A NSW man who did a burnout in front of police in Braddon has lost his car for 90 days, police say. The penalty was handed down as ACT Policing declared they were disappointed with the overall behaviour of drivers during this year's Summernats weekend.
Police linked to the motoring festival an incident in Sutton on Friday night when members of a 2000-strong crowd hurled bottles and rocks at officers and did illegal burnouts.
"Friday night's public order incident at Sutton, NSW, saw ACT Policing resources diverted from normal policing and bushfire operations to deal with a group of people who showed no respect to the community that hosts them each year," they said in a statement.
Summernats co-owner Andy Lopez was confident that the majority, if not all, of the vehicles present during the Sutton incident didn't belong to festival participants or spectators.
But Mr Lopez reaffirmed that if Summernats entrants were found to have been involved, they would be banned from future events. Similar sanctions could apply to Summernats spectators, Mr Lopez said, although he conceded it would be much harder to catch those individuals.
"We don't want those people coming to our festival," Mr Lopez said.
"We don't want to be associated with them. It takes away from what was actually a really good weekend and it unfairly tarnishes the people that come to our event."
The Canberra Times requested an interview with Chief Police Officer Ray Johnson to discuss the Summernats weekend, but was told he, and other ACT Policing officials, were unavailable on Wednesday.
ACT police issued more than 180 traffic infringement notices over the weekend.
"More than 80 drivers were caught speeding, including four who were detected driving more than 45km/h above the sign posted speed limit," the statement read.
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They also responded to multiple incidents of burnouts, dangerous driving, drink driving and general anti-social behaviour.
"This type of behaviour from patrons attending Summernats (either as spectators or entrants) placed Canberra road users and first response personnel at significant risk," they said.
"One NSW driver lost his vehicle for 90 days after he performed a burnout in front of police in Braddon on Thursday night."
Mr Lopez condemned the behaviour, which he described as "mind-bogglingly stupid".
"The automotive community takes as strong a position on hooning and drink driving as everyone else," he said.
"We are no different in that respect. We don't sit aside from the community, we don't sit aside from community expectations."
Police were generally pleased with crowd behaviour inside the event. They responded to two incidents of assault and one disturbance across the four days.
