Not good chatter about the AHRA going on the racing boards
- Gilliam canceled their AHRA affiliation, supposedly (so claims a track employee) because employees not being paid.
- There are claims that winning drivers at Midland were told they’d get their winnings wired to them (we all know that generally means they’ll not get the promised purse — if any purse)
- San Antonio (suppose to start today) was canceled “Due to rain” — while the weather reports show a nice weekend. SIR is a pretty nice 1/4 mile (getting rare) track with plenty of hard pits, and gave up their IHRA sanction to be AHRA. I wonder where they go from here to fix that?
- Rumors are that Calgary is pulling out
I’ve not verified any of the above personally (except the San Antonio race) — but you can find the comments on many racing boards.
It would look like the AHRA’s 15 minutes of fame never came the second time around, and I suspect all news concerning the AHRA in the future is going to be very bad news for them. Building it and they will come — doesn’t work if you don’t have money to see it all of the way through. Hope and Change sounds good — but it takes leadership and a good plan.
I almost was going to run their series instead of the NMCA — and it looks like I came to my senses just in time.
Over the winter, I tried to get something going with the AHRA and NSS — and I thought it was a natural fit. However, I while I found Rod Saint (related to the original AHRA owner) to be a pretty nice guy — I felt Troy Moe (related to the more recent AHRA owner) to be arrogant and condescending. Only the Texas NSS drivers really wanted to take a chance with the AHRA — but I (in the end) told them that someone else needed to make it happen as I didn’t want to speak with Moe any further. I ultimately just sent Moe an email saying I was no longer interested in being the point guy in NSS discussions.
Too bad they couldn’t have been the Nostalgia Drag Organization that they gave the impression that they wanted to be. It appeared to have been a good concept on the drawing board — but most likely with the wrong people at the wrong time. The AHRA’s recent history in Seattle with charges of political corruption against the owners and inter-family lawsuits over ownership most likely didn’t help either. My personal bet is that you can stick a fork in the AHRA. I hope they at least pay the winning drivers and track employees. The last real AHRA owner (who owned it before Moe’s uncle made it a one race deal in Seattle) paid the drivers out of his pocket prior to throwing in the towel. My only business failure had me pay all of my bills prior to throwing in the towel — as it was the right thing to do — regardless of how painful it was to my family. I believe what goes around comes around.