jhester

UPDATE- LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD AND SIGN THE PETITION;

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/l...ichelin-fehan/



I thought this would be some interest to the balance of the Corvette Forum members. To prove the fact that this is an actual case, here is the actual civil court register of the filings;


Case No. 296-00571-2011
Collin County, TX Register of Actions search result;

http://cijspub.co.collin.tx.us/CaseD...?CaseID=980432


It is a civil case being brought against GM, Michelin, Corvette Racing, and Doug Fehan regarding the 2008-09 ALMS season and the Collusion of GM/Michelin/Corvette Racing/Fehan against selling tires and allowing for FIA homoligation of the LG Motorsports Riley chassis to race at Le Mans, etc.


In talking with Lou @ LGM, he provided the full text for the petition, found here;

http://lgmotorsports.com/gallery/alb...%20GM_Mich.pdf


It is a very interesting read, here are some highlights;

paragraphs 18-43 background story of GM agreement to have LGM join GT2 in ALMS

paragraphs 45-49 causes of action

Count 1- restraint of trade in violation of the sherman act section 1 and the texas free

enterprise and antitrust act of 1983 (page 12)

Count 2- Attempted Unlawful monopolization in violation of section 2 of the sherman act and

the texas free enterprise and antitrust act of 1983 (page 14)

Count 3- Unlawful monopolization in violation of section 2 of the sherman act and the texas

free enterprise and antitrust act of 1983 (page 17)

Count 4- Texas unfair competition (page 20)

Count 5- Tortious interference with prospective contractual relations (page 21)

Count 6- Tortious interference with existing contract (page 22)

Count 7- Business Disparagement (page 22)

Count 8- Civil Conspiracy (page 23)

Count 9- Appliaction for Injunctive Relief (page 24)


Exemplary Damages
paragraph 110- "...LG Motorsports seeks and is entitled to recover exemplary damages from Defendants in a sum within the jurisdictional limits of the Court."



The background reads like a hollywood script, but it will be very interesting to see how this story unfolds going forward.

0Adam at RSI

mammoth713

in a nutshell LG motorsports bought a vette to race and GM stopped them from competing?

jhester

GM told LGM that they would be able to race in GT2 and have support from the factory

GM decided that they wanted to race in GT2 and pulled all support from LGM

GM then blocked the chassis from being homoligated into FIA (Le Mans / international) competition

GM made a deal with Michelin to disallow tires to be sold to LGM regardless of price and/or availability



The issue is that Michelin has the top tire in ALMS and to race on anything short of the Michelin (or the exclusive BMW-Dunlop) is to waste millions in development and operating budget to finish 6-10th.

The real problem comes now that LGM is attempting to sell the ALMS chassis, yet because GM refuses to allow the chassis to race internationally it significantly decreases the value of the asset.

All-in-all it is a classic story of large corporation/s trying to pinch out a privateer team trying to market under the same brand as Corvette Racing

its truely is a shame, as Porsche has proven that both factory and private efforts can race side-by-side in a constructive manner and benefit the brand together


drama this good has to be true

myk7

Wow, if you can't beat them at the track, beat them in the courts. It's pretty embarrassing for GM. Sounds like if they could, they would get rid of all their competition. Maybe they should start their own racing circuit and not let anybody else race in it. Maybe they could even win a few races.

Zlife

ZLife

ipmtim

Another good reason why, as a consumer, I will never buy another vehicle from GM.

0FORGED DST

This is a NO win situation for both parties !! Racing is big business but this will be a black eye for everyone involved in the racing community. How can it not be to the manufacturer's benefit to have private entries ???
Ford, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston, Saleen, etc., etc., have had private entries score FIA wins [even Lemans] and get manufacturers' points for decades.
And as far as Homolagation goes ..............I thought the manufacturer files the papers with the FIA, and the builders [teams] follow the rules. I'm somewhat familiar with this from Bell Motorsports racing a GT1 AM DBR9....all the factory asked was don't paint the car the same color green, and try and lease the engine from their guys. Isn't it likely to benefit GM if there were 10-12 GT2 cars running all over the world like there are Porsche and Ferraris'. After all there would more CUSTOMERS then !!!
It seems to work well for Callaway in GT3... with numerous teams running Corvettes in various national series all over the globe.
There is more to this than meets the eye. If LG wins will they have to be never associated with a GM product again ?? I hope some knowledgeable insiders respond on this thread. This burns me every time I hear about it.

jerry

Mopar Jimmy

The only winners will be the High Powered EXPENSIVE Litigation Attorneys charging $350 to $500 an hour for their time. I'd hate to be on the losing end of the Attorney's fees in that lawsuit!

40YRW8

I only know of one Corvette racer that raced on Michelin tires and he confirmed what I had heard about the GM/Michelin deal. This country is founded on tough competition and fair play whether it be in the stock market or the race track. I find this kind of monopoly/collusion absolutely infuriating. I have been a supporter/cheerleader of Corvette racing since their first attempts at racing on the international and national endurance circuits and I bought my Z in VY as a tribute to their success. This has destroyed my faith in GM and the credibility of their success. This bush league behavior is worthy of the French, not an American icon as emblematic as the Corvette. Go Lou! I am sitting at my desk in my office and just above my computer screen is my model of the 2007 Compuware #4 C-6R LeMans car that I bought at the museum when I did my delivery. It makes me sad to think that all that racing glory was a sham.
Gary

jhester

Jerry, I believe the homolagation papers for the ACO is prepared by the chassis manufacturer (Riley) and the team presenting the chassis (LGM)

The ACO does ask for OEM (GM) input on some items, and some of the stock drawings for the homoligation forms are provided by the OEM (GM) but the packet itself is prepared by the chassis manufacturer and team

The issue is that the papers were submitted (and accepted) prior to the 2008 season, but then GM blocked the participation in a non-ALMS (read, Le Mans) event

0FORGED DST

Thanks.......... but I believe the OE manufacturer also has to provide a great deal of info too with the papers. We had the papers for my Camaro [ back in the day], and they were always glanced at for Sebring and Daytona. But all the options, dimensions, weights, part #'s etc. from GM were there. My idea was that they were not chassis builder specific............but manufacturer specific. For example people other than ProDrive built DBR9's and 575GTC's why should GM be different ?? Various teams prepared the Saleens and even the Lemans winning Vipers had many entries. Private Porsche tuners like Kremer were often faster than the factory. How about Brumos Porsche in the USA always competitive with the "factory" cars ?? This situation has always bugged me. I can understand various tire companies allying with a favored team but they still sold something to the private market. And ACO and FIA don't require spec tires in these series.
Way too much politics here !!!!!!!!!
Sorry to rant but this really ticks me of as lifelong fan off USA teams and cars. If this keeps up I'll have to root for RISI............

jhester

Jerry, I was very careful when picking the verb in my post. The papers are prepared by the chassis manufacturer (Riley) but you are correct that some of the standard specifications and drawings are provided by the OEM (GM).

The homoligation papers are setup in a stock vs submitted chassis format, so in each section of the evaluation there is a direct comparision between the road-going version of the car versus the proposed race chassis. The GM figures are used for the stock figures and the Riley figures are used for the race chassis specifications, with Riley compiling the finished product and submitting to the ACO

BornSUPERCHARGED

That's one side of the story, we don't know the other side.

0FORGED DST

jhester...............thanks for the info. I'm sure things have changed a bit on the ACO paperwork. I have seen the Saleen S7R and the AM DB9R papers but never read them. And if Riley had to prepare the papers then GM submit them, I'm sure GM could influence their acceptance.
Let's hope something is learned from this. ............the Saleen S7R was often the fastest car in GT1 and it was often built and prepared by various teams in various countries. Not just Saleen or Labre for example.
Why does a Corvette GT2 car have to come only from P&M ??? All the Viper dominating GT1 cars were not built by Prodrive.....etc.,etc.. Brumos built some very fine Porsche GT cars that often bested the factory entry.
I promise I won't beat the dead horse anymore. I just wish I knew more about it.

jerry

John Shiels

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...lin-fehan.html

joemoia

In 2009 the FIA/SRO promulagted new regulations for 2010 which stipulated that only one configuration of a car could be homologated and GM designated the P&M configuration, which led to Riley bringing a lawsuit against GM in 2009

http://www.thatsracin.com/2009/03/04...s-lawsuit.html

Geared

honestly.....this makes me want to sell my car. thats pathetic. I dont want to support a company that has NO ETHICS.

Cdn Z06 Mike

GM just doesn't want to learn.....

Well bought two new imports last year and looks like that trend won't be changing anytime soon. When I buy my truck it will have the blue oval on the grille.

Bye bye GM, thanks for the black eye and don't let the door hit ya on the way out.

El Paso Vette

Regrettably, I feel the same way you guys do. I love the Vette but I won't be buying a new GM until they get rid of the US Government. My next car will be a Ford Expedition. I have 3 Vettes, a Tahoe ( to be replaced) and a Honda S2000 so they are losing me with their behavior on the this and their craven bankruptcy.