John Retoline

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## Racing

### Last Year

1974
1990 (if he weren’t banned)

**John Retoline** was an American driver who competed in the Piston Cup Racing Series for Tim's Sports from 1970 to 1974. John was known for being a scary, mean racer and truly lived up to that title, which earned him the nickname "Chaotic John" and "Hell On Wheels". John, who raced from 1970 to 1974, was known for his terrifying personality on the track, he was also like this before he entered the Piston Cup.

He used to celebrate victories by throwing tires and destroying small objects on all around him. Slide Powers said he had "absolutely no smile on his face, he was terrifying in all ways possible" in a CBS interview. He is a 1970 Dodge Charger. He was an unsponsored racer with the number 22 in red on his sides. He was purple and had a red wing.

## His Career

His terrifying and scary career began in 1970 when he made his debut, he was scary from the start according to Slide Powers.

In the 1970 Florida 400 he threw one of his tires at Slide Powers after Slide Won a race. Slide was already suspicious of him since his debut.

In the 1971 Alabama 500, on lap 171, John who was in second place performed a PIT maneuver on leader rookie racer James Carlidge, sending him crashing out of the race causing him to miss the next 4 races and was replaced by Steve Valdez. It was thought to be an accident after John lied about it being an accident claiming that he didn’t see anything and must have been a bit blind that day so because of this, John wasn't disqualified much to the surprise of Slide Powers, who felt suspicious about the racer since his debut.

In the 1972 Heartland 400, he caused a crash behind him after hitting off one of the racers. About 16 (including Strip Weathers) were involved in the wreck and all 16 retired from the race. He was disqualified for 3 races.

In the 1973 Leak Less 400, he caused Kraig Shiftright to go airborne and flip over.

But the worst of it came in the 1974 BnL 500, when John's true colors were revealed, in which John willingly bashed the side of Joseph Anthony (Foyt head on. This caused Joseph to crash into Frank Marintire which caused Frank to hit Rev Pitcar and send him flying into the air. Jonathan Melter and Brad Gonzalez who were right behind Pitcar, managed to hit him in the left side and front engine/bottom left tire area respectively. Bobby Carsac spun into the inside wall while Lonnie Pond tried to avoid the wreck but hit Robert Henderson hard in the front. It ended the careers of Foyt, Marintire, Pitcar and Henderson (all four were hospitalized, Pitcar almost died after suffering from oil and fluid loss). A total of fifteen racers were involved. Cole Speedland won the race but did not celebrate at all.

John was suspended from the Piston Cup immediately after the race. He committed more crimes after that but was found out and taken to prison in 1983 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He however remained in there until his death in 1990. In an interview in the 1990 BnL 500, after his death, Slide said, "That car was the definition of terrifying, he almost killed four racers back in that race and he committed multiple crimes on and off the track. Hopefully he is now at the place he was trying to bring to the Piston Cup"

## Trivia

* John is the least liked racer in Piston Cup history.