THE Street Machine Summernats has long been the home of burnouts. While folks had done skids at car shows before, the Street Machine Nationals in early 1980s Canberra first brought the concept to prominence. Then Summernats was born in 1988 and turned burnouts into our defacto national motorsport. While there has been major growth in the sport in New Zealand – and some green shoots in the USA, we Aussies remain the king of the kids internationally when it comes to skids. This was underlined at Summernats 26, when 68 cars shredded tyres simultaneously to set the first record. In 2015 at ’Nats 28, the record was smashed, with 103 cars blanketing Canberra’s Exhibition Park in colourful smoke.

That record was held until last September, when a group of Saudi Arabian car enthusiasts lined up an impressive 119 cars on Saudi National Day and satisfied the folk at Guinness World Records to take the burnout crown. When we broke the news on our Facebook page, our readers were furious and claimed that we could easily beat them. Some punters even thought we could get thousands of cars involved!

Summernats listened, and the attempt to take back the record will kick off on Friday 4 January 2019! The aim is to have a minimum of 120 Summernats entrants simultaneously roasting their treads.

Friday is a great day to be at the event – other attractions include the Burnout Championship eliminations, the Meguiar’s Great Uncover, a tuning masterclass and the Friday night concert with Butterfingers and Dune Rats. Be there! Tickets are available here.