![]() ![]() Somehow, the Karamesines time had some validity, but not widespread. The encyclopedic Top Fuel Handbook reports that there were 17 200-mph speeds given out at 10 different tracks, including Alton, from 1960 to 1963, and almost all are emphatically dismissed due to the inaccuracy of the early timing systems or blamed on greedy promoters. In April of 1960, Karamesines was reported to have made a 204.54-mph run at the track in Alton, Ill., a facility with a reputation for unreliable times. ![]() Garlits has long maintained that “We had the power to go 200 mph as far back as 1957, but not the tires.” Over the years, there’s been much debate about who made the first 200-mph run: Don Garlits, Connie Kalitta, or Chris “the Greek” Karamesines. Even at age 92, Garlits remains a dynamic and creative personality in the sport.īelow, we present 10 of Garlits’ most memorable racing moments. Despite ending his Top Fuel career in 2003, he tackled his next innovative challenge, an assault on the 200-mph barrier with an electric dragster. ![]() Over the course of his long career, he “retired” numerous times but always came back. He further contributed to the sport when he opened the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Fla., in 1984, and his return to the sport that same year helped save the Top Fuel class, which was declining in popularity and car count. In 1987, he took it and the reputation of the sport to Washington, D.C., for the car’s installation at the Smithsonian Institution. He was the first to exceed 200 and 250 mph, and Swamp Rat XXX, the first successful streamlined Top Fuel dragster, took Garlits past the 270-mph barrier and to his third NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1986. Garlits hand-built more than 30 Swamp Rat-branded dragsters, and many of them were hugely successful. To the delight of his legion of fans, Garlits won three NHRA championships and 35 national events, but he forever left his mark on the sport with his innovations, most notably the first successful rear-engined Top Fueler in 1971. Garlits, who is the grand marshal for the inaugural Wally Parks NHRA Nostalgia Nationals, checked all of the boxes. 1 vote, finishing ahead of John Force by a wide margin. Donald Glenn Garlits, also known as “Big Daddy,” was the hands-down No. In 2001, as part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, NHRA created a list of the Top 50 Drivers of its first 50 years, with a panel of experts weighing in based on criteria that included on-track success, contributions to the growth of NHRA Drag Racing, technological breakthroughs, innovations, marketing and sponsorships, and fan popularity. ![]()
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