COPPER HILL, VA :: The President of the Rolling Thunder Modified Tour, Richard Peters, sent an email informing track promoters that the television producers have reneged on a contract leaving the future of the series in doubt.

In the email, quoted below, Peters says they could try to run previously scheduled races if the tracks want or that those tracks could promote Rolling Thunder Modifieds races in the Rolling Thunder name if they wish to.  Peters says it would be hard for the series to draw more than eight cars without sponsorship.

The TV contract would have had a TV series revolving around Rolling Thunder Modified races being televised on FOX affiliates in North Carolina and Virginia.

Good morning,
It is with deep, deep regret that I have to inform you that the TV producer, who signed a contract with our series, has defaulted on his agreement.  The contract was completely written by the Producer himself, with one exception that I asked for.  In this exception we instituted a mechanism to guarantee the purse for our race teams, by requiring an escrow deposit to be made by January 1, 2014. Once this time had passed, without documentation of the deposit, we provided an extension and he again was unable to meet the requirement.
The Producer agreed to this, while still living in Indiana, then drove to Mooresville, NC and met with our group in person and that’s where we signed the agreement.  He then changed his residency from Indiana to North Myrtle Beach, SC…I know this is true because his landlord called me as he had listed me as a reference.
I am sorry that this has happened.  The contract that he signed was an offer that we felt would have made our series a very competitive series and car counts would have been very good.
The agreement was for naming rights and not a sponsorship.  If we could get a sponsorship that would be awesome.  Without either, we probably couldn’t draw but 5 to 8 modifieds a race at the most.
If you want us to try and have the already scheduled races, we can definitely try or if you would like to promote a modified race using our name, I would be okay with it.  This email is being sent just to those tracks that we had agreed to dates with and applies only to them.
Please find attached the signature page of the agreement and our letter giving him notice of the default and the extended deadline.
Again, I deeply apologize for this and hope that this advance warning will give you time to make other plans or If you would like for us to still do one or more of the races, let’s talk.
Sincerely,
Richard Peters, President
Silverhawk Motorsports, LLC