Summernats makes Canberra less dull: Bowe

(AAP) - Touring car legends John Bowe and Dick Johnson have thrown their support behind the sometimes controversial Summernats car festival, saying it makes Canberra a little less dull during summer.

Johnson's son, Steven, a current V8 Supercar driver, has also called on the ACT
government to seriously consider allowing racing to return to the nation's capital.
Supercars last raced on Canberra's streets in 2002.
While thousands of rev-heads have flocked to Summernats 24 at Exhibition Park this
weekend, the event has been somewhat tarnished by a fight and hoon behaviour.
Police arrested a 26-year-old Victorian man in the early hours of Saturday after he
tried to enter the venue with a knife.
Event organiser Andy Lopez said the man had previously been ejected "after an
altercation, allegedly with his brother".
"He then returned to the venue an hour later carrying a weapon," Mr Lopez told
reporters.
"That was unfortunate, but it was really professionally dealt with by our security
team and a great response from the police."
ACT Policing also arrested and charged a 23-year-old Chisholm man after he rammed
his Ford station wagon into the side of a police car early on Saturday morning. The
driver had a blood alcohol reading of 0.117.
Two P-plate drivers were fined $1800 each after they were caught doing 150km/h in a
80km/h zone late on Friday night.
Superintendent Mark Colbran said the two Canberrans, aged 17 and 18, were lucky to
avoid injury because "the potential for a dreadful outcome was very real".
Another P-plater had his licence suspended after crashing his Holden ute into a tree
in the suburb of Bruce on Friday. The 19-year-old recorded a blood alcohol reading
of 0.165.
But Bowe, a two-time winner at Bathurst, said overall the crowd behaviour at
Summernats was pretty good.
"It's been cleaned up - it's got a family environment now," he told reporters.
"The behaviour here is no worse than people going to the cricket."
Bowe said the ACT was lucky to host such a well-attended event in the otherwise
quiet summer period.
"Canberra's not renowned for being a dynamic city," he said.
"I think Canberra's very lucky to have it. It brings a lot of money in."
Dick Johnson, who raced alongside Bowe for 11 years, is attending his first Summernats.
"I don't care whether you're a car person or not, to come here and see the amount of
workmanship that goes into building these cars is absolutely spectacular," the
Queenslander said.
Steven Johnson won his first touring car race in Canberra back in 2001.
The city hosted V8 Supercar events between 2000 and 2002, and Steven would like to
see the championship return.
"It'd be great to come back to Canberra and do the street circuit again," he told
reporters.
"It would be a magnificent spectacle. But unfortunately, I don't think that's going
to happen in the near future."
Steven Johnson said the race was only viable when it had the support of the then
Liberal ACT government. After Labor's Jon Stanhope won power in 2001, future events
were shelved.
"A change of leadership came and they didn't like motor racing so they hit it on the
head," Steven Johnson said.
Mr Lopez has been talking up the new "family-friendly" nature of Summernats 24 this
week.
But there was still some old-school behaviour on display.
A number of youths were sporting T-shirts suggesting women should get their "tits
out for the boys".
Another had a hand-drawn T-shirt that declared, through pictures, that breasts plus
burnouts equalled happy lads.
Summernats winds up on Sunday.