Greenwich race car driver sues Darien Chevy dealer for his crashed car

DARIEN — An Australian race car driver is suing a Darien Chevrolet dealership after two employees reportedly totaled his car while taking it on an unauthorized drive.

In a lawsuit filed in Stamford Superior Court June 17, race car driver Kenny Habul claimed two employees of H & L Chevrolet in Darien took Habul’s Chevrolet Camaro off the premises and crashed the vehicle on Interstate 95.

Habul, a Greenwich resident, is a competitive race car driver and the president and CEO of a solar development company called SunEnergy1.

The car, a 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Hendrick Edition with a 1LE extreme track package described as a “collector’s item,” was reported a total loss. According to the complaint, the vehicle only had 989 miles on it and was valued at $97,000.

According to the complaint, Habul brought the car to the Darien dealership on a flatbed truck after the car reportedly would not start. The complaint goes on to state “there was no need to test drive the vehicle” and the dealership was instructed that “under no circumstances was any employee to take the vehicle off of the lot.”

The complaint then states H & L employees Matthew Sebastian and Joseph Ingram took the car off the lot against instructions and drove onto I-95, with Sebastian behind the wheel. The complaint states that the car was reportedly traveling 89 miles per hour three seconds before the crash, based on the factory track data recorder.

“In other words, in the seconds before the crash, Mr. Sebastian gunned the engine and lost control of the high-performance vehicle that he should not have been driving,” the complaint reads.

Habul is pursuing money damages from both Sebastian and H & L Chevrolet for negligence and recklessness.