Don Garlits tribute car modeled after Garlits' famed Swamp Rat 14, one of the most important cars in Top Fuel history. Its exciting. By Martha Maglone: Last month, February 2015, Don Garlits (83) popped the question to photographer Lisa Crigar, whom he met during a magazine interview in 2014. May great stories and a few laughs. 14, 2012:A Who's Who of drag racing roasts "Big Daddy" Don Garlits in Pomona for his 80th birthday, Top Fuel blowovers, Part 1May 11, 2012:Don Garlits, Jimmy King, Jack Martin, and Paul Logenecker, Pat Garlits: The Great Woman behind The ManAug. Rosenqvist, driver of the No. The team has drawn from a large pool of international candidates through its connection to parent company McLaren Racing, the United Kingdom-based Formula One team that also posts Arrow McLaren IndyCar openings on its site. Nearly 50 percent of the team is comprised of engineering, commercial and finance positions with skillsets that transcend racing. Copyright 2023 BangShift LLC. Pat, coined by many as the "first lady of drag racing," stood firmly by her husband's side, through the triumphs and glory to the ultimate of trials, before her sad passing on February 2nd following a long illness. [15] He has since had second thoughts. Don Garlits Wife, Children, Family. Pat Garlits is survived by her husband, daughters and sister, as well as grandchildren Kirsten Capitano Watley, Rodney Donald Garlits, Sarah Lyn Smith, Benjamin Gregory Capitano and Anna Elizabeth Capitano; and great-grandchild Braden Alexander-James Garlits. Hes run cars without wings, cars with wings, and, of course, a couple of memorable streamliners. "Big Daddy" Don Garlits is still going fast at the age of 86. In addition to Grace Hackenberg, Gundlach also played a role in the teams acquisition of systems engineer Lizzie Todd, who came from previous roles at Andretti and Penske. Since 1987 he has been in semi-retirement, racing occasionally, but most recently he has set another record, registering a 184 mph speed record in an EV dragster, which is a battery powered car. He built his first drag race car using a modified 1927 Ford Model. He earned the money being a professional Race Car Driver. 7, 2008:The debut of Don Garlits' rear-engined car in Florida, as witnessed by column reader Wade Nunnelly. Mar 16, 2015. Authorities say a man driving a U-Haul truck struck and injured several pedestrians in New York City before police were able to pin the careening vehicle against a building following a mileslong. The new wife of Don Garlits is Lisa Crigar. Here's the story behind the success of Garlits' original SR14. Photo: Daily Commercial "I took one look. In 2008, he was one of the supporters of the presidential candidate Ron Paul. Hes a really nice guy. Don suffered a minor stroke shortly after being told his wife will never come home from the hospital. That is still here fueling this and educating all the new people coming in to continue that mentality. Still remember him mid 60's coming out to Lions to race the west coast boys, what an innovator, that guy would try anythingand it usually workedthe Smokey Yunick of drag racing. He said that Pat was really suffering and it was time for her to go. She was the girl of my dreams," he said. I havemet him also and he is a class act for sure. Arrow McLaren still has done much of its hiring through the paddocks traditional word of mouth manner. 6 Chevy, is entering his third season at Arrow McLaren and said its been virtually seamless as the team doubled in size. Don "Big Daddy" Garlits is the most innovative man in drag racing history. I can't imagine, I don't want to think about but I do once in a while, to live without my wife, I just can't imagine! Hes tried long cars and short cars, light cars and heavy cars. The cars were later auctioned at Barrett-Jackson for another charitable quarter-million dollars, Garlits said. All the world was a colorful Circus when Bob Gerdes painted race cars, Top Fuel dynasties: Torrence, Schumacher, Dixon, Garlits, Amato, Shirley, Beck, Some top-shelf books that every drag racing history fan should check out, Yeah, but what if? Mr. Garlits lost in first-round competition with his Summit Racing-Mono Winged Dragster, clocking in with a 0.064 reaction time, a personal best 4.737 elapsed time, and 307.44mph, second only to Brandon Bernstein's (son of racing legend Kenny Bernstein) Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster 0.079 reaction time, a 4.615 elapsed time, at 321.42 miles per hour. But were also pretty realistic that you cant rob Peter to pay Paul, so were not always going to be able to hire from motorsports and especially other IndyCar teams. The measure of a man is not how quickly he traverses a quarter mile but rather how hes able to set aside his own ambitions and wants to serve a loved one in their time of need. And wants to make this something special. Donald Glenn Garlits is drag racing's truest outlier; his innovative spirit, mechanical expertise, character, talent and work ethic combined to make him the most transcendent figure the drag strip has ever known. One of the moments that will be forever locked into my mind from the 2014 NHRA Gatornationals was when the blow video, which was also part of the ESPN telecast of the race was played during pre-race activities with Don Garlits on stage to see it. The drag racing world is mourning the death of Pat Garlits, wife of Big Daddy Don Garlits, who passed away Sunday at the age of 79. according to the Leesburg (Fla.) Daily Commercial. Your email address will not be published. Considered the father of drag racing, he is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. Garlits, the man they call "Big Daddy," is the greatest drag racer in history. NHRA history: Is it real or Artificial Intelligence? Maybe that should read: Seattle innovator Steve Huff has thrown down the gauntlet. "Don Garlits suffered a mild stroke on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Garlits family confirmed. Sorry about your wife but Get well (BIG DADDY) and prayers for all the family. When you invest in software, you invest in the efficiency of a lot of your people. Don had two sons with first wife, Dolores. PATRICIA GARLITS OBITUARY. It was this successful, formative roadster that would become the basis for his first rail-job dragster. She's been named as a finalist for Indy's Best and Brightest for Technology. and an even better person. Such a long marriage is a rarity these days, especially in the racing world. Kate Gundlach, a performance engineer at Arrow McLaren, was leafing through a sports car magazine a couple years ago when she stumbled upon a story about Grace Hackenberg, an Oregon-based racing engineer. Garlits, for decades a trailblazer in drag-racing design, set out about 10 years ago to become the first to blast a battery-powered dragster down the quarter-mile at 200 mph. They tied the knot in 1953, a year after the two lovers met but after years, Pat kicked the bucket through Alzheimer's disease in the year . Sorry to see him having to deal with this. My prayers are with him and his family at this time ''life is only a temporary assignment '' Make the best of it !!! Its a mentality shift thats good. 2022 Hall of Fame inductees include Tim Richards, Scotty Cannon, Rick Stewart, Stu Bradbury, Jack Moss, and Jack Ewell. It has been estimated from authoritative sources that the total size of Dons net worth is over $15 million, which has been accumulated largely through his successful career as a professional drag car racer. Weve had more people come to us than weve reached out to other people. We visited Garlits museums in Florida in the 1990's. It is a few miles east of Tampa not far off of I-4 and I-75. In an interview by Florida Trend, Garlits said this of the incident: "In 1970, the transmission exploded in my dragster on the final run, and it cut my foot off and cut the car in two. With this car, Don won the first race he ever drove in, at Lake City, Florida. Photo: NHRA/National Dragster. Its a big focus to get the McLaren brand out in the world and do good content, which I think were probably the leading team in that sense now. She supported my racing. Theres one person coming in every other day, and it just becomes normality, the Swede said. Otherwise, he might have started that match-race challenge with Huff right there. I think people start to realize that IndyCar is a pretty fun place to be and not a bad way to go racing, Ward said. https://t.co/mHHWXQ5pte pic.twitter.com/shWCEFnUqw, Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (@ArrowMcLaren) February 21, 2023, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window). He married Dolores Patterson, at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Wabash, on November 17, 1962. 17, 2021:Don Garlits' amazing win at the 1967 Nationals, so well remembered for his post-race starting-line beard shave, might not have been possible without Bob Taaffe, who helped "Big Daddy" build a new car in just 72 hours. Don's old house and shop where he built many of his cars and customer cars is on the market. She proved to be a stalwart wife and partner throughout most of Dons racing career, standing by Dons side during the bad times, like his near-fatal explosion in 1970 and blowover in 1986, as well as celebrating the good times in good fun, like Dons historic 1967 win at the Indy Nationals where she handed her husband a shaving kit to celebrate his hard-won victory. And thats across the board, both commercial and operational. UPDATE (23.July 2019): Don failed to reach the 200 mph mark, but did manage to achieve a new electric dragster record, posting a speed of 189.03 mph during his July 20 runs at Palm Beach International Raceway. (Getty Images) Surgeons wanted to amputate his hands, but Garlits refused to accept . [17] In July 2019 at age 87, he set a new quarter-mile record of 189.03mph (304.21km/h) with Swamp Rat 38, a 1,500 lb dragster with a battery-powered 800 hp electric motor.[18]. 5 Autoweek Racing on TV: January 30-February 5. . Swamp Rat Spotter's Guide, Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3March 18-275, 2011:The cars of Don Garlits, fromSwamp Rat I-A (1956-60) toSwamp Rat 34 (1993-94, 2002-03). The records 156.. It's a bright morning at Gainesville . Very Marvelous! I don't have any hood flutter in my . Just before midnight May 14, 2020, at Jim Hughes Tucson Dragway deep in the Arizona desert, Huff clocked a 201.07-mph history-making speed in his own Current Technology Dragster. Though casting a wide recruitment net dovetails with McLarens progressive outlook, Ward said its also by necessity because for sure, the whole paddock has been in a fight to get the best people.. 27, 2015:Garlits debuts Swamp Rat 14 in Pomona; memories from Woody Gilmore, Don Long, Don Moody, and Wes Cerny. On the National Hot Rod Association Top 50 Drivers, 19512000, Don Garlits was ranked No.1. This is certainly an exciting company to work for because the brand is quite well known globally, and that certainly helps from a recruitment perspective. She and Don shared a colorful history of building the sport from its humble roots to the nationwide pastime that it is today, dating back to 1952 when the couple first met at Lake Magdalene near Tampa. Don Garlits, now 82, met the former Patricia Louise Bieger in 1952 at a lake near Tampa, according to the Daily Commercial. Is comprised of engineering, commercial and operational Chevy, is entering his third season at arrow McLaren has! 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