Don Whittington

The Porsche 935K3 with the Don and Bill Whittington the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans won

Reginald Donald "Don" Whittington (born January 23, 1946 in Lubbock ) is a former American racing driver and the brother of Bill and Dale Whittington .

Career

Don Whittington began his career in the US sports car scene. Together with his brother Bill, he competed in sports car races with the Porsche types 934 and 935 . He celebrated his greatest international success in motorsport in 1979 when he and his brother Bill and Klaus Ludwig won the Le Mans 24-hour race .

In 1980 he switched to monoposto racing and competed in the USAC racing series for six years . He also competed five times between 1980 and 1985 in the Indianapolis 500 mile race . His best finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was sixth in 1982. In the early 1980s (1980 and 1981), the American was also involved in ten NASCAR races.

In 1984 Whittington - who also regularly competed in air races - founded a racing team, the Blue Thunder Racing Team , together with Randy Lanier and Marty Hinze .

In 1986 he came into conflict with the law. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $ 5 million for tax evasion. Far worse was his brother Bill, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for tax evasion and drug smuggling - he smuggled marijuana . Don Whittington was also charged in the drug trial, but charges against him were dropped after Bill pleaded guilty. After serving his imprisonment, he went into the aviation business and made a comeback in North American sports car racing as a partner of Brother Dale, but resigned for good in 2000.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Whittington Brothers Racing	Porsche 935/77	Bill Whittington	Franz Konrad	failure	accident
1979	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935 K3	Bill Whittington	Klaus Ludwig	Overall victory
1980	Whittington Brothers Racing	Porsche 935 K3	Hurley Haywood	Dale Whittington	failure	Power transmission
1981	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935 K3	Bill Whittington	Ted Field	failure	Cylinder overheated

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Whittington Bros.	Porsche 934/5	Russ Boy		Rank 22
1979	Whittington Bros. Racing	Porsche 935/79	Bill Whittington		failure	accident
1980	Whittington Brothers Racing	Porsche 935K3	Bill Whittington	Dale Whittington	Rank 3
1981	Whittington Brothers Racing	Porsche 935K3	Bill Whittington	Dale Whittington	failure	Engine failure
1982	T-Bird Swap Shop	Porsche 935K3	Bill Whittington	Marty Hinze	failure	malfunction
1983	Henn's Swap Shop Racing	Porsche 935K3	Bill Whittington		Rank 11
1985	T-Bird Swap Shop	Porsche 935KL	Bob Wollek	Preston Henn	failure	malfunction
1999	Whittington Brothers	Riley & Scott Mk III	Hurley Haywood	Dale Whittington	failure	Ignition damage
2000	Intersport Racing	Lola B98 / 10	Jon Field	Dale Whittington	Rank 21

Web links

Commons : Don Whittington  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Don Whittington at Racing Sports Cars