T
WENTY-three years is a long time for an annual
event to continue. Talking to spectators and
entrants around the pits and in the grandstands
at this year’s Street Machine Supernats, many
claim to have been coming to the event since
they were kids; no doubt a few readers of this fine
magazine weren’t even born when the first Supernats
was held way back in 1994!
The performance car show landscape has grown and
changed a lot over the ensuing two decades, with greater
competition for punters’ attention, but Supernats has
retained an enthusiastic and loyal core audience – no
small feat.
For 2017, hundreds of entrant vehicles poured through
the gates of Sydney Motorsport Park circuit from early
morning, including many familiar number plates. With
them came spectators keen to see the inevitable tyre
destruction that was to ensue.
For the uninitiated, Supernats was one of the first
car shows that placed a real emphasis on the driving
experience for entrants, with a range of on-track activities
for drivers including street-style racing, go-whoa and, of
course, burnouts.
Most of the entrants we spoke to during the one-
day event – including guys there to compete in the