American Hot Rod Association

American Hot Rod Association

The American Hot Rod Association, also known as AHRA, was, until the emergence of the IHRA, America's second largest drag racing sanctioning body. The AHRA began in 1956 in Kansas and organized nationwide drag racing events until the end of 1984. The AHRA was especially notable in the period 1957 to 1963 when it elected not to follow the lead of the larger NHRA in banning the use of the extremely potent fuel, nitromethane thus allowing for significantly faster and more spectacular performances. The AHRA can also be credited with introducing to drag racing the concept of a year long season points chase when it created the Grand American Series of Professional Drag Racing in 1970. Today the AHRA does not exist as the large organization it once was, although its name is still used for events taking place in Spokane, Washington.

Jim Tice, the President of the AHRA met with Bill and Tom Guthery, two young entrepreneurs from the small town of LaRue, Ohio, near Marion, Ohio to look over the new Marion County International Dragstrip the two had built on family farmland back in 1969. Tice was impressed by the facility and by Bill Guthery's enthusiasm and awarded an AHRA National event to the new racing facility. This was during the era when Don Garlits and others had broken away from the National Hot Rod Association and formed the Pro Racers Association. Garlits had chosen to run an event in Oklahoma against a National NHRA event and was interested in bringing his show to the AHRA and Marion County International Drag Raceway. A deal was struck and the planning began. Garlits had talked many of the top stars of the day like Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins plus a number of other drivers in Top Fuel, Funny Car and ProStock to compete at MCIR. Here were two neophytes to racing, in their second year of operation, hosting a National Event at their facility with media coverage and a national stage for their operation. The AHRA Nationals at Marion County International Raceway was a huge success, with great competition and good attendance. Unfortunately, the AHRA couldn't keep up the fight the powerful NHRA and after a couple seasons was gone. Bill Guthery became a very successful promoter of Indoor Tractor Pulls and the first of the Monster Truck Shows over the years. Guthery died from cancer two years ago, but his wife, Shelby still owns and runs Marion County International Raceway.

There are two AHRA'S The original Corp was a nonprofit corp formed by the Pittsburgh Pacers hot rod club. It was the brain child of Walt Mentzer the founder and first Pres. Walt was the NHRA regional advisor for Pa. the pres of the Keystone Timing Assoc. and the Pacers only Pres. He wanted an organization that would be governed by the membership. It would have worked had he not been drafted to army duty the year after it was started The Non- Profit Corp sits on the Pa. State records still listing Walt Mentzer as the responsible agent and Pres.

References

External links

* http://www.spokaneracewaypark.com/
* http://www.lostindiana.net/html/us_30_drag_strip.html


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • National Hot Rod Association — NHRA redirects here. For other uses, see NHRA (disambiguation). National Hot Rod Association NHRA …   Wikipedia

  • Hot Rod Magazine — is a popular American monthly magazine devoted the hobby of hot rodding, or modifying automobiles for performance and appearance.HistoryHot Rod magazine is the oldest magazine devoted to hot rodding having been published since 1948. Robert E.… …   Wikipedia

  • Hot rod — imagestack Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. Nobody knows for sure the origin of the term hot rod. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of hot roadster, meaning a roadster that was… …   Wikipedia

  • Hot-Rod — Kanadischer Hot Rod auf Basis eines Ford Model A aus den 1930er Jahren, hier mit Breitreifen tiefer gelegter und verbreiterter Hot Rod auf Basis eines Peugeot 402 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hot Rod — Ein Deuce von 1932, der mittels Chopping und Cleaning modifiziert wurde …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hot Rods (oval racing) — Hot Rods or simply Rods refer to a number of British oval racing formula (not to be confused with hot rods, which are generally road going modified vintage cars). Hot Rods were introduced at Hednesford Hills Raceway in the early 1960s as a… …   Wikipedia

  • American Motors — Infobox Defunct Company company name = American Motors Corporation company fate = Acquired by Chrysler (March 2 1987) successor = Jeep Eagle division of Chrysler foundation = January 14 1954 location = Southfield, Michigan, United States industry …   Wikipedia

  • American Bicycle Association — The American Bicycle Association (ABA) is a United States based Bicycle Motocross (BMX) sports governing body in Gilbert, Arizona created by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. It is the largest sanctioning body in the United States concerning… …   Wikipedia

  • American Idol (season 8) — American Idol Season 8 Broadcast from January 14, 2009–May 20, 2009 Judges Simon Cowell Paula Abdul Randy Jackson Kara DioGuardi Host(s) Ryan Seacrest …   Wikipedia

  • Rambler American — Infobox Automobile name = Rambler American manufacturer = American Motors (AMC) production = 1958 ndash; 1969 assembly = flagicon|USA Kenosha, Wisconsin flagicon|Canada Brampton, Ontario flagicon|Mexico Mexico City, Mexico (VAM)… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”