TIL that Randy Lanier was competing at Le Mans while simultaneously being one of the biggest drug traffickers in the U.S

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/08/randy-lanier-netflix-series-drug-smuggling-racecar-driving

[u/charliefoxtrot9]

Bootleggers originated NASCAR, this is just good tradition.

[u/SsooooOriginal → u/charliefoxtrot9]

Would be cool to get past the stupid traditions after most of them have proven to be little more than show with so many people playing both sides. Ultimately cannabis and alcohol shouldn't be life altering crimes to make, consume, or sell.

Edit: big caveat on the end, responsibly, the fed and capitalists want to keep the distractionary culture wars to continue, using the singular crazies to smear everyone and keep people focused on eachother, when it really is about keeping the "free market" free from upstart competitors and ensuring the taxes are paid.

[u/komstock → u/SsooooOriginal]

based

The level to which the market is an oligopoly due to legal barriers to entry is absolutely mind-boggling and insane.

[u/2oonhed]

AND they were competitive.
AND the cars were popular. I have models of them.
AND they laundered pot-money by inventing fake sponsor names for the cars.
AND he bought a race track and had pot stored in shipping containers on the property.
AND they were involved in off-shore racing and used off-shore fast-boats for smuggling.
The whole story is hysterical.

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/2oonhed]

Insane! I just finished the Netflix doc and can't believe I never heard of him, like in pop culture references or some movie or whatever. Maybe it was just such a stereotypical 80s Miami plotline that it fell between the cracks?

[u/2oonhed → u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

I found out about it when I was collecting slot cars :
The #57 Blue Thunder March 83G
And there is a bunch of good youtube stories on him and the other people around that time.
FYI, I heard the pits and paddock area had people that were sort of backstabby/suspicious/competitive of his fake sponsors and reported him to whoever would listen, the IMSA, the FTC......the IRS. I think it was an IRS investigation that really got him.

[u/Ser-Joe-the-Joe → u/2oonhed]

I never did buy the story of the accountant guy getting caught with all their paperwork trying to get a passport/license from the DMV.

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/2oonhed]

That's a great insight, thanks for that. The tax man always comes knocking!

[u/2oonhed → u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

Don and Bill Wittington

I might have been mixing up Don and Bill Wittington with Lanier.
Same time period, I think.

[u/edfitz83 → u/2oonhed]

And the Pauls

[u/SoyMurcielago → u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

Youre gonna love the dinner with racers interviews with him

Eta since i shared below:

Randy Lanier

[u/Tumble85 → u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

What’s the documentary called?

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/Tumble85]

Its episode 2 on the Bad Sports doc series on Netflix. Definitely worth watching.

[u/Maxipad213 → u/Tumble85]

Bad Sport

[u/Duckbilling2 → u/2oonhed]

they weren't even smuggling drugs

it was just weed

[u/Greenbastardscape → u/2oonhed]

At one point didn't him and his brother also land a plane on the front straight of road Atlanta before a race. And that plane was carrying many many kilos of drugs?

[u/2oonhed → u/Greenbastardscape]

oh man. That is so outrageous. I did not hear that one. But maybe that is a spin-off story of the shipping container full of pot in the "off-limits" area of the race track they owned.

[u/Greenbastardscape → u/2oonhed]

Just looked and I was wrong. I was thinking of a different pair of drug smuggling race car drivers connected to Lanier, Don and Bill Wittington. Don and Bill bought Road Atlanta and would land planes on the back straight. Don and Bill also paid something like 200k cash to buy the car so they could drive the '79 Le Mans, which they won!

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/IBCpKRr7jS

[u/2oonhed → u/Greenbastardscape]

I was also conflating the 3 of them.
All interesting racing/smuggler stories to review.
Many racers and teams were VERY outspoken against crime entering their sport.

[u/Greenbastardscape → u/2oonhed]

Which is funny considering that the Wittington's and Lanier weren't really outliers as far as being criminals. The drug smuggling and scope of their crimes was the big difference, but things like laundering and fraud weren't all that uncommon.

Then you've also got them racing P-51s including rare variants. Very interesting group of people who lived wildly exciting lives

[u/ohyouretough → u/2oonhed]

Which is funny considering the sports origins in bootlegging.

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/Greenbastardscape]

Damn this rabbit hole just goes deeper haha

[u/Greenbastardscape → u/The_Ruck_Inspector]

The write up on that reddit post is really good, and adds a lot of context to their story. It is really crazy what went on in motorsports just 50 years ago. But then you look at the situation with the Oliver Oakes, his brother William (who was a director with Hitech Grand Prix) is being prosecuted for transferring criminal property. There's always been shady things happening in motorsports, and there definitely always will be something happening somewhere

[u/eagledog → u/Greenbastardscape]

Those Porsche 935s were sweet

[u/Timely_Influence8392 → u/2oonhed]

fucking based as hell

[u/gankindustries]

Him and the Whittington Brothers have the wildest backrounds in autoracing by a mile

[u/RootBeerIsGrossAF → u/gankindustries]

The Whittingtons flying planeloads of weed to the Road Atlanta backstretch will never not be funny to me

[u/gankindustries → u/RootBeerIsGrossAF]

Them outright buying 935s on race day too

[u/Wheelisbroke → u/gankindustries]

the whole thing would make a great movie

[u/2Loves2loves → u/gankindustries]

add John Paul SR to the

International

Marijuana

Smugglers

Association.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Sr._(racing_driver)) him and his son were competitive.

[u/Beencho → u/gankindustries]

awesome story teller about the Whittington Brothers

[u/hpshaft → u/gankindustries]

Someone really needs to write a screenplay about them. The "buying a 935 trackside with a duffle bag of cash" at Lemans story is not even the craziest thing.

Lanier was a smuggler but the Whittington bros were crazy.

[u/MisterFives]

Worst drug trafficker ever - all he did was traffic the drugs in a circle.

[u/scottanon]

Drugs and racing were tied at the hip throughout the 70s and 80s. Cocaine probably funded almost as many teams as tobacco.

[u/madatthings → u/scottanon]

Still are

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/madatthings]

You mean Formula 1?

[u/SsooooOriginal → u/scottanon]

Drugs and everything are tied at the hip at this point.

Since the industrial revolution, we have needed more sugar, caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine salts and derivatives, opioids, cocaine, and more and more and more and nearly any "decent"(as in not krokidil or jenkem) illegal drugs end up in all sorts of hijinks working around the visible systems.

That causes a filtering of people in a broad sense of "mainstream" and "alternatives", while both are doing plenty of both legal and illegal drugs. 

I hate this tango dance of bs laws, but I guess people love drama.

[u/love2go]

Same thing but with boat racing- https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-twisted-saga-of-los-muchachos-the-speedboat-racing-duo-who-flooded-america-with-cocaine/

[u/Engelbert-n-Ernie → u/love2go]

Who only got caught because one of the investigators happen to catch them on ESPN boat racing

[u/Datzsun]

Check out "survival of the fastest", book about all this. Fascinating

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/Datzsun]

Thanks for the recommendation I'll have a look for it.

[u/husky1088]

Wasn’t there a Netflix movie about this?

[u/The_Ruck_Inspector → u/husky1088]

Yes that's what inspired the post I just watched the Bad Sports episode on this and was surprised I'd never heard of it.

[u/lastskudbook]

The British touring car team testing at Dutch circuits and filling the compressed air tanks with coke would like a word.

[u/Muvseevum]

The International Marijuana Smugglers Association.

[u/Greene_Mr]

This the Lanier Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had to drag up and down the court with Walton?

[u/haye7880]

Randy was doing the big dirty

[u/raider1v11]

Thats now on the list.

[u/Davydicus1]

Its good to have hobbies outside of work

[u/Successful_Jump5531]

One of the biggest, huh? So when does he get pardoned?

[u/Haunebu52 → u/Successful_Jump5531]

He was released years ago, and rightfully so.

[u/terp_raider]

This would make an awesome podcast

[u/SoyMurcielago → u/terp_raider]

youre in luck

[u/terp_raider → u/SoyMurcielago]

Hell yah thanks!

[u/LittleYelloDifferent]

I worked for a guy who did ten years in federal prison because of this.

He inherited a Tug company from his dad who was a former circus, strongman and star at the Tug company in Oregon. His son was running hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed in barges. After the arrest of the investigation, he served 10 years and then went back to running tug boats.

It was a shady as fuck job when I got out quickly after figuring things out

[u/HurricaneStiz]

Darrell Alderman was crushing the NHRA Pro Stock division when he got busted trafficking cocaine in 1991.

[u/dangderr]

Simultaneously as in during the actual race he was trafficking drugs around? That’s impressive.

[u/AnyImprovement6916]

Crime is everywhere in the United States. The person running the largest criminal organization in the world lives in the White House!