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.