STREETMACHINE SUMMERNATS

STREET MACHINE SUMMERNATS ISN’T JUST THE BIGGEST HORSEPOWER PARTY IN AUSTRALIA, BUT THE BIGGEST IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

When I think of Summer Nationals, I think about burnouts, V8s, mullets, and bogans! Having grown up around speedway, drag racing, and V8s, it has always been on my bucket list to photograph Summernats in Canberra, Australia. With Dad, uncles, and family owning multiple V8 cars, power boats, and Harleys over the years, there’s always been a bit of bogan in my blood. However, what I was to encounter was Boganville on steroids!

The level of the cars, the attention to detail, and the motors higher than the roof that were on display over the four days of this year’s iteration, Street Machine Summernats 33 (SN33), were really a photographer’s dream! With 2200 vehicles entered, the second-highest count in the event’s history, it would have been easy to just fill the camera card with thousands of images. Instead, however, I found myself being rather picky and taking the approach of ‘what would those who aren’t here want to see?’ This led me to shoot some of the good, bad, and honestly insane that I saw through my lens.

I was warned by a number of Summernats regulars that Saturday was going to be packed and insane with thousands of people everywhere; they weren’t wrong — more than 100,000 spectators were confirmed in attendance.

I have always heard the terms ‘Tuff Street’ and ‘Skid Row’, bandied about as being standouts by those who have been to the event before. I was glad to be able to finally put pictures to these terms. I will sum it up like this: Tuff Street is a loop road that

runs right through the centre of the event. You load up the car and can undertake ‘tuff laps’ with your mates to your heart’s content. Then there’s Skid Row, which is a section of road adjacent to Tough Street where you can pull off; line up; and, when called up, lay a massive power skid down. This is an absolutely insane set-up and one of the highlights of the event for me.

Another must at Summernats is the Castlemaine Rod Shop (CRS) display and merch stand. By the time day three came around, I’d say 80 per cent of the spectators were either wearing CRS Mexican hats or sporting CRS legionnaire’s hats to cover the neck — if the mullet was not quite to full length yet. Part of the CRS team for SN33 was YouTube sensation Cleetus McFarland and his US/Aussie-inspired Chev Camaro ‘TOAST’, which was pretty cool to see in person. The real standout from CRS for me, though, was its burnout promo car, ‘Real Steel’, a bare-metal LC Torana. Real Steel is running a blown 568ci big block Chev pumping out a casual 1950hp!

Part of my journey to Summernats was to follow a good mate, Hayden, and his crazy ‘NUTOUT’ supercharged LS Commodore after taking out the New Zealand Burnout Championship (NZBC), which put him in contention for the Burnout Masters award. Still running a full manual transmission, NUTOUT had a lot of people talking. Most of the Aussie burnout cars were running automatic transmissions. At Summernats 32 last year, New Zealand’s Burnout Masters contender Rob Toheriri’s ‘AGROXB’ caught fire, so to continue the tradition, Hayden gave NUTOUT a true feeding and caught fire during his burnout — a coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

HAYDEN GAVE NUTOUT A TRUE FEEDING AND CAUGHT FIRE DURING HIS BURNOUT

It was also awesome to see Chris Daley from Southland in his ‘SYCO’ ute, also in contention for the Burnout Masters award. Chris’s bright yellow ex-drag Holden ute is a tough piece of kit and did New Zealand proud, filling the pad with some serious yellow clouds.

On Friday, I decided to go to the Dyno Cell to check out a number of cars doing some power runs for the legendary Horsepower Hero award. On entry to the hall, I noticed a blue VT Commodore strapped to the first of two dynos with a couple of monster turbos hanging off the front of it. Little did I know that I was about to witness Summernats history. The Commodore was Castle Hill Performance’s big block twin-turbo Commodore drag car. The first run I witnessed on the Friday pulled a massive 2045kW (2742hp). However, after a few tweaks plus a tune-up over the next few days the Commodore pulled a massive Summernats record of 2588kW on the final day — that’s an insane 3471hp; the highest horsepower value ever recorded at Summernats! Another standout car on the dyno was Maria Passo’s BA Falcon. From the outside it looks like a stock orange BA Falcon sporting factory 18s and an ‘RIP SS’ personalized plate, but, when strapped to the dyno it pulled a massive 2202hp. The craziest thing is that it’s road legal. I did a little further research on this car and found it runs a seven-second quartermile — next-level street sleeper.

Saturday saw the start of the legendary Burnout Masters, where 30 of the top contenders would get one chance to lay down some serious rubber with only the top 10 advancing through to Sunday’s competition. As a Burnout Masters firsttimer there were a few things I noticed: 10 per cent of the spectators observing the burnouts were sporting mullets; there is a secret support ‘code’ which involves pointing to the sky with your index finger extended, and, once a burnout starts to pick up, the finger is rocked backwards and forwards as if to replicate the rev counter bouncing off the limiter. The better the burnout, the more aggressive the rocking. I’ve seen 10 to 20 people doing this at local burnout comps but this was literally the whole crowd during the masters! The last thing, but definitely not the least, was liquid ratios. I was sticking with five waters to one alcoholic drink, but a number of spectators reversed this ratio and were caught napping in the stands by mates. There was also some good Aussie/Kiwi humour between the fans in the stands!

I’ve watched and followed a number of the Burnout Masters contenders on Facebook and YouTube, etc., over the years, and, when I knew I was going to Summernats I definitely upped my content intake to make sure I knew what I was in for. There were a number I was really looking forward to: the S1CKO Mustang, which was last year’s champion with 24-year old Jack Myers behind the wheel of the supercharged small block pushing out 1000-plus horsepower at 9000rpm; Internet sensation Cleetus in his American-/Aussie-style wrapped Camaro; also some other big-hitters — ‘WIDE OPEN’, ‘IH8FRDS’, and ‘WARBIRD’ to name a few. But, for me, two really stuck out as something different and were the ones I couldn’t wait to see: ‘HAMMERTIME’ and ‘INFERNO’. HAMMERTIME is a Daihatsu Feroza — which for us in New Zealand is basically the equivalent of a Terios but sporting some massive mud swampers; oh yeah, and it runs a stroked 403ci V8 engine! INFERNO is a FJ40 Land Cruiser, which, here in New Zealand is often seen raised up and used for bush-trekking

four-wheel-drive adventures. INFERNO, however, sits nice and low, running a methanol-breathing supercharged 510ci big block Chev.

There were so many insane cars in the Burnout Masters competition, which was taken out in the end by Rick Fuller in his lime green, blown, injected Holden VF ute. Rick also took out the Summernats Burnout Championship in his blown LS1 VK Commodore, better known as ‘LSONE’. On Saturday, the main day of the event, the mercury tipped 46°C, so it was all about shade, slushies, and Wendy’s ice creams. The heat from Saturday meant that Sunday was a lot cooler due to a low smoke cover from the bushfires; it was the worst that I witnessed in the days I had there. This means that all the photos have a yellow tint to them but also show how bad the situation was at the time.

It was awesome to meet so many New Zealanders and followers of my Danny Wood Photography Facebook page who noticed the ‘NZ’ logo on my vest over the four days.

It’s safe to say I love Summernats. I hope this first-timer’s insight into Summernats is enough to inspire you to make the trip over to Summernats 34, which will take place over 7–10 January 2021. I know I’ll be there!