LOUDON, N.H. (AP) – A legal agreement limiting alcohol sales and banning concerts, night racing and drag racing at New Hampshire International Speedway could tie the hands of the track’s new owner, Texas racing magnate O. Bruton Smith.
Smith announced the purchase of the NASCAR track from owner Bob Bahre for $340 million on Nov. 2. He said he would appoint a manager to review the commitments made by Bahre when he bought and dramatically expanded the track in the early 1990s.
“We will live with whatever he does,” Smith said. “I’m sure it’ll be a very friendly, neighborly situation we’re in.”
Bahre and a group of residents in neighboring Canterbury negotiated the commitments in 1989 before the track was expanded, according members of the group.
“There is a legal agreement that we believe is binding on this company that has purchased the speedway from the Bahres,” said Arnie Alpert, a Canterbury activist who took the track and the Loudon Planning Board to court to get the commitments in writing.
The conditions include:
• A ban on concerts, night racing, tractor pulls, drag racing, mud runs and demolition derbies for as long as speedway is used as a racetrack.
• A limit on the amount of alcohol patrons can bring into the track.
• A ban on selling beer in the stands and limiting beer sales at concessions to two 12-ounce beers per person.
• A requirement that owners make a reasonable effort to notify patrons of rules banning fireworks and fires without permits.
• A limit on the number of days that car without mufflers can race.
• An agreement to pay for sound barriers at the ends of the track and have traffic control officers at several intersections during sizable races.
“This agreement shall be binding on New Hampshire Speedway Inc. and its successors so long as the land is used as a racetrack,” the document states.
Alpert said the group – eight Canterbury residents calling themselves Concerned Racetrack Neighbors – formed nearly 20 years ago after learning that Bahre had purchased the track and planned to expand it.
Previously known as Bryar Motorsports Park, the track hosted a major motorcycle race week during the summer that attracted thousands of fans who camped in the surrounding woods.
“This was an area where basically the police didn’t go,” Alpert said. “Rape, assaults, lots of drugs and alcohol use seemed to be what was the norm during that weekend of motorcycle races.”
The group sued the Loudon planning board and Bahre, but in the end everyone settled amicably, said Bob Ordway, a longtime member of the planning board.
“He must have looked to everybody like a real big-time operator, which I guess he was,” Ordway said. “But Bob, starting right then, was willing to cooperate and give and take and, as you can see from the outcome of this situation, he pretty much agreed to what the townspeople demanded.”
Alpert said a big concern then was to ensure that whatever agreement the parties reached would carry over to subsequent owners. That concern was addressed by attaching the agreement to the project’s site plan approval and the deed, he said.
Alpert said the speedway has always held up its end of the agreement.
“We just want people to know that this was not just a verbal commitment,” Alpert said, “that this was a legal commitment that had been made, and if it was a legal commitment, that it would be upheld.”
The speedway is the largest sports venue in New England. The two NEXTEL Cup races it hosts each year create 2,500 jobs and tens of millions in economic activity, according to state and private estimates.
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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com
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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com
AP-ES-11-13-07 0858EST
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