Nick@Nite
DO WORK!
I don’t ever post on these message boards and this will be the first time I ever have. I keep to myself at the track and do not go around running off at the mouth about other competitors, but I want to clear up some rumors about my race team and I, because the rumors and slander have gotten way out of line and it is now time I give you my side, which is the truth and the facts!
I started racing Super Late Models at Haubstadt, IN and K & L Raceway (Mt. Vernon) along with a few other tracks in 1994 when I was only 14 years old. I raced a Super Late Model for seven full seasons, racing at events all across the countryside, all the while gaining experience and trying to improve my program to be the best that it could be. I have raced with some of the best in the area, as well as some of the best in the country and have tried to learn as much as I could through out the years. I ran the Southern All-Stars series in 1999, many nights on the road, with a lot of hard work and I won a Feature event in 1999 while competing with the series, competing against the best that they had to offer. I am not bragging, I am just stating that I have paid my dues!
Around the summer of 2000 I got out of Super Late Model racing because of the cost to field a Late Model on the level that I wanted to compete at. I walked away from racing for six years, then, I got the itch to get behind the wheel again. I considered racing a Modified at one time and even went as far as buying a new Pierce Modified roller. Not long after that the Crate Late Models started catching on and I thought that it was a better deal financially, so I decided to go Crate Late Model racing.
After being out of racing for six years I had decided to get back behind the wheel. We had an older GRT and we bought a used Rayburn to start with after the 2006 season was already under way, we had some success, but were trying to get back in the rhythm of things, as well as learn a new type of car in the crates with their lower horsepower. We won a feature with that car in 2006 but went to a MasterSbilt towards the end of the season and again, we had some good runs as we learned more about this type of car.
In 2007 we switched to the new FORWARD Chassis and were very fortunate to have one of, if not the best chassis in the class. This car didn’t cost any more than what is on the market, it is just a good piece and we have it figured out. We have enjoyed the success of the car so much, that we now have two of them. We started racing three nights a week at the beginning of the 2007 season and each night we seemed to improve our program. We worked hard and we believe the results show it!
For some reason around mid-season of 2007, a so-called friend of mine got mad at me and decide to start a rumor about me saying I was cheating. The rumor spread like wild fire, because I was winning so much and no one wanted to believe it was because of hard work and talent. I guess accusing me of cheating made an easy excuse for some of those I was competing against. What some people don’t understand is, although we won a lot of races in 2007, we feel like we lost a bunch as well. By saying that, I am saying that there is a lot of good talent in this class and we have been beat as much as we have won, so I do not see why I have been singled out? The same friend that accused me of cheating received a kick back or whatever you want to call it to feed AK all kinds of “information” (or should I say B.S.). This has already been admitted by the party that accepted the payment for the so-called “information”. AK has told numerous people that I was cheating-up my engine and he had proof, though he has never once been able to prove any of his accusations, yet still to this day he has continued to talk bad about me and make these FALSE accusations. AK has also told people I had traction control as well! Let me tell you people something, I didn’t need traction control in the Super Late Model class with 750 horsepower and I damn sure do not need it in a 400 horsepower car! If you watch my driving style, I think you will agree, traction control wouldn’t help me anyway.
One night during the 2007 season when we were at the Jefferson County Raceway (Mt. Vernon) Allen Kreke showed up and decided he wanted to confiscate my engine, which I let him do, not knowing if he even had the legal right to do so, but I was happy to prove that I had nothing to hide. This was the first time that I had seen Allen Kreke at the races during the 2007 season and as a matter of fact it was the last time I saw him until the Fall Nationals at Tri-City. While we were pulling my engine at Mt. Vernon during the claim, I told Allen Kreke that I didn’t agree with the way that the series was being run. I told him I thought that the series was being run half-assed and that Sean Franklin was the only one that I ever saw doing anything. Sean Franklin may not have done everything perfect, but he sure was the only one I saw working to make the C.A.R.S. Series work. After that Allen Kreke had whomever it was that he had check out my engine and by his own admission, it came back 100% legal. Now, not only had my engine been teched by different people throughout the season, but now Allen Kreke had his independent team of experts inspect my engine and it again come back to be 100% legal!
It wasn’t long after that I guess, that again, by his own admission, Kreke decided to pull out his and his so-called sponsors financial support for the C.A.R.S. Series. It is a shame that he made everyone believe he was going to reward them all with him and his so-called sponsors support at the end of the year, only to decide mid-season that they would not. All the while he failed to mention it to anyone who was chasing points and supporting the series.
Al Kreke and Rick Heck have posted comments saying they welcome the review of the C.A.R.S. banking statements, trying to point the blame on someone or something else. Well I can tell you that I do not care what Sean Franklin was paid or what the expenses were to run the C.A.R.S. Series since its inception. That has nothing to do with what I and any other person who supported the series deserve for our support. They can point the blame towards Franklin if they like, but as it was stated on here by numerous people and we all know who the money men behind C.A.R.S. were, and it was not Franklin. Franklin isn’t the one who “pulled his and his sponsors support” mid-season. I do not understand how someone can even begin to believe what has been done is right? If they didn’t like the way things were going they should have fulfilled their commitment to the series, addressed any concerns they had with Franklin and at the end of the year announce that they wouldn’t be supporting it next year. Instead they decided to take the toys they had in the sand box and went home so to speak!
I still do not understand what happened to cause the C.A.R.S. Series to fall apart, but it appears that there was a power struggle amongst all parties involved and some egos were bruised. I do know that many others and myself are paying the price for the fallout. It is not fair that the racers that supported this series get nothing in return because this group couldn’t get along! Al Kreke has said before that he withdrew his financial support because he thought he was doing what was right. Are you kidding me? What was it that went wrong to cause him to decide not to follow through with what he said? He has never once said in public why. I would hope he had a good excuse.
It has been stated that I have a lawsuit against Allen Kreke and Rick Heck. This is true! I supported a series for an entire season chasing points towards the $10,000 to win Championship in which I won. Not only have I not received any money from either Rick Heck or Allen Kreke (C.A.R.S.), they have not even had the decency to tell me congratulations! Not one time have either even acknowledge that I was the 2007 C.A.R.S. Series Champion, not once!! Heck, Kreke could have stopped by my house and congratulated me since the guy he gave the money to for the “so-called” information showed him where I lived. At least Stan Lester of Fastrak had the decency to give me a trophy for the 2007 C.A.R.S. Series Championship, something the C.A.R.S. Series “owners” cannot seem to do!! If I wanted to get what I had coming, I had no choice but to take legal action, because neither one made any effort to resolve this like it should have been.
Everyone knows my Mom has been very vocal about this whole deal and has made several comments about it on here, she has been criticized by many, for doing what any mom would do, taking up for her son. Al Kreke has attacked my mom in a number of different private messages on here and she does not deserve to be slandered and threatened because she is trying to do what is right for me! This was not supposed to be a personal matter, but since Kreke has made it personal by threatening my mom and making numerous accusations about me, he has made it that way, now the matter of the $10,000 will be dealt with.
My team and I worked hard to win the Championship and we feel we deserve what was promised! I was beat by a number of different racers and never once accused any of them of cheating yet some seem to like pointing the finger at me. Some of this is due to the fact that Sean Franklin and I are friends I guess. If you people think Sean helped me win races then you are all crazy. Do you think I am small enough that he got in the car and helped me drive or what? As far as that goes, if being friends with a series director makes you a cheater, do you people want to start accusing UMP for cheating for me too, because Sam Driggers of UMP has been a close friend of my family for a long time and I have known him since I was about eight years old, long before I started racing. I hope Sam and my friendship doesn’t hurt his position at UMP.
We here at Nick @ Nite Racing work hard to be the best we can be. We have since day one and we will until the last race we run. We have raced at a lot of races across the country with our Crate Late Model and we will continue to do so. We went to EastBay and Golden Isles this past winter with a borrowed car that I had never driven and was able to outrun many of the best, including the best in the country, Shanon Buckingham. One night this past season I had problems with my car while racing at Clay County Speedway. We were in the battle for the C.A.R.S. Championship and needed to be in the feature, we were able to borrow a car from another competitor between the heats and the feature and had a limited time to put a set-up on the car. We were able to make a few adjustments and having never been in the car before, I started dead last in the feature and went on to finish second that night against a full field of cars in what was usually a mid-pack car at best!
I do not want to sound cocky, but I challenge anyone with decent equipment to put me in their car and I will take it to the front! As stated before, I have done this for many years and take pride in being good at what I do! So, if we have any takers call me or come see me at the track and we can talk.
I will continue to race in the Crate Late Model Division again this season and I welcome the tech inspection of any Track or Sanctioning Body, as everything in our stable is 100% legal, as it has always been. So before you all start believing the rumors and the witch-hunt that a few people have created, please look at the facts and come discuss them with me. I think it is plain to see that someone doesn’t like me and they have looked for any excuse to keep from giving me what is due.
Some people need to realize that there is more to life than racing and all this B.S. that has been started. Regardless of the outcome we will continue to race and have fun. That is the whole reason we started racing again! It really don’t matter if you believe me or not, but I have giving you the facts. I work hard for what I have got and everything isn’t handed to me like everyone believes. This is how things are and if anyone doesn’t like it I don’t know what to tell you……or actually I guess I do.
I want to thank the people that have stood beside us throughout this whole deal. We will not forget the support that you all have provided and shown to us. I am sure some of you will begin bashing me on here now, but it really doesn’t matter, because not one of you can say one thing that hasn’t already been said about me! For those of you who do not even know me but believe everything you here, I invite you to come down in the pits and meet my team and myself. I believe after doing so, you will have a totally different outlook on this entire subject.
What I have said sums up my feelings about this and I will not respond to this post, as there is no need for me to do so.
Nick Lyons
www.NickLyonsMotorsports.com
www.myspace.com/lyonsmotorsports
I started racing Super Late Models at Haubstadt, IN and K & L Raceway (Mt. Vernon) along with a few other tracks in 1994 when I was only 14 years old. I raced a Super Late Model for seven full seasons, racing at events all across the countryside, all the while gaining experience and trying to improve my program to be the best that it could be. I have raced with some of the best in the area, as well as some of the best in the country and have tried to learn as much as I could through out the years. I ran the Southern All-Stars series in 1999, many nights on the road, with a lot of hard work and I won a Feature event in 1999 while competing with the series, competing against the best that they had to offer. I am not bragging, I am just stating that I have paid my dues!
Around the summer of 2000 I got out of Super Late Model racing because of the cost to field a Late Model on the level that I wanted to compete at. I walked away from racing for six years, then, I got the itch to get behind the wheel again. I considered racing a Modified at one time and even went as far as buying a new Pierce Modified roller. Not long after that the Crate Late Models started catching on and I thought that it was a better deal financially, so I decided to go Crate Late Model racing.
After being out of racing for six years I had decided to get back behind the wheel. We had an older GRT and we bought a used Rayburn to start with after the 2006 season was already under way, we had some success, but were trying to get back in the rhythm of things, as well as learn a new type of car in the crates with their lower horsepower. We won a feature with that car in 2006 but went to a MasterSbilt towards the end of the season and again, we had some good runs as we learned more about this type of car.
In 2007 we switched to the new FORWARD Chassis and were very fortunate to have one of, if not the best chassis in the class. This car didn’t cost any more than what is on the market, it is just a good piece and we have it figured out. We have enjoyed the success of the car so much, that we now have two of them. We started racing three nights a week at the beginning of the 2007 season and each night we seemed to improve our program. We worked hard and we believe the results show it!
For some reason around mid-season of 2007, a so-called friend of mine got mad at me and decide to start a rumor about me saying I was cheating. The rumor spread like wild fire, because I was winning so much and no one wanted to believe it was because of hard work and talent. I guess accusing me of cheating made an easy excuse for some of those I was competing against. What some people don’t understand is, although we won a lot of races in 2007, we feel like we lost a bunch as well. By saying that, I am saying that there is a lot of good talent in this class and we have been beat as much as we have won, so I do not see why I have been singled out? The same friend that accused me of cheating received a kick back or whatever you want to call it to feed AK all kinds of “information” (or should I say B.S.). This has already been admitted by the party that accepted the payment for the so-called “information”. AK has told numerous people that I was cheating-up my engine and he had proof, though he has never once been able to prove any of his accusations, yet still to this day he has continued to talk bad about me and make these FALSE accusations. AK has also told people I had traction control as well! Let me tell you people something, I didn’t need traction control in the Super Late Model class with 750 horsepower and I damn sure do not need it in a 400 horsepower car! If you watch my driving style, I think you will agree, traction control wouldn’t help me anyway.
One night during the 2007 season when we were at the Jefferson County Raceway (Mt. Vernon) Allen Kreke showed up and decided he wanted to confiscate my engine, which I let him do, not knowing if he even had the legal right to do so, but I was happy to prove that I had nothing to hide. This was the first time that I had seen Allen Kreke at the races during the 2007 season and as a matter of fact it was the last time I saw him until the Fall Nationals at Tri-City. While we were pulling my engine at Mt. Vernon during the claim, I told Allen Kreke that I didn’t agree with the way that the series was being run. I told him I thought that the series was being run half-assed and that Sean Franklin was the only one that I ever saw doing anything. Sean Franklin may not have done everything perfect, but he sure was the only one I saw working to make the C.A.R.S. Series work. After that Allen Kreke had whomever it was that he had check out my engine and by his own admission, it came back 100% legal. Now, not only had my engine been teched by different people throughout the season, but now Allen Kreke had his independent team of experts inspect my engine and it again come back to be 100% legal!
It wasn’t long after that I guess, that again, by his own admission, Kreke decided to pull out his and his so-called sponsors financial support for the C.A.R.S. Series. It is a shame that he made everyone believe he was going to reward them all with him and his so-called sponsors support at the end of the year, only to decide mid-season that they would not. All the while he failed to mention it to anyone who was chasing points and supporting the series.
Al Kreke and Rick Heck have posted comments saying they welcome the review of the C.A.R.S. banking statements, trying to point the blame on someone or something else. Well I can tell you that I do not care what Sean Franklin was paid or what the expenses were to run the C.A.R.S. Series since its inception. That has nothing to do with what I and any other person who supported the series deserve for our support. They can point the blame towards Franklin if they like, but as it was stated on here by numerous people and we all know who the money men behind C.A.R.S. were, and it was not Franklin. Franklin isn’t the one who “pulled his and his sponsors support” mid-season. I do not understand how someone can even begin to believe what has been done is right? If they didn’t like the way things were going they should have fulfilled their commitment to the series, addressed any concerns they had with Franklin and at the end of the year announce that they wouldn’t be supporting it next year. Instead they decided to take the toys they had in the sand box and went home so to speak!
I still do not understand what happened to cause the C.A.R.S. Series to fall apart, but it appears that there was a power struggle amongst all parties involved and some egos were bruised. I do know that many others and myself are paying the price for the fallout. It is not fair that the racers that supported this series get nothing in return because this group couldn’t get along! Al Kreke has said before that he withdrew his financial support because he thought he was doing what was right. Are you kidding me? What was it that went wrong to cause him to decide not to follow through with what he said? He has never once said in public why. I would hope he had a good excuse.
It has been stated that I have a lawsuit against Allen Kreke and Rick Heck. This is true! I supported a series for an entire season chasing points towards the $10,000 to win Championship in which I won. Not only have I not received any money from either Rick Heck or Allen Kreke (C.A.R.S.), they have not even had the decency to tell me congratulations! Not one time have either even acknowledge that I was the 2007 C.A.R.S. Series Champion, not once!! Heck, Kreke could have stopped by my house and congratulated me since the guy he gave the money to for the “so-called” information showed him where I lived. At least Stan Lester of Fastrak had the decency to give me a trophy for the 2007 C.A.R.S. Series Championship, something the C.A.R.S. Series “owners” cannot seem to do!! If I wanted to get what I had coming, I had no choice but to take legal action, because neither one made any effort to resolve this like it should have been.
Everyone knows my Mom has been very vocal about this whole deal and has made several comments about it on here, she has been criticized by many, for doing what any mom would do, taking up for her son. Al Kreke has attacked my mom in a number of different private messages on here and she does not deserve to be slandered and threatened because she is trying to do what is right for me! This was not supposed to be a personal matter, but since Kreke has made it personal by threatening my mom and making numerous accusations about me, he has made it that way, now the matter of the $10,000 will be dealt with.
My team and I worked hard to win the Championship and we feel we deserve what was promised! I was beat by a number of different racers and never once accused any of them of cheating yet some seem to like pointing the finger at me. Some of this is due to the fact that Sean Franklin and I are friends I guess. If you people think Sean helped me win races then you are all crazy. Do you think I am small enough that he got in the car and helped me drive or what? As far as that goes, if being friends with a series director makes you a cheater, do you people want to start accusing UMP for cheating for me too, because Sam Driggers of UMP has been a close friend of my family for a long time and I have known him since I was about eight years old, long before I started racing. I hope Sam and my friendship doesn’t hurt his position at UMP.
We here at Nick @ Nite Racing work hard to be the best we can be. We have since day one and we will until the last race we run. We have raced at a lot of races across the country with our Crate Late Model and we will continue to do so. We went to EastBay and Golden Isles this past winter with a borrowed car that I had never driven and was able to outrun many of the best, including the best in the country, Shanon Buckingham. One night this past season I had problems with my car while racing at Clay County Speedway. We were in the battle for the C.A.R.S. Championship and needed to be in the feature, we were able to borrow a car from another competitor between the heats and the feature and had a limited time to put a set-up on the car. We were able to make a few adjustments and having never been in the car before, I started dead last in the feature and went on to finish second that night against a full field of cars in what was usually a mid-pack car at best!
I do not want to sound cocky, but I challenge anyone with decent equipment to put me in their car and I will take it to the front! As stated before, I have done this for many years and take pride in being good at what I do! So, if we have any takers call me or come see me at the track and we can talk.
I will continue to race in the Crate Late Model Division again this season and I welcome the tech inspection of any Track or Sanctioning Body, as everything in our stable is 100% legal, as it has always been. So before you all start believing the rumors and the witch-hunt that a few people have created, please look at the facts and come discuss them with me. I think it is plain to see that someone doesn’t like me and they have looked for any excuse to keep from giving me what is due.
Some people need to realize that there is more to life than racing and all this B.S. that has been started. Regardless of the outcome we will continue to race and have fun. That is the whole reason we started racing again! It really don’t matter if you believe me or not, but I have giving you the facts. I work hard for what I have got and everything isn’t handed to me like everyone believes. This is how things are and if anyone doesn’t like it I don’t know what to tell you……or actually I guess I do.
I want to thank the people that have stood beside us throughout this whole deal. We will not forget the support that you all have provided and shown to us. I am sure some of you will begin bashing me on here now, but it really doesn’t matter, because not one of you can say one thing that hasn’t already been said about me! For those of you who do not even know me but believe everything you here, I invite you to come down in the pits and meet my team and myself. I believe after doing so, you will have a totally different outlook on this entire subject.
What I have said sums up my feelings about this and I will not respond to this post, as there is no need for me to do so.
Nick Lyons
www.NickLyonsMotorsports.com
www.myspace.com/lyonsmotorsports
