Good Guy in the black cowboy hat - Yep, Larry Sutton

[Cliff]

The good guy in the black cowboy hat

My most enduring memory of Larry Sutton is from a cold and misty night at Orange County Int'l Raceway, where Sutton, da

www.nhra.com

Some closure for one of drag racing history's mysteries

Tim Ditt is circled in this famous Jon Asher photo of Don Garlits' trans explosion. Although he is part of the legend of one of drag racing's great forks in the road, even the most hard-core fan would be hard-pressed to finger Timothy Daniel Ditt's place in the sport's

www.nhra.com

 

[Mike]

Great stories about a long time friend.

 

[Cliff]

I was going thru Dragster Insider files from years past. Was actually looking for a photo of Jack Jones at Pomona, the one that was used to create the Wally. Of course, started reading all the Insiders...... Came upon these 2 about Larry Sutton and thought, this is good stuff. I saw the Garlits crash, and for years, I always thought it was Larry Sutton who lifted Garlits from the cockpit. But it was Mickey Thompson, who also had a cowboy hat. After things were cleaned up, they ran the F/C final. Larry had to make a starting line using white ?? and they lined the cars up like that. Power had been cut by the Garlits explosion, so clocks were manually started by the tower crew, giving some slightly suspicious ET's. Boy, that is something you don't forget.