SAFETY FIRST
IT HAS been a relatively rough 12 months for
our flavour of motorsport, with a tragic death
at Summernats 30, an horrendous fire at Red
CentreNATS, and a number of bad incidents at
dragstrips around the country.
The Summernats management team have
stripped their safety plans down to a bare
chassis and rebuilt them looking through the lens
of these recent incidents.
Some changes that will be obvious are
compulsory fire suits for burnout competitors,
no riding in the back of utes around the cruise
route, and a zero-tolerance policy towards
harassment of anyone attending the event.
The latter means that if Summernats staff see
someone being harassed – anywhere, anytime
- they will intervene. This will effectively take
the form of an attitude test that should weed out
the worst offenders, who will be punted from
the event.
To make this work, we need everyone attending
the Nats to follow the rules and accept that these
changes are about safety, not about political
correctness. The aim is for everyone to go home
safe and well at the end of the show.
Entrants have to be mindful that there are
over 100,000 people moving through Exhibition
Park over the four days of the event and drive
with suitable caution in public areas. Likewise,
spectators need to be aware they are in a
motorsport environment and treat it with respect.
FREE SUIT HIRE
THE number of burnout competitors rocking their
own fire suits of late has been encouraging, but
some needed a little extra convincing so officals
have now made them compulsory. It’s not just
a once-a-year deal, either. All Burnout Masters
qualifying events in 2018 will mandate their
use. The recommended minimum standard is a
suit that meets or exceeds either SFI 3.2A/5, or
FIA 8856-2000. You should never cheap-out on
safety gear, so if Santa forgot to leave a fire suit
under your tree, Summernats will supply suits to
entrants and spectators free of charge.
AH, SUNDAY. A time to rest, relax and just take it easy- if you’re not at Summernats! There’s still a whole day
of action to take in, so there’ll be none of that laying
around stuff.
Sunday is Grand Final day – it’s when we find out who
won the major awards, including the PPG Supreme
entrant, which brings in the most outstanding cars from
all the different classes and will be judged by legendary
painter Charley Hutton. A little later, the most coveted
street machine award in the land – Summernats Grand
Champion – gets announced at the burnout pad. Then
it’s time to clear the pad and get to figuring out who are
the best tyre fryers in the land. It will take another four
and a half hours to get through the competitors in the
Burnout Championship and Masters Finals. It’s where
you’ll see the cream rise to the top and the smoke
blanket Canberra in an epic display of horsepower,
showmanship and car control. Don’t miss it!
DAY FOUR
SUNDAY
07 JAN