Following up on a bit of news that we reported on back in January, we’re now hearing from reliable sources that the IHRA’s move of the fabled World Series of Drag Racing to the Memphis International Raceway this August is all but official.

As most drag racing fans would agree — and have actively voiced on social media and online forums — could go down as one of the all-time great flubs in drag racing history. The World Series, which this year will celebrate its 63rd edition, is the sport’s oldest and longest continuously-running drag race, and the vast majority of them, well over half a century’s worth, have been run at the Cordova Dragway Park in Cordova, Illinois.

A standalone independent event, the World Series is still largely considered one of the biggest drag races in the nation, with booked-in ‘big show’ nitro Top Fuelers and Funny Cars and many of the top names in nostalgia and exhibition racing.

The IRGSE-owned (the parent company of the IHRA) Memphis International Raceway revealed its 2016 schedule on January 21st, with the weekend of August 26-27 — the traditional date of the World Series, a week before Labor Day— noticeably void of an event. MIR officials shared that a “major national event” would be announced at a later date, to be contested on that weekend. As we’re now hearing, the rumored move of the World Series to Memphis is a go, with only the handshakes and the official press releases left to be handled.

A petition began circulating around the community in mid-January, led by longtime competitors and fans of the World Series, attempting to stop the move of the event to Memphis, but those efforts would, unfortunately, appear to have done little to curb the decision.

As fans of the history of this great sport, we can only hope that this move is a short-lived one. When something works for 62 years, you don’t mess with it.