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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Race Deal Was a Cheat, Car Owner Says

PHOENIX (CN) - A racecar owner claims that ASA International and Racing Speed Associates never paid him $15,000 in prize money after he rented out his car for a race in South Africa. He claims the two companies lured racecar owners and drivers to the race with false promises of a free trip, free tires and fuel for the race, and "internationally televised exposure during the race itself."

In his complaint in Maricopa County Court, Dustin Dudley claims an employee of ASA Racing and Racing Speed Associates induced him to buy a racecar and enter it in the Free State 500 race in South Africa by claiming that all flights, transportation, meals and hotels would be paid for him and his entire crew.

Dudley claims the two companies backed out of "promises to provide free race tires and free race fuel, not actually securing the media coverage promised, not spending sufficient funds promoting the event to generate the promised exposure, and ... failing and/or refusing to timely pay the prize money promised to a number of the owners, including the plaintiff."

Dudley, who rented his car to South African short-track champion Johann Spiess, says should have been paid $15,000 after Spiess finished in fifth place, but co-defendant Larry Pond told him he would not be paid immediately "due to some unexplained tax reason relating to the fact that the race was being held in South Africa."

Spiess had a catastrophic engine failure during the qualifying round for the race, so Dudley rented his car to him for "the first ever stock car race on a super speedway in South Africa."

Dudley says the defendants used his "selfless act of sportsmanship" as another excuse not to pay him.

Two weeks before the Jan. 30 race, after Dudley had shipped his car to South Africa, he says that Pond sent him an invoice, "indicating fuel was now going to be another cost that would be paid by each team rather than being provided free of charge."

Dudley claims he had to pay for the gas, then on June 30, Pond told him there was "no record that you or the No. 31 car ran in the subject race," and refused to pay him the $15,000.

Dudley claims the defendants' misrepresentations induced him to buy an "outdated race car chassis for $12,500, invest an additional $18,000 in a power train, and to invest an indeterminable amount of time an energy orchestrating his participation in the ASA-SA race, including nearly two weeks off from his regular job."

Dudley seeks $15,000 for breach of contract, and more than $20,000 for fraud. He is represented by Michael Gerity with Israel and Gerity.

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