Troy Moe has a message to those spreading false rumors about his efforts to revive the American Hot Road Association - “We're not bankrupt.”

“We’re not a privately traded company or a non-profit organization, so we don’t report our financials publicly. I realize the message boards are having their heyday with us. That’s a shame. There are those who are going to take their shots at us.”

Moe, who is spearheading the attempt to revive the American Hot Road Association, admits there have been weather related setbacks, but is adamant about the dedication of his group to return the series to prominence in the drag racing world.

“We’re not bankrupt,” Moe said in response to message board postings suggesting the group was out of business.

Two Events into AHRA’s Return, Mother Nature Hasn’t Been A Fan …

Troy Moe has a message to those spreading false rumors about his efforts to revive the American Hot Road Association - “We're not bankrupt.”

“We’re not a privately traded company or a non-profit organization, so we don’t report our financials publicly. I realize the message boards are having their heyday with us. That’s a shame. There are those who are going to take their shots at us.”

Moe, who is spearheading the attempt to revive the American Hot Road Association, admits there have been weather related setbacks, but is adamant about the dedication of his group to return the series to prominence in the drag racing world.

“We’re not bankrupt,” Moe said in response to message board postings suggesting the group was out of business.

Moe and his group are attempting to bring back the Jim Tice-founded AHRA, which folded in the mid-1980s following the founder’s death.

Two races into the 2010 Reunion Tour, setbacks have fueled speculation the effort is over. Allegations of slow pay to various vendors, a weak turnout of spectators at the first event and cancellation of the second stop on the tour due to “unstable” weather only to have it turn beautiful and sunny, has provided fuel to a fire started by those who appear dedicated to the demise of the effort.

Moe told Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com in an exclusive interview, unpredictable weather dealt his group a serious setback. That much is true.

The first event held at Desert Thunder Raceway in Midland, Tex., earlier this month was completed despite tornadoes in the area. A long range forecast for more of the same a week later at the next stop in San Antonio led to the cancellation of the event.

“It got bad in Midland, [there was] weather with tornadoes and floods and unfortunately people died,” Moe explained. “Cars were up to their doors with water and the track was under four inches of water, with mud and debris. We stayed there and made it work. The race went smooth and we had no spectators because essentially the whole state of Texas was under siege with passing storm cells.

“A lot of the success for the event was dependent on a successful draw from the smaller areas.”

Moe was impressed by the Desert Thunder staff’s ability to overcome adversity and get the race in, but the reality of the situation is both the track and fledgling AHRA took a financial beating.

That was the first event. Not wanting to suffer the same issues in the second event with a similar weather forecast, Moe took the only action that he felt made sense.

“At the time we decided to cancel the event (San Antonio) due to unstable weather patterns, the forecast called for thunderstorms every day and a 60-percent chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday. So we called the race. After we called the race, and bear in mind, we pulled out of the media marketing for the area then, the weather changed and we got whipsawed by the weather and it made us look foolish.

“There was nothing I could do about that. We are running a business and we have to survive. This is a start-up company, we don’t have billions of dollars to bring in a bunch of pros and pay everyone to do nothing. We can’t and won’t do that. The forecast had Texas under siege. We made our decision and it was too late to change.”

Moe said the decision led to an enormous volume of voice mails to return.

“I had 177 of them,” said Moe, pointing out he returned each voice mail. “It took me a half day to listen to them. We were working with the operator to reschedule [San Antonio] and yesterday we came to the conclusion the race will be outright cancelled.”

Moe confirmed yesterday refunds for pre-entries and pre-sale ticket sales from the cancelled event began yesterday.

In the meantime, Moe has already begun looking ahead to the next stop on the AHRA Reunion tour which is scheduled June 5 – 6 at Marion County International Raceway in LaRue, Ohio.

He’s hoping the skeptics will back off long enough to give his group a chance, under more favorable conditions, to put on a “must see” event.

“It’s hard not to take this personal because we’ve spent an awful lot of money, invested a year’s worth of work with a small staff and we are trying to go out there and put on races,” Moe said. “We are going forward with Marion County and into Calgary.”

Moe said a meeting with his management team at 1 AM Monday morning, following the Midland event, provides a clear example of his team’s resolve to make the new AHRA succeed.

“We sat down and agreed the weekend was fun,” Moe revealed. “We all agreed we love this sport or we wouldn’t be doing this. The people we have involved are very nice and successful businessmen. We decided to move forward knowing we were headed into a storm when we got home.”

And for Moe and his group, even they’ve been dodging storms ever since, they can see calmer weather and rainbows on the horizon.