A private detective has shared the intimate noises he says he heard while a married female NASCAR driver was in a hotel room with a married male colleague.
Jim Rorie told a court that he heard Jennifer Jo Cobb, 53, having sex with Clayton Odie Hughes after being hired by Hughes’ wife Tracey to keep tabs on her husband.
Speaking during civil court proceedings in North Carolina last month, which ultimately saw Jennifer found liable for the affair and ordered to pay $850,000 in damages, Rorie said he heard ‘the squeaking of the bed, quite a bit of that; female tones moaning; and occasionally a male’s voice…
‘There was no doubt about what I was hearing.’
Rorie attached a tracking device to Clayton’s Toyota Camry in October 2020 and followed him to a Comfort Inn in Martinsville, Virginia, where the assignation happened during a racing meet-up, he told the court.
Clayton and Tracey, 63, had separated a month previously and Tracey hired Rorie to keep tabs on her husband of 18 years, according to a court transcript obtained by the Daily Mail.
Clayton was working as a spotter on Jennifer’s NASCAR team when their relationship began, with Jennifer married to racing driver Eddie Troconis at the time.
Troconis was seen at the hotel with Jennifer earlier that evening, but left after 10pm, according to the testimony.
Jennifer Cobb, a female NASCAR driver who was court-ordered to pay $850,000 over a suspected affair was followed by a private investigator who unearthed all the details
Jennifer Cobb and her ex-husband Eddie Troconis, himself a racing driver. Jennifer was heard having sex with co-worker Clayton Hughes by a private detective, according to his testimony
Rorie, who booked an empty room next to Clayton’s, looked out of its peep hole and saw Jennifer stopping by his room an hour later.
The detective pulled back a dresser and stuck his ear to the wall, he told the court.
Rorie said ‘yes’ when asked by Tracey’s lawyer, John Vermitsky, if he believed Jennifer and Clayton were having sex.
‘As time went on… it got a little more rambunctious and I was able to hear certain words,’ he said.
Asked exactly what he had heard, Rorie told the court: ‘As the squeaking continued, the tones of a male moaning and saying “Oh f**k” and “Oh my God” were distinctly heard.
‘I believe there was one point where I heard the female yell: “Don’t stop.”‘
Rorie’s allegations were made in court after Jennifer was sued by Tracey for alienation of affection and criminal conversation in North Carolina.
Jennifer Jo Cobb is pictured celebrating New Year’s Eve with Clayton Hughes. The couple remain together. Jennifer was successfully sued by Clayton’s ex-wife Tracey Hughes over their relationship, which a jury ruled had begun before the Hughes’s had formally separated
Clayton and Tracey Hughes. The couple informally separated in September 2020, a month before Jennifer Jo Cobb had sex with him in a hotel, but the arrangement was not formalized for months afterwards
Jennifer contended that her relationship with Clayton was not an affair because the Hughes had separated in September 2020, a month before it began.
The Hughes’ separation was not formalized until January 2021, enabling jurors to find Jennifer liable for an affair with Clayton.
Tracey and Clayton, who had two sons together, divorced in 2022. Clayton and Jennifer are still in a relationship.
The jury found that Jennifer ‘willfully, intentionally, and deliberately seduced, enticed, and alienated the affections’ of Tracey’s husband, as outlined in a complaint seen by the Daily Mail, and ordered her to pay far in excess of the $50,000 minimum damages sought by Tracey.
Tracey said in the complaint that she had been happily married until Jennifer entered the fray, alleging that the NASCAR driver began calling and texting her husband while traveling to races to set up secret meetings for sex.
The divorcee stated that she ‘suffered the loss of support, injury to [her] feelings and reputation, and had her marital relationship destroyed’ by the alleged affair.
In civil law, a deserted spouse can claim damages for alienation of affection if they can prove a third party intentionally destroyed the love and affection in their marriage.
They must show that they had a loving marriage before the interference, and that this was taken away by the actions of the third party.
Cobb, from Kansas City, was also married at the time to Eddie Troconis, another NASCAR driver and her team member. The former couple is pictured above in a photo from social media
Jennifer Jo Cobb is pictured during her decade-long career as a NASCAR driver. She retired from the sport in 2024
Criminal conversation is also a civil tort rather than a crime, despite its name, which allows a person to sue somebody for having sexual relations with their spouse while their marriage is still intact.
The claims for which Jennifer was found liable are civil torts in just seven states, most of them in the south.
When Jennifer’s husband Eddie Troconis found out about his ex’s new relationship with Clayton in 2021, he assaulted her new man at an Alabama racing event, local media reports show.
Troconis was convicted of assault over the shocking incident, which involved him storming out of a porta-potty at the Talladega event before launching an attack on Clayton so brutal it left him permanently disabled, according to testimony heard by the Anniston Star at Troconis’s trial.
Jennifer enjoyed a two-decade-long NASCAR career which began in 2004, and her last race was 2024.
Jennifer, a female NASCAR driver who was court-ordered to pay $850,000 over a suspected affair, was followed by a private investigator who unearthed all the details
She owned her own team, Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing, alongside being a racing driver herself, specializing in stock car competitions.
Jennifer previously starred in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
The civil suit launched by Tracey is not over.
Jennifer’s lawyers have filed a motion asking the judge to set aside the jury verdict based on claims they did not get the opportunity to fully present their side of the story.
Tracey Hughes’s lawyer John Vermitsky told the Daily Mail he would be ‘extremely surprised’ if such a motion was successful.
The Daily Mail has also reached out to lawyers for Jennifer for comment.
