L.W. Wright – A free drive in NASCAR

While everyone else funded their racing through crime, or used racing as a front, L.W. Wright turned the very act of racing into a crime.

In 1982 a mystery driver from Nashville Tennessee wanted to compete at that year’s NASCAR Winston Cup race at Talladega. He was a 33-year-old named L.W. Wright, who claimed to have completed 43 races in NSASCAR’s premier category.

L.W. Wright wrote a number of cheques in order to secure a car and racing license before qualifying at 187mph for a race that saw a driver score pole at over 200mph for the first time. Mr Wright spun and crashed on his second lap, raising suspicions with the man who had sold him a car for $20,000, Bernie Terrell.

Turns out, L.W. Wright wasn’t the racing veteran he was made out to be. “He kept asking questions any driver should have known,” Terrel said.

L.W. Wright’s engine would expire by lap 13, but by the time the race ended, he was nowhere to be seen. All the cheques he had handed out to get himself into the race bounced, and multiple arrest warrants were issued.