No to TORCO products

Torco Racing Fuels has announced an interruption for their 2008 racing season. The break will include sidelining all Knoll Gas Motorsports’ teams, including those owned by Evan Knoll and sponsored by Torco Racing Fuels, Inc. for the 2008 season in NHRA, IHRA and all other motorsports ...

 

Found this. There's a reference to Knoll's health as the reason...... and some CYA goin' on.
http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=733046

 

Big business, can make abrupt changes after each quarter, just as the economy can. Sad to hear for all those teams, could be a very slim field at many events, while teams scramble for new sponsor deals. Good Luck to everybody affected, especially with the short time to the new season.

 

Pretty lame to do this a month before the Winter Nats. They say it is for health reasons but my gut says they were spread to thin.... The owner doesn't feel well so we pull all of our sponsorship money???? Something doesn't add up....

 

Torco still owes me contingency for 2001, 2002 and 2004.........and I betcha that the "Torco tent" that was stolen in Bristol was for non payment also...as far as I am concerned.......Torco has always ****ed when it comes to filling thier contracts and commitments.
Good riddance.

 

They have very recently started sponsoring a bunch or supercross/ motocross teams so they may be changing their focus a bit.

 

What the hell were the organizers thinking when they let one en***y provide major sponsorship for so many of the top performing teams in the Pro ranks? A built in recipe for the disaster we are witnessing now!

 

The first lawsuit was filed today...This is going to get ugly.

 

BFD. I didn't stop drinking Coors Light when it was made public that they didn't support Gay Rights. Ooops...

 

Had a buddy who used to lend me his torque wrench when I needed it. He stopped lending it to me one day. I didn't beat him up.

 

Anyone remember JD Stacy ?
He was the main sponsor for several Winston Cup teams in the early 80s.
All that money dried up shortly before he got arrested.

 

LMAO...all kidding aside, it could make for a lame racing season with all the teams he supported recently.

 

A few notes on this;
1. The guy running the show now is the CFO. What do you expect when you put the finance guy in charge of handing out money?
2. Knoll has been trying to work a deal to buy the IHRA. Maybe he plans to drive down the sale price.
3. Knoll has been shopping for a NASCAR team. He may be in a bit of a money cruch given the costs involved.

 

Tell us how you really feel Mark!

I always felt bad about putting them on our contingency lists...

Aaron

 

How many people actually buy Torco oil ? Or Lucas ? Or Amsoil ?

They all seem to spend a LOT on advertising,for such a small market share.

 

It's gonna get worse in Canada this year. Total ban on leaded racing fuels including nitro. Pump gas or alcohol only.

 

Unkl Ian,
Great observation. I have a pretty serious Drag Racing machine, And I happen to be sponsored by a really GREAT Oil company. I'll say the name because I am VERY PROUD to work for them. RED LINE OIL Synthetic oils. This company is VERY active in ALL forms of motorsports, and the ownership(Mr. Tim Kerrigan) is a bigtime Hot Rodder. This company is the "real Deal", they refuse to do m***ive amounts of marketing just in Drag Racing, they spread it out very evenly a****st several types of motorsports. These guys are the kind of people that produce an honest product, and give back to the "sport". Remember, Torco Oil Co. and Torco racing Fuels are 2 different companies. Torco Racing Fuels are the one in this controversy.
my .02

 

Sorry Aaron, but that is all I have to say about that..."Forrest Gump"

 

Where did you hear this? I have heard nothing about this....

 

mr. kerrigan must be a cool guy to work for..... i talked to him at the pri show a few years back ....i asked him about his hot rods and he just started telling me about them.....talked to him for probably 20 minutes....he showed me some artist rendedings of one that they were building ....cool stuff..... brandon

 

Read All About it here:
http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partI/2007/20071222/html/regle1-e.html

 

Does NITRO have Lead in it? I just skimmed over the article and didn't see mention of NITRO.

 

Nitromethane is produced industrially by treating propane with nitric acid at 350 -450 °C

 

For those of you who are interested, here's the interview just released with Aaron on ihra.com.
http://www.nitrojam.com/article/1943.html

 

Just happened to read this story on my local news pertaining to TORCO-
http://www.wwmt.com/articles/decatur_1352297___article.html/irs_raid.html

 

Breaking News!

Federal lawsuits mount up in Evan Knoll case


Internal Revenue Service agents in conjunction with local Van Buren County Sheriff deputies raided the corporate offices of Torco Race Fuels on Thursday.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reported in a copyrighted story that Steven Moore, a spokesman for the criminal investigations division of the IRS, said the federal agents executed a search warrant at Knoll’s business office in downtown Decatur, Michigan.

Van Buren County Undersheriff Paul Edwards was contacted by the IRS, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette, in order to provide what the Kalamazoo Gazette reported as a “uniformed presence”.

Lawrence Wilson, an attorney in Ada, Michigan, confirmed with Compe***ionPlus.com that he's the attorney for Evan Knoll.

Wilson characterized today's incident as a visit by the IRS and not a raid. The Kalamazoo Gazette reported that as many as 20 uniformed deputies from the Van Buren County Sheriff's Department accompanied the IRS on the visit.

“The IRS is looking into some of the financial problems that were [attributed] to the previous C.F.O. Preston Latrell [sic]," explained Lawrence Wilson, Evan Knoll's attorney, transposing the first and last name of Latrell Preston. "He was fired by the company back in April. The new management has been uncovering stuff that has been questionable. Some of the stuff that he was doing, some of the finances that he was handling and such ... some of the money going out of the company. It was questionable who was benefiting from some of the payments.

“With the I.R.S., when he was C.F.O. [Preston], he failed to make payments to the I.R.S. on corporate tax obligations. That's what I suspect. I haven't seen the subpoena yet they used ... but they were looking for those files in particular related to those tax obligations."

Wilson said the IRS visit was more related to the C.F.O. than Knoll himself. The attorney for Knoll alleges Preston embezzled money from the company.

Preston was contacted by Compe***ionPlus.com to respond to the allegations, but declined to comment in detail until he could speak with his attorney. He adamantly denies any charges of impropriety and says the truth will come out soon.

Compe***ionPlus.com left message with Preston's attorney Tom Gezon, who has yet to return the phone call.

Knoll reportedly suffered a head injury in a single-car accident in 2004 and recurring medical complications forced him to step aside from the day-to-day operations of Torco in January of this year.

"Since the car accident, he pretty much turned over the day-to-day operations to Preston Latrell," Wilson continued. "Preston Latrell [sic] being a banker by trade ... basically because of the problems he [Knoll] had with his head injury ... turned over the day-to-day operations to Preston Latrell expecting him to be a friend and do the right thing. This guy saw lots of money going through the business and basically decided to help himself to it. In the process, he failed to pay legitimate tax obligations that Evan thought and had expected were paid or current at the time."

Wilson said he wasn't aware whether or not Knoll was under any federal investigation at this time.

"I'm sure they are looking at everyone right now," Wilson added. "I'm pretty confident once they discover who was signing stuff and who was handling the finances for the company for the past year; it's going to be quite evident Evan wasn't the man directing any of the cash flow.

"This all happened this morning so we are trying to sort through everything," Wilson admitted. "When we had new management take over, we saw things that just didn't seem right to us. I guess we are kind of glad that the IRS came in because instead of us having to go seek out the F.B.I. for embezzlement charges, hopefully the I.R.S. will follow up since they are looking into the finances. In a way this was a blessing because we were wondering how we were going to bring these people ... this Preston Latrell [sic] and some other people that Evan had trusted the business to that misused the funds. We were wondering how we could get the IRS or FBI to look into this and trying to figure who the real culprits were.

"Once the IRS will go through their initial looking of the do***ents, they will start asking us questions so we can ***ist them in the investigation."


The financial woes of Evan Knoll, who at one time was virtually carrying the IHRA and many of its professional racers and cl***es on his Torco company payroll, continue to mount up. After dropping all of his car sponsorships in January of this year he eventually defaulted on payments to the IHRA, NHRA, track owners and racers. According to reports Federal Agents raided his offices today.

In a copyrighted story that appeared in the online version of the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Gazette, it was revealed that Chase Equipment Leasing Inc filed a suit in June over a defaulted $15,700,000 loan to buy a private plane in May 2007. The suit said the aircraft was surrendered in April after the default balance reached more than $16.55 million, with interest accruing at nearly $7,600 a day. In a response filed in July, Knoll alleged his signatures were "forged" on the purchase papers by another company official who was "not authorized to make the deal."

Other civil and Federal cases include a suit filed by Top Fuel team Foley and Lewis Racing Inc. and fuel distributor Eastern Aviation Fuels of North Carolina. Additionally, unconfirmed information is that there are Federal charges pending concerning taxes at least partially confirmed with the news that the IRS raided Knoll’s downtown Decatur, Mich., office with the help of 20 agents according to FBI spokesman Stephan Moore.

Knoll Gas, a gasoline station and convenience store on Michigan route 51 in Decatur, continues to carry a line of Torco's Skull Gear clothing items and Skull Shine car-care accessories. The station also sells specially formulated racing fuel.

It would appear that the Evan Knoll era in drag racing is officially over.

Here’s a link to the Kalamazoo Gazette story, for a more in-depth look. http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/08/financial_woes_mount_for_decat_2.html

 

Lawyers and Modern Spec Racing.