Disputes continue to surround former NASCAR and ARCA driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. as another driver has made allegations against the son of 2004 Camping World Truck Series champion, Bobby Hamilton.
Ray Ciccarelli first met Hamilton when the two were associated with Roger Carter and Carter 2 Motorsports in 2015. Ciccarelli alleges that when his deal with Carter fell through Hamilton called him and told him that he was going to start his own team. He was in the process of selecting drivers and wanted to know if Ciccarelli was interested. After saying yes, he and Hamilton agreed to stay in contact regarding future developments.
Two months later following the initial phone call, Ciccarelli says he received another phone call from Hamilton, where Hamilton proceeded to outline what his plans were for the team.
“He called me up and told me what his game plan was,” said Ciccarelli, who has eight career starts in the ARCA Series. “He talked a big deal about his business plan, and I fell for it.”
The first red flag, Ciccarelli said, happened at Daytona. According to his contract, his car was supposed to be prepared and ready when it rolled off the trailer for practice. But when Ciccarelli got to Daytona, they missed the first practice because the car wasn’t ready and wouldn’t pass tech. They then missed qualifying as well as a handful of laps in the second practice. Near the end of the second practice, the car began having motor issues. Ciccarelli told his team that they were having motor issues, and the car ultimately failed to make the show.
The next scheduled event was Nashville, where the team again missed the first practice and the motor had issues during the second practice. He would run one lap and the motor started having difficulty. Ultimately, his second practice consisted of him going out one lap, coming in to try to fix whatever the issue was, only to go back out one lap and try again.
Ciccarelli also said that he asked Hamilton if the engine was the same engine from Daytona. He was told that it was the same engine from Daytona but that the carburetor was the issue and it had been fixed. Ciccarelli then told Hamilton that they were having the same problem again. According to Ciccarelli, that’s when they finally found out that there was a hole in the piston.
Ciccarelli further alleges that he went ahead and started the race so the team could collect some of the starting purse. After completing five laps, Ciccarelli was credited with a 33rd-place finish. Afterwards, Hamilton apologized to Ciccarelli telling him that this wasn’t how he ran his program and he’d give him a credit for a race. He also told him not to worry about making a June payment.
“I said no problem to that,” said Ciccarelli. “But then Talladega came up and he called and asked if he could take his payment early since money was tight, and I got nervous.”
But, Ciccarelli went ahead and sent in the payment to help Hamilton out by using his Nashville credit for the June payment. When New Jersey came around, Ciccarelli canceled his plans and went to New Jersey where he was supposed to race. Once he arrived, he discovered that the team and the cars were not there. Ciccarelli stated that he contacted Hamilton through a text message, and Hamilton responded by telling him to talk to the team’s new owners.
At this point, Ciccarelli responded by saying that he didn’t have a contract with the new owners but with Hamilton. That’s when Ciccarelli began to believe that his deal with Hamilton was bogus, and he proceeded to end his business relationship with Hamilton. Ciccarelli said that since then, Hamilton has made no attempt to contact him.
Ciccarelli does plan to pursue legal action against Hamilton in the near future. Aside from that, he’s focused on making select ARCA starts in 2017 in his own equipment.
Hamilton has another take on the brief relationship he had with Ciccarelli.
Hamilton knew Ciccarelli back when they both raced for Carter, and when Hamilton put Ciccarelli in his own car, they agreed on a select number of races. According to Hamilton, Ciccarelli attempted two of those events, qualifying for one (Nashville). Hamilton alleges that this was when the deal began to fall apart. After Daytona, Hamilton met with Tim Judd, who, according to Hamilton, later bought out the team and the contracts to the race team. Judd was looking to get involved in racing, according to Hamilton.
“I told [Judd] that my only catch was that he could buy into this,” said Hamilton, “but he would have to buy the equipment when he was done.”
According to Judd, Hamilton wanted to be done with racing and looked to be done after 2016.
Judd agreed to the terms and after the Nashville event, everything was transferred to where Judd had 52 percent possession of the team. After that, Hamilton insists that everything ran through Judd. Anything Judd wanted to be done, the team did.
“That was our main goal,” said Judd. “We wanted to keep the place growing and so forth.”
Hamilton goes on to say that Ciccarelli’s issues at Nashville weren’t as big as he claimed because although he started the race in last, he passed more cars than anyone else all night. They then had an issue with the ignition and, according to Hamilton, Ciccarelli kept saying he wanted to park it while the team kept telling him to ride it out.
“He was a missile,” said Hamilton. “But when the engine started missing he wanted to park the car. He came in and parked, then later he sent some kind of email saying that he wanted credit for Nashville. I told him, ‘Dude, we don’t do credits. Nobody does credits. There ain’t a race team out there that does credits.'”
Hamilton says that Ciccarelli responded that he wanted a credit for Nashville, basically using the winnings from Nashville to run New Jersey. Hamilton told Ciccarelli that he would see how it went and called Judd. Judd’s response echoed Hamilton, saying that they would not do a credit and that was not how they did things. Judd stated that payments were due on the first of each month, and after the fifth of the month they were late and there would be a penalty. If the payment wasn’t received, after the 10th of the month, it was a breach of contract.
“I don’t recall the time,” said Judd. “But I do know it was right after [Nashville]. We were informed by Bobby Jr. that we needed to contact Ray because Mr. Ciccarelli was going to use a bonus or a credit like he had already paid. So we went through everything and I contacted Bobby Jr. and he specifically told me that there were no credits and that we didn’t do credits.”
Judd had the race team send Ciccarelli an email, telling him that they expected his normal payment in order to go to New Jersey. Ciccarelli responded and said that he wouldn’t pay it. Judd then contacted Hamilton telling him not to touch the race car or the equipment. When Hamilton said that it was the only car going to New Jersey, Judd said that the car wasn’t going to New Jersey anymore.
Hamilton told Judd that they were going to catch grief for that, to which Judd replied by saying that if there was a problem Ciccarelli could take them [Hamilton and Judd] to court.
After his conversation with Judd, Hamilton says that he sent Ciccarelli a text to inform him that they weren’t taking the car to New Jersey and Ciccarelli replied by asking where the car and team were that he was paying for. Hamilton responded by sending him Judd’s phone number, but, Hamilton says that Ciccarelli never called Judd.
Hamilton maintains that the bottom line is that Ciccarelli breached his contract then voluntarily sent that email that said he wasn’t going to pay. After that, Judd decided to park the team.
After the deal fell through Ciccarelli drove for Wayne Hixson, and, according to Judd, he was able to make his payments for that team.
“In the racing world you can’t do credits,” said Hamilton. “You have to pay your bills. Credits don’t pay for anything.”
