According to SpeedwayMedia.com, Bobby Hamilton Jr., a former NASCAR driver with 354 career starts across all three national series, is under fire this week after allegedly breaching contracts with at least two up and coming drivers.
The two drivers, Cassie Gannis and Kevin Hinckle, say Hamilton Jr. didn’t live up to his word. Hinckle says, in court documents according to SpeedwayMedia.com, that the two met last season with plans of starting his very own team in 2016 while racing in the ARCA Racing Series with Carter 2 Motorsports. The two drivers got together as a deal with Hinckle and Carter 2 Motorsports fell through.
Hinckle says he and Hamilton Jr. signed an agreement to run 18 of the 20 scheduled ARCA races in 2016. That excluded the season opening race at Daytona and the fourth race of the season at Talladega Superspeedway. SpeedwayMedia.com says that Hinckle also claimed in court documents that High Performance Motorsports is a non-existing team or even registered to do business in the state of Tennessee.
The two parties agreed that Hinckle would pay $60,000 to compete for the newly formed racing team. The first payment would be $3,000 dollars with the remaining amount paid in installments over the course of the season. Hinckle was later given instructions by Hamilton Jr. on how to make the payments via wire and a check amounting to $17,000.
Hamilton Jr. would then contact Hinckle with a new proposal in September of 2015. The new deal, according to SpeedwayMedia.com, would give Hinckle an opportunity to run in the season opener at Daytona. They would both reach an agreement to the new deal.
Hinckle would travel to Daytona testing in December of 2015 for the series annual test at the 2.5-mile oval. The test provides two-three days of on-track activity to allow drivers to prepare for the season opener and allows rookies to get licensed to run on the plate tracks. It is used often times by rookie drivers in NASCAR to be approved for competition at Daytona and Talladega. The two would communicate a day before testing that Hamilton Jr. would be unable to attend.
Hinckle would show up to the test only to find one car and a seat unable to fit him. After bringing sponsors to watch testing and meet with team owner Hamilton Jr. – he was unable to test. The next morning, Hinckle would request Hamilton Jr. to put the contract in writing. That would not happen and Hamilton Jr. would call Hinckle “difficult to work with” and told the young driver that he would receive a full refund after the cancelation of the contract set forth by Hamilton Jr. and Hinckle.
That would not happen and Hinckle would take legal action.
Cassie Gannis is also taking legal action on Bobby Hamilton Jr. according to SpeedwayMedia.com as she was scheduled to make two ARCA Racing Series starts with Hamilton-Hughes. The two events that Gannis would be featured behind the wheel would be Talladega Superspeedway and Lucas Oil Raceway Park. Both parties agreed that Gannis would pay a $12,000 fee in two separate payments.
Hamilton Jr. would later say that there was a possibility that Gannis could run the full-season as he had a sponsor pending that could bring $200,000 if Gannis paid $60,000. If that deal were to take place – Hamilton Jr. wanted her to pay $20,000 following the signing of the contract and pay $40,000 by April 1. That would give her a total of four races or a full season with the sponsor willing to pay $200.000.
Cassie Gannis, Hamilton Jr., a team consultant and Kathy Gannis would all meet via Google Hangout. They decided during this hangout that the Gannis family could not come up with the $60,000 dollars and would stick to their original deal of two races.
Hamilton Jr. would then contact Gannis about changing the two race deal to four races because a sponsor came forward interested in Gannis for the races later in the year.
At Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hamilton Jr. would withdraw from the race so he could solely focus on his newly formed racing team. The Gannis family claim they tried getting ahold of Hamilton Jr. to check-in and had no answer. They would later find out that Hamilton Jr. competed at Talladega Superspeedway and still wouldn’t return their calls. The family then claims that Hamilton Jr. would respond with texts saying “call you later” or “in a meeting” and would stop all together later in June.
The Gannis family would be contacted in July of 2016 that Hamilton Jr. had been left out of his shop. That’s when Cassie Gannis and her family decided to pursue legal action on the former XFINITY Series winner.
You can read the full story on SpeedwayMedia.com by clicking this link: SpeedwayMedia.com
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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