National Dragster readers choice: Garlits vs. Shirley: Clashes of the titans

The first time was June 1975 in Columbus. The last time - up to this point - was March 1987 in Gainesville. In between, Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney met eight more times in Top Fuel eliminations at NHRA national events. Fittingly for such fierce rivals and icons of NHRA drag racing, their all-time head-to-head record in national events stands at five wins apiece.

Two of their meetings came in final rounds, both of which are still discussed in reverent tones by today's race fans. At the 1975 U.S. Nationals, an on-top-of-his-game Garlits hammered everyone who got in his way in Indianapolis, recording nine consecutive five-second runs and ending the competition with a convincing 5.93 to 6.44 final-round win over Muldowney, who was competing in her second Top Fuel final. The event win was Garlits' 14th overall and fourth in Indy, and he would go on to finish the season with the first NHRA points title of his long career.

Some six and a half years later, Muldowney turned the final-round tables in her favor at the 1982 Gatornationals. In a much-anticipated clash of living legends the lead story of the March 26, 1982, issue of National DRAGSTER breathlessly proclaimed, "Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney had the capacity crowd panting in expectation for a great final round" - Muldowney scored her 12th NHRA national event title with a strong 5.86 to Garlits' cylinder-dropping 6.18. And, just as Garlits did seven years earlier, Muldowney went on to claim the Top Fuel points title.

Despite their long driving careers -- both of which are still ongoing, though Muldowney has announced she will retire after this season - the two champions have met only eight other times with points on the line. Though at first glance this number seems too low to be realistic, three factors have contributed to the relative lack of competitive side-by-side passes between Garlits and Muldowney.

First, both drivers' primary eras of full-- time NHRA competition came when the national event calendar was much less crowded, with seasons of eight or 10 events much more common than the 20-plus-- event schedules of the modern era.

Second, both drivers often chose not to run a full schedule, opting instead to attend invitational events, to run at national events hosted by other sanctioning bodies, or to match race, mostly against each other (during the 1970s, Garlits and Muldowney "ran dozens upon dozens of match races for $2,500 and $3,000 guarantees," according to Robert C. Post in his book High Performance).

Finally, since the late 1980s, both Garlits and Muldowney have participated in just a handful of NHRA events - Garlits, in fact, attended just one national event between 1988 and 2000 - which has severely curtailed their chance of meeting in eliminations.

Of Garlits and Muldowney's eight nonfinal meetings, three came in Columbus in a six-year span. In a statistical oddity, all three of those races came in the semifinals, and Muldowney won all three. Garlits and Muldowney also met twice in Pomona (Garlits won both times), twice in first rounds in Gainesville, and once in Atlanta.

If both drivers stick with their announced 2003 plans, their final chance to meet in eliminations will come in Indianapolis. Muldowney's "last pass" tour is scheduled to hit six NHRA national events; Garlits! Summit Racing-sponsored dragster is entered in four events. Both drivers attended the Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals earlier this season; Muldowney qualified on the bump and Garlits missed the show.

Copyright National Hot Rod Association Apr 11, 2003
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