Summernats

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Burnout at Summernats

Summernats is a car festival held in Canberra, Australia. Summernats is held annually, usually at the start of the year in January. Summernats is the most well known car festival in Australia, and an event which attracts many tourists to Canberra, bringing about $12-$15million to the ACT economy.

Summernats is held at Exhibition Park (EPIC)in the suburb of Mitchell, off Northbourne Avenue. Summernats features many street machines with airbrushed artwork, and restored and modified cars. It is held over a four day period, with many events, with prizes in competitions such as for burnouts. There are also parades of cars around the track. Also is a Miss Summernats competition, and fireworks at night. It has increasingly been promoted as an event for families.

The 19th annual Summernats were held on 5th-9th January 2006. Summernats attendance records were set in 2005 with 119,000 people. Summernats 20 will be held 4th-7th January 2007 Many awards are given during the course of the festival. The most prestigious award is the "Summernats Grand champion". [1] The Summernats grand champion for 2006 was Aaron Fitzpatrick with a gold 1969 Datsun 510 sedan [2]. Summernats grand champion in 2005 was Deby and Gary Myers from Narrandera NSW in a silver 1966 Ford Mustang coupe, and also Dave Ritchie from Dapto NSW in a green 1965 Ford Falcon XP coupe.

19 year old Bree Fenton from Sydney was Miss Summernats in 2006. The 2005 Miss Summernats winner was Tanya Lazarou also from Sydney.

A crash at Summernats 2006 injured a number of people (various sources indicating four [3], five [4] or six [5]).