William Hynes (born January 31, 1972) is an American professional

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

driver and entrepreneur. He races full-time in the

Stadium Super Trucks The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, also known as the Boost Mobile Super Trucks in Australia, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR d ...

and has also competed in

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

and

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

. He is the founder and former CEO of United Fiber & Data, and has also overseen other business ventures such as Think Loud and 120 York.

Early life

Hynes was born in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. He attended Union Catholic Regional High School before moving to Hillside High School as a sophomore, though he returned to Union Catholic after getting involved in a fight. He graduated from Union Catholic in 1990. As a junior, he enlisted in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed ...

as a

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

officer. After graduating high school, he served in the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

and was stationed in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. In 1996 and 1997, Hynes was a corrections officer recruit in the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission. He was later employed as an operations manager for Velocity Express in

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

and a warehouse distribution supervisor for a

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

bottling plant in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Business

Hynes, who has a degree in business administration, became a real estate agent in 2002, and had holdings in Arizona and Colorado. He founded 101st Holdings LLC and held two commercial properties before its closure due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. Other

limited liability companies A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

formed included ADS Builders East, Inner City Investments, BKS Investments, and BKS Technologies. In 2011, Hynes founded Think Loud Development, an urban development firm aimed at economically struggling areas in Pennsylvania, alongside members of the rock band

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

. The group also formed telecommunications company United Fiber & Data (UFD) in 2012. Live departed Think Loud in 2015. UFD constructed a 340-mile

fiber-optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with p ...

from

Ashburn, Virginia Ashburn is a unincorporated settlement and census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, its population was 46,349, up from 3,393 in 1990. It is northwest of Washington, D.C., and par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 2019. He resigned from his position as UFD's CEO in November following his arrest on burglary and stalking charges, though he remained on the company's board. In October 2020, UFD, Powder Mill Foundation, and UFD board member Louis Appell III sued Hynes and fellow ex-CEO Chad Taylor for misusing the company's funds. The case was amicably settled in August 2022 and Hynes cleared of any wrongdoing. However, charges were filed against Hynes in 2023 claiming he stole over $4 million from United Fiber & Data by funneling money into personal accounts and unrelated businesses he was also involved in. Taylor also accused Hynes of being a confidence trickster who stole over $10 million from him and Live; after his claims were published in a ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' article about the band, Hynes filed a defamation suit in response. In a March 2025 affidavit, Taylor conceded his accusations against Hynes were false. Hynes surmised Taylor felt "really bad about what happened because he knows I was one of his best friends."

Racing career

A longtime racing fan and friend of

Michael Andretti Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962) is an American former racing driver, and current team owner. Statistically one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, Andretti won the 1991 CART champions ...

, Hynes began supporting Andretti's

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

team

Andretti Autosport Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...

through United Fiber & Data in 2013 as an associate sponsor. UFD upgraded to a primary sponsorship on James Hinchcliffe's No. 27 car for 2014 on a one-year contract, and also sponsored the team's

Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Roa ...

driver

Matthew Brabham Matthew Chase Brabham (born 25 February 1994) is an Australian- American racing driver. He competes in the Trans-Am Series, driving the No. 20 Ford Mustang for Chris Dyson Racing. From 2015 to 2021, he was a regular in the Stadium Super Trucks, w ...

. The deal ended in 2015, which the Appell lawsuit alleged was worth $11 million a year and resulted in the company having to pay $9 million to the team. UFD returned to Andretti Autosport in 2016 as sponsors for Marco Andretti and Carlos Muñoz, and the former gained further backing the next season after original sponsor H. H. Gregg was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2014, he began racing in the

at Honda Indy Toronto. After finishing seventh in his debut, he retired from the weekend's second race after four laps with a mechanical problem. UFD sponsored his truck, and the Team UFD Racing banner was formed to support multiple trucks over the following seasons including series champions Brabham and Paul Morris, SST's first female driver Sara Price, and SST race winners

Arie Luyendyk Jr. Arie Luyendyk Jr. ( , ; born September 18, 1981) is a Dutch-American auto racing driver, television personality, and son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk. He has competed mostly in North America where his father lives and made ...

and E. J. Viso. UFD also sponsored SST's 2017 race weekend at

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track in the Northeastern United States, northeastern United States, located in Dix, New York, just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen, at the ...

, dubbing it the UFD at The Glen. Hynes recorded his first SST podium at the 2015 Valvoline Raceway round in Australia, where he started on the pole and finished third. In 2016, Hynes joined the newly formed EXR Racing Series, a

supercar A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective ''cachet'' linked to pedigree and/or exclusivity. The term 'supercar' is frequently used for th ...

spec racing One-design racing is a racing method which may be adopted in sports using complex equipment, whereby all vehicles have identical or very similar designs or models, avoiding the need for a handicap system. Motorsport One-make racing series (also ...

championship. He ran as high as second in points and finished fourth. The following year, EXR's endurance racing program debuted its Mitjet EXR LV02 car at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, where Hynes was one of the five drivers and also worked as crew chief. In August, Hynes, Brabham, and Alexandre Prémat won the EXR class at the Utah Motorsports Campus 6 Hour Enduro. At the 2017 Clipsal 500 weekend, Hynes ran the SST races in addition to making his Aussie Racing Cars debut. Later in the year at Barbagallo Raceway, he yielded his Aussie Racing Car to fellow SST drivers

Sheldon Creed Sheldon Michael Creed (born September 30, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 00 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Haas Factory ...

and

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing Teams, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA, Inter ...

as he wanted to focus on SST. Hynes won his first career SST race in the 2018 season opener at Lake Elsinore Diamond. He initially finished ninth, but video review found that Hynes had taken his mandatory Joker Lap prior to the final lap while many of the leaders waited until said lap, which was not allowed, due to a miscommunication with race officials. Consequently, many of the leaders were bumped down the running order while Hynes was promoted to first place, which he shared with the original winner Apdaly Lopez. He scored his third podium over a year later in the final race of the

Gold Coast 600 The Gold Coast 500 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Boost Mobile (Australia), Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars Championship, Supercars, held at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Surfers Parad ...

round. 2022 saw Hynes' best statistical season to date as he finished fourth in points with two podiums at Mid-Ohio and Bristol.

Personal life

Hynes lives in

Nazareth, Pennsylvania Nazareth is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough's population was 6,053 at the 2020 census. Nazareth is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 a ...

. He appeared in a season 14 episode of '' The Celebrity Apprentice'' in 2015. In June 2020, he launched the ''ThrillCast'' podcast alongside Meg Jones. ''ThrillCast'' has sponsored his stadium truck. In September 2022 he pled no contest to felony criminal trespass, felony theft by deception, two counts of felony forgery, misdemeanor stalking, and misdemeanor simple assault for incidents in 2018/2019 regarding a former female employee with whom he had an intimate relationship. He was sentenced to

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

, which he completed in time for the 2023 SST season.

Motorsports career results

Stadium Super Trucks

( key) (Bold – Pole position. ''Italics'' – Fastest qualifier. * – Most laps led.) Season in progress.
The race was abandoned after Matt Mingay suffered serious injuries in a crash on lap three.
Davey Hamilton Jr. led the most laps, but his disqualification resulted in Hynes receiving the bonus points.
Standings were not recorded by the series for the 2020 season.

References

External links

''ThrillCast''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hynes, Bill 1972 births Living people American military police officers Businesspeople from Pennsylvania Sportspeople from New Brunswick, New Jersey Stadium Super Trucks drivers Union Catholic Regional High School alumni United States Army reservists X Games competitors