Hi Steve. OK, I'll try to remember this. 1970, 50 years ago. What? Yeah, 50 years ago, Lions Drag Strip, my favorite (to this day).... OK, I used to like to sit on the spectator side grandstands, right on the starting line. The top row was where I was at. T/F final, Don Garlits vs Richard Tharp. Garlits had a "Garlits Drive" 2 speed planetary transmission in the car (his version of a Lenco). When he left the line in the right lane, the trans blew up, cut the car in half. Front engine car, so basically the engine & chassis went forward a few feet, & the roll cage went up in the air toward the engine & then came down upright. A piece of the trans cut off the front part of Don's right foot. It happened really fast. I think everyone was in shock & I thought Garlits had been killed. I always remembered that starter Larry Sutton ran over & picked up Garlits from the car, but it was Mickey Thompson. Both Thompson & Sutton had black cowboy hats on (a Sutton trademark), so that is why I thought it was Larry Sutton. Shrapnel from the explosion cut the overhead wires to the Xmas Tree, & also flew into the pit side stands, hitting a man in the arm & almost cutting his arm off. (He survived & years later met Garlits & they talked about it). After Thompson picked up Garlits, I saw Garlits pulling off his driving gloves & that is how I knew he was alive.
The ambulance came pretty quick & they had to get the guy in the stands plus Garlits & went to a Long Beach hospital. Tommy Lemmons, Garlits head crew guy, came with the truck & trailer. I remember a bunch of guys picking up the engine & chassis & putting all that in the trailer, along with the roll cage. Some of this is a blur. There was footage of the accident that surfaced about 20 years ago & I watched it. Naturally, it was different then I remembered. If you can get the DVD series (3 discs) Lions, the Greatest Drag Strip, it has that footage in it, plus commentary by Larry Sutton. That is a great DVD & I highly recommend it. OK a little trivia. Tom the Mongoose McEwen was a friend of Garlits & visited him in the hospital quite a bit. They watched Star Trek a lot & it was in the hospital that Garlits started thinking about his version of the "back motor" car. There were several rear engined cars at the time, & Garlits had sat in one I think after the accident. Garlits actually repaired the accident car & had another driver, & then raced it himself toward the end of the year. He built his rear engined car in late 1970 & I saw a photo of it in Drag News. I thought he's nuts. But Garlits came to Lions in 1971 with that car & I was there early in the day to see it. A big crowd around the car & Garlits was a bit nervous. Don Prudhomme told Garlits he was nuts. So they took it to the line to make a run & I watched it. Straight as a string....wow! They had discovered the steering had to be slowed down so the car would go straight.
Garlits didn't win that race at Lions, he got to the final aganist Gary Cochren, & was in the same lane as the accident. He later said he got a bit spooked by that. But, he went on to win the Winternats at Pomona and Bakersfield & the Springnats. Put a rear wing on the car, ran 6.35 for all time record. Then Indy, ran 6.21 (which was totally unreal) & runner-upped to Steve Carbone after the infamous burn down. By the time 1972 rolled around, almost everyone had switched to rear engined cars. Garlits has said that they were pushing the front engined design past the limits & he was guilty of a lot of it. He thought it was "poetic justice" that the accident happened & he came up with his rear engined car. Wow, long time ago now, but that is the one thing that stands out to me in all the years I've been going to the drags (since 1961). Sorry this is so long winded, but just my ramblin'.
