Street Racing: A Look At The Fast And The Furious

The first time I heard the name Big Willie Robinson was when I saw a race car that had been through the war. The ceiling disappears, the body becomes breathless. The wells of his feet were thick with cobwebs.

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It was parked in a lot owned by Ted Moser, a plain-spoken guy who builds vehicles for movies and TV shows. Moser nodded at the Plymouth and told me that Big Willie had won that car in drag races around the country.

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He said I should have known about Big Willie. But at the time, in the spring of 2017, I didn’t know the man or the myth.

Big Willie was a 6-foot-6, muscle-bound black man who came of age in segregated New Orleans and, Moser said, later served with distinction during the Vietnam War. He came to Los Angeles to escape the sting of racism in the South, but like many African Americans before him, the city brought its own ugliness and division.

With the help of the Los Angeles Police Department, Wiley founded the Brotherhood of Street Racers, a group that in the late 1960s, men and women who worked on engines and racing cars, delivered a message that L.A. Vatsa Riot.

His focus was to make street racing safer, but Big Willie’s swagger and charm seemed made for Hollywood. He acted on the side and befriended stars like Paul Newman. Moser said Wiley was also offered the role of Darth Vader in “Star Wars.”

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Beginning in the mid-1970s, Wiley operated a drag strip on an island in Los Angeles Harbor. Tom Bradley, the city’s first black mayor, and surfers, car collectors and L.A. His vision of unity grew there with the help of Otis Chandler, publisher of the Times.

I looked at the decrepit Plymouth, the husk of a car whose paint was flaky and fading. If Big Willie was the legend that Moser made him out to be, how come I never heard of him? And how did this race car end up wasted on a dusty lot in Northridge?

That Plymouth — and Moser — set me on a journey to learn more about Big Willie Robinson and “Larger Than Life,” The Times’ new documentary podcast that debuts today.

Willie’s death may have been largely forgotten in 2012, but he was an inspirational figure during a pivotal time in Los Angeles. It was a city of rage and glamor – and street racers spread out on both sides. To accomplish his mission of uniting the divided city, he transforms himself into a larger character – Big Willy – a man who is arrogant and passionate in his quest for peace. His infectious and grand personality helped him win over cops and criminals, but it could also be his biggest flaw.

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Ted Moser, owner of Picture Car Warehouse in Northridge, introduced Times reporter Daniel Miller to the legend of Big Willie Robinson.

One of the angry scribbles in my notes from a visit to Moser’s Picture Car Warehouse was something I fixed long after I left the car lot.

If true, that means I had a connection – albeit distant – to Big Willie through Chandler and The Times.

I video tracked the newspaper publisher’s memorial held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. About 30 minutes into the service, Big Willie appeared – an uninvited man in camouflage fatigues and a black leather vest walking into the center of the old stone church.

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“You guys don’t know the story of how Otis brought the streets together after the Watts riots in ’65,” he says.

Willie claims that after he served in the Vietnam War, The Times wrote about him and Chandler gave him the nickname Big Willie. He goes on to say that he used the street race to bring people together to restore a city broken — first by the Watts riots and then by the long upheaval. Many of the 900 or so attendees were titans of publishing, politics, and the patrician set — and it was clear they were hearing it for the first time. Doubt is visible on their faces. But then, something remarkable happens.

“Otis Chandler, on the street – the gangbangers and everybody on the street – they knew him as Big O,” Willie says.

Big O is what Chandler’s grandchildren called him — and the commemoration drew thunderous applause. Now the story that Big Willie and Chandler were mixing with gangsters and racers in South LA seemed unbelievable — but real.

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“We brought Crips and Blood. Mexican mafia, Asian gangs, skinheads, Nazi low-riders, high school kids, college kids, all together on Terminal Island, and we said, ‘Let’s stop the violence,’ and the drive-by shootings disappeared,” Wiley says.

It was clear: these two men from completely different worlds were bound by the magic of fast cars — and their dream of fixing their tortured city.

“And right now, I guarantee you, he’s running to heaven,” says Big Willie to a second round of applause.

The unscripted eulogy focused on what the news revealed about Chandler — that the street racer’s presence proved the mogul was a man of the people. But the coverage largely ignored the story of Willie Andrew Robinson III. So, I went looking for it.

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Big Willie in L.A. Racers lobbied hard, including demonstrations outside city hall, to find a safe place to meet. (Fitzgerald Whitney/Los Angeles Times)

Then- L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, left, shakes hands with Big Willie after signing the deal to open Brotherhood Raceway Park. In the center is Tomiko, Big Willy’s wife, who was also a street racer. (Howard Cobb)

Big Willie oversees the start of a motorcycle race at Terminal Island Racetrack. (Rick Meyer/Los Angeles Times)

Top left, Big Willie lobbied hard with a demonstration outside City Hall for a safe place for LA racers to meet. Bottom left, with the support of then-L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, Big Willie saw his dream of opening Brotherhood Raceway Park on Terminal Island become a reality. At the center is Big Willy’s wife, Tomiko, a street racer herself. At right, Big Willie starts a race on the Terminal Island track. (Fitzgerald Whitney / Los Angeles Times; Howard Coby; Rick Meyer / Los Angeles Times)

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Big Willie followed the rules all his life. He was a black man who crossed the chasm of race, class and culture.

“You can be the Ku Klux Klan, you can be the Aryan Nation, you can be the Crips, you can be the Bloods — it all stops when you get around Willie,” said Brotherhood member Kenneth Russell.

Big Willie gave people an outlet to put their differences aside and race cars. At first, he did it on the streets of Los Angeles. And then, with the help of his wife, Tomiko, he made more of an impact at his track: Brotherhood Raceway Park.

The drag strip on Terminal Island began operating in 1975 — and would open and close its doors often over the next two decades. Street racers and law enforcement officials told me that you’ll find the Crips and the Bloods making peace in the same race at times. At Brotherhood Raceway, there was a strange alchemy of bravado, recklessness and speed that proved incredibly successful.

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‘You could be the Ku Klux Klan… the Aryan Nation… the Crips… the Bloods — everything stops when you get around Willie.’ — Kenneth Russell, Brotherhood of Street Racers member.

“I think he would be the first to say how many riots he stopped. How many times he knew both sides and said, ‘Guys, let’s go to IHOP instead,'” said Los Angeles Police Commission Chairman Steve Soboroff. “Big Willie was a service provider. As is Big Brothers, as is the YMCA, so is Big Willie. Big Willie was the freeway off-ramp to prison.”

“He did a lot to get kids off the streets,” former LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks said. “When you’re dealing with prevention, you can’t count the lives saved. How much damage has been avoided.”

Kenneth “Tex” Russell and Donald “Donko” Galaz are both members of the Brotherhood of Street Racers who knew Big Willie. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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“I lost my way,” Galaz said. “I went back to hanging out on the streets – and drinking and drugging. He pulled me aside and he said, ‘I’ve heard some things about you, and you need to get your act together.’ And it stuck with me very deeply.

Big Willie went against the grain in many ways. After his military service — which he said included undercover work as a Green Beret in Vietnam — he returned home to find