Dick Bahre has been involved with auto racing for over 50 years, from the local "Saturday night" short track to the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.

In the late 1950’s into the 1960’s, he and older brother Bob toured New England with a midget racing series with their own midget race car. When Bob bought Oxford Plains Speedway in 1964, Dick went from turning wrenches on a midget race car to working beside his brother at the newly acquired speedway as the track manager.

In February 1970, Dick entered a car in the Late Model "300" at Daytona with recently crowned Oxford track champion Niles ‘Gas’ Gage. This was to be the first of many trips to Daytona, and later to other NASCAR southern tracks, for Dick during the "off season".

With a desire to test the NASCAR Winston (now Sprint) Cup Series waters, Dick entered the 1981 Daytona 500 with Geoff Bodine. Following a hand full of periodic NASCAR Cup races, Dick decided to try Cup racing on a more full-time basis. He left his position at Oxford Plains at the end of the 1983 season and took up residence in the heart of NASCAR country – Statesville, North Carolina – only a few miles from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Three years later, Dick and Chuck Rider formed Bahari Racing with Michael Waltrip as the driver.

In 1988, Dick parted ways with Bahari Racing. A year later, he joined brother Bob in the construction of New Hampshire International Speedway.