On Sept. 27-30 of that year, Gray held his first AHRA event and the last in the organization's history. The AHRA World Finals were held in Eunice, Louisiana and despite having racers like Garlits, Chris Karamesines, Mark Oswald and the Candies & Hughes Pontiac, and the final AHRA Funny Car champ John Force, the race went in the toilet. According to the event announcer Bret Kepner, the grandstands were barren.

In general, the event was poorly promoted and the producers got plucked. It was even said that a wily, veteran race promoter just outside Baton Rouge held a big-dollar bracket race that same weekend. To get to Eunice, you had to go right by his place, and miles before you got to this promoter's track, there were signs that said "Championship Drag Races This Way." To AHRA and Mike Gray, the fans went the wrong way.

The plot sickened in the AHRA / ADRA split because Gray decided to sue the AHRA track owners just before this event. Using Orville Moe's name as the target, he sued for a ton of money, but in the process, allegedly slandered Moe. An out-of-court settlement was reached in 1986 with the original track owners gaining the AHRA name back.

In the interim years of 1985 and 1986, ADRA ran two full seasons, hosting shows at old stand-bys Tucson Dragway, San Antonio Dragway, Tulsa Int'l Raceway, Kansas City Int'l Raceway, Ozark Raceway in Springfield, Missouri, Dragway 42, Spokane, and newcomer Carlsbad Raceway.

However, after the 1986 season, ADRA, now back to AHRA, held only one consistent race, the AHRA World Finals at Moe's Spokane facility.

"The big culprit was insurance," said Moe. "Sometime in the late 1980's, it really became an issue. We had tracks in 12 states, but a number of these states got rid of the waiver / release forms that we see now at all the big races. This made the insurance companies extremely nervous. And in so many words, they dropped racing coverage at all the tracks.

"We met with the tracks to decide what to do about this. It was decided to let each track handle their own insurance problems and in this period, from the late 1980's to maybe early 1990's, some filtered off to IHRA, some took on NHRA Winston points races. We at Spokane even had to take on a new insurance company, but we wanted good coverage because we intended to run national-event-type shows."

Today, drag race fans are likely aware that since the 1986 season the annual August World Finals is all that's left of the old AHRA trail.

Moe said that the Spokane office still advises about 16 tracks along with running its annual pro show.

Looking back, he reflected on the "what ifs" of the AHRA experience. Obviously the first question would be, "What if Jim Tice Sr. had lived? Would AHRA still be around?"

"Oh no doubt in my mind," responded Moe. "Jim was a good businessman and was even an insurance attorney, but what he did was different. He knew how to baby-sit the tracks. He knew how to make sure that the money went exactly where it was supposed to. There were no shenanigans, you got an upfront deal with him.

"He was always on the side of the racer, too. I remember he told me, 'You gotta be nice to the racers. The first time, they see you and your track, there's a woman's hand stuck out to take your money. The second thing, they see is some tech guy telling you what a piece of shit your car is. That's not a very favorable first impression.'"

Moe added that a new AHRA or its equivalent may rise out of the ashes. Anyone familiar with drag racing politics knows that names have to be concealed to protect the innocent. But both he and Tice Jr. concur that there are some big money people who want to get involved in a drag racing series, somewhat based on the old AHRA set up.

Spokane now has grown to 640 acres with a new casino set up for construction sometime in the future. In addition, a half-mile, NASCAR-designed track and a road course are ready. And in addition, there are seats placed in such a position that a fan can see both the drag racing action and the stock car races.

"If things come together, we may have a very good series of races capitalizing on the spirit of the sport from the past," Moe said. "Not nostalgia necessarily, but in a way where we could fill in the gaps where the big two associations don't meet the need - and those areas do exist.

"You know how Jim got involved with AHRA 45 years ago? He felt he got treated badly at the 1955 Great Bend race and was determined to do something about it."

To many, that gut feeling for many racers and fans has not diminished all that much. They see ticket prices that have gone through the roof, fans getting double-dipped once inside for reserve seats, tall concession prices, absurdly expensive souvenirs, parking fees, a huge gap between the racing "haves" and "have-nots," and smaller fields in the all-important pro segment.

It could be there is room for someone to take on issues and make some changes in areas like these as drag racing enters the new millennium. Who knows? Maybe some of the initiative for change will be taken from the proud remnants of the fabled old AHRA, the organization that led the way to pro drag racing as we know it so many years ago.

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