Racer’s Delight: Black motorsports team celebrates Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary

Mike Hall, founder of American Wheelman, the Black-owned motorsports team, discusses with DETOUR founder Ron Stodghill how his love of hip hop music and racing - and yes, a chance meeting with legendary actor and fellow racing enthusiast Paul Newman! - led to launching the Hip Hop 50 Block Party. The free Bronx event, which kicks off American Wheelman’s racing season, features some of hip hop’s biggest names, including KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions; Chuck D of Public Enemy; Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers; Talib Kweli of Black Star; Hakim Green of Channel Live, Large Professor; along with Grand Master Caz, EPMD, Kurtis Blow, Grand Master Flash and DJ Kid Capri. As Mike Hall says, car culture is “American” Hip Hop Culture. We want American Wheelman to celebrate the birth of our community in motorsports on and off the track. Stanley E. Washington, chairman of American Wheelman, puts it another way: “I can still remember the first time I heard KRS-One on ‘Step Into a World’ and ‘You Must Learn.’ Those songs represented Black culture, opened our minds and moved us forward. “ American Wheelman Racing, among the few independently black-owned racing teams in motorsports, kicks off its season with the IMSA Battle on the Bricks on September 15 – 16, 2023 in Indianapolis at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed by Motul Petit Le Mans in Atlanta on October 11-14, 2023 at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The race team is sponsored by MeWe, Classic Car Club of Manhattan and Epic HBCU Collective.

Ron Stodghill, founder of DETOUR, is a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and an award-winning journalist who has previously worked for the New York Times, Time, Business Week, and numerous other publications. Email: ron@detourxp.com