Track owner Bob Bahre badly hurt in wreck

CONCORD, N.H. January 31, 2004; The Associated Press reported that New Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre was in intensive care Saturday after he was seriously injured in an accident Thursday when his car went off the road in Maine. Bahre, who is also part-owner with Bruton Smith of the dormant North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina, suffered a fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle, a concussion, rib injuries and has been in and out of consciousness, track spokesman Ron Meade said.

"They just got him out of an MRI and they have him stabilized, but as you can imagine all the swelling, it's pretty serious," Meade said.

A hospital spokesman said Bahre, who is in his late 70s, was listed in stable condition, and was in intensive care at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Maine.

Bahre was following another vehicle to his home in Paris, Maine, after a day at the speedway when his SUV went off Route 160 in Brownfield at 2 p.m. Thursday and hit a tree.

The airbag and seat belt probably saved Bahre from greater injury, Cpl. Tim Ontengco of the Oxford County Sheriff's Department said.

Bahre, who said he was fatigued, apparently fell asleep coming off a curve, Ontengco said.

"I asked him what happened. He said he was kind of tired and fatigued because he had been at the speedway all day and he was driving back" to his home in Maine, the investigator said.

After the crash, the speedometer was stuck at 49 mph, the speed the SUV was traveling, Ontengco said.

Bahre was taken to Bridgeton Hospital and then transferred to Stephens.

Bahre, a self-made multimillionaire in his late 70s, brought big time auto racing to New England at the Loudon speedway, which he operates with his son, Gary. The one-mile oval is host to two NASCAR Nextel Cup races each year. Previously, Bahre owned and operated Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine from 1964 to 1986.

The North Wilkesboro track was one of the oldest used on the NASCAR circuit when it was closed in 1996. Bahre and Smith bought the track in order to move the speedway's two Winston Cup race dates to larger, more modern tracks.

Wilkes County is considered by many to be the birthplace of stock-car racing, much as Cooperstown, N.Y., is celebrated as the birthplace of baseball. Such legendary drivers as Junior Johnson roared through the back roads in and around Wilkes hauling moonshine, laying the foundation for modern stock-car racing.