In the interest of avoiding any suggestion of libel I would not refer to him as con man, but there was a guy named Rael who raced in the late 90s who founded his own religion, based in part on communication with extraterrestrial beings. You can read about it on Wikipedia, it's um, quite colorful.
He brought quite an entourage. I seem to recall him at Lime Rock in a Lotus Espirit, which somehow seems appropriate.
Ah, yes, Rael. Very hard to forget.
He drove some sort of WSC at the Daytona 24 Hours one year (the car known informally in the press room as "the Dumpster"). He had his own press conference, and explained how the extraterrestial beings occasionally took him up in their space vehicles to talk to him. Someone asked what would happen if "they" suddenly took him while he was driving down the back straight during the race. (Any answer was lost in the laughter.)
Rael was also involved in cloning humans, supposedly successful. We did wonder if the following year we'd see an entry at Daytona for "Rael/Rael/Rale/Rael." I guess it was funny at the time . . . .
Rael has or had his own park near Montreal, called UFO Land as I recall. It included a full-size model of the UFO where the ETs first contacted Rael. It's apparently for sale.
Cynic