Burn To Be Wild
Sun Herald
Sunday January 9, 2000
Canberra sheds its corporate cardigan once a year for the Street Machine Summernats car festival. But some of the 100,000 or so revellers could come back without their car, reports Joshua Dowling.
FOR the past 13 years, the nation's capital has become the burnout capital for three noisy, smoke-filled days during the Street Machine Summernats.
But the humble burnout, long a feature of the event and arguably the main attraction, has been banned in the Australian Capital Territory after a new law was passed last month.
As with the burnout law which was introduced in NSW three years ago, cars can be confiscated on the spot and held in a police compound for up to 12 months. This is unlikely to impress some contestants. The award-winning cars can be worth more than $100,000.
Although the Street Machine Summernats is held within the National Exhibition complex away from public roads the law can still be enforced because it is a public place.
Significantly, promoters have been granted an exemption within the complex for the duration of the event but police are still able to enforce the law if they believe a member of the public is at risk.
"The police said they weren't going to come in and specifically target people for burnouts, but if someone does something really silly in front of them the driver could be walking home," said event promoter Chic Henry.
The new law highlights how the event has been changed - and restrained - over the past 13 years. What began as a massive street parade, a celebration of old cars, chrome and V8 engines, is changing its stripes.
Years ago, visitors could camp on the median strip on Northbourne Avenue, Canberra's main drag.
But after some of the celebrations spilled over into what police called "anti-social behaviour", the event was moved inside the massive exhibition complex.
The organisers are getting tough to preserve the event. Last year more than 50 cars and 100 hooligans were kicked out and told not to return. Five carloads of men were evicted from the camping area after allegedly threatening to shoot security guards, brawling and stealing from nearby camp sites. It took almost 50 police and security guards to remove the group.
A man's wallet was stolen after he was held at knifepoint, two men were arrested for assaulting police in separate incidents, and two drivers were charged with drink-driving within the complex.
This year, organisers are getting even tougher with 400 security guards headed by a hired gun from America, Bob Taubert, a consultant to the FBI and an anti-terrorist adviser for the past three Olympic Games. As well, there are up to 53 police working at the Summernats.
"Everybody who comes to the event deserves to be protected and allowed to have a good time," said Mr Henry. "It's unfortunate that a minority of people are prepared to ruin it for the majority so, obviously, we want to make it tougher for the minority."
Summernats organisers have established a database of people banned from previous years and they claim this will make it more difficult for "the undesirables" to attend because they won't be able to buy tickets.
Mr Taubert will also complete a critical incident report after the event to highlight ways to improve security.
Despite the violence, police said last year's crowd was better behaved than in previous years.
"Overall, we were very pleased with the conduct of people," said Superintendent Tony Curtis. "There's a family atmosphere during the day but it deteriorates at night with the consumption of alcohol."
Event director Michael O'Hara said: "We're not going to put up with the ratbags any more. Families should be able to feel comfortable being here. We've been pretty hard on the guys but they can still have fun without going over the line."
Retired race ace Peter Brock, who visited the Summernats for the first time last year, said he would encourage families to visit now that unruly behaviour was discouraged.
"I think the general feeling was the more outrageous behaviour was spoiling it for a lot of people," Brock said. He also said the size and popularity of the Summernats exceeded his expectations. "It's like Bathurst multiplied a few times."
But the crowd behaviour isn't the only thing changing at the Summernats. There's less chrome on the cars - and the engines are getting smaller.
When the event started, V8-engined cars accounted for more than 90 per cent of the show; now they make up for about 60pc of entrants.
"We're in a transitional period at the moment," said Mr Henry. "There's basically a whole new generation of car enthusiasts.
"We're seeing a lot more Japanese cars and turbo cars as they've grown in popularity. I call them techno cars, because that's usually the music they play, plus they have quite a bit of technology in them."
Like the legendary antipathy between Ford and Holden fans, the V8 crowd has not always had the warmest greetings for the four-cylinder and turbo set. To prevent aggravation, they mostly camp in separate areas and promoters have separate pavilions.
But the promoters are trying to get the street machine elders to be more accepting of the new breed in their newer cars.
"The way I look at it, it's like the old rivalry between the hot-rodders and the street machiners," Mr Henry said.
"When the Summernats first started the guys in the hot-rods didn't like the guys in the EH Holdens and GT Falcons. Hot-rodders used to call guys in street machines wankers and now the hot-rodders and street machiners are in the same camp calling the techno guys wankers.
"What they've got to realise is the techno guys love their cars as much as they love theirs. The V8s are not going to die like the dinosaurs, they'll be around forever and a day."
Mr Henry said it will take about four years for the techno cars to "get the respect of the V8 guys" as chrome and cubic capacity is overshadowed by carbon fibre and computer power.
"They don't realise they're all joined together by the enthusiasm for their cars. When we look at it like that, we're all the same.
"Who knows, maybe one day in the future the V8 guys will stand next to the techno guys and call people in electric cars wankers."
Pop goes the wheel
The burnout is the simplest symbol of horsepower. At the Street Machine Summernats the challenge is to spin the rear wheels so fast they billow smoke for as long as possible and, often, until they explode.
Flood gates
More than 109,000 people poured through the Summernats gates last year, one of the highest attendances on record. Of the 1,600 or so entrants, the majority are from NSW (44 per cent). Victorians are the next biggest bunch (12pc).
Wheels of fortune
Top-level Street Machiners spend Mercedes-Benz money on cars which were originally worth a fraction of the price, take years to hand-build them and then only enjoy the fruit of their labour on a couple of sunny Sundays each year. Entrants compete for more than $77,000 in cash and prizes.
Fast cars, fast food
Last year visitors to the Summernats consumed 130,000 cans of Coca-Cola and 89,000 hot dogs on the way to injecting $10 million into Canberra's economy. Fast food vans supply everything from hamburgers to Buddhist noodles.
© 2000 Sun Herald