Summernats

Summernats is a car festival held in Canberra, Australia. Summernats is held annually, usually at the start of the year in January. Summernats is the most well known car festival in Australia, and an event which attracts many tourists to Canberra, bringing about $12-$15million to the ACT economy. It has increasingly been promoted as an event for families. The 19th annual Summernats was held on 5th-9th January 2006. Summernats attendance records were set in 2005 with 119,000 people.

Summernats 20 occurred from 4th-7th January 2007. Among other exhibitors was the Australian Army, which had a tricked vehicle but also brought one of the recently delivered Abrams tanks.

Promoter

Summernats' promoter and organiser is Chic Henry.

Venue

Summernats is held at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) in the suburb of Mitchell, off Northbourne Avenue. Summernats features many street machines with airbrushed artwork, and restored and modified cars. It is held over a four day period, with many events, with prizes in competitions such as for burnouts, parades of cars around the track, a Miss Summernats competition, and fireworks at night.

Awards

Many awards are given during the course of the festival.

Grand Champion

The most prestigious award is the "Summernats Grand Champion". [http://www.summernats.com.au/pdfs/grandchampion.pdf]
* 2007: Zoltan Bodo from Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory, with a 1992 Holden VP series Senator;
* 2006: Aaron Fitzpatrick from Australian Capital Territory, with a gold 1969 Datsun 510 sedan [http://www.summernats.com.au/results_elite2006.htm] .
* 2005:
**Deby and Gary Myers from Narrandera NSW, in a silver 1966 Ford Mustang coupe; and
**Dave Ritchie from Dapto NSW, in a green 1965 Ford Falcon XP coupe.

Miss Summernats

* 2007: Jenelle Smith, 19, from Canberra
* 2006: Bree Fenton, 19, from Sydney
* 2005: Tanya Lazarou, from Sydney

how and Shine

The Summernats holds one of Australia's most prestigious Show and Shine events. Vehicles from around the nation use the Summernats to announce their arrival on the Australian scene. There are the following categories:
* Real Street, Street, Elite and Tuff Street
* Top 60 cars, Top 20 cars and Top 10 cars
* Top Judged Elite and Top Judged Street

In addition there are some awards that are highly coveted amongst the Australian vehicle modifing community:
* Master Craftsman
* High Impact
* Artistic Impression
* People's Choice

Air Brushing

Custom Air brushing is also celebrated at the Summernats, where numerous awards are handed out.

Driving Events

There is a multitude of awards handed out to entrants in cars, which are in the following categories:
* Burnout and Burnout Masters
* Grass Motorkahana
* Go to Whoa
* Grab a Flag
* Best Cruiser
* Slalom

Dyno Challenge

There is also a competition that many people say is Australia's best Dyno comp. Cars are strapped to a device that measures Horsepower at the driven wheels. During the course of the Summernats many awards in different categories are handed out in the 'Dyno-cell'. In the past outright power reads of over 1000 and 1200hp at the wheels have been registered.

Controversy

A crash at Summernats 2006 injured a number of people (various sources indicating four [http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&story_id=450058&category=General%20News&m=1&y=2006] , five [http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17761193-5001028,00.html] or six [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1543504.htm] ).

Street cruises were stopped after the 2005 Summernats, following crowd control issues.

The event has also been linked to incidences of inappropriate behaviour toward women, including rape, gang rape and drink spiking. During the Summernats period in 2007, the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre received 3 callouts, though they believe the actual rate of assault is generally higher due to the reluctance of women to report assaults immediately after they occur [http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=lifestyle%20news&subclass=news%20extra&story_id=548064&category=news%20extra] . Reports also claim that the local sex industry experiences an increase in business during Summernats.

However Summernats spokesman Chic Henry was quoted as saying "The situation could be compared to so many other situations in life where people may have been having a bit too much fun, maybe having a bit too much alcohol" [http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200701/1822615.htm?act] .

ee also

*List of festivals in Australia
*Ute Muster

References

*"The Canberra Times", 8 Jan 2006 "Motor City"

External links

* [http://www.summernats.com.au/ Summernats official site]
** [http://www.summernats.com.au/chicschat.html Chic's Chat]
* [http://www.citsa.com.au/Media/Gallery/15_12200601102423_62.jpgChick Henry and his Camaro, "FASTFUN".]