[thepontiacman]

Met Don at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway several years ago when he was Grand Marshall for the race.
I was a guest of Pontiac and Summit Racing and ended up helping him get a couple of friends in the sponsors suite.
Got my picture with him . Real nice guy.

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[johnta1]

Cordova TN? Does he live in the area?

I would say it's was Cordova IL?

(close to border of IA & IL)

They had a couple Pontiac races there about 20 years ago now.

[Mr Anonymous]

Yes, that's my ugly mug in the pic with Don. I told the guys in the truck on the way into the lot of the restaurant that it was Don's vehicle. I remember some grumbling to the effect that it wasn't. The group of us had dinner, and afterward, I heard Don giving an amazing amount (!) of instruction to the waitress on how long to microwave his piece of pie. It truly was excessive.

I asked the waitress for their check.
"Is he someone famous?"
"You could say that."

Once he was ready to leave and found out who paid his bill, he came over and spoke to us for a bit. It was an inexpensive way to meet and talk to one of your childhood heroes!

Back at the track the next day, we had some down time, I went walking around with some other crew members and almost got run over by Shirley Muldowney as she made her way to her spot for selling autographs and taking pictures. "Get the hell outta the way, dammit" She proceeded to give me more hell when she saw one of our sponsors on our crew shirts still owed her money from decades ago and wanted something done about it! She is a fireball!

Earlier that same morning, I got a message to get breakfast for a racer friend of mine already at the track. I got his food to go, wrapped it in alyoominium foil, and placed it on the engine of the truck. When we got to the track, he said it was the perfect temperature and just had a savory hint of fan belt.

It was a fun weekend for sure!

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by dataway

Cordova TN? Does he live in the area?
That's within a couple miles where I got his picture at the old Lakeland Dragstrip.

Cordova, IL. We were there for the World Series of Drag Racing. For anybody who hasn't been there, that should be a bucket list event.

Eric

[Cammer-6]

At one of my many trips to the museum ,as we pulled in to the driveway,I told the kids,theres Don feeding his dogs in the pen.
We stopped and said hi and left him to his business.His wife Pat was in the museum answering questions and doing somewhat of a tour.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Elarson

Cordova, IL. We were there for the World Series of Drag Racing. For anybody who hasn't been there, that should be a bucket list event.

Eric

If you want the feel of a National Event from the late 1960's to mid 1970's, this IMO, is as close as you can get today. Wide variety of high quality race cars, Top fuel dragsters, funny cars, gassers, wheel standers, jet cars, top sportsman, pro-mods, nostalgia super stock, all kinds of bracket cars and sportsman cars. Sell out crowd. Stands packed to the gills. Enthusiastic knowledgeable announcers. Great track surface. The World Series of Drag Racing has it all.

[Terry M. Hunt]

Gray Baskerville who wrote for Hot Rod for many years referred to him as “Large Father”

[misterp266]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

If you want the feel of a National Event from the late 1960's to mid 1970's, this IMO, is as close as you can get today. Wide variety of high quality race cars, Top fuel dragsters, funny cars, gassers, wheel standers, jet cars, top sportsman, pro-mods, nostalgia super stock, all kinds of bracket cars and sportsman cars. Sell out crowd. Stands packed to the gills. Enthusiastic knowledgeable announcers. Great track surface. The World Series of Drag Racing has it all.

Nice vintage shot from Cordova.

Also “Big” with his birthday cake . . . . . .

[Vid]

Don Garlits and I once had something in common… our accountant! Didn’t ease the pain of paying taxes much though.

Definitely agree what a great ambassador of the sport he is. Met him several times at Englishtown, Pomona and Sacramento. Like others here have mentioned, super nice and so approachable. Right up there with John Force, suddenly you find them almost talking your ear off! That doesn’t happen with Nascar drivers, LOL.


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