I have been attending AHRF (Australian Hot Rod Federation) and later ANDRA (Australian National Drag Racing Association) annual general meetings since the late sixties or early seventies. I was there when a totally distraught Trevor Mobbs expressed his anger after the NCC (National Control Council) of the day granted Peter Shields the National Director's job over Trevor who had been my deputy for many years.

I was there when Vic Meli was pressured to resign and then left unceremoniously for home, leaving the New South Wales division without representation for the remainder of the conference. I was there when both Victorian delegates walked out over the tobacco sponsorship dispute. There have been others not quite as memorable, but this AGM just gone was, in my opinion, the worst ever.

It seems to me a fundamental change has evolved in the make-up of the NCC. It now operates on an "us" and "them" basis. George Bailey (Western Australia Division Director)and Gary Miocevich (Ravenswood Raceway Track Manager) are constantly at loggerheads. Highlighting this was the absurd Tribunal of the Track regarding the Victor Bray passenger ride at Ravenswood. I understand the fine imposed has not been paid, and neither should it be.

Up here, Bob Castle (South Queensland Division Director) and I have no relationship whatsoever. However, Bob does spend a lot of time attempting to undermine the raceway and myself. It must gall him enormously as we continue to go from success to success at Willowbank. Read the inaccurate, snide, personal remarks in his Division Director's report for confirmation of this.

In New South Wales it seems Edwin Archbold has been appointed as unofficial Deputy Division Director, often receiving confidential memos before some of us have them! And now, with the election of Ken Melvin (North Queensland), the circle is complete. It's now unofficially "us and them" - the downtrodden racers representatives against the evil promoters, the robber barons of drag racing, creatures of contempt, just one step above pedophiles!

But wait a minute. We are talking about the Board of Management of a national sporting body. How can such a board work efficiently for the betterment of the sport while there is such distrust? Put simply, it can't and it doesn't. It's like having Kim Beazley, Gareth Evans and Martin Ferguson as part of John Howard's cabinet!

Up here, outrageous lies are being propagated about a "secret agenda" the promoters have. Apparently, our push for fundamental changes is because we are after the $300,000 held in the bank from the former Injured Drivers Fund. Incidentally, the IDF was put together by myself in 1975 when I was National Director. I don't give a damn about these rumours. They judge us by their standards of morality. I have already suggested to Tony (Thornton) he should take legal advice on methods of protecting the fund from we grasping, robber baron promoters.

But the sad part in all this is that these people believe there are no problems in the current structure of the sport, so they invent fictitious, paranoid reasons for our push for change.

For proof positive of this, cast your mind back to a meeting we had earlier in the year. We singled out problems within the ANDRA format of racing. Pro Stock - should they be encouraged to revert to Australian bodies, based on the huge success of the five litre tourers. Pro Stock Motorcycle suffering from low numbers. That problem remains - it was the only undersubscribed bracket at this year's Konica Winternationals.

Top Alcohol was another area of concern. A $20,000 prizemoney bracket that is not a crowd draw. Super Stock - full of rarely used out-of-date classes. We discussed the possibility of combining Competition and Super Stock. We discussed Super Gas - still in the system, despite being run at only two venues in the country.

So what happened at the AGM? Virtually nothing! A proposal for a weight break to encourage the building of Australian Pro Stock cars was summarily dismissed, along with an attempt to drag Super Stock out of the seventies into the nineties. So, arising from this, we must assume that all the alleged problems had, by some miracle, fixed themselves.

But going in, I knew the outcome would be this, so I wasn't at all surprised. The grim reality is that it is absolutely impossible for clubs to address the "big picture" items. Self-interest always wins the day. Unfortunately, not one of the current Division Directors believes this. Getting a proposal passed at club level (or voted against) is easy. All you need to be is loud enough, or popular enough, or have enough mates to back you up, or nobody gives a stuff because it's not their bracket anyway, and, of course, just one side of the argument is propagated.

More often than not, you will see 10 or less voting from an attendance of 40 from a club with a membership of 200. From that, the system deems that a majority of 200 are in favour. Is this an efficient format for the nineties and beyond? I spent 30 years as secretary of the nation's largest drag racing club and I am an expert on this.

While I am not the most ardent supporter of CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsports), I respect the way they operate. Circuit racing under CAMS in the five litre class is at its highest level of popularity ever, simply because they were able to make the necessary "big picture" changes when needed. Under the current ANDRA system, once something is created, it is next to impossible to remove or even modify it.

Remember the brawl over the introduction of Top Doorslammer? Never mind that we all knew it was guaranteed of success, all that mattered was that Pro Stock saw it as a threat. They lobbied the clubs to vote against it. Doorslammer got the nod, but just barely. It immediately became our number two eliminator but it almost didn't happen. Is this how a modern sanctioning body should operate? Of course not! But I'll bet most, if not all Division Directors don't agree.

Personally, I'm at the end of my tether. The National Control Council is virtually in gridlock. The administration of drag racing needs to be leading the way, not trailing behind, putting out bushfires. Running a national sporting body with a committee of 2000 is an absurdity. I want to be part of a dynamic Board of Management with appointed people with a variety of skills, with the freedom to call on others as needed. I want to deal with people smarter than I am so that I can gain from their knowledge. The current system is akin to the Titanic - built with fatal flaws and foundering on an iceberg called the "nineties".

A number of high profile racers and knowledgable followers of the sport are urging me to initiate the creation of a new sanctioning body. This could be done under the ANDRA system, but this requires three Divisions to support it - a forlorn hope. Almost certainly, the two thousand faceless men will vote for their own extinction - mindless lemmings leaping over the precipice.

Plainly, we are not being taken seriously on this. We won't do it, they think. In my history in drag racing, from my 10 years as National Director of ANDRA and then as Track Manager at Willowbank, I have never hesitated to initiate change when change was due. Whether it be a change to handicap racing and then later to the dial-your-own format, or the many innovations brought about over the years at Willowbank, I have never stepped away from the hard decisions. Of course, in all of this period, I had great support, first from some far thinking Division Directors and later from my colleagues on the Willowbank Board.

For what it's worth, following is the concept of what is needed to address the needs of the sport into the next millenium. Obviously, the final document will be arrived at after lengthy consultation with a variety of involved parties.

*  All members will join the sanctioning body direct.

*  The following interest groups will be created: Top Fuel, Top Doorslammer, Pro Stock, Top Alcohol, all motorcycle classes, Group Two cars, Group Three and Four cars. All rules proposals must originate from their respective interest groups.

*  Division Directors will be in charge of convening and chairing meetings of the various local interest groups, as well as coordinating stewards and other event activities at local level. Division Directors will provide activity reports to the Board of Management of the sanctioning body from time to time.

*  The Board of Management of the sanctioning body will be comprised of one representative from each capital city track conducting championship drag racing. Where one party owns two facilities there will be one representative. One representative from non-capital city tracks will also be elected. This position will be arrived at from votes at the annual Promoters Conference.

In addition to this there will be up to four or five others, appointed by the permanent members of the Board. These appointees can be drawn from any arena, bringing with them skills that will be of benefit to the organization and the sport - marketing, major speed equipment importers, journalists, former racers still involved in the sport, whatever it takes to make the organization dynamic, efficient and pro-active.

Minimum period of an appointment will be for one year but can be extended as deemed necessary. Initially, we would call for expressions of interest from interested parties and selections could be made from here. All appointees will have voting rights.

One of the dumb statements being touted about by some is that if such a body were to come into existence, tracks could drop eliminators at will. Tracks already have this power in our (Willowbank's) case, we only have to run Group One classes once a year, at the Winternationals. All other classes are only mandatory at the ADRS (Australian Drag Racing Series) round, the Nightfire Championships.

The format of racing we do suits our needs at this point of time. Ultimately market forces determine what works and what doesn't. Nitro Funnies are all but extinct now in Australia because the management of Calder Park made a decision that they would no longer be featured. We steered away from Nitro Funny Car many years ago, for reasons that have been well documented. It's a fact of life that different formats work differently in different areas.

If you examine this document in an unbiased manner, it should become obvious that while clubs will have no input into the rules system, racers will have a much greater input, via the various interest groups that will be created. Which is more important? The answer is obvious.

Summing up, I can only speak on behalf of Willowbank on the following. Every single change we have made over the last 13 years has been of our own volition, aimed at making things better for the paying public, the racers and our sponsors - scoreboards, grandstands, reserved seating, corporate facilities, interval timers, weather station, paved and powered Group One and feature pits, scrutineering building with two full length scales, paved return roads, weekly racing, the largest and most popular event in Australia, the Konica Winternationals, track championships with free entry for 12 months, the best track newspaper in the world, 10 televised shows from major events, a web site with regular updates, informative regular bulletins to racers and finally, one of the prettiest race tracks in the world.

And we want to continue with this for the foreseeable future. The current system is strangling drag racing. In today's competitive market, this means disaster is in the making. To put it as bluntly as I can - WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!