New Jersey Motorsports Park Sued By Business Partner Over Cancelled Contract, Attempted Misappropriation of Trade Secrets, and Failure to Provide Safety Workers During Event

Lawsuit brought by company whose events at the track have brought thousands of visitors and millions of dollars to Millville over the past decade

Philadelphia, PA (July 25, 2018) – New Jersey Motorsports Park (“NJMP”), a 500-acre racetrack complex in Millville, New Jersey, was sued today in Pennsylvania federal court by Team Pro-Motion, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based operator of motorcycle trackdays—events where motorcycle riders gather to ride on the racetrack away from traffic and other hazards. The decade-long relationship between the two ended on July 12, 2018, when NJMP allegedly terminated the contract between them.

Team Pro-Motion’s legal claims against NJMP include tortious interference with contracts, an attempt to misappropriate trade secrets, defamation, and breach of contract. NJMP bills itself as the “premier motorsports entertainment complex in the Northeast.”

Specifically, Team Pro-Motion alleges that:

i. NJMP interfered with Team Pro-Motion’s contracts with its current and potential customers by cancelling the contract between the two, eliminating four of Team Pro-Motion’s earlier events in 2018 as well as its remaining 2018 events at NJMP, and making inaccurate and misleading statements to the public, including Team Pro-Motion’s customers, about the nature of the relationship between Team Pro-Motion and NJMP and the reason for why the contract between the two was terminated;

ii. NJMP attempted to misappropriate Team Pro-Motion’s trade secrets such as customer lists, pricing and profitability information, and marketing information;

iii NJMP defamed Team Pro-Motion by making the inaccurate and misleading statements to the public described above; and

iv. NJMP breached its contract with Team Pro-Motion by cancelling the contract between the two, eliminating four of Team Pro-Motion’s earlier events in 2018 as well as its remaining 2018 events at NJMP, and not staffing a June 10, 2018, event with the required number of safety workers.

“For over a decade, Team Pro-Motion and NJMP together put on 30 to 50 events a year which brought thousands of people and millions of dollars to Millville over that time,” said Glen Goldman, founder of Team Pro-Motion. “Our events at NJMP drew out-of-town visitors who stayed at local hotels, ate and drank at local restaurants and bars, and shopped at local stores. Unfortunately, and as a result of NJMP’s conduct that we allege in our lawsuit, those events have dwindled to zero, so those visitors and their tourist dollars are unlikely to return again to Millville and Cumberland County.”

Many of Team Pro-Motion’s allegations focus on NJMP’s alleged efforts to recruit Team Pro-Motion founder Glen Goldman to join an NJMP-supported joint venture and to eliminate competition for a new business NJMP wanted to launch. Team Pro-Motion alleges that NJMP’s interest in Goldman was because the racetrack wanted to profit from Team Pro-Motion’s confidential information and trade secrets that Goldman possessed. The terms of the joint venture would have allegedly required Goldman to obtain and provide all of Team Pro-Motion’s assets by any means, even though Goldman explained that he could not do so without having his business partner approve the transaction. Team Pro-Motion alleges that soon after an NJMP official expressed concern about the involvement of that business partner, NJMP misled Team Pro-Motion by withdrawing the proposal in front of the partner but continued to pressure Goldman behind the partner’s back by demanding a supposed payment Team Pro-Motion was required to make. A few weeks later, and after Goldman refused to sign an agreement with NJMP in which he had to release his ownership interest in Team Pro-Motion, NJMP terminated the contract on July 12, 2018, despite allegedly not following the appropriate procedure for termination as stated in the contract.

“As we allege in our complaint, NJMP engaged in conduct that Team Pro-Motion believes was engineered to put Team Pro-Motion out of business,” said Dafan Zhang, attorney for Team Pro-Motion. “We believe that NJMP’s alleged attempts to lure Team Pro-Motion’s founder away from the company he built is proof that NJMP was not interested in maintaining the decade-long relationship between it and Team Pro-Motion that benefited both parties and the people of Cumberland County.”

Team Pro-Motion is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and “all other relief to which it is entitled and such other or additional relief as is just and proper.”

The lawsuit, captioned Team Pro-Motion, Inc., v. New Jersey Motorsports Park, LLC, is docket no. 18-cv-003117 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.