The lawsuit recently filed by ME real estate developer
Michael Liberty charging NH Int'l Speedway (NHIS) Owner Bob
Bahre, NASCAR and Int'l Speedway Corp. with "fraud, civil
conspiracy, interference with advantageous relationships and
violations of the Sherman Act having to do with
monopolization" (see THE DAILY, 4/26) is examined by Allen
Lessels of the BOSTON GLOBE. The case stems from Liberty's
$4.3M purchase of Bahre's Oxford (ME) Plains Speedway in
'86, which was home to several NASCAR events at the time.
Liberty said that he was told by Bahre, "who has long and
strong ties to NASCAR," that Bahre "would help him in
nurturing a working relationship" with the NASCAR. But
Liberty "charges" that Bahre and NASCAR "brought him and his
[investment] group down -- and ruined his track -- on their
way up," after plans for turning Oxford Plains into a
superspeedway failed and NHIS opened in '90. Liberty claims
that Bahre used the same architect's design for NHIS that
was drawn up for the proposed superspeedway in ME. Oxford
Plains hosted its final NASCAR race in '92, and NHIS joined
the NASCAR circuit in '93. Liberty's attorney Daniel Lilly:
"It's simply a case of [ME's] premier track, ... the fair-
haired track of NASCAR in the early '80s, being put out of
business by the former owner who we say conspired with
NASCAR owners, the France family, for their own greedy
purposes." Bahre, who said that he has yet to see the
charges, on the lawsuit: "I don't want to say anything bad
about anybody, but it's not the end of the world. I feel
anybody who really knows us knows we do business the way you
should do it." Although the lawsuit seeks "no specific
damages," Liberty alleges that his group's losses are in the
"tens of millions" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/12).
