Many people, even those who have had no contact with this website, would be aware of my views on Summernats from last year [1].
My main issues were with the apparent lack of proper safety procedures following a rather silly accident during a drift race, and the excessive amount of noise that a minority of attendees seem to think the northern part of Canberra wants to hear in the wee hours of the morning.
I would like to take this opportunity to commend Summernats organiser Chic Henry, and the Australian Federal Police, for addressing the majority of my concerns. It would appear that Mr. Henry has done a lot of good work in not only addressing safety issues, but also making the event a more family friendly event, whilst retaining plenty of room for the adult activities which apparently make Summernats more than a car show, and awfully attractive to an awful lot of people.
Mr. Henry’s partnership with the Australian Federal Police, in which the AFP announced that they would confiscate vehicles taking part in illegal or anti-social behaviour outside the Summernats venue, is also a good move, and has for the most part worked. I was woken up a couple times last night by some rather obvious sounds of street racing along Limestone Avenue, and a lot of screeching tyres, but hearing the sirens shortly afterwards made it all worthwhile!
Overall the noisy and naughty post-midnight activities are much less frequent than they were last year, they still happen, but not much more than they do during the rest of the year, which is a vast improvement on last year.
I still have no interest in attending Summernats, but I appreciate the work which has gone into this year’s event to make it better for attendees and the public who live in nearby suburbs.
I don’t know if Mr. Henry or the AFP read my comments, although I dare say they would have been hard to miss in some form after a number of websites, including local car enthusiast websites, took quite an interest in them.
I will be sending this editorial to Mr. Henry to ensure that he is aware of my pleasure with the changes.
Samuel