SUMMERNATS 36, over 10 years in the making!

[braithwaite]

Firstly let's start with some background context;

I'm known as Braithwaite (separate story for another day, not my surname or anything like that) and if you've met me or read this thread of mine :Yellow Peril Burnout Ital you'll know I'm a MASSIVE fan of the Australian car scene and the wild burnout and show cars they build. 

This fascination started way back in 2014, when Hoonigan shared this video: 


And soon after my trip down the rabbit hole, I came across this video: 


I was hooked, and started to really get into the whole scene and learn about these cars. The research culminated in discovering Summernats, the jewel in the CROWN for Australian car events. Every year I'd pour over the coverage from Summernats and wish desperately that I could go, but being a broke student, then slightly less broke graduate, that lived in the UK, it was always somewhat reserved as a dream that might happen. 

Fast forward to January 2023, and after the sudden and tragic passing of Ken Block, as well as the tickets starting to sell out for SN36 while SN35 was still going on, something just triggered a "to hell with it, we're going!"  The tickets for Summernats were booked before we had flights or accommodation, but I didn't care, it was finally happening, I was going to be stood in Exhibition Park, in Canberra, watching my heroes do what they did best. I then found the thread from The Doctor as his trip to Summernats, which got me even more excited for what I was going to be seeing. 

The longest year of my life then happened while counting down the days, but suddenly it was time to fly! Throughout the year I had messaged some drivers and teams from Aus that I follow on Instagram and they’d replied and offered to guide us round the event so this added to the excitement! I have family in Sydney and Melbourne so a holiday was planned around our long weekend to Canberra. I was able to get 4 weeks off and we took off Christmas Eve and landed in Sydney on Boxing day (flights are cheaper if you're in the air on Christmas day!).

Sydney was awesome and meant we (long suffering girlfriend and myself) could get clear of jet lag before picking up our hire car and driving south. We split the driving between us, even though it was only a 3 hour trip, I wasn't allowed to drive into Canberra as it was deemed I would be too distracted looking at cars, which is correct. 

There weren’t too many cars on the road on the way, but we checked into our hotel, found these in the car park:




Then we drove back up the road 15 mins to meet Craig Meston, Craig and I had been messaging since April 2023 and he competes in the burnout championship (not the burnout masters) and said to meet him at this pub. We arrived and it was rammed, I think most entrants had descended on this pub! We met them, had some drinks then headed back to the hotel for some dinner. While waiting for food the heavens opened and there was the loudest clap of thunder I’d ever heard, which then reminded me Craig and the crew were camping and I was very glad to be in a hotel! 

Thursday dawned, once ready we spent the morning sorting tram passes etc. then walked back to the Hotel ready for the city cruise to come past, the number of cars in the precession was mind blowing, all makes and models with a strong preference to the Aussie blue oval and red circle!



The clouds were merging though so we hopped on the tram and jumped off a couple stops from the show to grab lunch stuff, unfortunately on the way back to the tram stop we got soaked, in the short 5 minutes it took us to walk we looked like we had jumped into a pool fully clothed.


A quick change and we were finally on our way. The whole time we’d been in Aus Canberra, even though we were physically in Australia, it never felt real… that was right up until we walked through the main gate. I can’t describe the feeling, but I’ll try! I imagine it would be the same feeling as kids at Disneyland but mix that with a disbelief that I’d actually done it, I’d achieved the dream and that is a feeling that’s been with me since, a kind of “I f**king made it.” We walked round to try and gain our bearings, met up with Craig again and stood on the bank to watch a few skids, this was my first time and what the videos don’t show is the feeling of the noise, these engines are screaming and not quiet, your chest gets hammered for 2 minutes straight and the tyre and methanol smell took a little getting used to! But holy moly, this is what we came for and is better than I ever dreamt! Unfortunately, the rain made a return so the action on the pad was cut a little short.

We decided to wonder over to the pavilion, which is where the elite show cars are displayed, we wondered round and stood and watched a talk from Hert and Zach who have worked (or still work) at Hoonigan.



I ended up having a conversation with a chap in a cowboy hat, who I recognised but couldn’t place him until he told me his job at Summernats was give the burnout cars the green lit to skid, so I was totally flabbergasted!


One thing about the first day of SN is the great unveil, a selection of cars not yet seen before are debut at the show, covers being taken off and that really adds some buzz to the event and we managed to be stood right next to the first car unveiled, a 1968 Dodge Charger with a 3,000hp Blown Hemi V8 packing the punch! A very special moment which was made more personal when we struck up a conversation with the owner’s parents! One thing that was becoming more and more obvious, Australians are un-believably generous and hospitable people, and who are also shocked that some nutter would travel over 16,000km just to go to a car show!


By now it was getting into the evening, and we were hungry! Unfortunately by this point the burger vans in the exhibition park had closed, so we jumped on the tram and headed to the Fringe festival, another part of SN where the street cars line the road and people meet up and eat at one of the many restaurants along the strip, we grabbed some pizza and wondered around, although by this point my feet were ruined and I had to call it a day.




That's all for day one, I'm still a little jet lagged from the return home flights so as I write this I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, but the next instalment is definitely worth the wait! 

Thanks again for all the support on this forum, really helps! 

Braithwaite.

[The Doctor]

Looking forward to your view of Summernats, i know we had a blast last year!
Totally agree on the feeling of the noise part, nothing could've prepared me for that first burnout i saw on the thursday. Sensory overload!

i'm still not jealous.....

[mk2cossie]

Eager listener of Summernats shenanigans here

Looking forward to more updates of your travels 😀

[HoTWire]

I am hyped for this thread, and so glad you did the trip. It is awesome to go and do these things

[HARDCORE]

I enjoyed watching your socials dude, extremely jealous of this trip but looking forward to enjoying it vicariously

[braithwaite]

Friday, now we were starting to feel the party warming up! Walked quickly to the grandstands as Craig told us his skid for the championship was at 11am, and we were running late, but everything was pushed back as the remainder of the wildcard qualifiers needed to happen first so actually worked in our favour. Wildcard tickets are the equivalent of a Wonka Golden ticket to let the Championship drivers make the jump up into the Burnout Masters.



We saw the PINKY Commodore line up, and from the green flag on it was clear, Craig wasn’t here to f**k spiders and came out strong, bearing in mind his car had just been freshly painted, and by fresh, I mean parts were fitted on the trailer on the way down. He kept the car off all the walls, had good pad use and made great smoke clouds! We watched a few more cars and then it was time, the big boys came out to play in the Burnout Masters. Burnout Masters is your Formula 1, or Pro drift class, while Burnout Championship is similar to Formula 2 or Pro-Am, but EVERY driver was on max attack as there were wildcard tickets and big cash prizes up for grabs!



Now, I’m not going to deny, I went full fan-girl for this. There were so many drivers and cars I’d watched countless videos of, Jake Myers in SICKO/GM176, Rick Fuller in FULLON.X, Bryan Smilie in TIPNIN, Chris Orchard in THE GAME, and not forgetting the legend that is Andrew Lynch in LYNCHY! This was just INCREDIBLE! Words cannot describe just how awesome it was to be in the grandstand watching your heroes (cars and drivers) doing what they love and being able to feel and smell it. I’ve been to Santa Pod plenty so am used to being vibrated to my core by screaming V8’s, but when it’s a big block chevy, sitting on limiter, howling at the top of it’s rpm for a solid 2 minutes, it’s a feeling like no other, like you’ve been bolted into one of those paint shaking machines. I’ve got to say though, finally watching Lynchy do a monster tip in and drive the wheels of that little corolla just floored me, I was blown away with emotion and just made up, I’d finally seen him and the car do what they were known for, and being a part of the crowd, chanting “LYNCHY, LYNCHY, LYNCHY” made me feel very much a part of something, instead of the odd one out.










After all the smoke had cleared, and the Masters had finished, we were just walking out of the grandstands when I noticed a man who I’d been a fan of since I very first got into the burnout scene, ‘Mad’ Mick Brasher, Mr. ULEGAL, this was the man whose house party video I’d drooled over for a decade. I was star struck but managed to somehow call out and get his attention, he and I started chatting, and next thing we’re walking to the trailer to see the car (he’d destroyed the gearbox in an earlier skid) I was giddy, not only was I meeting my human hero, I was on my way to meeting my car hero too! He opened the trailer, and there it was, a 1974 Toyota Corolla with Blown LS shoe-horned in. I was just wide eyed, but next thing, Mick’s opened the driver’s door and told me to take a seat, I couldn’t quite believe what was happening but wasn’t about to say no! Jumped in, shut the door and just soaked it all in, Mick then goes “Okay now try the signature foot out the window!” and who am I to say no, it wasn’t easy, I’m not that flexible but managed it. That move has been a signature of Mick’s for ages so to be in the car, doing it was just wild. We chatted for what felt like hours and I got loads of good info about the cars and what is best with regards to axles, transmissions and all that. We parted ways headed back towards the marquees and dyno cell to see some of the stuff that had been closed yesterday. Next minute Mick’s calling after us and handing us a t-shirt each! I could have easily died a happy man there and then on the spot! I couldn’t get over how generous he was and what a character! I know people say don’t meet your heroes, but I beg to differ when they’re that awesome to be around!



Before we carried on walking though, we decided to clean our faces, we’d been pre-warned on the Summernats Facebook page to bring wet wipes to clean the rubber off. This is another thing you don’t get from videos on the internet, rubber dust. Let me tell you, what a mission it was to get off! It looked like dust but as soon as you tried to brush it off, it would smear like war paint so took a couple of wet wipes to shift off.

Now clean we carried on wondering round and looking at stuff we’d missed. The Doctor had found me on Instagram and had requested a t-shirt from Luxifer so that was our next mission, Kyle was a great guy and even signed it, now I just need to send it to Thomas or wait for him to attend RRW 😉! We wondered round the other trade stands and looked round all the elite cars that had been unveiled, now that the buzz in the hall had died down it made it much easier to see and take in the quality of work. If you think you know how to build a show car, unless you’re Australian, you don’t. The cars were immaculate, perfect, and any other way to get across that there was not a single blemish or flaw.



A bit more walking past some of marquess/burnout car paddock. I stopped in my tracks, Emily saw my face and then clocked what had made my jaw drop… we’d stumbled upon a little blue Corolla this time, and you’ll recognise the plate:



LYNCHY!!! The tip in king, well his car at least! I spent far too long walking round this car and just generally soaking in that I was stood right next to the car of legendary status! Suffice to say Friday was turning into the best day of my life, as my face in the picture above probably shows!



By now it was time to walk to the mainstage, on our way I spotted Jimmy Allen of Fatal Finish Detailing. Jimmy’s company detail all the big name burnout cars and he always puts out great edits from Summernats which fuelled me to buy the tickets and we’ve spoken a little so struck up conversation, next minute he’s filming me explain how his content helped me buy Summernats tickets before plane tickets, we then chat some and he says find him tomorrow for a t-shirt or two. We parted ways to go and watch Daryl Braithwaite (not a relative) as his song ‘The Horses’ is an Aussie classic, and Craig had told me that it was a must see, even though I’d never heard of either the artist or song! Best I can describe is it’s like Come on Eileen or Sweet Caroline, where if played in any UK setting everyone sings along, so to be in a 1000+ crowd of people singing it at the top of their lungs, was an experience, made better by Craig’s slightly alcohol fuelled choreography!

We called it a night after all this excitement and headed back to the hotel, the tram trip was essentially me repeatedly telling Emily (who had been by my side ALL DAY) that I’d met Mick Brasher and sat in ULEGAL.

However, you may think I’ve peaked too soon… but alas dear reader, Saturday was going to turn things up to 11! Watch this space!!

Cheers all, Braithwaite

[Jonny69]

Loving the energy in this write up! Looking forward to part 3.

[HARDCORE]

LYNCHY!

[stealthstylz]

Great write up. It's one of those events I need to go to. I'm not even a huge fan of burnouts but the atmosphere looks immense.

[braithwaite]

Firstly, thank you for all the complimentary comments! Really great to see as per usual from the people on this forum! Secondly this next post is a long one so might be worth grabbing a brew before getting stuck in…

Saturday, this is the biggest day of the weekend and with the Burnout Masters set to have their finals in the afternoon, which used to be the Sunday arvo, it was going to be a busy one! We arrived a bit earlier than we had the last two days as I knew there was going to be a lot to squeeze in.

Still on a high from yesterday, we met up at Craig’s campsite, let me give you more of a backstory on him and his car. Craig Meston has been doing burnouts for a fair while, I’ve been following him and the Winginit Motorsport guys for a while (check out their YT here: ) they’re a great bunch of guys, really friendly and welcoming and willing to give us plenty of advice on surviving Summernats. Craig’s car, PINKY, is a Holden VK Commodore, running an LS and Turbo 400 combo, running on Methanol. It sits on 20” wheels and then steelies when doing what it was built for, obliterating tyres! Craig hadn’t done much driving before his burnout on the Friday to save the car and was waiting to see if he’d qualified for the Burnout Championship, but knowing he had, he was ready to do some laps and was determined to make good on his promise of taking us for a lift!





I rode shotgun and Em squeezed into the back seat. Another surreal moment and the engine wasn’t even running yet! Anyway, Craig kicked the V8 into life, and off we idled, we did a lap and on the next he wanted to top up on fuel and that’s a no passenger zone, so we were dropped off by the fuel station exit while he circled round for fuel. We watched the cars cruise past and waited for our pink Uber to come back for us. We did another couple of laps, every now and then Craig gave her a blip and my inner child would come out in giggles.







Having done a few laps, and seeing the time Craig turns and says, “Tom, you ever done a proper burnout?” to which I stuttered out, “No not really…a one tyre fire in an Oldsmobile once, why?” and his response, “Well we’ll need to fix that, you can’t come all this way and not go down skid row!!” So, we came back round, Emily jumped out (she wasn’t keen so offered to film instead, she’s a keeper!), and we cut through the campsite to get into the paddock to line up for skid row. Writing this now is triggering the excitement shakes. We were in that paddock for what felt like forever. Now it’s worth noting that up this point, PINKY’s engine hadn’t felt that loud, even though the straight piped exhausts finished under the front seats. I hadn’t felt the need to put my ear plugs in that I’d been wearing when watching the skids on the burnout pad.



Next thing I know it was go time, a marshal signalled us to get back in the car. Harnesses on and idle up to the start line, I want to say I was smiling but from the video I took I’m just dumbfounded, I’m in a professional burnout car, about to go down skid row, at Summernats. If you’d said that to me 2 years ago I’d have laughed and said what a load of bulls**t. There we are, the crowd looks HUGE, Craig looks over and says “Keep your mouth closed, or you’ll inhale all the rubber! You ready?!” I nod, still completely mind blown of where I am and what’s about to happen, we both look forward, the car before us just rumbles out of sight and the red flag goes to the green! The initial few seconds felt like slo-mo, Craig stood on it, like that loud pedal couldn’t have been pushed down any further, the revs shot up and soon found the limiter, and I found out that an open headed LS is quite f***ing loud!! We slowly rolled down skid row, Craig pedalling and controlling the throttle and looking like he was driving to the shops looking for a parking space. The crowd was a wash with ‘limiter finger’ which if you watch any burnout video is the crowd waving their pointer finger at the sky. After the initial shock my arm was out the window doing the same, the whole way down. We got nearly to the end and Craig gave it some more limiter and slowed the forward momentum down, these tyres still had some meat on them so we crawled along what felt like an age before the sound of two tyres delaminating drummed on the rear arches and the back end lifted up telling us that we were done, the tyres were cooked (side note: on skid row you’re not allowed to pop the rear tyres like in competition). A quick check by the fire crew and a thumbs up, we rolled out the end of skid row, back onto the cruise route, both with eyes streaming from the Methanol fumes we were grinning like idiots. What an experience and even though I thanked Craig multiple times I’ll never be able to say it enough, what an experience! We rolled back toward the camp, the car wobbling and gently snaking from the rear tyres being no longer complete. Once back, I was re-united with Emily and the rear tyres were changed, I let the air out the ones removed, and this is what they looked like:



These were brand new when we started skid row! While my POV video is good, it’s not as good as this pro shot from one of the photographers, (yeah, that’s my pale breadstick arm out the window on the passenger side!) and there is a video on the official Summernats Instagram page of the skid which is just so wild, told my parents I’d made it in life!

This was all before midday!

Once I’d stopped the ringing in my ears, I checked my phone and had a couple of reminder messages from Jimmy (Fatal Finish Detaling who we met Friday) to meet him and grab some t-shirts. I was shocked, I’d not expected him to remember with how wild Summernats is but he was true to his word and we ended up adding to our slowly growing collection. I suddenly realised we were running late for a meet and great I’d been determined to do, regardless of how big the line would be, I’d met his corolla the day before…



Yep, that is Andrew Lynch, the tip in king. We had a good chat and his partner recognised me as that mad man who’d asked to ship the t-shirts halfway round the world! This was then the sign of things to come, we headed back toward the grandstands, wanting to get there a little before the Burnout Masters finals but also taking time to look at cars and stuff as we went. We were alongside the dyno hall when the crowd somewhat parted to reveal an infamous Mustang, the GM176/SICKO mustang.



A car that is probably more, or as well known as it’s owners, this 66 Mustang has been terrorising tyres for the best part of 30 years, initially by Gary Myers and then handed down to his son Jake. The car and the Myers family are burnout royalty in Australia and rightly so, they’ve won more events than anyone else and Jake was the youngest person to be CROWNed Burnout Master Champion. I was looking round just admiring the car, when I inadvertently caught the attention of Jake Myers, we started chatting and then he goes “I recognise you, I saw you on Jimmy’s (fatal Finish detailing) Instagram story!” which took me back a bit as to be somewhat recognised by a living legend was beyond belief. Anyway, we chatted, took a couple of photos then he asked if I wanted to sit in the car, well duh, OF COURSE! This day was just becoming more and more unbelievable! I bought a t-shirt and we headed off to the grandstands.





You could tell from the crowds and packed grandstands that this was about to be something wild. The finalists were ready to bring it, it was do or die. The drivers gave it their all, some had mechanical issues that lost them points but it was tight, all the burnouts were really good, a couple stood out more than others but it was down to the judges.

We grabbed a bite to eat and a slushie (these are a Summernats staple and it’s the law to have at least one slushie). One car I’d been looking for had eluded me, I’d caught glimpses of it but not had chance to see it and walk round it, HANFUL a 1973 Holden HQ Monaro GTS. After dinner we were wondering round some more and I clocked it (and heard its sound system) across the way. I nearly ran in desperation to make sure it wasn’t about to move off and miss the chance.



Fortunately, the owner Mark was having a spot of dinner too, I wasn’t about to interrupt that but after looking round the car a little he came over to chat and asked if I wanted some photos from sat in the driver’s seat, again, I wasn’t about to say no to that! HANFUL is a blown Big Block burnout monster and if money was no object this is what I’d want, it’s perfect. I asked nerdy tech questions and was just in awe of what I was sat in, suddenly Emily remembered something I’d said a few days before and asked if Mark had any of the models with him, to which he directed to see his wife in their campervan, and she would be able to help. HANFUL is the only burnout car to have scale models, I’ve wanted one for ages, but had never managed to sort out getting one, they’d sell out instantly, so it was pure luck they had a few with them! Mark signed the box, and we began to head over to the arena, and just in time to see who was going to be CROWNed Summernats 36 Burnout Masters Champion.



Names and places were called, and then it got to the top 2. The whole of Summernats went quiet, you’d have heard a pin drop, and in 1st place… ANDREW LYNCH! I kid you not, the WHOLE crowd jumped up and screamed, cheered and applauded. Lynchy has been trying to win that title for ages and always came close, however in the 3 years of Summernats only 6 N/A cars have won the title. To have been somewhat present though was amazing and the buzz and atmosphere of thousands and thousands of people all getting behind one man and his little blue car was touching to see and rightly so, Lynchy is known as the people’s champion, well he was until he clinched this victory!!

Em and I stuck around to watch some of the super cruise but didn’t think much of it so decided that now was a good a time as any to head to the hotel and get some rest from all the days excitement. I still couldn’t believe the day I’d had and thought I was dreaming but the scream from PINKY’s engine would have woken the dead, so I knew I was very much awake! This leads us onto Sunday but that is a story for tomorrow.

Told you the weekend got better and better! Thanks again for reading through my waffle though, means a lot! 

Cheers all, 

Braithwaite. 

[generallee]

Really enjoying this, thanks for taking the time to write it up. Massive burnouts aren't really my thing, but I bet it's really fun to watch, a full-on assault on all the senses.

Excellent inspiration for your Marina, too.

[The Doctor]

Getting recognised on the other side of the world is a weird feeling!

Not sure if I can make it to the weekender, changing jobs soon and not sure what I can arrange at the new job. The gathering looks more likely, but not sure if I can wait that long.

And getting a ride with Pinky over skid row is a dream come true! Well jealous of you!

[mylittletony]

You really did this properly!!

GOOD EFFORT

[Jonny69]

I'm going to have to come back later to finish reading - utterly mental

[HoTWire]

[akku]

Epic stuff!

[braithwaite]

Sunday, you can tell from the atmosphere, people went hard on the beers last night. The show feels a shell of its wild self I witnessed yesterday, but not in a bad way.

Heading straight for the grandstands to watch the driving events for Grand Champion, which is the other big award, it’s what the elite show cars are battling for. Here’s how it works (as far as I know).


All entrant cars are scrutinised when arriving, this is a safety thing but while there, can be submitted into the elite show car judging section which is a separate and slightly more rigorous going over, but from an attention to detail and cleanliness point of view, not safety. During this the cars are judged, and on the Friday the top 60 are picked and positioned in the Meguiar’s Hall with all their display mirrors etc. and some cars are unveiled and so on. Throughout Thursday eve, Friday and Saturday the cars are on display all the while trying to get votes for ‘People’s choice’, which some people prefer to win out of any other trophy! Saturday evening most of the prizes are dished out, things like best engine bay. For those running for grand champion, they earn points which are through a few things, firstly the car needs to place in the top 3 for people’s choice award, place in at least the top 20 but more points earned if in the top 10, and then place well in the driving events, yes you read that right.

Part of why I love Summernats and Aussie car shows is to be the best, the car must go as much as show, essentially makes owners put their money where their mouths are. Yeah, you can spend house money on building a beautiful car but if you don’t drive it like you stole it, you’re not going to be winning any silverware. I wish we had this more in the UK, because that would really shake things up and make for a more interesting event! Anyway, I digress, back to the grandstands.




We sat and watched the Go-to-Whoa, essentially a drag race but stopping on the finish line not racing over it. Accelerate as hard as possible without spinning tyres, go as fast as you dare before slamming on the anchors trying to stop on a line about 1ft wide, only then did the clock stop, fastest time won. All the cars did well, the higher HP ones needing to pedal it a bit more than the others.

Next event was the Slalom/Autotest, the course was almost an R clip shape, if viewed from the sky. A slalom down to a cone, do a hairpin turn at the end and straight dash to the finish,. where you could see that some owners were precious and some weren’t afraid to use the power they’d built into the cars, especially Joe Bauer, remember that Dodge Charger I mentioned we saw get unveiled? The one with 3000hp and an outrageously large blower? Well, that was his, and probably did cost more than a house, but let me tell you that didn’t bother him in the slightest. He launched hard, smoked the tyres, slung it between the cones, then at the hairpin just gave it the tiniest little blip and the monster of an engine spun the tyres and car round before hammering it back to the finish. It was like some sort of scene from Bullit or Fast and Furious but fair play to him!


After all this the cones were cleared, and awards handed out. The main Grand Champion prize is a MASSIVE sword, it looks like an ornate work of art and looked incredible! Anyway, the crowd fell silent yet again and as it turns out Joe Bauer and his Dodge Charger were indeed the Grand Champions! Joe and his mate who’d been helping got in the car, sword out the window and Joe let it flex the HP, doing a huge burnout and everyone’s hearts being in their mouths as the car spun round slowly and the rear quarter panels getting a bit too close for comfort to the concrete walls of the burnout pad! But well deserved and what a wicked way to celebrate!













After that Em and I just wandered round, looked at everything we could, took photos of anything and everything and watched cars do laps and slowly but surely the number of cars dwindled and we called it a day, I got a photo in front of the iconic Summernats banner, went and said our goodbyes to Craig and the Winginit boys, and grabbed a T-Shirt from them too. We’re getting to the point where we’re nearly the last people here, all the trade stands had packed up and shipped out and Em unfortunately had to bring me down gently to Earth with “Tom, I think it’s time to go, there’s not much left to look at.” So, I had to admit that it was finally time to call it at Summernats.
















What. A. Weekend. This was the best time of my life, with everything that I happened I couldn’t have dreamed of a better time. Everyone we spoke to, even the random punters, were super friendly and everyone thought I was mental for travelling that far for a car show, most were surprised someone had even heard of it. I’m so glad I just said “f**k it. Let’s go. If not now, when.” I have never had so much fun at a car event, I’ve also never seen such a wild event. The whole cruise route had tyre marks from mischievous entrants, and I can’t get across just how much this event meant to me to be able to do. I am even more fired up to get my Ital built and start doing my best to replicate this a little here in the UK. Although now I’m getting outrageous ideas involving containers and unveils half way round the world… but we’ll see what happens, but imagine showing a car that nobody in Aus knows what it is! Haha.


Cheers all,

Braithwaite. 

[jamesd1972]

Wow, just wow.
Epic trip and write up, thanks for sharing.
James
P.S. keep the photos coming.

[The Doctor]

I think the best thing summernats ever did, was bringing the burnout masters over to the Saturday arvo. It used to be the last thing on Sunday as a bit of an apotheose of the weekend, but it went silent straight after the finals.. Having the sunday to recoup from the party from Saturday is a good idea.
We left on Sunday afternoon as we where well overwhelmed by all of Summernats, and thus missed the masters finals (watched it online from the hotel after a shower).

Thanks for your report! Great writeup of what is summernats!

[voodoo57]

Hotwheels senior size edition!