Ricardo Londoño

Ricardo Londoño was born on 8 August 1949 in the Colombian city of Medellín. His racing career began in the Colombian Stock Car and Motorcycle Speed Championships.[1] The extent of Londoño activities in this era of Colombia is rather obscure but several periodicals of that time indicate that he won many races in the country, allowing him to become the national champion in various categories in motorcycle and stock car racing in the 1970s.[2][3][4][5] In his period, he was caught up in the centre of drug trafficking activity that was taking place in the outskirts of the Colombian capital Bogotá and met the drug lord Pablo Escobar for the first time.[6]

Londoño moved to North America in 1979 and took part in the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Daytona 250 Miles in the IMSA GT Championship. He shared Porsche 935 Turbo with John Gunn and George Garces in Sebring and failed to finish. Londoño used the same car to finish 18th in Daytona and placed 45th in the Drivers' Championship. In 1980, Londoño raced at Daytona alongside Mauricio de Narváez and Albert Naon and the trio came seventh overall and second in the GTO class.[7] That same year, with finance from a car dealership in Cali, a sports equipment supplier and private partners, he partook in nine out of ten races of the Can-Am season with his own team, Londoño-Bridge Racing Team and drove a Lola T530.[8][9] Londoño was competitive throughout the season and took six top ten finishes with a best result of fifth at Mosport Park.[9] He accumulated five points which put him twelfth in the standings.[7]

A variant of the Ensign N180 (pictured in 2012) which Londoño drove in the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix.

With support from the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia and Pablo Escobar, Londoño left for Europe in late 1980 and rented a Lotus 78 from Colin Bennett so he could participate in the season-closing British Formula One Championship round at Silverstone, the Pentax Trophy.[10][11] Bennett called him "promising".[12] Londoño suffered a major accident in practice but his team's mechanics repaired his car in time for the race.[12] He finished one lap behind race winner Emilio de Villota in seventh having moved up eleven from his starting position.[11] Londoño briefly returned to the United States to compete in the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona for Red Lobster Racing, partnering Kenper Miller and Dave Cowart, but the BMW M1 the trio drove failed to finish, retiring with engine problems after 346 laps.[13]

That same year, the Ensign Racing Formula One team had severe financial difficulties after its main sponsor left. After the first race of the season, the United States Grand Prix West, Ensign's owner Mo Nunn sought a driver to help redress the team's situation.[11] Bennett had joined Ensign as a co-owner and suggested to Nunn that he employ Londoño for the Brazilian Grand Prix.[11][12] As he was virtually unknown in the Formula One world, some believed that Londoño's name was a pseudonym.[1] Formula One was returning to Jacarepaguá for the first time in three years and an acclimatisation session was held for drivers to learn the circuit. As he did not have the necessary super licence to take part in the Grand Prix, Londoño was allowed to drive in the session and did ten laps of the track with his best lap four seconds slower than session leader Carlos Reutemann.[11]

However, Keke Rosberg was irritated at Londoño and braked earlier than expected in front of Londoño and this caused the latter to hit Rosberg.[11][14] Londoño was not granted his super licence by the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile as his team had not provided the necessary information and he was judged to have caused the crash with Rosberg.[14][15] The refusal of him being granted a super licence was also attributed to Formula One's commercial rights owner Bernie Ecclestone discovering Londoño's links with the Medellín Cartel and Escobar.[16] His team kept the money he brought to them but elected to draft Marc Surer who finished the car in fourth place.[1] Nevertheless, despite the controversy, Londoño was the first Colombian driver to have taken part in a Formula One race weekend.[17]

Due to his national support, Londoño participated in three Formula Two races for Docking-Spitzey Team-Toleman after managing to convince the team's manager Alan Docking via telephone to recruit him for 1981.[12] Although he qualified last for the Pau Grand Prix he took advantage of a slippery track and other cars retiring due to mechanical problems to finish ninth. Londoño's next race was at the Autodromo di Pergusa and retired after twenty-five laps with an engine failure in spite of a good qualifying performance.[12] A mechanical issue sidelined his race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps after fifteen laps, and was unable to start the Donington Park round after crashing in the warm-up session.[12]

At the end of 1981, Londoño returned to Colombia, and won the Grand Touring class of the 3 Hours of Medellín.[18] Several of his sponsors were arrested by police before he could partake in a planned 1982 venture into Can-Am and thus did not race in that year.[14] In 1983, Londoño partook in three races of that year's IMSA GT Championship and did not have a large amount of success apart from a sixth-place finish alongside co-driver John Gunn in a Phoenix JG1 at the Daytona 250 Miles.[9]

The following year, he remained as a competitor in the IMSA GT Championship but was now behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette in three races. Londoño's best result was him driving solo en route to finishing fourteenth out of twenty-three cars at the Daytona 250 Miles. He again was entered in three races in 1985 but failed to attend either the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.[9] Thus, his only race of the season in Miami saw him retire his Pontiac Firebird after eleven laps.[9][19] Partnering with Diego Montoya (the uncle of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya) for the 1986 24 Hours of Daytona, Londoño eventually dropped out of the race and ended his career in motor racing.[1]

Upon retirement, he began to sell aircraft, helicopters and boats to recognised drug traffickers and came close to a trafficking ring.[14] It was discovered in November 1998 that one of Londoño's properties contained 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) of cocaine.[20] Despite this setback, in June 1999, he made a brief reappearance in motor racing at a departmental speed motorcycle race in Medellín and won the category for bikes in the range of 1,001 to 2,000cc.[21] In December 2000, the Colombian courts issued a constriction order against Londoño which saw the removal of $10 million worth of vintage cars and property that was acquired illegally through drug trafficking and his links with the Medellín cartel.[1][14][22] The operation, named Blanco y verde ( "green and white"), was conducted in the departments of Antioquia, Córdoba and the Archipelago of San Andrés which saw almost all his property seized.[20] Londoño however avoided spending time in prison.[23]

He was staying in his hotel in Cispatá Bay, a nearby seaside resort of San Bernardo del Viento in the Gulf of Morrosquillo where on 18 July 2009 he was murdered along with two consultants of an illicit enterprise.[23][24][25] Witnesses reported that six men working in a settlement accounts sponsored by a Colombian drug lord, arose and opened fire. Londoño was shot twelve times including three in his head.[14] He was buried two days later near the parish of St. Mary of the Angels (Parroquia Santa María de los Ángeles) in his hometown of Medellín.[26] The alleged killer, Jasson Erlevis Leudo Chavera, aka "Kevin", a senior member of the criminal gang Los Urabeños based in San Antero (in the Gulf of Morrosquillo) was arrested in May 2010.[25]