There is no such thing as cheap racing. Even in the realms of ChumpCar, LeMons and even King of the Heap, money has to change hands at some point in time. The question is how much money? For a purebred racing team, the likes of which would be seen at IMSA races, LeMans, and NASCAR, you’re into heavy-hitter territory. Think about just what the car hauler alone would cost, then start building up from there. It’s not out of the question to be looking at $100,000,000 budgets as you look around…why else would any sane-minded individual turn their race car into a rolling billboard for corporate sponsors? The need for the cash is a very real thing…for most. A precious handful of individually wealthy individuals have funded efforts, and manufacturers have put in support here and there, but if you see a car out on the track with no sponsors, stick around, because the story is going to get good in a hurry.
The Whittington brothers, Don and Bill, magicked themselves onto the racing scene in 1979 out of thin air. They had paid twenty grand each for a seat in Kremer Racing’s Porsche 935K3, then when they weren’t happy about the pecking order of drivers for the LeMans race, Kremer joked that they could change the lineup if they bought the car for $200,000. The brothers told Kremer to go get the money from a duffel bag.
This is just the start of what turned out to be several years of stunts, racing magic, and drug running fun that would normally be killer Hollywood fodder. But for the Whittington brothers, this was just another Tuesday. Blowing up $40,000 engines with a hidden nitrous kit was nothing to these guys…they had bought Road Atlanta and were using the monster straightaway to smuggle in drugs from their aviation operations. Click on the video below to get a full grasp on the whole story of one of the wildest racing histories we’ve ever heard of:
What an amazing story – Fear And Loathing At Le Mans!
They should have put some of that weed in the fuel tank and all the other drivers would have pulled off the track as the fumes hit them to raid the food stands!