Group Taking Foreclosure Action Against Waterford Speedbowl Ownership

WATERFORD – A group of creditors still owed money from a debt reorganization plan arranged through state bankruptcy court have moved to have foreclosure action taken against the owner of the Waterford Speedbowl.

Speedbowl owner Terry Eames confirmed Sunday evening that a foreclosure action was filed on March 27. The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch lists the plaintiffs in the action as Rocco Arbitell, Peter Borelli and the Committee of Sale.

“It’s not a total shock, but I’m a little surprised that’s it’s happened,” Eames said.

Eames said the action will not effect in any way the current day-to-day operations of the Speedbowl. The 2013 racing season began at the Speedbowl this weekend with the running of the track’s Budweiser Blastoff event.

“It doesn’t really change anything in the near term,” Eames said. “It’s going to take some time to play out. At that track it’s business as usual. We’ll get through it.”

The action adds to a long list of legal financial issues faced by ownership at the Speedbowl over the last seven years.

In July 2007, Arbitell, a Southbury businessman and local racing supporter, along with his business associate Borrelli, stepped in to offer Eames and his ownership group, 1080 Hartford Road LLC, financing to avoid a foreclosure action being taken then by former mortgage holder Washington Mutual Bank.

The deal with Arbitell was announced a day before the track’s auction date for a foreclosure in 2007.

In May 2008 Arbitell brought his own foreclosure action against the ownership group after former track operator Jerry Robinson failed to pay the Speedbowl’s property taxes.

Facing another pending foreclosure auction, Eames and 1080 Hartford Road LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2009.

A debt reorganization plan was accepted by bankruptcy court in January 2012 and the ownership cleared bankruptcy not long after that.

“They found some technical default with how we had performed under the [debut reorganization] plan,” Eames said. “… At the end of the day these people haven’t been paid and they need to get paid and they will get paid. It’s just taking longer than any of us had wanted to deal with this, but they’ll get taken care of and we’ll keep going.”