ACT police officer calls burnout fans at Summernats ‘sub-species of the human race’

A top ACT police officer has launched an extraordinary attack on Summernats visitors involved in unofficial burnouts, calling them a “sub-species of the human race” and slamming “moron tourism”.

About 130,000 tickets were sold for the yearly four-day car festival, which dominates Canberra’s sleepy inner suburbs over the new year and ended on Sunday.

Cars compete in the official Summernats burnout competition.Credit: Martin Ollman

Acting Inspector Mark Richardson said the real car enthusiasts were not the problem, but rather “the moron tourism that we get”.

“If we set up an IQ test station at the border instead of a vehicle-testing station, we’d halve our problems.”

He said Canberrans were sick of the antics of some festivalgoers who threw rocks at officers and held several organised burnout events in suburbs kilometres away from festival grounds.

“I don’t know what goes through their mind, but they just haven’t evolved very far these people involved in these organised burnout events,” Richardson said.

“They were all over Canberra, and we’re literally just going around playing Whac-A-Mole.

“We have a fair idea where these events are going to occur, but the behaviour of these drivers, they just haven’t evolved very far. I think they’ve really plateaued as a species, a sub-species of the human race.

“They just literally come down here to see ‘how big of a pest can I be this week’.”

Summernats has a designated area for burnouts, but police were angered by offsite hooning.

Despite Richardson’s comments, police made few arrests at the event, which included an official burnout championship, drift rides and a national mullet contest. No injuries were reported.

In one case, police say a 22-year-old with child passengers conducted a burnout in his Holden Commodore metres from pedestrians. His car was seized and he was barred from driving in the ACT for three months.

On Saturday, two arrests were made for unspecified anti-social behaviour at an event linked to the festival and 13 cars were seized over four days.

Richardson said he hoped the ACT Greens-Labor government, arguably the most left-wing in the nation, would pass new laws to clamp down on burnout meet-ups.

Acting Inspector Mark Richardson says those involved should have their cars crushed and drivers should be sent back to their L-plates.

Those involved should have their cars crushed and drivers should be sent back to their L-plates, he said.

Current fines and impounding policies were insufficient and Richardson said drivers’ “moron” friends probably “chip in to help them pay the fine”.

In a Facebook post, the Australian Federal Police Association applauded Richardson’s comments, saying it beggared belief that some attendees behaved irresponsibly.

“The road isn’t a playground, a burnout pad or a personal race track,” it wrote.

“Where is the ACT government’s response in support of our police in calling out this bad behaviour? The silence is deafening.

“Our members across the AFP are becoming extremely frustrated … Summernats again highlighted how understaffed our members were in dealing with such a large event.”

The ACT government did not answer questions about whether it supported Richardson’s comments, instead saying a small number of people behaved badly.

“I understand that dangerous and illegal driving is a frustration for police and members of the community throughout the year and the government will keep working with ACT Policing to strengthen laws around dangerous driving,” a government spokesperson said.

Acting Superintendent Rod Anderson said rocks and bottles were thrown at officers both inside and outside the event.

“On a couple of occasions, our members were surrounded by crowds who were egging each other on, that typical moronic mob behaviour, but we had resources available to quell that sort of carry-on,” he said.

“We also had rocks and bottles and that sort of thing thrown at us and our cars. But our members are very professional and tolerant and we dealt with it professionally.”

Canberra police are investigating a brawl on Saturday night at the festival.

Video of the incident shows festival spectators throwing cans at men wearing pink crowd safety vests. Seconds later, about five crowd safety workers are seen approaching a group of men who are throwing their fists in the air, and two begin a physical fight.

One crowd safety worker appears to yell “f--- you; I’ll kill you aye”.

Over the next two minutes, about a dozen crowd safety staff and attendees become involved in the brawl, which moves across a grass area and towards a building.

As a man in a white shirt and black shorts holds his head in his hands while on the ground, about four crowd safety staff surround him and one appears to kick him.

Summernats organisers were contacted for comment.

with Olivia Ireland

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