Early in 1998 drag racing in Sydney was just starting to see off the trauma of seven years without a drag strip when we began to see the sport rapidly come to a halt again. Race events at Eastern Creek had been cancelled from the previous December, with apologies from the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), which held the lease on the venue. There were promises that it would all come together in the coming months, but it was becoming obvious that this was unlikely. This was a serious situation, as any prolonged break in the racing in Sydney again could be terminal. It seemed that if there was going to be any solution that would work for drag racing, we, the racers would have to find it on our own.

I began phoning contacts in various areas, discussing the problem, and, at first unbeknown to me, Top Fuel racer Jim Read began similar activities. Eventually we began to combine forces, but, frankly, we were just bumping into furniture and going nowhere when we were contacted by a guy from the Labor Party. He had an interest in the sport, all the necessary contacts in government, and thought he might be able to help. We put him in touch with ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton, and we all faxed him off a pile of information.

After about a month of not much happening he contacted us and said he'd arranged a meeting with senior officers from the New South Wales Department of Sport and Recreation, which administers the Eastern Creek operation. The purpose: to determine whether there was anything which could be done under the lease to force the issue, or, if not, what were the alternatives.

In that first meeting with senior public servants we were satisfied that the ARDC was meeting the letter of its lease agreement, but the government officials did agree that the sport was suffering severely, and something should be done. After examining all the alternatives they suggested that the only viable option was to build a drag strip on land somewhere outside Eastern Creek Raceway. We went along with that, but, we asked, where were we to go? The Department of Sport and Recreation ofered to undertake a search for us.

Our only pre-requisites were that whatever land they recommended be big enough and flat enough for a drag strip, and within 50 km. of Homebush - which is the urban centre of the city - to ensure its financial viability. Three weeks later we had another meeting with the public servants, and they told us that there was only one suitable block of land in Sydney, across the road from Eastern Creek, and directed us to pursue that.

And that's what we did. On August 20, under the banner of the non-profit sporting body, RPS Promotions, which ran ANDRA's Group One Championships for about two years in the mid-1990's, we made our first presentation to a NSW Government minister, and from then on we have put our case before a number of others, along with business organizations, councils, chambers of commerce and many more. Throughout this whole process we've done nothing but follow the government's advice.

However, in spite of everything that's gone before - and my files on this matter are now a good half metre thick - the issue of whether a drag strip can or cannot be built on Eastern Creek Raceway still seems to bubble along at some levels, despite it being ruled out by all - and I repeat all - authorities now.

In a letter to the Government (December 10), the ARDC has conceded that it cannot build an international standard drag strip at Eastern Creek Raceway, and in a number of newspaper statements, some of which have been reported in DRAGSTER, they have publicly stated that they are out of the equation and endorsed our proposal. Their latest endorsement came from General Manager Chris Hones, who wrote in the latest ARDC newsletter, in the General Manager's Report:

The newsletter also carried a half-page press release issued by RPS Promotions in January.

In a meeting with Government officials (November 17), we demonstrated that it physically couldn't happen there, something which they have since conceded. In a number of letters from Government departments (October 23, December 15, January 6 and February 1), the NSW Government has continually stated that it would be willing to support a "stand alone drag strip". However it is now recognized that such a structure, which could operate independently of the circuit, is impossible on the (Eastern Creek) site. The NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, which controls the block of land subject to our submission and that on which ECR is built, has stated that it accepts that championship level drag racing cannot take place at the ECR venue again, and that a stand-alone drag strip could not be built there.

Regardless of rules for track construction, and even if someone was prepared to spend the massive sums necessary to move the grandstand at ECR, and dig out the spectator mounds, a parallel straight - which had once been proposed as an alternative - would only be available on two or three occasions a year for drag racing, and that would plainly be inadequate for any level of growth or development in the sport.

If it was all as easy as simply building a parallel straight it would have already been done.

However, the ANDRA decision to update track construction regulations, which was actually moved by the NSW Divisional Director at an ANDRA National Control Council meeting in mid-1998, following lengthy discussions on the matter from as far back as mid-1997, and in light of updates in NHRA regulations at the end of 1997, effectively preclude any such a construction on the ECR site.

Accusations that such a regulation change was simply a biased attempt to rule Eastern Creek out of the drag racing scene hold no water when it is realized that such new regulations apply to all drag strips around Australia, and are going to impact on a number of existing tracks.

There's a heap of work before us if we're to be successful in our pursuit of the land. We have already begun work with a civil engineer on the basics of planning out the track. It's a huge task that frankly seems a daunting project, but we continue to have offers of assistance from major and minor businesses associated with drag racing - everything from earthworks, steel construction, aluminium windows and doors, cartage, aspahlt, and more - so hopefully it will become easier as the drag racing community pitches in to help.

We're now (hopefully) rapidly approaching the conclusion of this first stage of the project, that of securing access to the land, but it's likely that only when the government announces a firm commitment to the project will the troglodytes who still think it can happen inside Eastern Creek Raceway go off and do something else.