In what has been hailed by its participants as one of the most important meetings ever held in local drag racing, Australia's Top Fuel team owners and drivers met at Graeme Cowin's Rocket Industries premises at Huntingwood, near Eastern Creek, on Sunday, July 12 to form a new team owners group.

The purpose of the new group is to administer and market all aspects of Top Fuel racing in Australia, and in particular the Australian Top Fuel Championship series.

Nine team-owners, ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton, media consultant John Collins, and marketing consultant Michael Kennedy attended the meeting, which was chaired by Collins.

Three other team owners were unable to attend, but have since joined or indicated they will join and support the as-yet-unnamed association.

During the meeting the group elected team owners Romeo Capitanio (Victoria), Mick Atholwood (Queensland) and Stan Sainty (New South Wales), and appointed Collins and Kennedy, to a five-member board to steer the new organisation.

Capitanio was elected board chairman, while Collins will administer the group and look after all media, and Kennedy, a fomer marketing executive with Toohey's, will oversee the group's marketing and sponsorship arrangements.

"This was one of the most important meetings in drag racing to date", Collins told Dragster Australia. He said with drag racing undergoing many changes, and to some degree facing an uncertain future, "the climate may not be all that healthy but now there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

Collins said the Sydney meeting eventuated after an impromptu get together of several team owners in Charlie Di Filippo's transporter at last season's rained-out Adelaide Top Fuel round.

After that meeting -- which agreed that team owners need to play a greater role in the management of the category's future -- Cowin discussed the matter with Collins, a former Calder Park track manager and now in both the general and motorsport media.

Collins said the next step in the formation of the group came at the recent Winternationals when a discussion paper -- compiled by Collins -- was distributed to all team-owners and a formal meeting arranged.

He said while the group will be based around Top Fuel, it will also aim to lift the profile of the sport as a whole.

"We (the Top Fuel team-owners) undestand that times are changing and now is the right time to do something about the future of Top Fuel.

"Drag racing, especially Top Fuel, is very expensive. We now can no longer expect tracks to pay out much more in prizemoney than they are already doing.

"Hence we need to find the extra money ourselves. But first we must have a viable product that is attractive to both sponsors and television, and that meant all Top Fuel teams in Australia had to come together under one banner."

Collins said the new group will take over the dormant Australian Fuel Racers Association -- of which many current team owners were members -- as it is already a registered and incorporated association.

"With a saleable package we hope to attract series sponsorship which in turn will enable us to secure national television, extra money for series bonus points and tow money," Collins said.

He also said any sponsorship deals put together by the group would stay within the group, however, a fee would be negotiated with ANDRA -- which owns the Australian Top Fuel Championship -- for the right to manage and market the series.

"We are here to work with the tracks, not against them. We want to help the tracks make as much money as possible out of the series, while at the same time allowing teams to derive a budget that will enable them to race as professionally as possible.

"The Top Fuel championship series is a valuable commodity. A recent survey conducted at Willowbank showed that a one-day Top Fuel round is worth approximately $600,000 to the track and around $200,000 to the local community.

"Based on such figures it may be possible to negotiate with tracks that do not currently run a round of the series due to the fact that the track may not be of the required standard for Top Fuel racing or they simply cannot get enough people into the track to make a Top Fuel round a viable proposition. However, if we were to issue those tracks with a long term contract to stage a series round, the track may be able to use that contract to negotiate with local authorities for help in upgrading.

"Eventually we would like series rounds run in all states, and even at all ANDRA two- and three-day ADR (Australian Drag Racing) Series rounds, including the Northernnationals and Westernationals, but we need extra funding for that."

Collins said the immediate aim of the group is for a full eight-car field -- from a pool of 12 teams -- at each Championship round, and even the possibility of 10 to 11 cars at the Nationals and/or the Winternationals. "Something that has not happened in this country before."

He said rules will be put in place to protect the Championship series, such as if a track cancels a series round after already indicating that it will stage one, and in its place tries to run a match race. It is now group policy that no cars will be available for such purposes.

"However, if a track, such as Canberra, wants to hold a match race and the event is outside the series round window -- say two weeks prior to a round -- then that is okay," Collins said.

"Apart from making the series a much stronger package, we also want to make it more inviting for other racers to step up to Top Fuel.

"The Graeme Cowin's and the Jim Read's will not be racing forever. I am sure if the package is attractive enough Top Fuel drag racing can grow and expand in Australia."

Collins also suggested other Group One drag racing categories such as Top Alcohol, Top Doorslammer and Pro Stock Bike could also look at forming groups, and perhaps negotiate with the new Top Fuel group to use its management and marketing structure, which in turn would not only make it cheaper for all groups to operate, but also provide a better package for track promoters and television.

Team-owner clubs and associations are not new in drag racing, and a good example is the Pro Stock Owners Association. They contracted the services of Willowbank's Rob Oberg and promoted themselves via membership, displays, interviews, sponsorships and merchandise, with a great deal of success.