A group of General Motors officials and executives, hosting about a dozen automotive journalists from throughout the Western US, gathered recently in the painfully-hip Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, CA, for a media introduction of the all-new Pontiac G8 and 2009 Pontiac Vibe. All were pleasantly surprised to find the legendary co-founder of the "National and International Brotherhood of Street Racers," "Big" Willie Robinson, in their midst. He was taking a meeting with a segment producer of the NBC-TV automotive show, Whipnotic. Robinson (on the right in the photo) and Whipnotic's Yon Motskin spoke for well over an hour, doing the necessary initial planning for a Whipnotic segment about Willie, his recently-departed wife of 38 years, Tomiko, the Brotherhood and the hoped-for re-opening of Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor area. (Photos by Steve Parker).
Whipnotic, the NBC-TV show, is now in its fourth month of brand-new episodes every week focusing on 
the Southern California automotive lifestyle each Saturday at 5pm. My guess is that the segment will show sometime in the next 3 to 6 weeks; as soon as we know the exact date, we'll announce it and have it available for viewing right here on this SteveParker.com website and it will also be on the Whipnotic.com website, too.
I have been a consultant to NBC-TV's Whipnotic show, and also the Whipnotic.com website. We've been working closely with Fred Roggin and Kip Epps, the show's executive producers, on various aspects of the program, and also have been providing material for the Whipnotic.com website since well before the first week both the show and the website went "live" on NBC-TV and the Internet, in mid-January, 2008. We're happy and proud to have been able to have introduced the people behind-the-scenes at Whipnotic to Willie and the Brotherhood and to have some small part in making this segment on the show possible.
Here's the latest on the status of Brotherhood Raceway's re-opening: Land for the track on Terminal Island appears to be available; the concrete barriers, grandstands and other items which have been loaned in the past by the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to Brotherhood Raceway are again available; Southern California weather is now dry and warm for the next several months, and members of both the LAPD and LA Sheriff's Department are making their support known of the track known publicly. Also, and most unfortunately, many injuries and deaths resulting from illegal street racing keep occurring throughout Southern California and throughout the nation, and gang-related crime including injuries and deaths of gang members and innocent civilians resulting from shootings and other violent crimes continue throughout the City of Los Angeles and the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego and Orange. The positive results throughout the entire community which came from Brotherhood Raceway's opening after the 1992 Los Angeles "Rodney King Riots" are well-known; many people in all levels of government in the area are saying that "the time is right" for Brotherhood to re-open.
Whipnotic is the first NBC-TV program produced in both English and Spanish. KNBC sportscaster Mario
Solis hosts the English-language version, seen every Saturday at 5pm on KNBC/TV4 Los Angeles, and repeated at 2am Sunday mornings. The program also airs on KNBC’s Digital Channel 4.4 (available on Time Warner Cable) at 8pm on Saturdays. Toni Romero hosts the Spanish-language version on Telemundo's KVEA/TV52 in Los Angeles, which runs each Sunday at 9:30am.
E-mail Big Willie by clicking anywhere on this line. We're doing our best to keep everyone up-to-date of the very latest news concerning Willie and the track's soon-to-come re-opening. Please direct any other Brotherhood members and/or others interested in Big Willie and the track to this SteveParker.com website. And be sure to let us know any related news by e-mailing us directly; just click anywhere on this line to do so. Thank you!
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