Put a fork in Level 5

Yes, a bit stressful, and likely quite cumbersome (with all of those forks sticking out of everyone)

 

Maybe not? The team showed up and raced and the rest of the racing community knows it was the 'crooks behind the scenes', that took balls and should earn some respect. Although I am not privy to all the details nor do I care to be I did give them an "atta boy' slap on the back.

 

Atta boy?


The Tuckers and the other defendants claimed they would charge borrowers the amount borrowed plus a one-time finance fee. Instead, the FTC alleges, the defendants made multiple withdrawals from borrowers’ bank accounts and assessed a new finance fee each time, without disclosing the true costs of the loan. The defendants also falsely threatened that consumers could be arrested, prosecuted, or imprisoned for failing to pay and that the defendants would sue them if they did not pay, according to the FTC.

According to documents filed by the FTC, over the last five years, the defendants’ deceptive and illegal tactics have generated more than 7,500 complaints to law enforcement authorities. In many cases, the defendants’ inflated fees left borrowers with supposed debts of more than triple the amount they had borrowed. In one typical example, the defendants allegedly told consumer Eric Barboza that a $500 loan would cost him $650 to repay. But the defendants attempted to charge him $1,925 to pay off the $500 loan, and threatened him with arrest when he balked at paying that amount.

 

Yep!

 

Whew...

 

Federal prosecutors don't just file charges on a whim. The old saying, "where there's smoke, there's fire" applies. That doesn't mean, however, that they can hurdle their burden of proof in a trial. Assuming this is a jury (and not a bench) trial, convincing a group of jurors that the defendant violated the law beyond a reasonable doubt (criminal burden of evidence) is never a slam-dunk. And, even if you have the evidence, there is always jury nullification. Whenever you are dealing with public personalities like Clemens or John Edwards, there is a risk that no matter their actions, there are sympathetic jurists empaneled. ST isn't a "big" name, and he might not get that benefit, but he is still entitled to a defense and the presumption of innocence.

CW

 

So not to derail Brian's "My car" did well today! thread, I'm bumping this thread...

Crazy, any word on when it goes to court?

 

Just by way of accuracy and an indication of the amounts of money that Tucker made from his activities his Colorado property was purchased for EIGHT million and a further 1.5X million was spent on renovation and maintenance.

 

No offense intended to Brian, who had a hand in what clearly is a remarkable car, but I don't have any reservations about derailing Tucker related threads. Team Tucker is congratulating itself via press release and posts around the web, so a little pushback won't even slow it down. Really, they should be embarassed. I got out of DSR, the class they are so proud of having won, because it didn't seem worth the $$ to race two or three guys. Apparently Tucker can't resist the lure of the small pond ....

As for the case against Tucker, his brother, Level 5 and others, to my knowledge, no injunction has been granted, and Tucker's lawyers have issued the following statement:


“We are disappointed that the FTC has taken the action of filing a lawsuit, but we will defend the allegations through the legal process and begin the kind of dialogue appropriate for such a regulatory filing.

“An FTC filing is not a finding or ruling that anyone has actually violated a statute or regulation. It is simply a lawsuit based on untested allegations. The FTC has sued the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Citigroup, Coca-Cola and Facebook, and the reality is most actions resolve in settlements based on an agreed understanding of the facts. We will proceed accordingly and in good faith to address the recent filing.”


A little more about Tucker from the Center for Public Integrity website:


Tucker has a criminal past. In April 1988, at the age of 26, he borrowed $50,000 from American Bank of Kansas City, offering a new Porsche as collateral. Court records show that Tucker lied on the application; he had sold the sports car months earlier.

A year later, Tucker wrote a bad check for $1,200 to a moving company hired to transfer two loads of used furniture for a business, according to court records.

In the meantime, Tucker participated in a bogus loan scheme to bilk money out of businesses, court records reveal. While a partner in Oregon ran newspaper and magazine ads throughout the country offering commercial loans, Tucker posed as the president of a seemingly high-powered investment bank in Overland Park called Chase, Morgan, Stearns & Lloyd. The operation was a fraud, collecting more than $100,000 in “advance fees” from at least 15 borrowers without providing any loans.

Tucker ultimately pleaded guilty in federal court to two felony charges of mail fraud and making a false statement to a bank. A Missouri state judge found him guilty of a felony charge of passing a bad check. He was sentenced for all three crimes to serve a year in Leavenworth federal penitentiary, followed by three years of probation. He got out of prison on June 8, 1992.

 

Ithink his goal is to eventually win a championship in every national class , right down to Formula Vee.

 

Speak of the devil, per the link in Tom's thread, they got an automatic invite to the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans....

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389872

http://www.planetlemans.com/2012/11/14/thirteen-teams-automatically-selected-for-the-2013-le-mans-24-hours/

 

Cooper Macneil- Winner 2012 GTC Championship ALMS
Alex Popow-Winner 2012 LMPC Championship ALMS
Carlos Kauffman "amateur driver" in ALMS, ROLEX, IMSA GT3 CUP, etal

finished 8th, he should be ashamed of himself.

he did finish "slightly" ahead of Enzo Potolicchio (finished 21st), the reigning Ferrari Challenge Champion (2010-Current) who also is the 2012 24Hrs of LeMans WINNER in P2.

They should both be ashamed of themselves for even trying.

 

Rob, hopefully you know by now I was just having some fun with you...I think this is a much more sensitive subject for you than me, I will respectfully stay out of your rants, if you like...just know I was kidding.

As for Mark, I cannot tell you how happy it made me to see him up there...both days!

He earned it, worked hard for it, and held off some seriously talented drivers to do it.

 

Isnt the Ferrari Challenge supposed to be for amateurs only? Tucker has been racing pro for years now. If he only finished 8th and 9th that will tell you right there his talent level as it is a spec class

 

supposed to, yes.

but in classic Ferrari fashion if your check clears.....

 

Yup. History-making, no less. Over the top...

http://www.motorsport.com/#!/ferrari-challenge/news/scott-tucker-level-5-set-to-make-history-in-austin/

Following a dominant year, which included his third consecutive American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón championship and three additional national titles, Scott Tucker and Level 5 Motorsports are set to cap off the 2012 season in style this weekend at the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Tucker will be among the select few drivers to christen the state-of-the-art facility, as the nine-time national driving champion will take part in the Ferrari Challenge and Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA West races. Both series support Sunday’s U.S. Formula 1 Grand Prix, with more than 100,000 fans expected to be in attendance.

The history making weekend will not only see the world’s premier form of motorsport return to America after a five-year hiatus, but also Tucker back in his old stomping grounds of Ferrari Challenge, where the Kansas City native remains one of the most successful drivers in series history.

Tucker has nearly two dozen Ferrari Challenge victories to his credit, including a single-season record of ten wins in 2009, which helped take his Level 5-run Boardwalk Ferrari team to the Ferrari Challenge Dealership Championship. He also became the first driver to win with the Ferrari 458 Challenge race car in 2011.

Having focused his efforts on ALMS this season, which saw his Level 5 team score its third straight championship with eight P2 class victories out of ten races, Tucker will be making his first Ferrari Challenge start of the year in a highly competitive field of 35 drivers for the pair of 10-lap/25-minute races.

“I don’t think we could have picked a better venue than CoTA for our return to Ferrari Challenge,” said Tucker. “It’s been a great year and to end it at such a historical event, running with Formula 1, is something special. It will be great to see some of my old friends who have also come back to do this race. I’m really looking forward to getting out there for the first time.”

To help shake off some of the cobwebs, the David Stone-led organization put its Boardwalk Ferrari 458 Challenge car through its paces in a recent two-day test at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nev. Veteran Ferrari engineer Silvio Campigli, who engineered Tucker’s 458s at Le Mans and past Ferrari World Finals, was also in attendance and will be with Level 5 again this weekend.

“The team hasn’t stopped working since Petit Le Mans,” Tucker added. “It’s amazing the amount of work that goes into each race and it shows the commitment we’ve made in the last few years. To go from a Ferrari Challenge operation to a three-time ALMS championship-winning team is not an easy task. It’s great to be going back to our roots this weekend.”

In addition to driving duties in the Ferrari 458 Challenge car, Tucker will also be at the helm of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in Sunday morning’s Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA West race. The entry, run in conjunction by Kelly Moss Motorsports, will be one of an expected 30-car field for the 10-lap/25-minute sprint race.

While the 3.427-mile, 20-turn circuit, designed by veteran F1 architect Hermann Tilke, will be a new experience for everyone, it will provide Tucker with valuable knowledge of the new track prior to the first ALMS race there, scheduled as a double-header weekend with the FIA World Endurance Championship on Sept. 20-22, 2013.

"It’s a new track, a Formula 1 weekend and is on the ALMS schedule for next year, so it's a good opportunity to get some track time there for Scott,” explained Level 5 team manager David Stone. “I expect it to be a competitive race. Scott has been out of Ferrari Challenge for a year, so I think the primary objective will be to go out there and do as well as possible with realistic expectations given all that goes along with it.”

 

How did Tucker do in the GT3 Challenge

 

Challenge series has evolved a bit the past couple of years.

This year, Ferrari Challenge in North America followed the model of the FC series on other continents that has both a Pro and an Amateur component. In Europe, lots of drivers in FC are actually paid... not quite the case in FC over here. This year there were two championship; Coppa Shell for the amateur drivers and Trofeo Pirelli for the pros and the guys who take it more seriously. This transition will take a while and as in all Motorsports, any change breeds debate. Oh well.

Trofeo Pirelli had a smattering of gentlemen drivers similar to Mark (working guys that like to race), up and comer fast young kids like McNeal and Tirasi, and some guys that race successfully a lot at the pro level like Popow, Pottilichio, Kaufman and Tucker. The upper end of the skill spectrum in FC lately has gone up thanks to those fast kids and the pro's that enjoy the series and the fun seat time it provides. And the benefit for the gentleman drivers in the Shell and Pirelli series is that they get to see what a more experienced racer can do in a similarly spec'd car and learn from them. Ultimately, a good thing for the series.

So, pro drivers (whatever that means) driving (and not always winning) in FC isn't as shameful as it used to be... I actually think it would be better with even more pros.