Escobar’s race cars fueled by cocaine

by Bill Buys

WHAT did top racing drivers do before they made their names on the racing circuits?

Well, the great Tony Brooks was a dentist, Jonathan Palmer was a doctor, Timo Glock was a scaffolding engineer and Japanese ace Kamui Kobayashi worked in a sushi restaurant.

Giuseppe Farina had a law degree and a doctorate in political economy and of the more recent drivers, Kevin Magnussen worked for a while as a welder while both Finns -

Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas - served in the Finnish Army and became mechanics.

Romain Grosjean, who now drives Indycars, worked in a bank, Mark Webber spent some time as a pizza delivery driver and Pablo Escobar was a fast emerging talent in cocaine country.

Pablo Escobar?

Indeed. The man destined to become the drug lord of the world did have a go at motorsport, albeit in a rather inconspicuous way.

Soon after he made his first few millions he invested in a quartet of Renault 4s so he could compete in Colombia’s burgeoning Renault 4 Copa championship.

The little 747cc Renault 4 had quite a history in Colombia.

The front-wheel drive compact mini-hatch became part of the country’s folklore and served as reliable family transport from as early as its launch in 1961.

Later, 850cc versions were available and the homegrown racing series for the brand attracted the attention of Escobar, who, at that time, operated as a real-estate agent and also had a bicycle business.

So he and his support crew of cartel-adjacent acquaintances became regulars at the Copa Renault Championship and at other venues, among them the Autodromo Ricardo Mejia circuit in Bogota.

Joining him was his cousin, Gustavo Gaviria, and a few other lads from the cartel, including the Ochoa brothers, Fabio, Juan and Jorge, who in 1987, and with Pablo, were included on Forbes' first World Billionaires list.

The Ochoas also feature in Narcos, on Netflix.

Pablo did all right in the Copa, running second in the championship after six events.

But it seems his Renault 4 might have had a few go-fast bits that did not feature on others in the series.

He wasn’t quite in Ayrton Senna’s league in the corners, but his car was noticeably quicker than any others on the straights.

Rumour has it the scrutineers didn’t spot anything untoward in his cars, and there was also talk that he would pay police to stop faster drivers before they even got to the track.

One rival, Alvaro Mejia, claimed police kept him on the side of the road for hours checking papers.

Another feature was that when he and his entourage arrived at the races, there would also be support trucks, food, champagne, girls - and he’d arrive in his own helicopter.

Not bad for a purported pushbike salesman.

Later he graduated to more powerful cars like the 1974 ex-Emerson Fittipaldi Porsche 911, which he used to make a bet with Ricardo Londono, Colombia’s most famous driver.

At a hillclimb in Medellin, he wagered he could come within 15 seconds of Londono's time. Escobar finished eight seconds back, which he regarded as a win. Nobody was going to argue.

He and Londono became friends and Pablo, whose ‘business’ activities started to impede on his racing aspirations, was keen to stay involved in motorsport.

To that end he funded Londono’s efforts to get into Formula 1.

Londono was actually a pretty decent driver.

He had risen from stock-car racing in Colombia to competing in IMSA and Can-Am internationally.

Then, with Pablo’s help, he had a go at getting into Formula 1.

Pablo paid his fare across the Atlantic to the UK, where in 1980 he ran seventh in the Aurora AFX F1 Championship (also known as the British F1 Championship) driving a Lotus 78 for Colin Bennett Racing.

Next, he used some of his money – he had a flourishing coffee growing and spaghetti-making business in Colombia – to get a seat with Mo Nunn’s Ensign Racing, in the hopes of being granted a Super License.

That way he’d become the first Colombian in Formula 1.

He’d entered for the Brazilian Grand Prix of 1981 but the FIA heard talk of his link with the drug cartel and wanted no part of it.

So on the eve of his big race, he was denied the required accreditation.

Instead, Nunn put Swiss driver Marc Surer in the Ensign – and he had a great race.

Starting from 18th on the rain-soaked circuit, he finished fourth, behind Carlos Reutemann, Alan Jones and Ricardo Patrese and also set the fastest lap!

It was to be Ensign’s best Formula 1 result.

Pity that the side of the Ensign was emblazoned with the words Ricardo Londono and Colombia while the driver’s helmet said ‘Surer.’

Despite kicking Londono out, the team kept his money – but it wasn’t enough to stave off the bankers and in 1983 Ensign merged with the Theodore Racing team, but both closed down at the end of that season.

Londono had several more races, but in Formula 2 before going back to Colombia where apart from his coffee, spaghetti and perhaps something else as well, he became an agent for fancy boats, private jets and other luxury goods.

Things were going well for him until 2000 when the Colombian authorities raided his premises and seized property worth nearly $10 million, deemed to be acquired from the proceeds of crime.

He was never convicted of drug dealing and never spent time in jail despite 1200kg of cocaine being found on one of his farms.

Earlier, in 1978, Pablo Escobar had bought a bit of land (7.7-square-miles, about 2000ha) and transformed it into a lavish estate filled with a sculpture garden, a car collection, swimming pools, man-made lakes and a zoo— complete with elephants, rhinos, exotic birds, giraffes and a four hippos: three females and one male.

When Escobar was killed by police during a shootout in 1993, his estate was abandoned.

Most of the animals were then transferred to zoos, except the hippos, which were left to fend for themselves. With no natural predators or droughts the hippos thrived and latest reports say there are now about 200 of them in various rivers and dams in Colombia.

Conservationists now want to administer contraceptives to the 3-tonne beasts to control their breeding.

By the time the law caught up with Pablo (in1993) he had amassed a fortune of some US$30 billion – roughly US$100 billion in today’s terms.

Cousin and fellow one-time fellow Renault 4 racing driver Gustavo Gaviria also died in a gunfight with police.

Ricardo Londono made a brief but successful return to competition in 1999 when he won a race for motorcycles of more than 1000cc.

Ten years later he, too, met a violent death.

He was staying in his hotel at San Bernardo del Viento when he and two colleagues were gunned down by a six-man hit squad.

Oddly, most of the great many news reports, books and films about Pablo Escobar and company detail the activities of his escapades, both his humanitarian and ruthless activities and the drug cartels, the CIA, FBI and assorted other drug-fighting outfits, but few even make mention of his Renault 4 beginnings.

Moral: Every ticket and program at motorsport venues reads: Motor racing is dangerous.