An excerpt from Drag Kings . Photos and writing by Rebecca.
Big Willie Robinson III is a street racing expert. Almost every thing written about Big Willie mentions three things: his size (at 6-foot-6, 300 pounds, the Vietnam vet once competed for the Mr. America title), his title as founder of the National and International Brotherhood of Streetracers Association, and his dogged passion for the Brotherhood Raceway Park.
Big Willie opened the Brotherhood race track, located on Terminal Island in Los Angeles. It was built for street racers by ex-street racers and that meant it was the only race track in the world that was open from Friday 5 p.m. until gates closed Monday a.m. That also meant if you wanted to race at 4 a.m. you wouldn't do it on the street because the track would be open. As Big Willie explained, "You can't expect a guy to go home at 10 p.m. and just park his car."
The response was phenomenal. Not only did incidents of illegal street racing dip to record lows in LA when the track was open, but so did the crime rate. LAPD cops were quoted in Times' articles, calling Big Willie's program, "a miracle..."