If you’re interested in 1970s motorsport, you’ve probably heard the story of the Whittington Brothers, but for those who haven’t, it’s a rather unusual but very, very intriguing motorsport story.
Don Whittington was born on January 23, 1946 and his brother Bill Whittington was born on September 11, 1949 in Lubbock, Texas. In the early 1970s the two got into airplane racing which eventually fueled their passion for motorsport, and in 1979 they went on to what is probably the most gruesome motor racing of all. the times, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Both Don and Bill paid $20,000 for a spot on the Kremer Racing team in a Kremer Porsche 935 K3. As unbelievable as it may seem to be able to drive in the race, the brothers weren’t so happy when they found out that the car’s third driver, professional driver Klaus Ludwig, would be the first. They told the team owner that they had to drive first because if Klaus had crashed the car before driving it they would have wasted $40.00 which in today’s money , is closer to $145,000.
The Kremer K3 driving in the pouring rain at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans
After that they asked what it would take to drive the car first. They were tasked with buying the car for $200,000. What happened next shocked Kremer’s team. The brothers said to go back to the trailer and not to take more than $200,000 out of the backpack that was inside. It was official, Don and Bill would drive first. During the race, many prototype racing cars were slowed down by heavy rain due to the lack of windscreen wipers, but because the 935 was a real production car and because the Kremer team actually drove the K3s from Germany to France to shake up the stopped cars. before the race it had windshield wipers that allowed it to run much faster in the rain than all the other cars. As the Whittington brothers rode a lot during the race, Klaus Ludwig did most of the driving and they really won the race. Their success saw them race the 24 Hours of Le Mans again in 1980 and 1981, but they also did not finish. They didn’t give up and in the following years they raced in Indy Car and NASCAR. They even participated in the International Race of Champions.
3 of the Kremer K3 races from Whittington to Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia
Now you might be wondering how they got all that money to pay for their motorsport antics. Well, as mentioned before, before they got into race cars, they flew airplanes. In 1979, they purchased the famous and historic Road Atlanta racetrack in Braselton, Georgia. At the time, Road Atlanta had a special feature, which was that it had the longest straight of any race track in the United States. This came in handy for the Whittington brothers as they not only ran errands and practiced their driving skills on the track, but also used it as a runway to land their planes on when smuggling drugs in the middle of the night. That’s right, they got their money, illegally, smuggling drugs from South America. They also used some of the buildings on Road Atlanta to store the drugs they stole on.
The Whittington brothers make a pit stop at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans
In 1986, however, Don Whittington was charged with money laundering and Bill Whittington was charged with smuggling drugs into the United States and tax evasion. But both were also used to working outside the rules. At Le Mans, all the fuel intakes had regulators, where the fuel flowed at a certain rate so that all teams were equal. Clearly, the Whittington brothers weren’t going to let this go, so they paid a race official $20,000 to let them remove the regulator seal so they could refuel faster than everyone else. Another example of a rule violation was when they hid a bottle of nitro inside the K3 while it was en route to the United States, which gave them the opportunity to set times at the Incredibly fast laps in qualifying, but they made sure he was caught before the start of the race so he wouldn’t be found by the technical officers.
The restored 1979 Porsche 935 K3 Kremer you can find on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum
After Don and Bill were arrested, the K3 that raced at Le Mans in 1979 was placed in the IndyCar museum. After the two were released, however, they told the Indy Museum that they had only borrowed the K3 and wanted it back. A lawsuit between the museum and the brothers lasted several years, with the Indy museum succeeding. A few years later, the K3 was restored to its former glory by the Canepa Motorsports Museum and is now owned by car collector Bruce Meyer.
Unfortunately, for all the crazy things the Whittington brothers have done, there hasn’t been a movie about it yet. We have a film about Ford and Ferrari’s battle at Le Mans. Now we just need a movie about the Whittington Brothers.