The new and improved AHRA has made the interesting move of taking over the operations of Thunder Road Raceway Park located in Gilliam, Louisiana. This move comes on the heels of the NHRA announcing that it would not allow member tracks to host AHRA races due to the fact that the AHRA has declared itself a sanctioning body.
Thunder Road Raceway Park was formerly known as Red River Raceway and gained a level of notoriety when it literally flooded, more than one time, when the IHRA attempted to hold national events at the track. After the second waterlogged attempt, the IHRA abandoned any further national event plans there.
Who knows where all this is heading. It’ll be an interesting winter. That we know for sure.
Here’s the full announcement from the AHRA.
The American Hot Rod Association is pleased to announce that it has entered into a multi-year agreement, effective January 1, 2010, to take over all operations of Thunder Road Raceway Park. Thunder Road is located in Gilliam Louisiana, 18 miles north of Shreveport. “This will be the mother ship of re-establishing the AHRA in the South; once known as strong AHRA country for many decades” stated Troy Moe, Chief Executive Officer of AHRA. Moe said AHRA will be redesigning the Sportsmen programs as well as hosting multiple major spectator events at the facility. AHRA will be making an announcement shortly as to the appointment of its new General Manager of the facility. “We look forward to developing our Sportsmen friendly programs by sanctioning additional tracks in the Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma markets” stated Moe. AHRA will be announcing a “Reunion Tour” date for the facility in the coming days. AHRA class rules will be posted on its web-site the week of December 13, 2009. “We are extremely excited to have Thunder Road on board in this capacity. This long term agreement will allow us to develop a strong relationship with the sportsmen racers, which is one of the primary objectives of our company” Moe stated. Please direct any questions to [email protected]
