After a couple of hours baking under the brutal summer sun, it dawned on me that things hadn’t really changed at Summernats 2026.
It was seriously hot this year, but that didn’t stop the usual crowd from sticking it out to see all of the action. For me, as is now tradition, it was time to find some shade and check out the drift pad.
Drifting isn’t the “new thing” at Summernats anymore, it’s just part of the event. Rubbing paint and pushing panels are expected now, the crowd knows when to lean in, and jumping in the passenger seat with a helmet on doesn’t feel like a novelty, it’s something you do naturally.
DriftCadet were the ones who ran the first drifting demo back at Summernats in 2019, and they’re still running it today. They don’t invite just anyone either, as the demos are stacked with serious drivers, from current standouts to legends like Drift Cat – Australia’s first professional female drifter.
This year the drift pad was shared with Matt Mingay and the Hot Wheels stunt show, so there was always something going on. Bike stunts and gymkhana runs provided a different action fix, then it was straight back to the drifting.
The crowd were engaged as the action kept moving throughout the day. The pad itself is tiny, with a temporary layout thrown together in a car park, which just made everything tighter, sketchier and more exciting as a result.
The Manic Racing boys showed up with three cars and immediately got dragged into the usual Summernats battle, with broken driveshafts and electrical gremlins. Even with all that going on, Scott Massari somehow managed to do more laps than just about anyone else in the day’s roster.
Jay from Street Karnage was absolutely sending it, putting down laps that would make any Queenslander weep, until it all came to a stop. At first everyone reckoned he’d welded the clutch, but it turned out to be a dead master cylinder instead.
Shane in the orange S13 actually did weld his clutch in the intense heat, proving that sometimes the paddock rumours are spot on.
In the grand scheme Summernats is the same it’s always been. V8s screaming for dear life, burning through a pair of tyres in milliseconds. Superchargers in the drivers’ line of sight and crowds eager to be lost in plumes of smoke. What has changed, however, is that the sideways cars now have a proper home.
