Ron Devine Owner of BK Racing Responds to Tax Liens and Line of Credit Dispute

EDITORS NOTE: 8/12/17 Update below main article

There are two sides to every story and a short time ago Ron Devine owner of BK Racing spoke with Speedway Digest on a range of topics developing over the last several days.

Just last week, Devine spoke in length on the run up to the removal of Gray Gaulding of the No 23 Toyota just weeks ago, citing sponsorship money from the Gaulding’s failed to show on time a reported $1.3 million in total.

The story however doesn’t start there, back in May many members of the media including myself received from an anonymous source paperwork stating just over $480,000 in unpaid taxes were due to the IRS. At the time without any confirmation or response from the sender Speedway Digest chose not to publish.

In just the last week more tax liens totaling an additional $180,794.97 have been issued from the IRS.

“These are taxes that we have come to an agreement on with the IRS. We have worked with them for many years to make arrangements, some that are long prior to BK Racing as a team.” Said Devine

“It becomes hard for us as a team when our employees see this then our suppliers in turn don’t think they have to pay us.” Continues Devine

VINCE, THE MAN BEHIND THE LEAKS

Over our conversation Mr. Devine spoke in length to the man named Vince Vecchiarino who had been releasing information to other news organizations.

“Vince is a guy who works with others to buy up teams and equipment for pennies then turn around and sell it for nickels, that’s his deal, that’s what he’s out for”

“Just look him up, he’s very well known in the garage area, including by some of the engine guys.”

Reaching out to Joey Arrington at Race Engines Plus the conversation on Vince was straight to the point to say the least.

“Run, stay away, hide!” Said Arrington

“Back in the end of 2012 Vince came in the door on his white horse saying I’ll take this race team and we setup a payment plan. The first payment never happened, the second payment never happened and then I said we got to do something.” Continued Arrington

“Then I get a phone call from his landlord saying Vince hasn’t paid rent in three months and I’m going to have to lock this place up. When I went over to retrieve my stuff, two engines were missing, three transmissions were missing and other items.”

“He sold stuff that didn’t belong to him”

Looking further into Vince finds companies listed with him as CEO out of Las Vegas, Millennium Aire, DBA Millennium VIP Group who license has been revoked and Greystone Aviation Services LLC as Flight Dept Manager a business which has been revoked also from the Nevada State Corporation.

“The airline is just a name on a card with a picture of an airplane, it doesn’t even exist.” Said Arrington

Over the past nearly two decades Vince has been involved in a string of court cases across the country.

Some starting as far back as 2000 with possessing and uttering of forged securities continuing in 2013 with obtaining property by false pretense and in 2014 felony fraud.

We have attempted to reach out to Vince through various means of communications seeking comment and will update if he responds.

WHO, IF ANYONE OWNS THE DEBT

The tangled web starts back with Michael Wheeler who back in 2014 filed a UCC with the State of North Carolina against BK Racing claiming $2 million dollars borrowed in a line of credit.

Being that a UCC is a standard business practice when property is used for the purpose of obtaining either loans and/or lines of credit and the originating creditor must renew the UCC every five years per law or they become unenforceable.

In a statement however to The Final Lap Vince claims to have bought the $2 million dollar note, which has since ballooned to over $4.4 million dollars in the ensuring three years, this all according to statements made by Vince who is staking claim to the group that owns the debt.

Yet when checking the UCC listed on the Secretary of State for North Carolina Vince Vecchiarino name doesn’t appear on any listing throughout the years. In fact Mr. Wheeler the originator of the loan has added Ronald G. Ingalls to the UCC as per filed on July 25th of this year.

Mr. Ingalls who was added into the UCC originally filed by Mr. Wheeler back in 2014 and amended in July of this year address listed returns back to a retirement community in California.

In fact several of the more recently filed UCC’s list Virginia Racer Group LLC as the debtor in which the company is managed by Mr. Devine’s wife.

As of the time of publishing, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Ingalls including their lawyers through multiple attempts to contact them have not responded to our repeated requests for statements and questions on their relationship to Mr. Vecchiarino. Should they contact us, we will update with their response.

UPDATE 8/12/17: Both Mr. Vecchiarino and Mr. Ingalls have reached out to us after reading this article and have issued statements in response to reporting within the article.

Mr. Ingalls has confirmed to us that he did in fact purchase the secured rights to the $2 million dollar note that was issued by Michael Wheeler, Co-Owner of BK Racing. During our conversation Mr. Ingalls also has noted there is unsecured money that is also outstanding through unsecured notes.

“I got involved after someone back in North Carolina said that BK Racing might be for sale. I followed up on that a little bit and went to one of the races with Mr. Devine, but we couldn’t come to an agreement on price and terms.” Said Mr. Ingalls

“During part of the due diligence I noticed that Mr. Wheeler had a note and a UCC filing against BK Racing, so I contacted Mr. Wheeler and we stuck a deal that I would buy the note out.” Continued Mr. Ingalls

“However now I’m not really interested in owning a race team, but more interested in seeing the note satisfied. I don’t have anything bad to say about Mr. Devine, he’s a business man, he’s a good negotiator. Sometime you appreciate good negotiators.”

“What the deal is, Mr. Wheeler had a note for two million covered by a UCC filing and then he forwarded another two and a half million dollars basically without a note.”

When asked what if any steps would be taken next Mr. Ingalls continued.

“I sent a letter of default but I’m not trying to shut BK Racing down. I’m just trying to secure the payment of the two million.”

Following up with Mr. Vecchiarino who had been partly involved in facilitating meetings.

When asked how he got involved and this began Mr. Vecchiarino had this to say.

“I’m helping my partner out trying to collect. Mr. Ingalls had called me and he knew that I had known some people in the NASCAR world. That’s how I got involved, I have no money involved.” Said Mr. Vecchiarino

“When this all got started he asked if I could sit down with Mr. Devine and come to an agreement. However it was Mr. Ingalls that went out and did the deal with Mr. Wheeler as a side deal, he told me had gone out and found Mr. Wheeler and his attorney to buy the note.”

Vince went on to say this was months in the works going back to the mid-summer.

“We sat Devine down and said how can we work together on this and he basically got up and left and this was Pocono. This has been going on two months or so going back to Sonoma.” Continued Vecchiarino