The Street Machine Summernats attracted over 2,000 cars and more than 100,000 people joined together to celebrate the best of Australian car culture at Exhibition Park in Canberra.
"Summernats 32 was awesome. We set ourselves some high goals to bring the party back to this fantastic event. We are 32 years old and it's really important that we innovate, grow and become better and that is what we did with skid row, drifting and a brand new world record. Every person that came through this site over the last four days has walked away with a smile on their face and that is what the Summernats is all about," said Andy Lopez, Summernats Co-owner.
Saturday Evening and Sunday Event Wrap
Despite the rain on Saturday evening, the Main Arena hosted a packed evening of festivities. The Showtime FMX team put on a thrilling aerial display before the annual Supercruise took to the arena. A selection of great cars and the large crowds weren’t disheartened by the weather and the evening rolled on. In fact, one gentleman arranged to propose to his partner in front of the grandstand - she said yes.
After the sun had set, it was time for the Philips Automotive Lighting Fireworks Spectacular, before hip-hop sensation 360 provided his unique beats on the Canna stage for the passionate fans.
Sunday is finals day and awards day. The most prestigious award in street machining and the event is the Summernats Grand Champion, and just after midday on Sunday a new champion was crowned.
Rick Werner from Nerang, QLD was announced as the 32nd recipient of the highest Summernats honour, with his amazing 1932 Ford Hot Rod Pick-up. Accepting the huge Grand Champion sword from event founder Chic Henry was Werner and his daughter Danielle who assisted with the build.
“It is totally surreal and just phenomenal. I always wanted my own Hot Wheels machine and now I own one, and on top of that we have just won the Summernats Grand Champion,” said Werner.
The Hot Rod is a work-of-art, taking over six years for Rick to complete to his satisfaction, with the last three weeks being devoted to detailing this masterpiece. The judging team could see the quality, skill and attention to detail and were convinced that it was a worthy winner.
Dozens of awards were presented to worthy recipients, including those who competed in driving events and the dyno competition, to a variety of awards that recognised various areas of car design, appearance and modification.
The People’s choice award received thousands of votes, with the winner for 2019 Dean Wilson, in his stunning 1937 Plymouth Coupe.
While the awards are the pinnacle of Summernats for many, for others, it is the coveted National Burnout Championship Final and National Burnout Masters Final that were the focus of the day. The crowds filling the grandstands and around the Burnout Track were treated to the best burnout competitors in the country, showing their skill in powerful, wild burnout machines.
The Burnout Masters Winner was Jake Myers in his blown, injected Ford Mustang with a burnout for the ages.
Summernats is committed to growing and evolving and this year two new features proved to be a winning formula. Skid Row was a new initiative that was heavily used throughout the four-day festival to the delight of drivers and attendees and enabled drivers to create some smoke in a safe environment without having to enter the Burnout Track.
The world’s fastest growing motorsport, drifting joined the show and was well received; the high-performance displays produced some tyre smoke and a driving style of another kind, but one the crowds thoroughly enjoyed.
Team Isuzu D-Max showed off their crazy Isuzu MU-X Concept X dual cab-ute and 4WD, and offered free rides on two wheels and on their custom Iron Summit all weekend in the Main Arena.
The MPW Dyno Cell and Mainline ProHub 3000 hub dyno was the testing arena for some of the nation’s most powerful cars. The winner of the dyno competition for street registered cars was Brenden Medlyn in his 1984 VH Holden Commodore 1984 with 2483rwhp, 400hp more than the previous record held by Jake Edwards since Summernats 28.
A new outright horsepower record was also reset today by the Castle Hill Performance VT Holden Commodore, setting down a staggering 3076.9hp during an earth-shattering run that shook the dyno hall.
It is always the fans and entrants that make the incredible vibe that is the Street Machine Summernats, and what a celebration it was over four days, January 3-6, 2019.