LAWSUIT: NASCAR driver denies pulling fast one on Mitchell's Klock Werks

• Bowyer and Klock

NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer, front, and Klock Werks owner Brian Klock are shown in this photograph from the Klock Werks website. (KlockWerks.com photo)

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NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer has asked a judge to dismiss a Mitchell custom motorcycle builder’s lawsuit against him.

In court documents filed Feb. 28, Bowyer, 33, and his attorney Steve Sanford, of the Sioux Falls law firm Cadwell, Sanford, Deibert and Garry, motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed last May by Klock Werks Kustom Cycles, because they claim a Davison County court has a “lack of personal jurisdiction” over Bowyer in the case.

Klock Werks alleges Bowyer failed to pay $30,788.45 for a motorcycle customized by the Mitchell-based company in late 2008 and early 2009. Bowyer claims to have provided Klock Werks with numerous promotional services in exchange for the customized motorcycle.

Klock Werks is seeking to be fully paid for the work, plus 18 percent interest annually since the job was completed, court documents say. In addition, the company is asking Bowyer to pay its attorney fees and other court-related expenses.

In an affidavit filed Feb. 28, Bowyer says he “has never set foot in South Dakota in any way related to this dispute,” but does admit to attending the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally three times, “but not with the motorcycle in question here.”

In Klock Werks’ complaint, the company says Bowyer contacted the company on or about Nov. 11, 2008, and hired it to customize a 2009 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. After the work was performed at Klock Werks’ Mitchell facility, it was delivered to Bowyer in Daytona Beach, Fla., on or about Feb. 15, 2009, the date of the 2009 Daytona 500 NASCAR race.

In Bowyer’s affidavit, Bowyer says he met Klock Werks owner Brian Klock in 2008 in Daytona, Fla., and then met him again later that year in Phoenix, Ariz. The two started discussing motorcycles, the affidavit says, and Klock suggested Bowyer buy a Harley-Davidson and allow Klock to “trick it out.”

Bowyer’s affidavit says Klock told Bowyer “he would get vendors to kick in products that he did not make and that if I did promotional pieces for Klock’s companies and his vendors that we would be all good.”

In exchange for Klock Werks’ work and materials, Bowyer says he arranged for Klock and others to attend a NASCAR race in Daytona, Fla., and got them access to restricted areas; personally met with Klock and his guests at the track; arranged for Klock to ride the motorcycle into the speedway and to record the event for promotional use; attended a four-hour photo shoot with the motorcycle; and allowed Klock the “use of my name, picture, and other intellectual property” so the motorcycle could be featured on the cover of the June 2009 issue of NASCAR Illustrated, and in other publications.

Bowyer paid Klock Werks $5,000 for the paint used on the motorcycle after Klock told him it was not part of the promotional deal, the affidavit says.

To justify the claim that a South Dakota court has no jurisdiction over him, Bowyer says his agreement with Klock Werks was made in Phoenix, Ariz., the motorcycle was purchased in Mankato, Minn., and delivered to Bowyer in North Carolina.

After Bowyer performed the promotional services for Klock Werks, and months after the motorcycle was delivered, he received an invoice for the motorcycle “entirely contrary to our agreement,” the affidavit says.

Klock Werks argues that because the work on the motorcycle was done in Mitchell, and because Bowyer or his personal representatives contacted Klock Werks in Mitchell by phone calls, emails and text messages to discuss the motorcycle, a South Dakota court has jurisdiction over the case.

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