Promoters of scuttled Boston IndyCar race face new suit

Debris from the crashed-and-burned Grand Prix of Boston IndyCar race has landed on the North Shore, as one of the event's major sponsors has filed suit against two promoters of the event.

Promoters John Casey of Boxford and Mark Perrone of Ipswich are named, along with Boston Grand Prix LLC, in a suit filed Friday afternoon in Salem Superior Court by Global Partners LP.

Global Partners, which paid $275,000 toward a $550,000 sponsorship deal with the race promoters earlier this year, is looking for an injunction preventing race organizers from selling or disposing of any assets, other than refunding ticket holders, until they get their money back.

The suit seeks at least $275,000 plus additional damages to be determined.

Global Partners is a Waltham-based owner and supplier of gas stations and convenience stores with approximately 1,000 locations throughout the Northeast, according to its website.

The firm, in court filings, says it was approached last year by race organizers to become an official sponsor for the event and reached a sponsorship agreement in November.

In exchange for paying the race organizers $550,000, Global would be designated as the "official fuel and convenience store partner" for the race.

Global had paid Boston Grand Prix organizers half that amount — $275,000 — when the race was canceled in April; the balance would have been due this month.

Global would get to use the race in its own promotions, including one by Global's ExxonMobil gas stations and Alltown convenience stores to give away 50,000 free tickets to service members, veterans and first responders for "Freedom Friday," the first day of the now-canceled event that was to have taken place on Labor Day weekend.

Other perks of the sponsorship deal would have been tickets to promotional events, the display of ads throughout the race route (including a jumbo video screen at the grandstand), and the sponsor's name painted on streets leading up to and out of the "pit lane."

It's at least the third lawsuit filed — with more threatened, including one from Attorney General Maura Healey and another from auto dealership magnate Herb Chambers — in connection with the canceled event.

Healey is looking into where the funds from ticket sales went, after the race promoters ran out of money for refunds.

Last month, the Indianapolis Star reported the IndyCar racing organization had filed suit in federal court against Boston Grand Prix.

Howard Stein Hudson Associates, an engineering firm, also filed suit last month, in Suffolk Superior Court, where court records show that as of May 21, little more than a month after the race's abrupt cancellation, two banks holding accounts for Boston Grand Prix LLC contained a combined total of less than $11,000.

A hearing on Global's request for an injunction is scheduled for June 30 in Lawrence Superior Court.

Salem attorney Saul Benowitz, who represents Global Partners in the action, did not return a call Monday before this edition's print deadline, nor did Grand Prix lawyer Michael Goldberg. SalemNews