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CUP: Smith Ponders New Hampshire Move After Rift With Police Chief
Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith is considering moving one of his races away from New Hampshire Motor Speedway...
Bob Pockrass  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted June 19, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith. (Photo: Getty Images)
Speedway Motorsports Chairman Bruton Smith often says he likes to promote races and build tracks where he feels wanted. The city of Loudon, N.H., is finding that out as a rift with the police chief has Smith talking about moving one of the Sprint Cup races away from New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

While he negotiated a bill for police protection during a race weekend down from more than $250,000 in 2008 to $170,000 last year, Smith feels the costs should be no more than $65,000 for local police services, excluding costs to hire a private security firm to help patrol the campground areas.

In New Hampshire, local police departments have the authority to provide protection for special events, and Loudon Police Chief Bob Fiske wants to keep his officers in place and the bill to remain $175,000 for the NHMS races next weekend.

“We want to move somewhere where we feel like we would have respect,” Smith told The Concord Monitor earlier this week, later adding, “I guess we’d be better off somewhere else. I’m thinking a lot about it.”

Just a week earlier at Kentucky Speedway – which doesn’t have a Cup date – Smith indicated he was hopeful the situation at the New Hampshire track could be resolved.

“After I got there and we had a race, I got a huge bill from him for police protection,” Smith said in a news conference at Kentucky. “I didn’t know we needed that much police protection. We had an argument about the bill but I still had to pay it. But then we decided we maybe shouldn’t be doing that.

“We’ve had a situation going on there for all this year and last year in reducing this huge bill that this man presents us with. Where do we stand right now? The governor is involved, I’ve talked to the attorney general and four law firms involved. We’re going to try to come to some gentleman’s understanding that we have about the police protection we have up there.”

Smith bought the 1-mile NHMS track – with its two Cup weekends – in January 2008 for $340 million. He has said he wants to add a race to Las Vegas Motor Speedway and also eventually wants a Cup date at Kentucky. NASCAR, which already is working on its 2011 schedule, would have to approve any realignment.

While speculation that the track would lose a date to Las Vegas was rampant when Smith announced he was buying the track in November 2007, that speculation has died down as Smith has made improvements to the 96,000-seat facility and the races have been well attended.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway currently hosts two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“After he got up here and saw it, he was impressed with the fan support and what was here, and I think he still feels good about it,” said Jerry Gappens, track general manager. “The things we control have gone very well and I think he’s pleased with it. This issue is a little bit out of our control because of this police chief, and we’re just trying to bring that back into a proper perspective from a cost standpoint.

“I think we have gotten our message out loud and clear.”

Smith has threatened to move races from tracks – and even move a track – as part of negotiations with local governments in the past. He has been critical that Fiske himself works 20-hour days during the race weekends at a rate of $50 an hour and also has family members on the police force.

Gappens said the going rate is $43 an hour for a police officer and he can hire a private security firm for $21 an hour per security officer. The current plan has 38 policemen staying overnight in the campground, and Gappens said there were fewer than 50 arrests during the race weekend last September and a force of 12 police officers overnight would be enough if complemented by private security.

Fiske told the Concord paper that Smith is trying to use a “smear tactic” against him and the safety plan is justified.

“Ideally, we want to work with the town of Loudon and resolve this issue,” Gappens said. “This is our only rub with the town of Loudon. … I told Bruton I would get this fixed up here, and we’ll move forward.

“We’ve got good things going on here. Our track is doing as well, if not better, than a lot of tracks on the circuit. We have got a great fan base here with New England. They support both races and we’re trying to build on our schedule, not take anything away.”

Gappens said the speedway has enjoyed a great deal of support from city officials for improvements to the track and has had no trouble with permits and zoning requests. He also is working on possibly adding an Indy Racing League race to the track schedule and building a casino on track property.

But could Smith move a race over a $100,000 dispute? Gappens said a Cup date is a corporate asset and if Smith felt it could be used better somewhere else, he could move it.

“At the end of the day, it’s Bruton’s decision and he’s got to do what he feels best for the company, but I don’t think deep down he wants to do that,” Gappens said. “But if he finds it very difficult to do business in this town or this state, he might have to take a serious look at it.

“He’s said repeatedly [in the past] he has no plans to take a date from New Hampshire, but this came up last fall and it’s still a problem here in June with the police chief, and that’s kind of raised his eyebrows a little bit.”

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Bob Pockrass

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