King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

We are your typical racing family that dumps every dime we have into making it to the next race. We don’t have a fancy house or flashy new cars, but the racecar always gets new tires. Any prize money we receive helps to offset our costs so we can continue this crazy, expensive sport we love.

When Davey Hamilton announced the King of the Wing tour we were all in. His stated payout for winning the championships was to be as follows. $2,500 for the Midwest Champion, $2,500 for the West Coast Champion, and $5,000 for the overall Champion. We were quite fortunate to win all three. However, we only received $5,500.00 total, a shortfall of $4,500.00. That money would buy us a lot of tires.

I sent off an email to Davey enquiring on the shortfall and received the following response in its entirety: “The payout was $1,500 for each regional and $2,500 for the National Champion, so a total of $5,500.”

Well, not according to the press releases I so proudly gather to track our racing history. One can still easily find it on many of the major racing websites and publications.

Will my response have repercussions on my son and his racing? Possibly, but I much rather teach him the importance of standing up for principles, rather than being stepped on by anyone regardless of their stature.

Joe Helberg

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

now on to usac.tired of people pi$$n on pavement. good luck to you mr.helburg.

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Joe,
Excellent post! I'm tired of hearing about the working man racer such as you and JoJo getting screwed over by false advertising promoters! I hear it over and over again...As far as I'm concerned, if it was any other type of business, the false advertising promoters would have their A$$E$ sued off for embezzlement. That is stealing from their life blood, the racers. If no racers show up, no show! But, us race addicts keep showing up and donating to them, cause we want to race.
Good luck to you in 2015 and hope to see you here in the Midwest soon. Maybe just not supporting the USAC bunch of thieves....

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Here is the payout details direct from the King of the Wing website. Page three of four.

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Joe, sorry to hear that someone screwed you guys out of $4,500. Before I wrote an opinion I read the add. It clearly states that there are 3 payments. 1 $2,500 , 2 $2,500 , an 3 $5,000. The total of $10,000 , not the $5,500 that you where paid. If a person wants to promote, they must first be trusted. Trust is something that is hard to find in our world today. Again Joe I'm sorry that this has happened to you guys. To quote my deceased father "every dog will have its day". Hope you remember me. Thanks for a Great memory! Tim Kelley

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Joe,

First of all let me say it was always a pleasure to race against you guys. Your son Jojo is a fantastic racer and in my opinion, the best pavement racer in the country. I was pitted next to him at Sandusky this year and I’ve got to tell you, I never saw anyone work so hard on a race car! He never stopped adjusting on it.

I saw where he expanded his horizons a bit and ran the World of Outlaw race at Vegas. I believe he made the feature the last night? Quite impressive since I’m guessing he had less than five races under his belt on dirt.

But on to the reason we are here.

I was going to stay out of this. I wasn’t sure whether you were right or not. I mainly worry about what it pays to start a race, not what it pays to win. And definitely not what it pays to win a championship. And I truly believe you feel you are right. From what I have seen, you are an honorable man and would not have posted if you did not feel you were wronged.

Tonight for some reason, I just couldn’t sleep. So I started digging. I wanted to satisfy myself to what you had said was true. Finally, buried deep in the King of the Wings Facebook page I found this.

So there is some credence to what Davey said. It looks like this was posted June 5, 2014. I honestly don’t know what having two different payouts mean. And to everyone involved, if I’ve made a bad situation worse, I apologize

Tom Paterson

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Tom, we new what we were racing for going into the series. It is very easy to back up my numbers. They can be found on NSSN, Hoseheads, Track Forum, Pavement Sprints, Racing West, The Herald News, Morris Daily Herald and others. From June to November.

I'm done with beating this dead horse.

Goin' racin'.

Re: King of the Wing 2014 Champion
 

Mr. Helberg,

I've noticed you've taken the time to pull up my press releases from the Grundy County round. At that point in time, I was employed with STARS. I had no affiliation with the King of the Wing series. All the various racing websites you refer to as posting this payout was just my original press release being copied and posted on their sites.

The truth of the matter is that I got my information regarding the payout from the press release that the King of the Wing Series released in April. At that point, in April, the announced payout was correct. That was the information I went on.

Yes it's true, that the info regarding the original payout was posted on the official King of the Wing website. So were the official rules and all the other information that can be found on the site. However, throughout the course of April, May, and June, some of the rules were tweaked as was the payout structure for each of the titles as well as the purse for each of the races. That was posted on the King of the Wing website.

I took the information on the initial April press release as gospel. However, I found out after the Midwest swing of the series had passed, that in June, the payout had been changed. The person who wrote the press releases for the west coast swing of the series is also not affiliated with the King of the Wing series. He simply used what I wrote (from the original April press release).

In closing, the info of the $2500 to win regional championships and the $5000 to win overall championship was just the original information being passed on and on from the original April press release. However, the payout, as can be seen on a flyer that was posted on this message board in June, (before the first King of the Wing race) indicates that it had been changed.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. However, the PDF I posted above, directy from the King of the Wing website, is well after the date you speak of. Good day.

No wonder racing is on the decline, so much negativity!!! I am involved in racing and I cant stand it, let alone the casual fan....