From little things big things grow

Back in 1991 Ray Box had no idea that a one-off meeting for the VW Drivers Club of Queensland would turn into Australia’s most popular and prestigious hi-tech drag racing event – the Sport Compact Group’s Jamboree.

Sick of being hassled by the V8 brigade, Ray, Mark Stanbury, Dave Butler and a couple of other guys approached Dennis Syrmis of Willowbank Raceway to get their own event up and running.

With the green light to go ahead, they contacted all the local 4 cylinder and rotary clubs to make up the numbers and cover the costs.

Back in 1991 the track hire was $1400 for the day so they needed 70 cars at $20 a pop. They got the numbers they needed, charged $2 entry for the 500 spectators who turned up on the day and finished with about $1000 in the kitty for the next event. (Take a look at the very first event poster!)

This was the beginning of something big.

We created a monster

The original J1 t-shirtFor the next 5 years Ray and Mark ran the Jamboree on behalf of the club on a volunteer basis. When it started to take over their lives they spoke to the club about passing it onto someone else. "You guys have created a monster, we can't handle it ourselves" was the response from the club.

6 months down the track Ray and Mark decided to take on the event themselves and formed Small Car Productions, a company they would use to manage and promote future events.

From 1999 to 2003 the Jamboree was run by Small Car Productions. In 2004 Ray formed the Sport Compact Group and in 2009 purchased Mark’s part of the business and took over the management and promotion of the events.

The early to mid 2000’s saw the popularity of the Jamboree continue to grow, culminating in 2006 when 12,000 spectators came through the gates at Willowbank Raceway, headlined by an international contingent of quality racers from Puerto Rico.

Expanding horizons

With the success experienced in Queensland, Ray looked to expand the number of events to include Sydney.

"I can remember walking around Sydney Dragway and we were quite excited about the whole thing”, Ray recalls. “We went down there with great dreams about how big the Jamboree was and how big it could be with a population 3 times the amount. But as we've found out, the bigger the population the more competition there is for people’s attention."

In 2004 the first event was held outside Queensland, with the inaugural Sydney Jamboree at the then known Western Sydney International Dragway. While the competition is much stiffer and advertising costs 2 or 3 times higher, Ray stayed the course and the Sydney Jamboree attracted 3000 spectators and 170 competitors at 2012 event, the best figures to-date.

The wet weather that has dogged drag racing in general has also played havoc with the Jamboree’s expansion plans. With two rain outs in the past 5 years “we’ve copped a bit of a flogging.”

So for the foreseeable future Ray will continue to focus on one Jamboree at Willowbank Raceway and one at Sydney Dragway.

Something for everyone

As a self confessed “ideas man” and an automotive marketing specialist, Ray is keen to continue developing the entertainment angle of the Jamboree to cater to the changing tastes of the paying public.

"We're trying to provide an entertainment package as well. It's not just about having cars go down the track. It's something that traditional drag racing has finally started to realise and come into it kicking and screaming that it’s entertainment.

You've got to have stuff happening off the track. We focus quite heavily on things like show-n-shines, sound offs and stage shows etc.”

This theory also applies to the racers and available classes which have continued to evolve over time.

Back in the day, the early Jamborees consisted of a number of dial your own brackets and top 8 shootouts.

In 2004 with the introduction of ANDRA Sports Compact, the Jamboree adopted the same rules which had been developed by the NHRA. According to Ray, “these rules didn’t suit the car park in Australia. Pro RWD was a good example and we couldn’t maintain parity.“

The bureaucracy within ANDRA didn’t help either. As the classes were developing, it was too hard to get rule changes through quickly so Ray decided, in consultation with the racers, to develop a set of his own rules.

Rayglass Celica - Factory XtremeToday the Jamboree provides classes of racing for stock standard street cars all the way up to Factory Xtreme – tube chassis technical marvels capable of banging out ETs in the low to mid 6s. The aim has been to provide a natural progression for racers, bringing new racers in at the entry level classes and encouraging them to move through the ranks.

A great example of this is the Street Grudge Class. From the Jamboree website: “Street Grudge is a class where anyone can get on the track and have a go. There are no winners, no loser’s, no prize money, no dial in's and no pressure. It's about getting out there and having some fun down the 1/4 mile without the cops hassling you.”

The fan in the stands is ultimately there to see the big boys in their super quick toys. So classes like Factory Xtreme, Pro Turbo, Pro Compact and Pro 289 are all run in a round-robin format, commonly known as a “Chicago Shootout”. This style of racing puts the crowd pleasers on track as much as possible for both the spectators and the sponsors.

The future of the Jamboree

From very humble beginnings back in 1991, over 2 decades the Jamboree has grown into a world class event.

“We’re not going anywhere for a long time and my focus is to help our events grow and the racers with it”, Ray remarked. ”Somewhere along the way though I'll get too old for it.”

While not ready to hang up his promoter’s hat just yet, Ray is bringing more people into the business and learning to delegate a little better. “My family is huge part of this – my wife Maxine and daughters Paige and Jazzlyn are involved in the day-to-day operation. I simply couldn’t do it without their help.”

The future looks bright for the Jamboree and a move back to the September timeslot in Queensland will hopefully see the end of events lost to rain. Spectators can look forward to more entertainment for their dollar, an appearance by international racer John Bradshaw (Brams Racing) from the UK, with the quickest Japanese car in Europe and world class performances from the stars of the Jamboree.

So it’s onwards and upwards from here for the biggest event in the compact car scene.