Randy Lanier

Lanier was born in Virginia to a father who was a draftsman and his mother was a caretaker at a psychiatric hospital. At age 13, he moved to Hollywood in South Florida where he attended Miramar High School. When he was caught with an ounce of cannabis, he dropped out of high school to avoid suspension but later earned his GED. Lanier worked in construction to make a living.[1]

In 1976 he married his childhood sweetheart. They had a daughter, Brandie in 1980 and a son Glen in 1987, who was named after Lanier's younger brother who was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 16. He has other siblings as well.[2]

In 1986, Lanier became romantically involved with Maria De La Luz Maggi.[2]

Lanier began his motorsport career in 1978, following a meeting with the Sports Car Club of America at an auto show taking place in Miami Beach Convention Center on how to make a start in racing, he bought himself a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster, where he used it to compete in E Production at the SCCA Southeast Regional Championship, eventually winning the class in 1980.[3]

He made his IMSA Camel GT series debut at the 1981 Daytona Finale, partnering with Dale Whittington, finishing 30th. The following season at the 24 Hours of Daytona, he was approached by a crew member for the North American Racing Team to fill in for Janet Guthrie, who was unable to race due to illness.[4] Partnering with Bob Wollek and Edgar Dören, the trio ran in 3rd place for 18 hours until their run ended[3] when Lanier took over at dawn on his first lap, considered by fellow driver Desiré Wilson to be unsuited to drive as he had been seen previously acting nervously in the pits, he drove the car off course destroying the suspension[5]

He was invited by the same team to partner with Preston Henn and Denis Morin at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,[3] retiring after they ran out of fuel.[6] At Lanier's fifth race at the 6 Hours of Mosport, he brought an ex-works March 82G Chevrolet, scoring his first podium finish with a third, and then another at the Mid-Ohio 6 Hours.[7]

In 1984, after driving for a variety of teams in the previous seasons, including a 2nd at the 24 Hours of Daytona, he formed his own team, Blue Thunder Racing, with Bill Whittington and crew chief Keith Leyton consisting of two March GTPs.[3][8]

Earlier in the season, Whittington led the season, allowing Lanier to take over after the Charlotte 500 km. With help of Whittington, who taught Lanier how to set up the car and driving,[9] he took six wins, enough to score a driver's championship with one race to remain along with the Most Improved Driver award, despite having a lack of sponsorship and being a wholly independent team, unsupported by March Engineering.[9][10] Another reason for success was that the team employed the services of talented engine builder Ryan Falconer, who rebuilt the engines after each race.[9]

Lanier began to focus on his Indycar career, with the hope of winning the Indianapolis 500.[8] He drove for Arciero Racing, intending to commit full-time for the 1986 season.[3] For the following season, Lanier would also drive for Joest Racing for both Daytona 24 Hours and Miami. After a poor form in the previous year, Lanier would improve his form by finishing six of the nine races he entered including his 10th-place finish at the Indy 500, winning the Rookie of The Year honor and taking the fastest qualifying time for a rookie that year, an average of 209.964 MPH[8] beating the previous record set by Michael Andretti in 1984.[11] His final race was at the Michigan 500 where he collided into a wall at 214 MPH following a tire blow out, breaking his right femur and was shortly arrested.[8] Prior to that, he drove in 18 CART races in 1985 and 1986.

A year after his release from federal custody, Lanier returned to the track, coaching and racing with Rally Baby Racing, and the Road & Track teams in BMW E30s at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the American Endurance Racing series.[12]

His growing up in Florida during his youth has been suggested as a potential precursor to his involvement in the drug trade in 1978.[2][3]

Lanier, shortly after moving into Broward County, discovered cannabis at 14 when be began enjoying it recreationally. At 15, he began to sell drugs on the side. At the age of 20, he bought an $18,000 (equivalent to $74,000 in 2019) 27-foot-long (8.2 m) Magnum go-fast boat,[1] for recreational use, with money he made as a marijuana dealer. Later as suggested by a friend, he took the opportunity to use this to smuggle a ton of marijuana out of the Bahamas and took this as an opportunity to make a small sideline to his personal water craft rental business.[1][8]

He later took to Ben Kramer, who raced in offshore powerboat racing, as a business partner. Together, their haul grew from a 65-foot (20 m) wooden trawler[8] that were used to carry 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) of drugs[1] to a fleet of tugboats that was used to haul barges.[8]

As Lanier defeated the heavily sponsored and factory supported oppositions of the Group 44 Racing Jaguar XJR-5 and Löwenbräu-sponsored Holbert Racing Porsche 962, the sudden racing successes began to raise questions about the team's source of finance[9] and thus Lanier was under investigation from the FBI.[10][Note 1][11] Lanier along with Eugene Fischer[13] and Ben Kramer, owner of Apache boats; and twelve others[14] ran a multimillion-dollar drugs empire between 1982 and 1986 when the arrest took place.[15] Kramer was the great-nephew and one of the putative heirs of the top boss of the U.S. crime syndicate, Meyer Lansky.[16]

A week prior to the Indy time trials, his former driving partner Bill Whittington was arrested and Lanier's name began to surface. Shortly after his Indy 500 drive, he made his largest haul[8] of 165,000 lbs[1] and had considered retiring from the drugs trade.[8] Months after an Illinois dealer was arrested when a local state trooper discovered a small haul of cannabis in a broken down truck.[11] Lanier's business partner and brother-in-law,[17] Ronald Harris Ball, was arrested and denied bail.[1]

Many of these narcotics were distributed in Illinois, therefore he was indicted by Judge James L. Foreman[1] in the Southern District of Illinois in January 1987.[2] He was convicted of importing and distributing over 300 tons of Colombian marijuana,[18][19] believed to be worth $68 million by prosecutors[20] and was due to be sentenced when he disappeared.[21]

He was believed to had fled to Puerto Rico[22] but he fled first to France, where he went into hiding in Monte Carlo but later went into hiding in Antigua where he kept properties,[1] he was later arrested there on October 26[2] whilst fishing.[8] Lanier had also cut a deal after his arrest for conspiracy to distribute pot, but at the last minute refused to testify against Jack Kramer, father of Ben.[23]

Randy Lanier and his partner Ben Kramer received life without parole sentences on 4 October 1988[18] under the newly enacted Continuing Criminal Enterprise statute (also known as the "Super Drug Kingpin" law), owing to their refusal to cooperate with the prosecution. The Whittington brothers who were also involved received a lighter sentence. Lanier filed an appeal based on the fact that later RICO convictions were not nearly as lengthy, but lost the appeal.[24] He was initially placed in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary and was later transferred to the higher security United States Penitentiary I in Coleman.[25] He spent his time in prison exercising, playing chess and answering letters sent by race fans.[26]

Maggi, who married Lanier on August 31, 1990 at Oxford Federal Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.,[2] was sentenced on April 30, 1993 to nine years in prison for money laundering. She pleaded guilty in September the year previously to conspiracy and obstruction[19] and later successfully appealed to have it reduced from 108 months to 97.[27]

She was released in 1999: by that time she was no longer married to Lanier.[28]

Otherwise serving a life sentence, for reasons undisclosed under sealed motions, Lanier was scheduled to be released from prison, with a discharge date of October 15, 2014,[29] which was reportedly confirmed to Autoweek magazine insiders by Jim Porter, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website also confirmed Lanier's date of discharge conditional to the requirement that he spends a six-month duration in a halfway house before entering a three-year-long supervised release into society where will be disallowed alcohol and / or firearms. Lanier stated that he had a job awaiting him at a classic car museum in Florida,[23] said to be for Preston Henn, owner of Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.[1]

In 2015 Lanier took part in a race in Mid Ohio, driving for Rally Baby Racing, which was covered in-depth by Road & Track magazine.[30]

Randy is currently working at a rehabilitation center in Hollywood, FL treating patients recovering from substance abuse.

• motorsport.com profile
• ChampCarStats.com statistics
• New York Times: Driver Jailed
• New York Times:Randy Lanier Sought
• Findlaw.com article on Lanier's case
• Hemp News
• Randy Lanier in the 24h of Le Mans
• Motorsport.com article on Riverside '84
• Los Angeles Times article on crime and imprisonment
• Indy Car Vice - Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated