Whittington Brothers Smuggled Drugs to Fund Motorsport Ambition and Le Mans Win

All it took was $20,000 for each driver, which was a lot more money back then than it is now (closer to $100,000 adjusted to today’s value). And this was only the start of their (drug money fueled) incursion into motorsport, which was as intense as it was short-lived.

Don and Bill Whittington’s story is one you may not have believed possible if it hadn’t actually happened - if you saw a movie about it, you’d imagine it to be full of exaggerations and dramatization. But it’s true and it has to be one of motorsport’s maddest moments - these two guys were about as close to motorsport rockstars as you could possibly get, and they lived their life to the fullest and never played by the rules.

Kremer racing agreed to give them a seat in a Porsche 935 K3 which the team had prepared itself (and was also offering for sale). However, the brothers were not pleased to learn that a third driver, Klaus Ludwig (an experienced and successful touring car driver whose success had earned him the nickname “King Ludwig”), would drive the car first - they argued that if he was to crash the car, then their $40,000 would essentially be wasted money.

They asked what it would take for them to get the chance to drive the car first - they got the answer that in order for that to happen, they’d need to buy the car outright for $200,000. The figure was way higher than what the car was actually worth, but they said yes and thus got to choose the driver order for the race.

Heavy rain during the race slowed most of the other cars down, but because the 935 K3 was essentially a spruced up road car, it had one secret weapon that some of the other bespoke racing machines lacked - a windscreen wiper that helped the three drivers take the car to overall victory. Ludwig spent the most time behind the wheel, and his skill and experience paid off, but the history books recognize that all three drivers’ efforts resulted in the surprising win.

The fact that the Whittingtons were successful in their first incursion into the main stage of motorsport spurred them on to continue. They took part in the following Le Mans races in 1980 and 1981, but both of these subsequent efforts saw them forfeit the race before its conclusion.

They didn’t limit themselves to Euro endurance racing. They went all out and also took part in Indy Car racing (in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1985), as well as the Indianapolis 500 (in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985), the Daytona 500 (in 1980 and 1981), NASCAR and the International Race of Champions.

Before they got into car racing, in the early 1970s, the two raced airplanes, so their quest for adrenaline was already clear. In 1979, they bought and ran the Road Atlanta track in Georgia which is rumored they not only used for practice, but also as a landing strip for small airplanes as well as some of its buildings for storage.

Apparently, the two made their money by flying in marijuana from South America and this is how the drugs entered the country. When they went to Le Mans in 1979, they two reportedly were carrying some $500,000 in cash with them (or around $2,000,000 adjusted for inflation) and it is said all of the money came from illegal sources.

They were both charged in 1986 with money laundering (Don) and income tax evasion (Bill) and conspiracy to bring marijuana into the United States; both were also part of the 1980s IMSA scandal that revolved around the fact that several racing drivers were being financed with money obtained from drug trafficking and they both served prison sentences.

The two were also no strangers to bending the rules when it came to motorsport, not just how they obtained the money they needed to fuel their motorsport ambitions. For instance, they reportedly fitted a hidden nitrous bottle to the Porsche 935 K3 when they brought it back to the U.S. and they usually found ways to give themselves a small edge over competitors.

Nowadays, Don owns World Jet, a small air operator based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while Bill was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 2018 for tax fraud.

What’s surprising is that this tale of drug money-fueled racing, planes landing on Road Atlanta and unloading weed and hiding nitrous tanks in hidden side sill compartments, as well as the entire surrounding backstory hasn’t been turned into a move. They wouldn’t even have to add any extra drama and tension because this story already has that in spades.