Motorsports

Participation

Bollea was active in the NOPI Drift series, qualified 10th at the Denver NOPI drift event of 2007, and placing third at their Pittsburgh event. Bollea also occasionally attends amateur drifting competitions. Bollea has attended two of Chris Tyler's drifting events in the Tampa Bay area. One of these was a drifting competition in DeSoto county the Friday prior to the crash of Nick's Toyota Supra. Bollea did not compete, but he did give drifting demonstrations between the runs of competitors.[1]

Bollea earned a Formula D competition license in 2006, although Formula Drift spokesman John Pangilinan said that Bollea has only competed in one of their competitions, the event in Atlanta on May 12, 2007.[2] Formula Drift is the only professional drifting series in North America.

Competition vehicles and crew

Bollea had two Dodge Vipers with steering modified to enhance their drifting capability,[3] but his last competition vehicle was a Nissan 350Z.[1][4] John Graziano (the former Marine injured in the Supra crash) and Danny Jacobs (the driver of the silver Viper, seen with the Supra at the time of the crash) worked in Nick Bollea's pit crew during 2007 in St. Louis, Denver and Los Angeles.[5] Barry Lawrence, the passenger in the aforementioned Viper, was also a member of Bollea's's pit crew.[4]

Sponsorship

Bollea's celebrity status and enthusiasm for drifting have attracted sponsors eager to associate themselves with his name. He was briefly signed to Dodge, but company spokesman Todd Goyer said that he "is not a Dodge driver or a Mopar driver", and that his relationship with Dodge/Mopar ended two months prior to his 2007 crash.[6] He was sponsored for the 2007 season by Polaroid, Mac Tools, BF Goodrich and Sparco.[4] These companies are still listed on the NOPI website as sponsors of Nick's drift car,[4] but Polaroid VP of marketing Cheryl Mau has said, "We do not have a signed sponsorship agreement with Nick Hogan for the 2008 race season."[7]

Vehicle incidents

Lamborghini fire

In 2006, in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, Bollea was driving a yellow 2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT owned by Cecile Barker (chairman of SoBe Entertainment, the record label attached to his sister) when it caught on fire. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Paul Perry said, "It was a normal car fire. It happens a bunch of times every day and nobody notices."[8][9]

Traffic violations

Since September 2006, within the first year of obtaining his license, Bollea was ticketed four times.[10]

In 2007, he gave an interview with Rides in which he talked about his habit of driving fast on public roads. In this interview he said that he was driving a silver Viper between Miami and Tampa when he was pulled over three times for driving in excess of 100 mph. Bollea told the interviewer that the final stop — the only one resulting in a ticket — he was driving 123 mph in a 50 mph zone.[3] The events described in the interview do not match police records.[11] His mother has said that the interview was exaggerated.[5] The ticket which most closely resembles the events described in the Rides interview is a September 26, 2006 citation showing that he was driving a Mercedes (not a Viper), was stopped twice (not three times), and was ticketed for going 115 mph (not 123 mph) in a 70 mph zone (not a 50 mph zone).[11][12]

On February 8, 2007, he was ticketed in Dade County, Florida for driving 57 mph in a 30 mph zone, and on April 25, 2007, he was ticketed and received four points on his license for driving 106 mph in a 70 mph zone in Osceola County.[11] On August 10, 2007, he was ticketed in Pinellas Park after his 1998 Toyota was recorded going 82 mph in a 45 mph construction zone.[11]

Supra crash

Bollea was involved in a serious accident in Clearwater, Florida, on the evening of August 26, 2007. Bollea and three members of the pit crew for his drifting team[4] were using two of his father's cars — a yellow Toyota Supra[13] and a silver Dodge Viper — to travel to a steakhouse when the single-vehicle crash occurred at Court St. and Missouri Ave., near downtown Clearwater. The yellow Supra, which Bollea had been driving in the outside lane,[14] fishtailed and spun across the road, crashing into the median strip and into a palm tree. The impact of the collision "destroyed the entire car".[9] The posted speed limit on that stretch of road was 40 mph, but a reconstruction of the crash by police shows that the Supra was traveling "in excess of 60 mph".[14] Danny Jacobs — the pit crew member driving the silver Viper — told police that the speed of the two cars was "not more than 70".[14] Barry Lawrence, his passenger, said that the Supra was traveling “at or near 100 miles per hour” when it crashed."[15]

After the crash, Bollea told medical workers[14] that wet roads were the cause of his crash. Viper passenger and pit crew member Barry Lawrence told police that they were "speeding around" and added that Bollea and Jacobs "always drive like that."[14]

After the crash, Jacobs and Lawrence drove to the Bollea family residence to inform Nick's father of the crash. They then returned to the scene of the accident, where they were interviewed by police.[14]Bollea and his passenger, 22-year-old John Graziano, were flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bollea was released from care on August 27 and said to be "OK".[16] Graziano, a U.S. Marine[9] and a former member of Bollea's pit crew,[5] was not wearing a seatbelt.[13] The eye and brain injuries he sustained are expected to leave him in a nursing home the rest of his life.[17]

Legal issues

Bollea was charged with several violations, including a felony. He turned himself in to authorities at 9:48 a.m. on Wednesday, November 7, 2007.[18] Police in Clearwater issued a warrant for his arrest upon completion of an "extensive investigation" of the wreck by a team of four officers. Because he is being charged as an adult, Nick was booked on the charges at the Pinellas County Jail. He was released within hours on $10,000 bail. Bollea was charged with reckless driving involving serious bodily injury (a 3rd degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison plus fines), use of a motor vehicle in commission of a felony, a person under the age of 21 operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol level of 0.02 or higher, and illegal window tint. Two hours after the wreck, Nick's ethanol serum level was 0.055.[19]

Police believe that Nick Bollea and Danny Jacobs were speeding prior to the crash of the Supra.[5][20][21][14] and both have been charged with reckless driving.[22][14] Nick's father has said that the cars were not racing,[23] but this contradicts police[22] interviews with eyewitnesses to the crash.[24][25][26] Frances Vitalis was in traffic with the Supra and the Viper, and told the media that the two cars were revving their engines and racing between traffic signals prior to the crash.[24][25] The official police report says that the two cars were racing, but that the actions of Jacobs were not a direct cause of the accident.[22]

Bollea's lawyer has insisted that the accident was not the result of speeding,[27] emphasizing that Bollea was wearing a seatbelt and Graziano was not.[28][19] Bollea's lawyer has released a video[29] which he claims will disprove the police allegation[14] that Nick was driving at least 50% faster than the posted speed limit. The family of John Graziano announced that they are preparing a civil suit against the Bolleas to pay for John's continuing lifetime medical care.[17]

On May 9, 2008, Bollea entered a no contest plea and was sentenced to serve eight months in Pinellas County Jail. The sentence also calls for Bollea to serve five years probation, 500 community service hours and his driver's license was suspended until he is 21 (a little over 3 years).[30]

E *ebo to kad ne mozes srediti...hahahaha...kako li samo ovi nasi zive tamo...hahahaaa

E moj jarane, Amerika kasni za nama 20 godina. Kod njih tek sad dobro...