CARnage at Summernats

Credit where its due, Sam, Hambo made that GoogleEarth map, not me.

I don’t think 2CC would sponsor SGS.

As a wise man once said, they’re so tight-fisted they make Scrooge look like Oprah Winfrey on a wildest dreams bus tour.

Maybe all 10 of 2CC’s listeners could get together and fund his car and flower activities.

Or pay him to shut up.

Here’s a thought, Sam: don’t leave town, why not become a PART of the event(s) in question?
Buy a vintage car, soup it up, whitewall the tyres, have a couple of topless chicks hang out the windows, do some burnouts right outside your own front door! You could be Summernats champ 2007, if you put your mind to it.
Similarly, Floriade: cultivate some pansies, come up with an SGS hybrid – you could be the hit of Floriade 2006!
And best of all, 2CC could sponsor you…go for it!

Bennet, I’m 18, don’t work in the public service, don’t own a yacht, have been to the south coast once for a day trip, enjoy AM radio and don’t have grey hair. I might be boring to some people, that’s fine, I like the quiet life.

Explain to me why I should have to leave town when “events” are on considering that I’ve lived here all my life?

It would seem that Samuel Gordon-Stewart is suffering from the change bug. Samuel Gordon-Stewart is used to a particular environment and obviously doesn’t want it changed.

Shame that people like Samuel Gordon-Stewart are boring twats that make up a sizable amount of the population and feel that they are the OWNERS of Canberra.

I however feel that the event has dropped off substantially due to dreery poineers of utter dullness like Samuel Gordon-Stewart who whinge and moan constantly about something they don’t like as apposed to contributing to the actual development of the area. I feel that it is these particular types of people who should re-evaluate the sitation that unfolds and GET USED to it. Or piss off down to the coast with your public service pay out…I would find it hard to believe that you are so important that people would actually take an interest in your whining about such matters. Get over it. Or go live on your yacht down at the South Coast and die your hair from grey to the colour it was when u first had it. Personally. Im not a huge fan of car events. But it is a fun event for others. Brings money to the area, is nationally recognized… I say let us have more of these types of events if possible. I take note that not everyone should or would agree with everything put infront of them. But alot of the time, I feel that it is nit-picky Canberrans of a certain age frustrated with change.

Once again. I blabber crap. But there is some sense in the blabber.

I know how about we ban everything in canberra and just sit back and marvel at one of the most boring cities in Australia, the only time when the place gets a decent vibe about it is when the Nats are on, they took the dragway, and then the V8’s, whats left Floriade, gee that event really puts the ACT on the map, if you want to look at flowers go for a bushwalk. The ACT Govt should take a good hard look at itself because there isnt much left in Canberra to draw crowds the size the Summernats does.

sams fan, please order a working copy of the white pages. You have probably just directed a whole bunch of my critics to some random location on Northbourne. Re-reading the comments will show that I am in Reid, not Turner. Caz was much closer to my location with her google earth image.

Sam, i highly doubt your humble abode, that being 85 Northbourne Av Turner(whitepages?), is of any remote replica of what you would call an anti traffic haven. 99.9% or higher of ACT streets would be considered quieter. Having only just fallen on this site and making quick judgement much in the same way as yourself, id assume you are pushing into a spot on community radio as the next John Laws. Youve hit a hot cookie this week and hopefully your dreams are realised with many a lonely friendless war widow as a groupie.
Sorry my conclusions are far fetched and vague too. Crowd numbers were largely impacted by the recent events in Cronulla as a large amount of entrants/spectators are of middle eastern descent(Sam, get out the bleach to cleanse their skin if they walk past your humble abode) from previous years. Alot of acquaintances who were saturated in the media hype and have no idea of the real events in Cronulla avoided the Summernats like the plague due to not wanting involvement in a riot. The Sams did not succeed in hyping such events into reality, and there were no signs of racial tension amongst the crowd, and also the event seemed more peaceful than those before. The number of entrants who payed for entry was larger than any before, though the number that actually followed through was somewhat smaller.
Anyhow, in closing i hope you have recovered from the sleep deprivation caused by this “hideous/grotesque” event, and that once again you are sheltered from the outside elements which may adversly affect your livelihood. Look forward to more rants, cheers ;
).

And like a good jock, sam has succeeded in lighting up the boards.

Happily, I’ve not met any of these cretinous funsters – the Lake must be an effective border. Probably because even they can’t drive through it (try as they might). I find it interesting that the local paper makes out it’s all wholesome family fare, with kiddies ogling shiny engines sprouting carburettors which don’t seem to fit properly under bonnets etc; I’ve been scanning the social pages for pix of ugly tattoed beer-sodden grunters howling at parading bare-breasted molls, but none seen so far…

Terubo: It was a NSW plated hotted up ute, from my brief encounter, with them (afterall I was attempting to douse a smouldering firework in my lap and not really paying too much attention to much else at the time) I believe that most of the occupants were more ‘out’ of the ute than ‘in’.

I will be the first to admit that I didn’t see hide nor hair of a summernats sticker/pass whatever on the vehicle, and I am drawing the conclusion that the occupants were just down from wherever they came from to spectate at summernats.

It sounds logical enough though, and Slinky’s had his own bad experiences as well.

My point was that I have my own unique experience of Summernats, and that I have made my own decisions about attending it personally, and I’m sure that as a pebble in a big pond they (nats organisers) dont give a shit about me or my opinions. As far as the behavior of the event goes, it has markedly improved since that time, I simply do not wish to associate with that crowd.

PS. To be fair, I gotta say that I haven’t had any crap like that in years, although I usually try to get outta town by friday night… And judging from the speccie burnout marks in our street that wasn’t a bad idea…

Terubo: Maybe the funsters that threw a beer bottle at me while riding my pushy a couple of years ago were pissed off locals too – who mistook me for a summernats hoon… 🙂

Maelinar, I have some problem with your anecdote. Are you saying that it was a Summernats funster who lobbed the firecracker, or a pissed-off local who thought YOU were a Summernats funster?
-Whichever, it could have been worse; it could have been a handgrenade…they do that in some places.

Plus his personal attacks on people for not wanting nats destroyed, as he does.

If anyone witnessed the incident on Saturday night on Lonsdale St., about 12.30am, with the maroon Hyundai, or even more relevantly has video of it I would be very interested in hearing from you

Maelinar – I’m not being hard on Sam because he doesn’t like the ‘Nats. That’s his perogative. As it is yours. I do take issue with his fun-naziesque rantings that any event that causes disturbance to his existence should be stopped.

Whilst I know that it wasn’t the organisers fault for the dickhead who threw the firecracker into my car, they were the magnet that attracted them here to Canberra.

…… can you follow up with a broad and insulting generalisation so that I can feel justified to lambast your logic, please?

crowd numbers were down this year, which is fantastic as it might be spelling the beginning of the end for this strange annual annoyance.

Not likely. Crowd numbers were still said to be around 99000 this year as opposed to 110000 last year. The crowd numbers were bound to go down eventually.

Good grief you’re an idiot. Trying to pass off your own opinions as some kind of gospel. Tarring thousands upon thousands of people (who you’ve never met) with the same brush won’t endear you to anyone.

So, Sam – have you ever actually been to the Summernats? Ever seen the attention to detail and craftsmanship of the show level cars?

Oh and BTW – If you think the hoons were bad near your place you should try living in certain areas of Kambah/Wanniassa at *any* time of the year.

My experience of Summernats fever begins and ends with the one incident:

I was driving down the road in my car at the time, a Mazda MX5, top down, driving along somewhere in the vicinity of that great big hill near Woden.

Some car pulled up beside me as it was overtaking, and a firecracker was tossed into the cabin of my vehicle.

I have never attended the Summernats venue, nor will I ever attend because of that incident. Potentially for the organisers, they have lost a recurring entrance fee for life.

Since that time, I’ve listened to how the event has been cleaned up, it’s safer, more family friendly, etcetera.

The fact remains is that I was burned by that one incident, and have made the concious decision to never attend the event, in perpetual protestation at what has happened to me.

I like to think that over the years my financial contribution to the event would have numbered into the thousands of dollars, but now they get nothing.

Whilst I know that it wasn’t the organisers fault for the dickhead who threw the firecracker into my car, they were the magnet that attracted them here to Canberra.

Don’t go too hard on Sammy, although he possibly hasn’t had the life experiences that we have had, he’s not that much younger than the majority of people that I have met that post here, and is merely parroting what elements of Summernats he has been exposed to.

I for one would like to see him commissioned to do an interview with Lawrence Legend, for it would be from a point of view quite specifically Sammies.

I think we should ban Floriade.

I mean the people who go there think flowers are nice, pretty to look at, and smell good.

Those people then go home via a nursery and have the audacity, the nerve to buy flowers and plant them in their gardens. How dare they.

Do those people have no consideration for the effect on my hayfever. Its not noisy, but that silent killer, hurts me. nay, it destroys me.

Not for 3 days where i can’t sleep. it’s worse, more insidious than that. it lasts all spring.

AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH

but then think of all the good to canberra my suffering brings.

I agree with bonfire.

When I was young, me and my brother used to get a couple of old hockey sticks playing soldiers.

We had never really left the house, so we had no idea how real conflict worked; the guns never had to be reloaded, we never took cover and we just made up our own soldier speak as we went. We didn’t have our facts about armed combat straight and certainly would have looked very foolish to real soldiers (even if they had forgiven us for being kids).

Some kids play soldiers, some play doctors and nurses, and, apparently some chose to play shock jock. Sam you sound like a kid at play time trying to emulate his talkback heroes, but minus the life experience, wit and sense of responsibility that of these professionals have.

Then again, the arguments presented by some shock jocks are at times just as convoluted and rooted in poor research, so perhaps you are on the right track.

Sad thing is you seem like a nice enough kid, but you are rubbing people up the wrong way by playing shock jock.

I thought you were referring to a date where Sam might come out from under his rock and seize power in a bloodless coup, primarily by boring the current and government and citizens with hokey factual evidence and unfounded statements…

Oh, and Thumper- I rated the diary of the polar explorer.

I’ve been a supporter of the ‘Nats for years, and in fact my 5th birthday present from my older brother was a visit to the first ‘Nats (which barely filled the Budawang and Currong pavillions at the time).

However, that said, living on Duffy Street at the foot of Mount Ainslie, I cringe every year when the nats rolls around, and am always rewarded with any number of high powered V8’s (never rotary’s or fast 4’s) screaming along our street. A large number of these people have Yellow-On-Black or Black-on-White number plates, and seem to have little regard for cyclists or people out taking a afternoon walk with their family.

However this year, I was rewarded on Saturday night with the usual rumble of approaching big-block V8, the noise as it passed us, followed very shortly after by a screech of brakes and a thump of flesh on plasticised metal.

The scream of “F*****G KANGAROOS” left us all on the floor laughing in the hope that maybe this driver has learnt his lesson to slow down on streets near bushland. Or maybe not, and he may be back next year for round 2.

I hope so, I need a good laugh at this time of year.

two theories combined!!!! hmmm

Ah. Cleared that right up.

I thought you might have been referring to the Peak Oil hypothesis (stating that we’re going to run out of cheap oil and we’ll be plunged back into the dark ages).

At least that will put paid to Summernats, Sam.

It just so happened that one of the Ambos that attended the Summernats incident came in to work today. We were chatting about the incident and this individual didn’t seem to think that the car was going that fast when it actually hit … there was the impression that the event was being somewhat hyped by the media. Unfortunately there were injuries – fortunately they were not life threatening.

December 21 (i think) 2012 – its the end of the mayan calender (52nd cycle of 52 year cycle things).. the calender known to be the most scientifically accurate and possibly complex. Far more than our own (georgian??)… with it there are prophecies of mass destruction and the 5th age of man…. its so easy to put your faith in something ridiculous as such and then not care about anything eg the pollution that these old cars promote!!

sam i think your diary entry lacked any critical analysis. no research was performed, and you based your remedies for the imagined problem on assumptions which when examined were proved to be false. compounding this, you then tarred all people in any way remotely involved with summernats either entrants, attendees or those who didnt object – as being ridiculous wrong thinking bogans.

in fact it reads like a shock jock rant.

if one of my staff presented me with a paper which reached a conclusion based on your analysis, well lets just say an arse would be kicked.

remember: an opinion is not an axiom.

when i rant, i at least try and include a reason or base it on a fact.

your failure to apologise or realise that your conclusions are based on faulty and non-existent data do not bode well for future journalistic endeavours.

you should take this on board as feedback and not a personal attack.

Im living in the Northside, and I could hear the natters hooning and burning rubber in the distance, didnt bother me at all, in fact quite liked being directly aware of the action, but Im quite a way away, had they woke me up or similar, Id be locking the Summernats gates myself and calling in an airstrike. actually I think they should have a policy of NEVER LETTING ANYONE OUT. It would deprive the community of a few fine ho’s and novelty-mobiles, but I think it would be a step in the right direction.

It was too noisy and woke you up at 3am? Close your window. Or buy earplugs.

3am are not Nats competitors, they are the ‘local legends’. And they are 1/100th as bad as they were a decade ago when the Summernats riots on Northbourne took place…

Sammy, I wish you were old enough to have experienced a supercruise from the side of Northbourne Avenue. It was an interesting event…

Absent Dianne – December 2012? Which particular doomsday theory are you referring to? (sorry, that’s not meant to sound sarcastic.)

Oh my sam, you heard a car.

The opening assumptions of your argument were:

people who think that Summernats is a good idea generally belong in one or both of the following categories:

1. People who don’t live in the inner north of Canberra.
2. People who think the only way to have fun is through loud noises, preferably whilst intoxicated.

Now I’d say that item 1 can only be true if you limit your circle of friends and aquaintances to the over-50 set. But I know a great many over 50’s in the inner north who think it’s mostly harmless fun once a year, so even then it’d be wrong.

I am a long term inner-northican and it’s just a bit of fun as far as I’m concerned. We’re still waiting for anyone here to back up that assumption in any way.

Many people who live in the inner north support summernats.

You are wrong.

Now if you knew some people who do go to summernats, you might be suprised at the large variety of walks of life who go to, and enjoy, summernats. Many of them without drinking.

Until you get out from under a rock you might just want to phrase your arguments a bit more carefully.

Otherwise you do yourself no favours.

“When you’ve all stopped deluding yourselves with petrol fumes or found some other way of returning to logic I might return…”

Logic? What the hell kind of logic is “noisy cars kept me awake at night, and I don’t like the great unwashed, so Summernats ought to be banned”?

One weekend of noise and inconvenience in exchange for serious benefits to the local economy and a desperately needed image boost for Canberra. That’s logic Sam. Whiny NIMBY-ism is not.

The only concnern I have with nats is the pollution… but in reality the damage is already done plus the fact nothing will be as we know it by december 2012… its not worth caring about I guess…. so party on sweet little rev heads make bogan babies under the shade of your bonnet thing… How romance

I hate summernats. I hate cars. However, some people (a hell of a lot if you look at the influx into Canberra every January) seem to love them. This doesn’t make them the sort of losers Samual (in his IMMENSE life experience) implies. It just means they like cars. Yes, it’s noisy. Yes, as a female you can’t go for your usual morning walk in the northern suburbs without being yelled at from a passing car. Yes, it can be downright inconvenient.

But it’s only a couple of days a year. Go to the coast! Go to Sydney! Or just (now here’s a thought) toughen up and deal with it for God’s sake. I don’t like the ‘nats, but I don’t begrudge it to those who do.

I find the existence of 2CC pretty offensive, but you won’t see me calling for it to be banned…

Sam, I didn’t remove anything at all, merely higlighted the most pertinent componenets. Therefore if it isn’t removed, by your assertion, it must say what everyone has been talking too.

I’m not going to bother with Sambo, but I will say that I’m impresed to see so many of you supporting the Nats; looking past your personal objections to see that this benefits all of us and brightens up our fair city.

I hate to say it, but if the vocal minority of NIMBYs make too much noise, then we will be sliding ever-closer to the sterile stereotype which we work so hard to beat off.

I am a car person – having worked in the specialist automotive industry for five years I generally look forward to the Nats – although I can appreciate it does involve an element of fuckwittery, it is moving in the right direction to weed out these losers and their hangers-on.

The drift car was a clusterfuck; you can be assured that this won’t happen again. That being said, I’m surprised that there has not been many more serious injuries over the years with some of the stunts and foolish behaviour that goes on.

I say well done Chic and well done Canberra for being so supportive and relaxed about it all (with a few exceptions).

Are you suggesting that I imagined cars at 2am, 3am and every 5, 10 or 15 minutes between?

Obviously the fact that I didn’t attend Summernats makes all of my opinions completely invalid and useless.

Hmmm, I better find a lunatic asylum for myself then…no, you better do it for me, I’m totally ignorant when it comes to anything that doesn’t happen inside my house, so I wouldn’t be able to make contact with the outside world to organise my place in the lunatic asylum.

When you’ve all stopped deluding yourselves with petrol fumes or found some other way of returning to logic I might return…until then, enjoy yourselves and good day to you all!

But Sam, both your statements are born out of total ignorance.

RG, of course it says that when you remove “generally belong in one or both of the following categories”

“and the cops were doing a good job and were friendly”

Why thank you Kimba, it was our pleasure

I can’t believe I’m so eager to dissect the words of a teen ignoranus on the internet.

Paragraph 4 of that last diatribe SGS, wake up to your own words from the original post, particularly:

the people who think that Summernats is a good idea generally belong in one or both of the following categories:

1. People who don’t live in the inner north of Canberra.
2. People who think the only way to have fun is through loud noises, preferably whilst intoxicated.

I’m sure they enjoy this event and it’s inherent noise, smoke and pointlessness, in fact I’m sure they enjoy it, because they carry it out of the venue at the end of each day and continue it on suburban streets. The lovely loonies who bring their high-powered vehicles into Canberra each year aren’t content with watching others perform unusual activities in an enclosed environment, no, they feel a need to keep everyone else awake for many hours afterwards.

In case your English is still lacking, that statement paints EVERYONE, thats’s contestants, attendants and sympathisers.

Even your feeble attempt at further qualification after that statement offers no concrete concessions.

Kimba, I’m quite happy with my life…and you’ll need to make me unconcious before you could strap me onto the back of “Lawrence the Legend’s” motorbike…and then you could expect a lawsuit shortly afterwards.

Well JB, the majority of the inner north residents that I know aren’t keen on Summernats…it could just be a statistical anomaly.

In reply to a couple other comments:
I don’t recall siggesting that it was competition entrants who were making lots of noise near my place, I was just saying that this time of year seems to bring an awful lot more noisy vehicles than usual past my place at all hours. It could have been excited Canberrans, it could have been interstate visitors, I would suggest it was probably a combination…but I don’t know the exact makeup of the noisy ones, I was trying to sleep and didn’t look out the window to photograph the number plates.

I have no doubt that there are genuine car enthusiasts who can behave themselves, it’s just a pity that the event also attracts noisy trouble makers…if it didn’t attract them I probably wouldn’t be concerned (except for the puny fences).

Somewhere along the line somebody got confused and thought I was trying to discredit all that attend Summernats, perhaps if I had waited until this morning to post my comment there wouldn’t have been a late night misunderstanding.

On the V8’s, I didn’t want them to go…sure I could hear them from my place, but I didn’t care as it wasn’t keeping me awake at night, and it was a well controlled event which didn’t seem to spill over into the suburbs unofficially overnight.

I’m still not sure how people came to the conclusion that my opinion is invalid because I listen to AM radio or because I don’t like everything else that most people my age do…I don’t expect you to agree with me, I don’t agree with most of you, but I still think you have valid opinions.

Not a big fan but i did take a walk around Lonsdale Street on Friday night and thought it was a good atmosphere….everyone was well behaved and the cops were doing a good job and were friendly.

Poor old Sammy…he really needs to get a life! Perhaps someone should strap Sammy to the back of Lawrence the Legend’s motorbike and give the boy a real thrill!

Incidentally Sam, how are you standing by the first half of your argument when so many inner north residents have said they either like summernats or are happy to tolerate it?

Your prejudices brook no interference by base reality?

Sure Summernats can be annoying. I was woken on more than one occasion this weekend to the sound of a V8 being bagged up near my house. A lot of the people who make their way to Canberra on the first weekend after new year’s can be pretty unpleasant. No, I don’t like cars, or car culture.

It’s been claimed that the vaule of the ‘Nats to Canberra is to remind us that we’re part of the greater Australian community (warts and all). I disagree. What makes it valuable is that it shows the greater Australian community that Canberra isn’t there simply to cater for the interest of Sam G-S and his ilk, and that we are actually capable of getting off on things other than the contents of the NGA.

That’s why I’d fight to make sure Summernats does not go the way of the V8’s.

Dickson woolies carpark and maccas Dickson is a good spot to check out fancy cars during summernats. Although I saw less than usual this year too.
Hasn’t burnout day always been during the day – I remember years ago all my washing got little black bits of rubber all over it from the burnouts – I lived in Watson really close to the showgrounds.

“Given that they lock the gates at EPIC at 10pm during Summernats”

Factually incorrect

Hmmmm…. I stand corrected, looking at the Summernats website, the event closed at 10pm on Thursday, 12am Friday and 1am Saturday.

Still, SGS’ comment above about noise at 3am is unlikely to be a Summnernats entrant and more likely one of the locals.

How long will it take the lawyers to get involved in this accident at the ‘Nats? I think a lawyer would have real fun with this, especially as the only protective barrier around the racetrack was a galvanised pipe framed chain-mesh fence???

Good work to the dickheads who thought it was a good idea to have cars doing drifters with no proper barriers to protect the crowd!

No, no apoligies, I stand by everything I said.

The accident at summernats was a shame, but i have to say letting the ‘drifters’ on the track wasnt a good idea. the ‘safety fence’ wouldnt have met cams accreditation.

one thing i noticed this year was that folks who smoked em up while cruising through the crowds had their stickers ripped off and were ejected. this is a dramatic policy change from the 19 previous years.

also the burnout comps were held during the day so that the locals tending their begonias at 10PM wouldnt be diturbed.

i love summernats and would hate to see it go. if you have concerns sam, write to chic henry. he takes these things on board and each year summernats becomes more professional and less intrusive to the outside world.

antisocial behavious occurs 365 days a year on canberras roads, so i object to your childlike descriptions of people who enjoy motorsport and the culture which it is part of.

as there is a curfew on summernats entrants from 1am to 6am there is no possible way that any summernats entrant coudl have kept you awake at 3am.

feel free to apologise to the defamed group.

I personally think it’s annoying, but hey, it’s one weekend in a year and a lot of people seem to enjoy it…just cruise to the coast like we do, Sam.

Not to say that young people can’t have worthwhile opinions mind you.

I’ve been a bit disappointed with Summernats this year to be honest, I’m not a car culture type personally but I appreciate the effort and passion that people do put in. But the times I’ve taken a stroll down Lonsdale St this weekend there has been sfa in the way of cool looking cars cruising about. Am I just going at the wrong time??

(And yeah, I’m another Northsider who doesn’t mind the whole thing)

(And I’m going to let the whole SGS thing go because he’s young and respects AM talkback djs – the brains trust of Oz)

Ahhh, Saturday night, what was I thinking, of course that’s the time to go.

And as someone who lives facing Northbourne I think it’s great. An invite to sit on my balcony becomes a prized possession. We get to watch the police pull over countless hoons and later in the night we get the parade of footsore drunks trying to walk into civic.

Sure i don’t want it every night of the year, but for a few short days a year it’s just good fun.

Sam, if only your opinions were leavened by any sort of life experience they’d have a lot more value to anyone but yourself and the other trolls living at the back of the talk-back radio cave.

A 2CC sycophant levelling the word ‘pointless’ at other people. Priceless!

I thought Summernats was much quieter this year. The organisers have made a lot of efforts towards making it less intrusive for locals and I think it has worked.

Having gone into Braddon (mistakenly) on Friday night I can attest that the majority of the cars doing the kerbside crawl from one end of Lonsdale Street to the other were predominately ACT registered cars.

Funnily enough, the rest of the year only brings the occasional (once or twice per week) loony car driver near my place in Reid. During Summernats they occur every 10-15 minutes for the better part of the late night and early morning.

I’m quite happy with my point of view and I’m sticking with it.

Saw Chic Henry on the news tonight, He had the look of “shit, I hope the insurance covers this”.

“Given that they lock the gates at EPIC at 10pm during Summernats”

Factually incorrect

As another north Canberra resident, who is within spitting distance of the top half of EPIC (the noiser end during summernats) I can echo what JKR said. Apart from the increased littering on our street, which organisers have already cleaned, the event itself has been progressively quieter over the last few years to the point that the Canberra Show is significantly more audible from our house.

Whilst not a car enthusist myself, a significant proportion of the crowd visiting summernats are non-bogan, non-intoxicated families who go home in their non-hotted up cars when the gates shut at 10pm.

As JKR said, most of the people keeping SGS awake after 9pm are the same crowd who do the same thing all year round, particularly in Braddon and Civic.

I’d suggest before attempting an “editorial” again SGS (especially one which you insist on broadcasting here), that you at least attempt to have a less blinkered and better informed perspective on the subject matter.

As an inner north resident (downer) I have no problem whatsoever with Summernats. I don’t go, I don’t want to go, but I don’t begrudge those who do.

Given that they lock the gates at EPIC at 10pm during Summernats, I think you’ll find the people tearing around the streets at 3am are locals, which you can hear any other night of the year.

Sam

Its time for you to leave the cocoon and experience some of what life has got to offer. There is more to the world than Coma AM.

I haven’t been to summernats in 5 years or so, but its one hell of an event for a car lover. My parents, in their 50’s, attend most years as they love the incredible detail work on the custom cars.

Others love Summernats for the burnouts and driving events, others love it for the booze and the female flesh on display.

As for the accident last night, it was stupidity on the organisers part. They had 1000hp drift vehicles, designed and highly engineered to run sideways on a sealed race circuit, running two wide on the trotting track (gravel) when one lost control.

When the rally of Canberra had a superspecial stage there 5 years ago, the crowd was separated from the cars by 10 ton concrete blocks. For the drift blokes to be separated from the spectators by nothing more substantial than a few poles and some cyclone fence, it was an accident waiting to happen.

Luckily nobody was killed, and the injuries relatively minor – there is NO WAY any promotor or insurance company would run the risk of this happening again.

Ad it to the ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ list, and be glad that noone was killed.

Perhaps the best way for me to respond to this story is by mirroring my editorial about Summernats.

The strangeness of Summernats

January 8th, 2006

One thing I have noticed over the last week or so is that the people who think that Summernats is a good idea generally belong in one or both of the following categories:

1. People who don’t live in the inner north of Canberra.
2. People who think the only way to have fun is through loud noises, preferably whilst intoxicated.

I’m sure they enjoy this event and it’s inherent noise, smoke and pointlessness, in fact I’m sure they enjoy it, because they carry it out of the venue at the end of each day and continue it on suburban streets. The lovely loonies who bring their high-powered vehicles into Canberra each year aren’t content with watching others perform unusual activities in an enclosed environment, no, they feel a need to keep everyone else awake for many hours afterwards.

It is the general attitude of this group of people which becomes very annoying, they tend to think that the best way to drive a car is with a flat foot, especially when on a suburban road, couple this with the loud vehicles that these people generally drive, and suddently you will understand why I was still awake at 3 o’clock this morning, despite attempts to go to sleep.

I’m sure there are some genuine car enthusiasts who can behave themselves and not feel a need to wake up northern Canberra, and I’m sure Summernats does wonders for the local economy (especially the petrol stations), but it has a rather negative impact on those who live anywhere near it.

Organiser Chic Henry was on 2CC a couple weeks back telling us all that the people who don’t like Summernats don’t like noise and generally have something wrong with them…well sorry Chic, but you’re wrong. I don’t mind noise, but I’d rather not have it outside my window at 3am, I also don’t like the undesirable element which are generally attracted to your event, the ones who manage to drag Canberra’s road safety level to record lows (no pun intended).

Whilst Chic maintains that Summernats is a fantastic and safe event, reality shows it is anything but safe. For example, last night a ute in one of the parades managed to lose control and plow into a crowd, injuring four to six people, depending on your news source. Watching the footage it is quite clear that the driver was a goose and the fencing was completely inadequate.

According to Channel Ten, Summernats organiser Chic Henry says there’s always an element of danger associated with motor sports. Chic is right about that, but there is a vast difference between most motor sports and Summernats, the fencing. Most motor sports have a proper concrete barrier or similar with proper fencing above it, Summernats has a puny little fence that could probably be pushed over by an average grown human.

Add to that the fact that it was possible for a semi-streaker to get onto the arena under the location where a crane was about to drop a car on to a caravan (proper fences would fix that) and then they missed the caravan anyway, and you really have a very unusual definition of “safe” in Chic’s dictionary.

When Chic was on 2CC as previously mentioned, he was talking about how Summernats almost didn’t survive when they had to find a new location a few years ago…wouldn’t it have been brilliant if it hadn’t survived? Absolutely fantastic in my view. According to the ABC Television News, crowd numbers were down this year, which is fantastic as it might be spelling the beginning of the end for this strange annual annoyance.

News reports indicate that Chic will review safety procedures, well I’m going to give him some free advice. The best way to make the event safer is to not have it…there! Problem solved! Alternatively, move it to the middle of nowhere…that will, at the very least, make Canberra’s roads a bit safer…and let the loonies make as much noise as they want with nobody getting annoyed…won’t stop the injuries though.

If Summernats leaves Canberra I’ll be pleased, if it disappears altogether then I’ll be over the moon, as the world will be slightly more sane!

Samuel

Canberra Times says it crashed through a safety barrier. The Times has pages of Summernats pics today – not much else though.