Road America Speedseekers Legal Problems?

[xwing]

We've heard there is some kind of legal stink between John Gay (who basically helped found the Speedseekers Road America events), and Dan Kuehn/Dave Dill...like that Dan and Dave are suing John for Speedseekers control and this could (or has) cancelled the April and October Speedseekers Road America events for 2005 already.

Does anybody know what is really going on? Take a "simple" thing like running 2 events and turn it into lawyers...ughh. Heard that it is even threatening the personal finances of those involved, not just the "Speedseekers" LLC. This is NOT the way!

Getting lawyers involved in something like this seems really wrong in ANY case. The only way for us all to understand is to air this out, we want to understand. Waiting for some announcement "Speedseekers RA events are cancelled, The End" seems dumb. Help us peons out with this. Can anybody mediate this?!? Help?!?

We just want to know the Truth.
We just want the relatively non-profit (or little profit) Speedseekers April and October events to continue UNMOLESTED.

[Silver350]

I just got this e-mail from Jack that runs the Pistol Petes Wednesday night car show.



I don't know if you have had the chance to read the post in our forum which explains the conversion from Speed Seekers LLP to Speed Seekers Inc, but technically, the people who John, the owner of Speed Seekers Inc, joined up with to help run these events, are claiming that they have a right to one third of the proceeds from the events and are claiming to be partners, they have no documentation to say that they are, but they have hired an attorney to file an emergency injunction to prevent us from holding these events until they can prove one way or they other why they have a right to the contract solely between John and Road America. John had run these events by himself before these individuals even were interested in road racing, and now they are trying to take it all away from him. The is a hearing on Monday to decide whether or not an injunction should be filed to freeze any further business actions by John. If the judge finds in their favor, we will be out of business, and there will never be another event held by our company.
We have an attorney who was up until now fighting for us. He said that the other parties only have enough information to file but not to win. Unfortunately, I just lost had a loss in my family and had to use all available money I had for funeral expenses and. Our attorney has informed us that he can no longer represent us unless we can give him $7,500. Without him we will lose everything we have worked so hard to achieve, we will lose our dream, and our clients will lose the opportunity to participate in these events in the future.
I know that you don't know us, but I was wondering if you knew anyone who could possibly loan us the money for an attorney until the middle of January. We have shares within the Speed Seekers Corporation which we are willing to provide to anyone who could assist us. I ask you this out the disparity of my heart. I have invested thousands of dollars as well as many many very late evenings in this company and it will just kill us to see it end all at the hands of individuals who have no right to this event. They are some of the most greedy and cold people I have ever met in my life and they were suppose to be John's close friends, they have stabbed him in the back and taken advantage of him every chance they have gotten.
If you know of anyone who could possibly help us, I would greatly appreciate it if you could send them our way before the end of the weekend. We have over 140 people checking our website every hour on the hour waiting for registration to open, but I don't feel right collecting money from them until we know for sure whether or not there is even going to be an event. If you could manage to help us, you would be granted a lifetime of free track time at every one of our events.

Sincerely,
Diana Nugent
CEO Speed Seekers, Inc.

[JRink]

Wow. First I heard of this news Jack. Time to visit the speedseekers forum and see what the scuttlebutt is. Thanks for the tip.

I know John put a ton of effort (and his own $$ early on) into these events over the last few years. I hope it all gets sorted out. I can't wait to drive on Road America this April once again.

Jesse

[Yooformula]

I think people should hold their judgements until someone from the parties enlightens us all. From what I have seen all of the people invovled, Dave, Dan and John put alot of time into the events. There is always 2 sides and I am curious to see what the hell happened.

[UWILLUZ]

I for one am not knocking anyone, so if anyone comes back at me, they more than likely don't know ****.... BUT, ALOT of people put time and effort and money into this situation

[Yooformula]

I for one am not knocking anyone, so if anyone comes back at me, they more than likely don't know ****.... BUT, ALOT of people put time and effort and money into this situation

Who are you? :confused

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Does the fact I have to go around asking for temporary loans to pay for a litigating attourney because I had an emergency court injunction placed against me on Friday by my ex-partners/friends say enough? They did so knowing I have no way to defend myself as attourneys aren't cheap. Yes the event is in jeapordy, and due to greediness, so are personal assets of mine & Dianas. It couldn't be let alone to be settled within the business itself, but had to be brought to a higher level of personal vindictiveness.
Due to the situation, I will not say more, but I can be emailed or called by those who already have my #.
John

[Z28Girl]

All I know is that it belongs to it's rightful owner, he who establishes it and went out to solicit the track in the first place. There would be no "work" to put into these events if it weren't for John going to the track in the first place and requesting this take place. Speed Seekers would not have a need to exist in the first place if John had not established these events before ANYONE else EVER came along to "assist" him, or try to overtake the company.

[Yooformula]

Wow, John. Sucks to hear you guys get to this and I cant believe it personally. Hope things work out for everyone in the end. Still trying to figure out who the new people are that seem to know all the background stuff here.. :confused :eek:

[Z28Girl]

Im not new Yoo. You met me the night you were hearing ticking in your engine up by Omega and we were all trying to figure out if it was oil pressure or what.
Did you ever figure out what that noise was by the way???

[GTSLOW]

blip

[y2kws6]

As you know, Dave, John and I really enjoyed running these events. Speed Seekers intends to keep on doing it. Unfortunately, some disagreements arose between John on one hand and Dave and I on the other. We really just wanted to sit down with John and work it out. John refused multiple times and instead he was starting do certain things that made it hard for the business to continue to function. For example, he brought down our website for awhile illegally without us knowing about it and now the company itself. Anyway, our goal is to get past these disagreements and get our focus back on the events. We regret any concern that John’s conduct may have caused. Due to the legal aspect of the issues we nor they were suppose to disclose any information from either parties from the case at hand until it is finalized, which hopefully will be today.

As soon as a decision has been made everyone will know the full truth of the issues at hand. We are sincerely sorry that we need to keep the participants in the dark about this and that now you only have bits and pieces of what is really going on.

Dan Kuehn

[Z28Girl]

(I dont recall a judge putting a gag order on this situation.)
This is not and has never been about the money. THey can keep the money. THis is about John taking back control of what is rightfully his and "other individuals" keeping him from that, controlling every aspect of the business and pushing John out. Treating him horribly. Its about lack of respect for the sole person who gave them the opportunity to be a part of Speed Seekers in the first place. It is about integrity and honesty and not about teaming up against JOhn and denying him every request and every idea and every aspect of how he wanted things to be. Its about how the volunteers as well as others were treated by these individuals and how they must have forgotten who started the Road AMerica events to begin with. Its about the unproffesional manner in which things were handled in front of the clients, its about the conversations we heard, being out in the field with the drivers, and not down in an office away from the track, its about the content of those conversation containing complaints about how these individuals behave and how they see John being treated by them as well.
This is not about the money. This is not a money making business necessarily, this is about John's dream, about something he wanted to do for others like him, and now how people he thought were his friends knocking him down and kicking dirt in his face!!

[SSmike1]

I think people should hold their judgements until someone from the parties enlightens us all. From what I have seen all of the people invovled, Dave, Dan and John put alot of time into the events. There is always 2 sides and I am curious to see what the hell happened.
very good point.

be patient,
quiet,
and wait.

there are 2 sides to every story!

:chair:

[SSmike1]

UWILLUZ

Who are you? :confused
hey yoosof
did he ever answer?
:goof

[Z28Girl]

Funny thing is, we arent really hearing a whole lot of anything justifying the "other" side, and there is no court order preventing us from that. The judge today did not say anything to either party about making statements to support the evidence.
I sure would like to know what "their" side of the story is also. Besides the little bickering stuff like "John didnt do this and John didnt do that", because they wouldnt LET John do anything, even going as far as trying to take over appointing who is going to head the tech department at the events. There is no "other" side to the story, because if there were, we would have heard it by now and quite frankly it disgusts me to hear that anyone would doubt Johns integrity over individuals who are trying to bankrupt us.

[UWILLUZ]

I will say one thing, and this is by no means to offend you Z28GIRL, but we seem to be hearing ALOT about this from you, and you've been around this for a very short time compared to how long the "company" has been around as well as this group of people have been friends.

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Chris, Diana is more up to speed than you know. No one is more in my corner than her.
John

[UWILLUZ]

Understandable completely, and I figured that. Just one of those sad things to see happen...

[lotsals1]

Im not new Yoo. You met me the night you were hearing ticking in your engine up by Omega and we were all trying to figure out if it was oil pressure or what.
Did you ever figure out what that noise was by the way???You met me the night you were hearing ticking in your engine up by Omega ---lmao

[93RedDevilZ28]

I will say one thing, and this is by no means to offend you Z28GIRL, but we seem to be hearing ALOT about this from you, and you've been around this for a very short time compared to how long the "company" has been around as well as this group of people have been friends.

Nah, she's legit.

[Yooformula]

Im not new Yoo. You met me the night you were hearing ticking in your engine up by Omega and we were all trying to figure out if it was oil pressure or what.
Did you ever figure out what that noise was by the way???

I remember ya now Diana. I kinda figured out what was wrong but the noise is still there.

I do hope this sorts out for you guys. Sucks to hear about this crap and sorry to hear that lawyers had to get into this matter. Its a shame to see friends come to this but I guess pooo happens. :(

[Z28Girl]

Ya yoo, it sucks that it has had to come to this, makes you wonder what it is they are really fighting for. Secrets? Hmmm.

[97PontiacW68]

post edited.. no more

[Jake B. (Killer Quad)]

hmm I am seeing an opertunity for some one else here to pick up the ball an run with it! While the speedseekers people hash out there probs why dosent someone else step in and make sure the RA events happen! or even set up an event at another track! Just an idea i am not looking to due this cuz I am too involved in my drag racing. But from my point if this happend with an event in my racing circle I'd be all up on making sure there was an event for the racers and let the people who are killing it for the people who love there fun to have there event!

Sorry John I know your a good guy and it seems youve done alot to make the RA event great but it sounds like all who are involved in putting this event on are not in it for the participants.

Unless I am missing a post or statement that says these events will go on regardless of current disagreements!

latters

I'll be at GLD this spring as always!

[xwing]

We STILL don't understand what the problems are, as there have been no real explanations, and saying "There are 2 sides to every story" WITHOUT SAYING the OTHER SIDE (!) is a cop-out bit of pablum to keep everybody shut up while (probably) dirty dealing goes on behind closed doors.

1) Who would charge more money for each RA event, and WHY--John or (Dan and Dave)? How much DOLLAR DIFFERENCE?

2) Who would charge money to people for "Speedseekers" in general, and who would run it "for free" because they simply love the events?
I've heard that despite the impression we all get that our $320 just barely covers the event, actually there are SIGNIFICANT PROFIT monies to the tune of low tens of thousands in Speedseekers...here I thought this was an efficient bare-bones "love to put on event, charge as LITTLE as possible" deal. Am I naive, again?

3) Who really set up Speedseekers and the RA events, and ARE 2 add-on people trying to throw out the Good Originator once it turned into something worthwhile...

OR are 2 BETTER people trying to throw out an originator who is now BAD for Speedseekers (SPECIFY HOW--no "You All Couldn't POSSIBLY Understand, and besides Our Lawyers Won't Let Us Talk, Just TRUST US" B.S. please!)

He who says he "can't explain to all of us now" in the Light of Day due to lawyers is probably a CROOK in my book. Shining the light of public opinion on what is REALLY happening BEFORE it is a DONE DEAL, is ONLY SCARY TO _RATS_, IMHO.

Bust out with SPECIFICS...no REAL SPECIFICS makes (RELUCTANTLY becoming more cynical) me think there's dirt all around, and maybe Speedseekers IS a more a "MONEYMAKING operation" than "beneficent car-guy/gal thing", and the issues come down to "3 way split or 2 way split of the profits".

I am tired of hidden dirty dealings and lawyer-ese.
Again, HELP US PEONS OUT, we JUST want to UNDERSTAND, BEYOND the personality conflict "he said, she said, in front of others" crap. We UNDERSTAND y'all don't like each other.
Get PAST THAT and tell us FACTS of the DIFFERENCES on RUNNING SPEEDSEEKERS to us end-users such as: EVENT COSTS, additional fees, WHO would do it for MINIMAL GAIN if any, and WHO wants to do it for "PROFITS"?

I suppose asking for an "open books policy" on finances would be easiest...why do I think THAT would never happen? We don't need Professional Businessmen here, just honesty. We can take honest mistakes in the Light of Day, and friendly disagreements, IF we think we can trust.

Trust, but Verify. Good enough for Ronald Reagan...good enough for me :)

Later Edit: I am sorry for the harshness of this letter. It is frustrating when something good turns bad. Without facts, it is hard to discern if this is a disagreement among good people, or if something not-good is being done to somebody. I hope all turns out for the best.
We just want to have some Fun With Cars :)
JT

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Jake- The track contracts for the April & Oct '05 events already had my name on it way prior to any legal action took place- as they had been since the beginning in '00. As a matter of fact I sent in the contracts with my signature on them before I was served the Supena to appear in court by Dan & Dave's attorney.

Jack & all- Due to an emergency court injuction that was placed on Diana & myself by the opposing attorney, and the subsequent temporary restraining order placed on us last Tues, we simply cannot go into specific details. We are at risk of being held in Contempt of Court- yes all over this stupid thing.
I understand your frustrations, and belieive me (or not), there is so much to be said about this whole thing going on that I'd love to enlighten you all on.
On the other hand, there is nothing in the restraining order pertaining to the 'Other Side' that prohibits them from saying whatever they like. It's quite intersting that they don't. We are not the type of people to file restraining orders.
I can be IM'd or phoned if you feel the need to speak to me on a more personal level.

John

[Z28Girl]

It costs approximately $25,000 to run this event, thats not including what we would want to pay our volunteers, who in the past have not been paid anything. That also does not include the cost of our website fees and for labor for us to put all the paper work together and process registration.
If John and I end up winning this battle, and get to run it the way that WE want to run it, the cost is going to change for the better. The cost will go down significantly because we arent in this for the money. If we were, we would quit our full time jobs and travel across the country to hold the events at other tracks. In the last month I have spent over $3,000 of my OWN money to get the website up, and to get all the drivers packets and badges taken care of for the April event, I dont expect to see any of that money back as it is my contribution to this event. I also purchased my race car trailer for mainly a place of operations for the Road America events, another investment I dont expect to see a financial return on. If that is not an indication as to whether or not we are in it for the money or not, I don't know what else to tell you.

[y2kws6]

As many of you are aware, we – Dan, Dave, and John – have run these events as partners for a number of years. Over the past months, John refused to meet his obligations to the partnership and then started a number of arguments about how to run the partnership and the events. We asked him to do what most people do in this kind of situation – sit down and work something out that would #1 – keep the events going and make them better and #2 – work out an agreement fair to each of us.



John refused to sit down. Instead, he crashed our website, set up a competing website, stole the partnership’s name without our knowledge and created his own, and then his girlfriend started talking trash everywhere he could. Instead of sitting down and working out our disagreements like grown-ups, John wanted to take his ball and go home. The problem was it is not only his ball; it belongs to all three of us as partners. Anyway, the result is that pretty simple disagreements have become a very public mud-fight. It’s silly, frustrating, and unfair. Most of all, this problem is getting in the way of the ’05 events. We have not and will not respond to every piece of trash posted about this nonsense because we are staying focused on trying to save the events and move forward in a way that is fair all around.



Once things calm down and we finish undoing all of the mischief John and his girlfriend have caused – get the events squared away – the whole story might come out, if anyone really cares. Frankly, for us, it is about the driving and that’s what’s most important. All we can tell you is that we are focused on nothing other than getting these events up and running and done right.



Dave and Dan.

[Z28Girl]

The offer to sit down and talk was not about what is "fair" to everyone. It is not about what is fair all around and never was. There is no mischief involved here,apparently the Judge agreed as he did not let you have your way of taking advantage of someone who did not have counsel on Tuesday. This is not about disagreements, let alone pretty simple disagreements, and if running the event were the main concern, a restraining order would not have been filed by the opposing party to prevent the events from possibly happening, especially as Road America will not do business with anyone other than John. The contracts have been signed, now it comes down to who has the right to run the event, which to me is pretty clear, whomever has the contract, but since someone has gotten a lawyer involved, that is something that I guess the courts will have to decide now. As was said before, the discussion was about how things could continue on as they were, why waste time with a conversation which is not in the best interest of anyone other than the people who want to remain in control. If you mean people wanting answers when you speak of "piece of trash" I think that is a perfect example of who you really are. You dont need anyone's assistance in defaming your character, you just spoke for yourself. Still more of the same jiberish!!

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Fair to you guys is you wanting to kick me out of something I started and brought you in on thinking it was a good thing to do. Too bad greed got the best of you.
All the proactive action I took was in defense of all the crap I've had to deal with from you over the last several years. Nothing I did was against the law... only against the supposed 'partnership agreement' that you have been writing up as this thing has been going along.
You are upset that you didn't get your way last Tues in court because we didn't get crushed by the one sided fight you tried setting us up in.
If you were not greed driven, you would have stood down and walked away.

1. How dare you even think I'm going to be brought down by you without a fight.
2. You are not taking me down.

Too bad you don't have anything legit to explain to anybody looking for answers.
You shouldn't refer to those who are inquiring about this as posting 'pieces of trash' -thus showing disrespect...as some of thier registration money has paid your attorney costs.
Dan, you ought to have Jacki fill you in- afterall--you and Dave voted her in to take your place because you are out of country and unable to fulfill your duties. Perhaps ask Dave (head of Speed Seekers llp) for the fill in since he is the answerman. Interesting how I wasn't included in on either of those 2 voting discussions.

[Zzzzoom]

Here is something I just happened to stumble across.
http://www.speedseekers.com/us.html Seems to me that these people have even admitted that this thing was started by John Gay and that this is HIS dream. I dont know this guy personally but it sounds to me like he is getting railroaded here. Kinda like a hostile take-over if you ask me.
(Any questions?? pretty cut and dry to me, straight from the horses mouth (or jackass, same difference I guess).

After doing some research for the firm that I work for, it appears that there may be some violations of misreprensentation on the part of the Kuehns and Dills. There is no documentation stating that Jaime Dill or Jacki Kuehn are partners, BUT it lists them in this paragraph as being part of the Speed Seekers LLP. Something smells fishy here!!!


Bill

[Cryptic]

the website prolly wont mean d!ick in court.... its how they were filled, but I am no lawyer