In the past month there have been some developments which underline the value of drag racing, and the frustration of watching almost everybody but the sport and its participants profit by it.

Willowbank and the Ipswich City Council are about to release the figures based on their survey, undertaken at the 1998 Konica Winternationals. Initial reports indicate that that one event was worth $3.4 million to the economy of south-east Queensland, and this does not include the cost of preparing and racing the vehicles, nor the costs related to getting them to and from the race meeting. For the latter you can add at least $1000 per competitor (to be conservative), and on the basis of 521 competitors, that adds another half million dollars there.

And if we want to take into account all those competitors who towed down from northern Queensland, and who spent all their travel money in the state, and we throw in interstate and overseas travel which resulted in longer term holiday-type spending elsewhere in Queensland, and we add in all the track expenditure, which is also not included here, we can quite probably say that the Winternationals was worth at least $5 million to the state's economy.

To the local Ipswich economy the event was worth $1.4 million, and that equates (according to what I'm told) with 43 full time jobs for a year. That's how many people drag racing supports in Ipswich, just off that one event !

I'm going to try extrapolating on those figures, on those generated by the Castrol New Year Series in January and February, for which the Ipswich City Council's Economic Development Department conducted an equivalent survey, and on some figures currently being worked up by ANDRA.

The New Year survey at Willowbank identified those three heavily weather affected meetings as being worth $1.6 million to the Ipswich City economy. And if the Winters was worth 240 percent more to the Queensland economy than to the local finances, since there is considerable money spent outside the Ipswich area because of the difficulties with accomodation and the tourist attractions of the Gold Coast and elsewhere, which are not far away, we can say each single New Year's event had to be worth at least an average of a conservative $1 million to the Queensland economy. Again this does not include track expenditure, nor the cost of racing or transport by racers.

On the basis of Willowbank's six other national opens and significant pro-ams in 1998 (which ought to be worth at least half of the New Year meetings, ie $500,000 each), plus the three New Year biggies, and then the Winternationals, we might legitimately state that there is about $9.5 million per year generated for the Queensland economy out of larger events at Willowbank.

How we value street meets or test and tunes I don't know, but if we allow that each generates just $15,000 on average (mighty conservative), and there are 31 slated for this year at Willowbank we can add another half-million dollars from these.

Then we must add in the value of race vehicles. ANDRA has just done some evaluations of the worth of race vehicles and transporters, as per my editorial of issue No. 490, and they came up with a value for $23.3 million for New South Wales, based on extraordinarily conservative figures ($80,000 for Top Fuel transport vehicles [!], $80,000 for spares and equipment [!!!]; $30,000 for a Pro Bike). Given the level of undervaluing here, which might extend the real value out to somewhere nearer $30 million, or even more, so it would not be out of the question to estimate that there is a $5 million per year outlay on the building, maintenance and renewal of race vehicles in an equivalent division, such as South Queensland.

The above figures also do not include spending by the race track, which in Willowbank's case adds up to approximately $3 million per year, in maintenance, wages, promotion, etc.

In addition there is the flow-on of money from track rentals, to driving schools, track testing, clubs, and so on, which ought to add another million or so, and the flow on of funds from the many, many businesses which make their living or earn even limited income from drag racing. And what about the value of garaging for all these race vehicles? Or the value of upkeep on transport vehicles? Or the savings in costs to society whenever we have a pressure release effect on young drivers and help reduce the road toll? And on, and on, and on . . .

All of this adds up to this one major championship drag strip - just one - being worth something in excess of $18 million per year to the Queensland economy. And if you want to add in the other smaller Queensland tracks at Stanthorpe, Mackay, Gladstone and Townsville, this really starts to add up. Drag racing is a significant player, employing hundreds of people full time in Queensland, and similar levels elsewhere around the nation.

Now we can see that these figures start to add up to significant levels. I haven't seen the final estimates yet, as ANDRA is still working on them, but if the depleted New South Wales division - and therefore surely the South Queensland and Victorian divisions - can throw up $30 million worth of race vehicles each (though the ultra-conservative official figures will probably state a little less) we have to be looking at, let's say $120 million worth of race vehicles around the nation, and if we continue to accept that there is a ratio of six-to-one (as we did in our Willowbank example above) on the general value of the vehicles and equipment and the cost of maintenance and replacement, then there's a $20 million national outlay every year, just on that area alone.

And if we use our example above, of Willowbank's worth to the Queensland economy (and there are good grounds to believe that you could demonstrate a much greater worth), we ought to be able to say that we can enter Calder as having at least an equivalent $18 million value (and there ought to be something similar for Sydney, but we haven't been given the chance), and let's be conservative and rank Ravenswood and Adelaide at just a third of this (that's $6 million each), and allow for the nine other established regional tracks (Townsville, Palmyra, Benaraby, Stanthorpe, Canberra, Launceston, Whyalla, Darwin, Alice Springs) as being worth an average of $1 million per year, we're looking at $57 million per year being generated by drag racing in Australia (and if there was a major track in Sydney we could increase that - on our figures - to $75 million).

I am realistic enough to admit that this is all very vague and non-specific, and hardly supportable in any real sense, but at least we're starting to get a grasp on what we are involved in here. We have developed an industry that's worth $57 million a year in expenditure, and employs many hundreds of people, directly and indirectly, around the nation.

In a business sense we can look at this as our profit as well, since as a recreational exercise we don't function as one single unit which directly employs people and produces a surplus betwen expenditure and income. Our profit is the enjoyment or satisfaction that we as participants or fans feel (and that cannot be valued financially) and what we return to the nation by way of cash flow, much of which ultimately returns to the government through taxes as money flows on, and which employs people in jobs throughout society, keeping them off social services.

As an example, there was a film processing lab near this business through whom we put about six hundred rolls of film a year five years ago. All that film had to be purchased first, then processed, then there was the flow-on of reprints, enlargements, and other accessories. The guy who ran the lab used our payments to help buy his film, paper, chemicals, stationery, phone services, accountant's fees, and the thousand other little items needed to keep a business rolling.

Yet with the decline in drag racing in Sydney we now require maybe only a hundred rolls of film a year to be processed. And while what we did with him didn't pay solely for his business, it was a not insignificant amount of money, but it certainly made a difference, and now he's gone out of business, though not solely because of the decline in our business input with him.

And all those other companies from whom he bought his products and services will be feeling the pinch a little more, because of the decline of drag racing in Sydney. And this guy had never even been to a drag race meeting in his life, and it's quite likely that many, if not the majority of people with whom he did business had never been either.

This example can be repeated a thousand-fold around Sydney, because of the decline in the industry here. So when things are operating as they should, as they are in Brisbane and Melbourne and elsewhere, the flow-on effects are significant, and the social impacts are important.

The absence of drag racing in Sydney, at other than street meet level, is a prime example of what can happen to this sport, and to our benefits to society, when we as the participants are not in control. For its own survival on a long term basis, and for the full range of development potential to be realised, drag racing needs to be in control of its own destiny.

Drag racing cannot object to society benefitting by its actions. We are a member of society and that we can assist in the implementation of social benefits must legitimise everything that we wish to do. It gives us leverage within government to ensure our future and assist in the furtherance of what we should all be about: the growth and development of drag racing.

However, one must question the profit-taking of those who have no demonstrated interest in the sport, other than the mere acquisition of some aspect of it in a commercial deal. Such "acquisitions" result in nothing but short term plans and profit-taking at the expense of the long term well being within the sport. ANDRA is not in any position to be acquiring or building tracks of its own, but we need to ensure whenever possible that only those bodies which operate with drag racing's interests at heart get whole-hearted support, and where possible, in future, the profit-takers do not even get a foot in the door.