BREAKING: Summit Racing Drops Speedmaster After Finding Alleged Counterfeit Parts in Inventory
Multiple counterfeit trans brake valve bodies were allegedly found in Speedmaster packaging, causing the automotive retailer to remove all Speedmaster products from the company’s website.
Full disclosure: Summit Racing is a current vendor on Ford Truck Enthusiasts.
Jay Robarge founded Broader Performance 24 years ago to help “racers solve their transmission problems.” He is a Ford expert in an aftermarket “sea of GM experts,” selling built versions of Ford’s C4, C6, AOD, and AODE/47R0W transmissions along with torque converters, valve bodies, other transmission accessories, and custom work.
Last Friday, Robarge posted a video to his YouTube channel about a customer who called to warranty a broken C4 trans brake valve body that was allegedly purchased at Summit Racing. Which is odd because Broader Performance only sells products directly to customers. Not through any third-party retailers. And that’s when the customer replied, “but it’s got your name on it.”
Sure enough, when the valve body was sent to Robarge, he opened up Speedmaster branded packaging to find a shiny billet trans brake valve body with the name “Broader Performance” CNC’d into the metal. But neither Robarge nor anyone who works at Broader Performance made this part. It was a fake. An obvious one.
Jay Robarge of Broader Performance with the real valve body (left) and counterfeit valve body (right).
So Robarge took to YouTube to vent about Chinese knockoffs and to ask how a counterfeit version of his valve body was sold in a Speedmaster box. With a channel that typically averages only a few hundred to a few thousand views per video, he didn’t expect much, if any response.
But YouTube’s algorithm gods delivered and Robarge’s call-out video went viral. It currently sits at 237K views.
That same day, upon learning of Robarge’s video and allegations, Summit Racing replied to Robarge’s video, stating that the company had immediately removed the Speedmaster trans brake valve body from its website and started an investigation. Three days later, on Sunday, Speedmaster also announced a “thorough investigation.” (This comment appears to have since been deleted.)
Screengrab captured Sunday, April 14 under Robarge’s April 12 video.
Today, Summit Racing announced that, “upon inspection of our inventory, we found additional valve bodies with the Broader Performance logo” in Speedmaster packaging. Summit then elected to destroy the alleged counterfeit parts “to prevent any possibility of them entering the supply chain through a marketplace or another distributor.” In addition to the valve bodies in question, Summit Racing has dropped all Speedmaster parts from their website and sellable inventory. “Summit Racing Equipment will no longer do business with Speedmaster.” Here is Summit’s full statement on the matter —
[Summit Racing] takes the issue of counterfeit and knock-off parts very seriously and we were unaware of the issue until seeing the video created and posted by Jay at Broader Performance.
As soon as we learned about the valve body, we removed it from the website and sellable inventory. Upon inspection of our inventory, we found additional valve bodies with the Broader Performance logo. Rather than return the valve bodies to Speedmaster, we are destroying them at our facility to prevent any possibility of them entering the supply chain through a marketplace or another distributor.
We have had dialogue with both Jay at Broader Performance and the team at Speedmaster. Due to ongoing discussions and an active investigation, we cannot comment on our conversations or any further actions at this time.
Summit Racing Equipment is still owned by our founder and we are headquartered in Tallmadge, Ohio. We do business today just as we have for more than five decades. We stand by our mission to provide genuine products from trusted manufacturers. Our team is contacting customers who purchased a Speedmaster valve body and we will work on a resolution with each customer.
We cannot control what other distributors and sellers do as a result of this discovery, but Summit Racing Equipment will no longer do business with Speedmaster. All Speedmaster products have been removed from SummitRacing.com and from our sellable inventory.
[UPDATE: JEGS Performance also appears to have cut ties with Speedmaster.]
Several questions remain, of course. How did a fake Broader Performance valve body end up in a Speedmaster box for sale at Summit Racing? And why would a large multinational corporation known for splashing its name all over its products manufacture and distribute a part with the wrong logo on it? We reached out to Speedmaster for answers, but a representative declined to comment on the record as they are still investigating the matter. According to the company’s website, Speedmaster is, “one of the rare companies to produce its own products, where majority items are entirely developed and manufactured in its workshops.”
Robarge also declined to comment, outside of his two public videos, but confirmed what Summit Racing made public. In his second video, Robarge, who would prefer to be teaching people about and selling Broader Performance transmissions and parts, hopes that this situation might be the start of a movement in the automotive industry, one that pushes back against brands that make and/or sell counterfeit parts.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a 2019 document titled China: The Risk to Corporate America, “the annual cost to the U.S. economy of counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets is between $225 billion and $600 billion.” The problem is so vast and widespread that even NASA, an agency known to be stuffed with engineers and scientists, offers a training course to teach its employees and contractors how to avoid counterfeit electronics.
Image Credits: Summit Racing, Broader Performance, YouTube
