Four-time champion Peter Gray describes what keeps bringing him back to smoke up the tyres at Summernats

But to drive a custom-built burnout car at the elite level, in front of thousands of Summernats spectators, and complete a copybook performance, delivers an adrenaline rush like no other.

Husband and wife burnout stars Peter and Debbie Gray have been competing for decades and the physical fizz that it delivers, even after all these years, still keeps them coming back for more and their 88-year-old father, Allan, wouldn't miss it for quids.

"It is a fiercely addictive motorsport," Peter Gray said.

"You get out of the car afterwards and your hands are trembling, your heart's racing in your chest and there's this huge sense of euphoria."

Neither of them compete at the top level but return to Summernats every year to put on exhibition runs.

And besides, they've won almost everything on offer.

Peter Gray is a four-time champion at Summernats and Debbie still remains the only woman to have won the title.

The Melbourne couple were among the first six inductees into the John Peterson Burnout Hall of Fame this week, so named after the late "godfather" of the sport.

"It's a great honour," Mr Gray said.

"Debbie knew three months ago that we were going to be inducted and she kept it a secret from me so I was totally floored when it happened.

"John [Peterson] was the bloke who started burnout competitions in Australia and he was a great friend of ours, a real larrikin, and a fierce competitor."

The Grays are self-confessed "old school" competitors who rate driving skill above all else, and have the online videos to prove it.

Very rarely are two competitors allowed on the pad at once because of the risks involved but the rules were waived for them to do so back in 2014, when their cars pirouetted within touching distance like a smoke-wrapped Torvill and Dean.

Despite his burnout success - he won the elite Summernats Burnout Masters two years running in 2006-07 and was forbidden to return to defend his title in the same car a third time - Peter Gray still chuckles when people refer to him as "Debbie's husband".

While Debbie Gray won her title more than 20 years ago, beating the blokes hands down was an achievement which even today demands enormous respect from the burnout afficionados.

But things have changed down through the years in the burnout game, as it in all forms of motorsport.

"Money is the big game changer now," Peter Gray said.

"People are spending $70,000 to $80,000 on a engine package to get the power they want but there's no mechanical sympathy; they just hold the throttle flat to the floor and bounce off the rev limiter.

"It sounds awful, it's terrible for the engine and where's the skill in that?"

Friday's Summernats crowd swelled into tens of thousands as all the activities, including drifting, burnouts and lawnmower racing, hit full swing.

One "anti-car" which turned heads at every cruise outing was a Falcon XR6 Turbo, stripped to almost its bare bones.

READ MORE ON SUMMERNATS 35:

Sydney mechanic and fabricator Daniel Feil didn't so much build the car as strip it of all dignity, as a project during the heights of the COVID lockdown.

The process was all uploaded to YouTube.

Everything but the bare essentials was stripped from the car and it originally didn't even have a windscreen but needed one to pass the Summernats scrutineering checks.

"It's just a fun thing that we did as part of a series of videos during COVID," he said.

"We get a lot of commentary when we drive it around and of course, you can hear it all.

"The most common question is: 'Hey, where's the rest of it?'."

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