Like Babe Ruth and his 1932 "called shot" home run against the Chicago Cubs, racing legend "Big Daddy" Don Garlits is calling one of his own. He's taking his battery-powered "Swamp Rat 37" back to Florida's Bradenton Motorsports Park on June 8. And he's predicting a beat-down on the 200 mile per hour threshold.
The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) is the official book keeper for the battery-powered few that are successful in their quest for quicker quickness. It's pretty fastidious about getting all the facts and documentation together before engraving those records in stone, and so sometimes it takes a while before they dig out the ol' chisel and mallet. Case in point: the Domenick Yoney
Drag-racing legend "Big Daddy" Don Garlits didn't quite reach his goal of getting his electric dragster to break the 200-mile-per-hour mark. But he did come close enough to get his team to keep trying. And 184 miles per hour is nothing to sneeze at.
Going fast never gets old, and neither, it seems, does Don Garlits. At 82 years of age, the legendary drag racing pioneer still feels the need for speed and the desire to break new ground and records on the track. Now, his "Quest for 200 MPH" in an electric dragster is entering the final stages as the finishing pieces of the car come together.
"Big Daddy" Don Garlits is a legend in drag racing. Over the decades he's set a lot of records, and was the first to break hit 200 miles per hour in the quarter-mile (and the eighth-mile, for that matter). Now, at the tender age of 81, he's getting ready to do it again. This time, in an electric dragster.
Nearing his 81st birthday, Don "Big Daddy" Garlits is still innovating in the world of drag racing. The Motorsports Hall Of Famer has certainly burned more than his fair share of fuel during his racing days, but thanks to a 1,500 kilowatt all-electric dragster furnished by High Tech Systems LLC, no fossil fuels were harmed in the making of this video.
