FOR years Leeton’s Carlo Luisi has been at pains to provide young drivers with a safe place off the road, but also put Leeton on the map.
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Mr Luisi has long toiled for the creation of a drag strip for Leeton with the hopes of one day making it so huge, it would attract events that would rival the Summernats and bring music festivals to the town.
Those dreams could soon be made a reality, with a formal agreement being reached regarding where that could happen.
Mr Luisi has met with Leeton Shire Council and the idea will now be to first create a burnout pad on available land in between the Leeton Motorcycle Club and the Leeton Aerodrome.
With miles of space, Mr Luisi said it was only a starting point.
“NSW only has one drag strip … it’s still a fairly big sport and it gets national coverage,” he said.
“Immediate plans now … we kept hearing all about these young hoons and that sort of rubbish and we thought ‘well what can we do’.
“We were all young once. I don’t condone bad behaviour on the road, but if we can get this up we can bring them out here and give them something to do.
“Our first plan is to have a burnout pad set up out here.”
Mr Luisi has thrown it back on young drivers to contribute to that pad and take ownership of it by either donating to the cause or paying for materials that will be used.
“They are getting right behind us … it’s great to see actually,” he said.
“A lot of the time this sort of thing gets a bad reputation, but if you can do it in a safe environment and provide entertainment at the same time, we’ve got nothing to lose.” Mr Luisi said the drag strip would come after the burnout pad once there was sufficient funds.
He was certain Leeton could become a hot spot for hosting races and bigger events.
“There’s a real precinct here,” Mr Luisi said.
“You’ve got the bike club, the car club and the airport. We could really turn it into something special. There’s so much space. I think we should be working on attracting events like music festivals to town.”
Places such as Forbes have been holding annual music events such as Vanfest, which would also be ideal for the space. “We’re really starting to gain momentum … it’s a positive story,” Mr Luisi said.