The Man Who Turned Speedboats Full Of Weed Into Indy 500 Glory

I was going to say "and then there would be the Whittington Brothers" but they were in the article too.

It really wasn't all that uncommon back in the day. Some became famous and some managed to not get caught.

 

Amazing they put people away for LIFE for that stuff--glad he's out. I hope he picks up a car/drive and has fun vintage racing or club racing...

 

it would be awesome to see him back at the historic 24 in Daytona in November.

amazing story...$150mm in seized assets, in the 80's! must have been a hell of a life.

 

Racing has a history full of characters like this. Even today, the sport is not above it.

CW

 

Be better still to see him in the joint for the rest of his life. And not one of the nice Fed Pens either.

 

Great read! Thanks

 

really?

OK.

 

I'm all for lifers, but really its just pot. It's th stupidest illegal drug on the planet. Nobody has ever overdosed on pot. Maybe slept too long.

 

Or ate too much..

 

I remember them in 84 blowing an engine at charlotte and having a new one in a crate to replace it...I was young and impressionable. I was impressed

add bill and don and sr and jr...the list was long and distinguished.

 

I remember Lanier and the Whittingtons at Sebring in the late 70's and early 80's. They
seemed to just come out of no where to having the best equipment on the track.

The first time Lanier brought that Blue Thunder Chevy-March there, must have been '84,
he took off at the start to lead the race and everyone in the pits was asking "Who the hell
is this guy?".

Per the sentencing, the government was forced into doing something about the violence which
was erupting in SoFla due mainly to the "Cocaine Cowboys", had to make examples of high
profile guys like Lanier.

The stiffer sentencing came along with a lot of other unconstitutional aspects of the "Drug
War" such as asset forfeiture and mandatory sentencing. So, while a guy like Lanier was
sentenced to life, murderers, rapists and pedophiles walk free as the prisons are filled with
drug dealers and users.

One day, the country will look back at this era of prohibition just as we look back now on
the prohibition on alcohol (1920-1933). No matter how well intentioned, just because a
government deems something illegal, that doesn't mean demand for it goes away and a
black market is created.

BHW

 

a Colombian team won the 1984 Sebring 12 hours! how much more obvious does that get! hahahahaha.

 

Yeah, but Mauricio de Narvaez's family owned a carnation plantation in Columbia!

BHW

 

Probably people here that knew about him more than I did, maybe even knew him personally. He was a heavy - he wasn't some guy that "just sold pot".

You could argue that being a lifer was a little harsh, he was not a nice guy by all accounts.

I'm with Rifledriver - I do not think Randy Lanier should be welcomed back to the paddock with open arms any more than Scott Tucker should be. (EDIT - I don't think Tucker was shunned in the paddock, he may have well been a gentleman, but Lanier was someone that allegedly was avoided by many knowing what his background was).

 

Getting way O/T but 1984 was a compelling race in a lot of ways in that there was a large
field of prototypes entered, mainly Marches with Chevy or Porsche power and along came
a five year old Porsche 935 prepared by Joest that was pulled out of a museum in Germany
driven by de Narvaez, Hans Heyer and none other than Stefan Johansson to win the race.

That was still an era when they ran the "Win or blow up trying". IIRC, Lanier romped out
to an early lead but the engine or gearbox blew up pretty quickly.

The first GTP overall win at Sebring would have to wait another year when A.J. Foyt
and Bob Wolleck won in a 962 for Preston Henn.

BHW

 

Needs to be a movie.....

 

it kinda was....

Miami Vice.

 

I believe that was also the year of the "Kreepy Lobster!" Saw it first-hand! Got the memories to prove it!

As Barton mentioned, there were several March GTP cars entered, including Sarel Van der Meer (sp?) in a Kreepy Krawler-liveried car (swimming pool cleaner) and either Bill Adam or Bob Akin in a March, sponsored by Red Lobster. About halfway thru the race, the leftside door on the KK March wasn't secured following a pit stop. Just before T1, aerodynamics rips the door off of the hinges and it goes flying into the air! That door is probably now hanging in a fan's garage or den. The KK team borrows a door from the Red Lobster team and voila... the debut of the Kreepy Lobster!

Now, there is a chance I have the cars reversed, with maybe the RL car losing the door...it was the mid-'80s after all. Not all of the smoky haze over the track was from campfires.

 

Own a bit of (checkered) history...

March 84G Blue Thunder

CW

 

Off the top of my head, Van de Merwe teamed with Graham Duxbury in the Kreepy Krauly
March-Porsche. Bill Adam would have still been with Group 44 driving the #44 with Bob Tullius
(at least I think that's right) and Brian Redman with Pat Bedard in the #04.

Bob Akin would likely have been in a Coca-Cola 935 with Hans Stuck and the Red Lobster March
was driven by Kemper Miller and Dave Cowart (and maybe Charles Mendez). The Leon Brothers
were also in the race with a fusha colored Chevy-March and they usually had Calvin Fish as one
of their name drivers.

With Porsche customers like Al Holbert, Bruce Leven, Bob Akin and a few others still waiting
to take delivery of their 962s, the first of which was delivered for Levin at Riverside, they were
still racing 935s.

I did look up Randy Lanier's result at Sebring in 1984 and he in fact finished second overall
two laps behind the winners. Whatever their issue was early on, they got it fixed and came
back to take a respectable finish.

Thirty years on, some of the memories are fresher than others.

BHW

 

Short read...

JOHN STARKEY CARS :: GRYFON INC.

CW

 

This really should be a movie.

Rush II



Mark

 

The amount of drug-themed movies and documentaries coming out lately, mainly
Billy Corben's "Cocaine Cowboys", "Cocaine Cowboys II", "Square Grouper" and "Limelight",
the subject may be beaten to death a bit.

Also, a movie about Griselda Blanco (made infamous from her role in "Cocaine Cowboys")
starring Catherine Zeta Jones is set to go into production.

Randy Lanier's story is likely compelling enough for the big screen. However, the racing
community may take exception.

BHW