The event – which sees drivers race the clock over a one-kilometre strip – ran for six years at a private airport in Cooma, and the organisers are looking for a new home for the ‘Snowy Mountains 1000’.

Cr Karavas believes that the youth of the town, and the economy, would both benefit from the big event.

“It’s something different for the youth, and people from Bathurst, Dubbo, Lithgow and Orange will all come to Mudgee for it,” he said.

“Adam [Drake, event organiser] told me that people from the United States have already registered some interest for the event, so this might just be a way for us to put ourselves on the map overseas as a town.

The difficulty, and the majority of council’s concerns, come from working around FlyPelican, the airline company that operates out of the Mudgee airport.

“Council has worked for years to get a local airline to come here and we don’t want to jeopardise that at all, but I think we can work around that,” Cr Karavas said.

“The set-up on Friday afternoon, racing on Saturday and then packing up on the Sunday wouldn’t actually affect the airline, so that’s one way that we can work around managing them both.”

Organiser Adam Drake met with Councilors and emergency services at the airport last Friday to discuss the proposal, but Cr Karavas isn’t sure that the support is there for the event.

“Overall, I’m in favour of it, and I encourage Adam to put in a development application,” Cr Karavas said.

“I’m not sure that everyone on the council is in the positive for the event, a lot of them aren’t going to be supporting it but I think that it’s going to be a great thing if we can get it off the ground.”

The economic impact of the weekend-long event, which is being relocated from Cooma, is estimated to be up to $120,000.

The drag-racing style event will be staged at Mudgee Airport sometime between March and May next year if approved by Mid-Western Regional Council.