Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Don Garlits, known throughout the sport as Big Daddy, built and drove the Swamp Rat dragsters and changed the design of the machines twice over. The drag racing building holds around ninety race cars, the Swamp Rats among them, alongside vehicles and memorabilia from other figures in the sport including two of Dean Moon's cars. A second building holds about fifty antique automobiles, which is a different collection altogether and catches out visitors who come for one and stay for both. The International Drag Racing Hall of Fame is housed here; its inductees are chosen each year by a committee of veterans of the sport and honored at a ceremony held in Gainesville during the Gatornationals, and the names on the wall include Art Arfons, Shirley Muldowney and Kenny Bernstein. Garlits himself is often on the premises, which is the reason a good many people make the trip rather than read about the cars