It's because of a new mini-skidpan which runs alongside Tuff Street, the section of the internal cruise road which runs parallel with Flemington Road.

With a wave from the marshals, any one of the hundreds of drivers who spend hour upon hour doing engine-grumbling circuits of the internal Exhibition Park circuit can veer off Tuff Street into Skid Row and for a few short seconds, burn off a little frustration and rubber for their fans.

It's seen as a mini release-valve for those many drivers with hair-trigger throttles who receive warnings for excessive rear tyre rotation when cruising the Summernats strip, thereby risking exclusion.

The event was launched on Friday at a Lonsdale Street car wash in Braddon, with a few circuits of the rainbow roundabout.

The ongoing commercial success of Summernats hinges on its ability to re-invent itself every year. For 2019, there's both Skid Row and a concession to the fast-growing fans of the sport of drifting with a new mini-drift area introduced north of the burn-out pad near the current Farmers Market.

One of the world's fastest-growing autosports, drifting attracts big commercial sponsors and has a legion of young fans around the world. Jake Jones, one the country's biggest names in drifting, is coming to Canberra for the January event with his 1000 horsepower BMW M3 and will be offering passenger rides to a lucky few.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said Summernats was "a great Canberra summer tradition" which made a significant economic contribution to the ACT, with the economic benefits spilling over into the broader community.

Organisers had been successful in ensuring "fresh and new content", which was necessary to keep "mature events" such as Summernats alive, he said.

Summernats 31 will start on January 3 and run for four days.