The Seung Remains The Same: How The Wrong Korean Guy Took The Heat For The Monticello Crash

WARNING: If you have any track experience, or even if you don’t, the above video can be painful to watch. It’s the long-legged Monticello Motor Club racetrack as experienced by the IMPA journalists on their test day: coned off, watered-down, speed-limited. Had I made the 584-mile drive to Monticello and found conditions like this, I’d have been furious.

Still, the above restrictions weren’t enough to keep the Korean journalist, identified to me as Tai Sung “Peter” Park, from wiping an IS-F against the guardrail. What followed that incident was an odd tale of international misunderstanding, possible deceit, and Keystone Kops silliness…

Shortly after publishing the above-linked story, I was contacted by a few of my friends in the business. There was a Korean driver who wanted to speak to me. Was it the guy who crashed the IS-F? No, I was told, but you will want to hear what he has to say. When I did speak to Seung Min “Mel” Yu, I found him to be a friendly, forthright, but rather embattled fellow. His public statement, released to his Facebook page first and then to his Korean-language auto review site, MotorBlog, explains why he’s feeling down:

Hello.

Regards to unfortunate incident happened at 2011 IMPA test days,
“Tai Sung Peter Park” who was directly responsible to the incident DOES NOT HAVE ANY ASSOCIATION with My (Seung Min Yu) old blog & company Motorblog LLC & Motorblog.net.

He is working for korean “Power Bloging” website out of naver.com (Famous portal site in South Korea) called motorblog. (Direct address; blog.naver.com/motorblog & motorblog.kr )

Motorblog.net & Motorblog is trademark of Motorblog.net LLC out of Grand Blanc Michigan since 2005.

Motorblog.net LLC discovered the confusion about association with “Tai Sung Peter Park” Sept 21, 2011. and verbally asked him to cease & Desist using “Motorblog” name. I will be taking legal course of actions to prevent any further conflicts as soon as possible.

Motorblog.net LLC is privately held corporation which I’m at the position of President.

If there’s any question about the past history especially releasing media fleet, please do not hesitate to contact me at any of your conveinence.

Best Regards

Seung Min Yu (Mel)

My complete ignorance of the Korean language keeps me from doing the due diligence I’d like to do on this story, but the people who recommend Mel to me know him to be a straight shooter. We will give him the benefit of the doubt. In a phone conversation, Mel gave me some additional details. He’d been the only Korean member of the “International” Motor Press Association for years; when he met Mr. Park the day before the event was due to begin, he immediately realized that there may have been a misrepresentation. Mel is careful to note that Mr. Park probably did not mean to misrepresent himself as an employee or associate of his, but the IMPA folks assumed that two Korean guys, both claiming to be from “Motorblog”, must be part of the same organization. In their conversation, Mr. Park expressed excitement about being on a racetrack, since although he’d done his national service in the Korean army, he’d never had any formal driver training or racetrack time.

What happened next has already passed into buffet-table legend. Approximately fifteen minutes after the event was opened, Mr. Park bounced up to an IS-F and took his first-ever lap of a racetrack. Or, rather, his first-ever half-lap. The video at the head of this article shows tire marks and a rather sharp exit off-track right before the back-straight chicane.

An hour later, Mel was approached by IMPA personnel, who more or less said “Your Korean pal wrecked a $67,000 car and blew the scene. What are you going to do about it?” While I don’t care for the core assumption made here — that every Korean in the business is somehow interlinked, perhaps with an underground network of “kumite” fights to the death — it’s understandable given the stressful situation. Mel told them, “He’s not my guy,” and his personal nightmare began.

As is usual in this business, the rumor spread faster than any potential truth to counteract it. Two different people told me over the weekend that “the Korean wrecked the Lexus.” The idea that there could be two different Koreans in the world seemed a little far-fetched. Mel received emails, texts, and Facebook messages that were alternately accusatory, gloating, or simply disappointed. Press-fleet managers didn’t want him behind the wheel of their cars. For Mel, it was disastrous; he’d been building his brand for six long years and was watching it disappear in a moment.

Meanwhile, Mr. Park’s representatives were apparently working things out with Toyota’s Korean PR people. It turns out that Mr. Park’s blog has some nontrivial clout over there, and whatever dust he raised has been settled in the same casual manner that, say, a fatal collision in a US print rag’s press loaner would be, or has been in the past.

Mel, however, may find the damage to his reputation harder to repair. Imagine being in a foreign country, accused of someone else’s misdeeds, and trying to fix the mess using only your limited knowledge of the language and a small circle of personal friends. It won’t be easy. This is an insular business. I can attest to that personally. A few years ago, I was kicked off an important press event and deleted from a few press-fleet access lists at the request of a Chicago-area journalist who just didn’t like me and had the buffet-browsing connections to make it stick. I’ve settled that particular score with interest, but Mel will face a similar uphill battle to restore the access on which his livelihood depends.

We’d like to hear from any Korean-speaking resources who have additional knowledge of the situation, as well as representatives from IMPA and Toyota USA, but while we’re waiting for the rest of the story to come out, please join me in wishing Seung a quick and fair resolution to this issue… and please join me in demanding a minimum level of driving competence from the automotive writers you choose to read and support.