Daytona Turkey Run®
Clyde in the information booth

Meet Our Special Guests

Don Big Daddy Garlits Don Garlits driving Swamp Rat 12A

Special guest

Don “Big Daddy” Garlits and Swamp Rat 12A

Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, the Father of Drag Racing, will be in the Daytona infield. You can watch him fire up Swamp Rat 12A and stay for an autograph. He was the first driver to break 200 mph and then 250 mph in the quarter-mile, and he has won multiple world championships. After an accident in 1970, he built the rear-engine dragster Swamp Rat XXX so the driver sat ahead of the engine. His cars are kept at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida.

Junior Dragsters coming to the Daytona Turkey Run® Kid Zone

Spotlight guests

Junior Dragsters

If you have not seen a Junior Dragster, you have not seen where NHRA’s future stars are. Kids ages 5 to 17 race these half-scale Top Fuel cars in the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League. The quickest run 7.90 seconds and 85 mph. Younger groups go slower.

Zander Cook, Rydin Cook, Coltin Lindquist, Ryder Horst, and Kalani Horst will be in the Kid Zone. You can meet them and see the cars up close.