Despite the best of intentions, Mentzer’s hoped-for smooth convention did not materialize. The 18 states represented at the convention factionalized and the AHRA by-laws, one-man, one-vote, were bypassed to a very large degree. The states of Texas and Kansas held sway, and Mentzer, who had been the group’s president since 1955, was voted out and a Great Bend businessman and non-racer, Nelson Pointer, was voted in. Mentzer got a symbolic vote to be the organization vice-president. In that uproar, Mentzer also took note of a competitive force within the Kansas contingent.

“There was this guy there who I could just tell was really manipulating to take control,” Mentzer said. “This was Jim Tice. He probably saw we had a good thing going and he wanted to be in. He didn’t get elected, but I could see he had eyes on leadership.”

Unfortunately for Mentzer, at that time a genuine setback occured: he got drafted in 1957 and that took him out of the racing picture. In 1958, the racers voted in Don Garlits as AHRA president with Tice moving in as vice-president. By late 1959, though, Garlits had gone on with his racing career and Tice became AHRA president.

“Tice was a sharp guy and knew the law,” Mentzer continued. “He moved AHRA to Kansas City, took over the books, and literally incorporated the name there, effectively creating two AHRA’s. Unlike our group, Tice made it a profit-making organization and under his leadership, it did become a rival to NHRA and an important factor in the sport.”

“It’s been reported that the first AHRA, the one I was involved with, had been dissolved long ago and I had heard that the Tice AHRA went out of business listed as AHRA in 1984,” Mentzer noted. “However, 30 years later in 1987, I decided to check and found that the Pittsburgh AHRA was still a listed corporation.

“The AHRA Tice incorporated, of course, was sold to Mike Gray, who owned Terminal Van Lines in Florida around 1984 or 1985. He only had it a little while and I believe [Orville Moe] a guy in Washington has it now.”

As some fans know, Moe has held an ADRA (American Drag Racers Association) Nationals at his Spokane Raceway track in August since 1984. Prior to the ADRA status, the Spokane track was the host site of the AHRA World Finals beginning in 1974.

If one looks closely at the a-board at the recent annual Spokane affairs, one can see what looks like the familiar blue AHRA decal there and at other points. However, that's been pretty much all that's left of AHRA. Well, maybe not quite….

“Dan Weis, the track owner at Richmond Dragway, and I got together in 1987 and talked about getting the old AHRA back together,” Mentzer concluded. “I told him about our still being a recognized non-profit corporation and that I could prove Tice had basically stole it from the membership years ago. We sent letters to the original members and for awhile had some insurance lined up to start the organization back up. However, the insurance became a problem, so we put AHRA back on the shelf.

“How would I describe AHRA now? Well, from our end, I’d say it’s inactive, but I certainly wouldn’t call it dead.”

 

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