:And that’s why Tim McAmis thought you were stealing money?

KN: Absolutely. And I told him point blank where the money had gone and I told him to ask his quote-unquote ‘boss’ where the money had gone or have me arrested. If you think I’ve taken $300,000 – ‘cause this started in November, these accusations started coming when Tim went through the books. And I will take a polygraph today, tomorrow or any other day to answer all those questions. But nothing ever became of all that.

Here’s something worth pointing out. When this inquiry first came about – this would have been in November 2010 before I ever went over there for the Arabian Drag Racing League season. Because Tim wanted his money back – remember Tim put some money in that was put aside for something else to cover losses for the ADRL because Don Greenbaum, the Qatar Racing Club and Sheikh Khalid, none of these people were paying what they agreed to.

And I told this to Tim, to his face, standing in the staging lanes at the Qatar Racing Club: “Don’t you ever accuse me of taking anything. Go ask Khalid where that money went; he knows exactly where the money went. I don’t want to hear another word about that money.”

:So did McAmis ever say that he asked? Did the Sheikh ever acknowledge the money?

KN: We never had another conversation about it. I think at that point, Kay, Puvanesan Kay, who was trying to be the peacemaker, knew that I was a great promoter, thought that Tim would be good to run the business side of it, thought if we all worked together that it would benefit everybody, including the Sheikh and it would protect Al-Anabi’s investment. This was what they wanted to happen.

So, at this point, in November, imagine that you’re Sheikh Khalid al Thani and your guy, Tim McAmis, is going to be the new ADRL president and I’m the International Director of whatever and McAmis is telling Khalid, “Hey, there’s 300 grand missing.”  This all took place in November while I’m in Qatar running races for Sheikh Khalid.  If I had stole it, how dumb a human being would I have to be to steal $300,000 from a guy and then go to his country where he could have me buried in the sand and I would never be heard from again.

:So, were there every any formal charges against you?

KN: Never. Ever.

:For embezzlement or…

KN: No, because it didn’t happen. And the guy who had the money knew it didn’t happen. Khalid must not have believed I stole from the ADRL because on December the first that year he wired me, the same guy accused of stealing 300 grand from him, 289,000 bucks.

I got a call from Steve Vick, a Pro Nitrous racer, from the PRI Show – remember I’m in Qatar while the PRI Show is being run because I’m no longer…. Jeff Fortune is doing my annual press conference and stuff because I’m in Qatar, I’m the International Director of whatever now. I’m not even at the PRI Show. I’m talking back and forth with my guys from Qatar.

Steve Vick calls me and says the rumor going around the PRI Show is the reason you are out of the ADRL is because you stole a bunch of money from the Sheikh. Stole a bunch of money! I text an image to Steve Vick – if you ask him, he’ll tell you – of my wire transfer from the Bank of Doha for $289,000, a little over a million Riyals – I was a millionaire in Qatar for a day. (Laughs)

So, I confronted Tim about it again. I told him, “You accuse me, you better get a lawyer, you better have me arrested. Quit accusing me of taking this money when you know damn good and well – and if you don’t know, go ask because Khalid knows full well that he’s got every penny from that point forward. He took for his own purposes. Period."

:Were there people other than you and the Sheikh that can verify that?

KN: There were several people in the motor home [who saw this]. And then that money was doled out – I’ll tell you what he was using the money for, for Todd Tutterow and Frankie Taylor and JR Todd and the line of people around the corner. And I’d sit and watch Bashar, one of his guys, count money out and put it into envelopes. And it was like a food line outside Khalid’s motor home. And all Khalid wanted to do was sit in there and drink Peronis and get drunk because the stress was killing him.

:What stress?

KN: The stress of all these people wanting so much from him.  I don’t know how the money got from Qatar to New York, from New York to St. Louis. I don’t care, but it never came as agreed.

:So by that time you are out of the American Drag Racing League?

KN: Yes and I was so stressed I quickly purged my life of everything connected to drag racing.

:When was that?

KN: February 2011, going into March. I started going to a psychiatrist, therapist, got heavily medicated. (Laughs) I’ve got the prescriptions to prove it. The point is I was losing my mind because I’d lost my baby. The ADRL was like a baby to me. You know that; you watched me give birth to it, you watched me grow it, you watched me take it from one race to a ten-race nationally televised, nationally sponsored series where everybody got paid every time!

END PART 1

In Part 2 Kenny Nowling talks about his buying back the ADRL from Al-Anabi Racing with help from the Scruggs family. He reveals the issues and reasons for the disastrous “Battle for the Belts” race at Rockingham and the last race in Houston. He will give his side as to what really caused many racers to not be paid for the Rockingham and Houston races, the reason for the sale of the ADRL to a group of racers led by Mitchell Scruggs, what  actually transpired and yet more claims of money promised by the Sheikh and never delivered. He has also agreed to furnish DRO with original financial records regarding all of his transactions, some of which we will print in the second part of the interview.