Horsepower party stays in Canberra

Summernats will again be held at Exhibition Park next year, but questions marks remain over the car festival's long-term future.

At a joint press conference this morning, co-owner Andy Lopez and Chief Minister Katy Gallagher announced the event would return to the North Canberra venue in 2013.

But negotiations are ongoing regarding Summernats' long-term future.

The Chief Minister and Mr Lopez indicated desires for the festival to remain in Canberra.

The festival's lease at EPIC expires this year and speculation has been rife that the event will relocate to Sydney in 2013.

However, Mr Lopez has previously stated his desire to keep the southern hemisphere's largest car festival in Canberra.

Mr Lopez remained tight-lipped yesterday about the pending announcement, but said he was looking forward to initiating Ms Gallagher into car culture.

''I'm looking forward to taking the Chief Minister for a cruise and giving her a slushy and dagwood dog,'' Mr Lopez said.

GALLERY: Summernats day two

The new deal caps off one of Summernats most successful years.

The reintroduction of the Citycruise last week was a huge success, attracting a large crowd.

Total festival visits are expected to reach 90,000, eclipsing last year's record by about 5000.

The news appears to be generally good as the event continues to distance itself from its former negative image.

When Mr Lopez took over the event in 2009, it was bleeding cash as well as battling with image and behaviour problems.

Now after Mr Lopez's third event, Summernats is set to make a profit for the first time in years.

Mr Lopez has spoken repeatedly about making the event family friendly and yesterday backed it up by bringing his wife and two young sons to Summernats. However, Mr Lopez is uncomfortable about claiming responsibility for saving Summernats.

''The event was already changing when we took over,'' Mr Lopez said.

Like a performance car in need of a service, Mr Lopez said the business side of the event just needed some fine tuning.

Work has involved new competitions that include some of the richest motoring prize pools in the world, bands and bringing on board corporate sponsorship.

Meanwhile, Mr Lopez said that Summernats should no longer be a dirty word.

''I think the image has been unfairly judged,'' he said.

''I don't buy into wild stories of old, that's the past and we want to be judged on who we are today and where we want to go in the future.

''I do care about what people think of the event and I don't want people to think ill of us.''

Of the expected 90,000 visitors to this year's event, Mr Lopez said about 25,000 were from interstate.

This means about 65,000 Summernats visitors are from Canberra, about one-fifth of the ACT's population.

Economically, the festival is estimated to stimulate the ACT economy to the tune of between $12 to $15million each year.

Big crowds flocked to the precinct for last night's Screaming Jets concert, with Saturday night traditionally the biggest night of the four-day program.