Car enthusiasts Phil Blake, left, Nathan Barrow and Sean McGoverne chat to Stuff at Mobil Bealey Ave on a Thursday night earlier this year. (Video first published in March 2018)

Boy racers across the South Island are gathering in Christchurch this weekend for an event police say they will do "everything we can to stifle".

But its organisers, seeking a second "bumper-to-bumper" event, say they're winning "a game of cat and mouse" against the authorities.

Up to 5000 racers from Nelson to Invercargill are expected to join the Aves Invasion from 9pm on Friday and Saturday, driving along the four avenues bordering central Christchurch to a more isolated location shared via Snapchat.

While Canterbury road policing Inspector Ash Tabb said there was a zero tolerance policy towards any illegal or dangerous racing, a representative of the organising group, Chch Dwnunda​, said it was "not causing any trouble".

STUFF A boy racer is pulled over for doing burn outs in a Christchurch petrol station in April. An organiser of a large gathering of South Island boy racers says they want to bring back "the old days [of] cruising in Christchurch".

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He said he chose meeting places away from blind corners, farms, and highly populated areas to keep everyone safe.

"Ninety-nine per cent of people behave themselves, there are always sober drivers and no-one causes any crashes.

"There's that little 1 per cent that causes trouble, but they're usually out-of-towners."

IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Skids on Middlepark Rd. Christchurch police are trying to crack down on a perceived increase in boy racer activity.

A police car was damaged during Chch Dwnunda's first Aves Invasion in September, which roughly 2000 people attended.

A video posted on Facebook after the event shows the sole police car at the gathering on Sawyers Arms Rd boxed in by a large crowd of people.

"We made that pig back the f... up," one commenter wrote at the time.

"With the amount of people, complaints from the public coming through, or CCTV", it was expected police would interrupt this weekend's gatherings, the organiser said.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Amongst the flow of traffic on Bealey Ave, Sergeant Warren Campbell issues an infringement notice to a boy racer in November.

When that happens, the racers will simply move elsewhere.

"There's nowhere legally we can do it. We can't do it at Ruapuna [Raceway] anymore ... where else are we meant to do it," he said.

Tabb said police were aware large numbers of people could be congregating for the Aves Invasion again this weekend.

They would concentrate their resources to deal with any issues that arose.

STUFF A group of boy racers head east on Moorhouse Ave, one of the four avenues set to be "invaded" during a Christchurch event.

"Police have no tolerance for car racing enthusiasts and people who use public places as skidpads, causing damage and putting other road users at risk.

"[We] will continue to do everything we can to stifle race activities if laws are being breached, whenever and wherever we come across them."

Police have faced an uphill battle against Christchurch's boy racer culture, despite a 2010 council bylaw banning cruising.

They cracked down on a perceived increase in boy racing around central Christchurch earlier this year after local businesses complained about racers who were drinking, smoking, yelling abuse, and creating other noise that disturbed their clients.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Mobil Bealey Ave owner John Arbuckle says gatherings of boy racers at his inner city petrol station got "pretty out of control" this year.

Police have also been trialling a different light sequence down Bealey Ave over the last month, keeping the lights green to give traffic a clear run. It is hoped this will reduce noise from accelerating, revving and burn-outs.

Canterbury metro area commander Superintendent Lane Todd said there had been a "significant improvement" in driving behaviour since the changes were introduced.



"In terms of offending, issuing notices or prosecutions, the numbers are quite significantly less than what they were."

The trial was still in its early days though, he said.

"We're running the trial for a couple of months so it's probably still a wee bit too early to say it's working, but certainly we're pleased with the early indications."

Todd said there had been concern some drivers would speed more along Bealey Ave, but that had not happened.

Police would meet with the Christchurch City Council, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb and central ward city councillor Deon Swiggs​ and the local community in the new year to review the sequencing.

The Aves Invasion organiser said high interest in the event showed an appetite to bring back "the old days [of] cruising in Christchurch".

"If they gave us somewhere [legal] to do skids, it would be used quite a bit."