Last Thursday, December 16 to be exact,
1080 Hartford Road LLC was back in court
to answer as to why terms of Chapter 11
Bankruptcy have not been met and why the
court should not mandate Chapter 7
liquidation. Mr. Terry Eames and his
1080 Hartford Road LLC have dodged the
bullet again and bought some more time.
The agreement that was reached between
the Parker Atty. and the US Trustee
contained many stipulations that 1080
Hartford Road must adhere to in order to
keep the case from being converted from
Chapter 11 to Chapter 7. The specifics
of the agreement are scheduled to be
released later this week.
Eames told the Hartford Courant nothing
has changed in the continued workings of
the bankruptcy case. Eames has insisted
that there is no imminent dismissal of
the bankruptcy case. He also told the
Courant "The bankruptcy case is moving
forward and we are ready for racing in
2011."
Looking Back a bit, in 2007, the
Waterford Speedbowl avoided the bullet
of foreclosure that was scheduled for
Saturday, July 28, 2007 at noon.
Property owner Terry Eames finally
consummated a deal with Harvey
Industries late in the week in which he
sold 8 acres of the Speedbowl property
for $1.6 million. Before he could take
the money and run, the town of Waterford
had a lien on the property that had to
be satisfied. Eames was forced to pay
the town $188,176 for back and current
taxes, as well as $29,976 for police
protection that he owed. To stop the
actual foreclosure Eames secured a
private loan from Rocco Arbitell of
Southbury and Peter Borelli of Derby,
which allowed Eames and his holding
company 1080 Hartford Road to pay off
its debt to Washington Mutual of
Seattle. Washington Mutual, a
Seattle-based bank which had originally
planned to foreclose on the property
because of a $1.7 million mortgage debt.
The 38.75-acre property was valued at
$2.2 million. Arbitell is the owner of
Arbitell Convenience Stores.
Now that Eames had close to $1 million
in his bank account hopefully he would
continue to pay his bills and satisfy
his debt to Arbetill and Borelli.
As of this Friday, Dec 24, seven weeks
remain before the engines roar again in
Florida for the 45th ANNUAL WORLD SERIES
of ASPHALT STOCK CAR RACING at the New
Smyrna Speedway which will be featuring
Super Late Models, Limited Late Models,
Crate Late Models, NASCAR Tour-Type
Modifieds, SK Modifieds, FL/IMCA Type
Modifieds, Pro-Trucks, ACT Late Models
from February 11th-19th. The ACT Late
Models are new to the schedule and are a
welcome addition to the already popular
Speedweek Series.
In TV land the viewing remains scarce.
Tuesday night at 6:00pm the Versus
Channel has the Lucas Oil Motorsport
Hour. Wednesday at 2:00pm the Speed
Channel will present highlights of the
recent Specialty Equipment Manufacturers
Association (SEMA) trade show that was
held in Las Vegas. At 6:00pm Versus will
show another segment of the Lucas Oil
Motorsport Hour. On Thursday at noon the
Speed Channel will replay the Oct 16
Bank of America 500 Sprint Cup event
that was held at the Charlotte Motor
Speedway. The Lucas Oil Motorsport Hour
will again be on the Versus Network at
6:00pm.
On the Speedway Stock Market scene last
week two of the three speedway stocks
had a positive week. Speedway
Motorsports went up 0.42 to 16.04 and
Dover Motorsports went up 0.06 to 1.87.
On the negative side was the
International Speedway Corporation which
went down 0.19 to 25.44. NASCAR Cup
sponsor Sprint dropped 0.06 to 4.16
while fuel supplier Sun Oil dropped 1.45
to 38.59. Tire supplier Goodyear went up
0.29 to 11.64. The car makers were all
positive for the week. Ford went up 0.07
to 16.80, General Motors went up 0.19 to
34.00 and Toyota went up 0.22 to 77.48.
In the home improvement sector Home
Depot went up 0.70 to 35.10 while Lowes
dropped 0.05 to 25.17. With the
exception of Dupont which went up 1.24
to 49.86 the major sponsors had an off
week. Coca-Cola dropped 0.98 to 57.80
while Target Department Stores dropped
0.48 to 58.52, Aarons Rentals dropped
0.43 to 20.22 and Fedex dropped 0.91 to
93.07.
The Washington Post reported that
Tax-cut legislation includes benefits
for NASCAR Tracks: A host of industries,
from Caribbean distilleries to Hollywood
producers, would gain billions in tax
breaks and other subsidies under
compromise tax-cut legislation now
moving its way through Congress. The
$858 billion package approved by the
Senate is focused primarily on
continuing the Bush administration tax
cuts for two years, extending
unemployment benefits and other
large-scale expenditures. But buried
inside the legislation are more than $55
billion in other giveaways and tax
reductions for some of Washington's most
influential industry groups.
Owners of NASCAR tracks and other
motor-sports facilities would benefit
from two more years of a tax policy
making it cheaper for them to fund
capital projects. Estimated cost to
taxpayers: $40 million. The motor-sports
provision stems from an ongoing dispute
between racetrack owners and the
Internal Revenue Service, which
concluded that racing facilities should
be subject to longer depreciation
schedules - thus decreasing tax benefits
for owners. The motor-sports industry,
including the popular NASCAR series,
argues that a shorter, seven-year
depreciation schedule used by amusement
parks and similar facilities should
apply instead. Congress has periodically
approved the accelerated depreciation
schedule since 2004; the tax-cuts bill
would extend the provision again through
2011. The main beneficiaries of the
provision would be large track owners
such as International Speedway Corp. and
Speedway Motorsports.
In other motorsports financial news, the
Memphis Motorsports Park which was owned
by Dover Motorsports, was sold at a live
auction for slightly less than $1.9
million. Independent investor Joe Lubeck
placed the highest bid for the property,
$1.875 million, after the bidding opened
at $3 million. Lubeck is managing
partner of Jupiter, Fla based Palm Beach
International Raceway, formerly known as
Moroso Motorsports Park.
That’s it for this week from 11 Gardner
Drive, Westerly RI 02891. Ring my chimes
at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com
