Three cars were seized and two people were arrested in two separate incidents attended by ACT Policing in Canberra overnight.
ACT police seized three cars after they were caught doing burnouts near Exhibition Park, where the car festival Summernats is being held.
Then, at about 10:40pm, police responded to "a large crowd" that had gathered on Canberra Avenue in Fyshwick, which resulted in two arrests for breach of the peace.
"The police would estimate probably about 1,000 vehicles there and up to 2,000 people, so it's quite a large crowd," Inspector Adrian Craft from ACT Policing said.
"Fortunately nobody was injured … the crowd largely dispersed upon the arrival of the extra policing resources."
Inspector Craft said the incidents were "quite disappointing," "stupid" and "dangerous".
"Summernats is a festival that's been coming to the ACT for 30 years, and by and large it hasn't been a great problem for us, we enjoy a great relationship with the organisers of Summernats," he said.
"But there seems to be, like in many crowds, a fringe element who seem intent on doing something other than celebrating the actual event themselves, and take it upon themselves to gather in large crowds, do burnouts and then attack the police officers who turn up for doing nothing else but their job.
Inspector Craft said behaviour within the official Summernats venue had been "great" and police were fully supportive of people enjoying the event, within the event.
"If people want to take certain behaviours outside the event, then we'll very firmly, very quickly, clamp down on those behaviours," he said.
Summernats organisers 'discourage that behaviour'
The annual car festival kicked off on Thursday with a parade of 500 vehicles down Northbourne Avenue and COVID-safe practices in place, including capacity limits and masks.
"In terms of our indoor spaces it's a sea of masks, as you would expect, and in the outdoor spaces people are making the choices to be socially distant," Summernats co-owner Andy Lopez said.
"If capacity limits and masks are the price of having a party, we'll do it every day of the week."
But while the events have gone smoothly so far, Mr Lopez was quick to distance participants from the arrests.
"We discourage that behaviour all the time," he said.
"Our message is, if you want to have fun with your car, you do it in safe and controlled conditions."
Mr Lopez pointed to the Summernats Fringe Festival event tonight and tomorrow night in Braddon as an example of this, where "real good people with real good cars will be cruising".
"[They'll be] having fun, not causing trouble, just putting on a show and bringing some light in there for the bars and restaurants," he said.
"It's not the fear of getting banned from Summernats that stops our entrants from doing that [illegal behaviour]. Our entrants don't behave like that because that is not their thing.
ACT Policing warned that any driver caught speeding excessively, doing burnouts or street racing, could lose their vehicle.
"ACT Policing has a zero-tolerance for anti-social behaviour and hoon driving," police said in a statement.
"Police are urging drivers to enjoy the Summernats weekend safely and to keep burnouts to the competition area."
