Chatsworth Street Racing Crash: What We Know And How The Community Is Responding


Chatsworth Street Racing Crash: What We Know And How The Community Is Responding

The scene played out exactly as you’d expect it to: a highly worked over Nissan GT-R in the right lane, a Shelby Mustang with a reported $100,000 in modifications in the left lane, a crowd of people with cellphones out recording all around, VHT on the ground. It’s another race in the early morning hours of a Thursday at the “Canoga Speedway” in Chatsworth, California, but this one wasn’t going to go to plan. At the launch, the Shelby got loose, spun right, and drove into the crowd of onlookers. Two men, a still-unidentified individual and a twenty-six year old, were killed, and a 21-year old was injured. The driver of the Shelby, Henry Gevorygan, fled the scene, as did the GT-R driver. In the morning, all that was left was the impromptu burnout box and stripes on the street, the Shelby on the sidewalk, and the investigation marks from the police work. A shoe laid in the grass, separated from it’s owner. Police are currently hunting for Gevorygan, who will be facing murder charges in connection to the crash.

 

It’s a scene that has played out over and over again for decades now: racers and enthusiasts, municipalities and police, a lack of a proper location for racers butting heads against public safety. The ripple effects from Thursday’s crash are already being felt: Los Angeles city councilman Mitch Englander has promised to introduce two ordinances that will allow police to seize and either sell or destroy confiscated cars that are associated with street racing or reckless driving that results in “great bodily harm or death”, though you better believe that is probably just a start. Street Racing has been a hot-button issue in the Los Angeles area for decades, but ever since the closing of such tracks as Los Angeles County Raceway and the on-again, off-again Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island, racers haven’t had many options. It’s an ongoing battle between the racers, who are now utilizing social media to stay ahead of the cops, and the police, under increased pressure from constituents and leaders to crack down.

This crash also adds a new arguing point to the NHRA’s move to pull the competition licenses from anyone known to have ties to Discovery Channel’s “Street Outlaws” show. While it’s a well-known fact that the show is staged and that the racers work with the police to ensure a safe location to run their cars, the NHRA has taken a hard-line stance agains them, and some of the racers have bucked back, including Jeff Lutz of Drag Week fame:

lutz statement

Whenever a street racing crash makes national headlines there’s always a new push against racers and, indirectly, those who the average person perceive as a potential racer. Without question there will be plenty more questions coming out of this tragedy, and much more scrutiny from the powers that be. From the powerful cars to the lack of infrastructure, it’s incidents like this that put our hobby under a microscope, and that’s not a great place to be.

L.A. Times article: CLICK HERE

Reuters article: CLICK HERE

Los Angeles Daily News article: CLICK HERE

chatsworth crash2


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39 thoughts on “Chatsworth Street Racing Crash: What We Know And How The Community Is Responding

  1. RockJustRock

    O.K., if you want to add in all the details these were tuner guys. They normally race on the freeways from a roll rather than from the dig. Technically they were not street racers anything like on Street Outlaws. Were they inspired to try the dig by the show? Could be. Millions are inspired to buy choppers by “American Choppers” and other shows. They die by the thousands, even taking a few four wheel motorists with them. Ban those shows? ER personnel hate motorcycles. They call them “DonorCycles” and wish they wouldn’t bloody up their gurneys so often. They’d like to ban motorcycles. Should they be banned? C’mon we can ban things and make the world safer, let’s ban SOMETHING! Everything? The people who chose to watch a street race knew it was a risk, a gamble. They lost. Let’s ban anything RESEMBLING that game.

    1. RockJustRock

      Actually if everyone watched Street Outlaws and had a brain it wouldn’t have happened. On Street Outlaws spectators are few and they stand BEHIND the starting line. To prevent further Chatsworths all youngsters MUST watch and learn from Street Outlaws.

    2. Bob

      I’m a life long drag racer and motorcyclist. For your information, motorcyclists are killed by idiots driving cars, not the other way around. It’s your right to not like motorcycles, but put the blame where it belongs. I’m a lucky survivor of one such idiot driving and talking on a cell phone.

      1. Stickman

        For your information the blame goes both ways. Yes there are idiot drivers but there are plenty of dumbf*** motorcyclist. I know this because I was one of them, my friends were many of them.

      1. Damon

        These guys were NOT tuner guys and raced 1/4. I have never seen either of these cars roll race.

  2. turbotater

    as long as penalties are equal to other crimes such as drunk driving i don’t have a problem. but lets see how blind justice is when a law like this is passed but softer penalties are applied when more people die from drunk driving . this is not meant to justify street racing but to call into question the thought process of law makers

  3. Gary Smrtic

    Street racing is breaking the law, a good, long standing law. My dad took my brother an I to the track and helped us drag racing for the sole reason that he wanted to keep us from racing on the street. To this day, I have not. Doesn’t matter if it’s from a roll or not. It is stupid, and dangerous. This show promotes it. I’ve said it before on this subject, I’ll say it again…I hate NHRA, but I have to agree with them on this. There are simply no excuses for street racing. None.

  4. Beagle

    Man I hate to see that. When I was a 18 year old kid, out at Manana in Dallas, there were always people crowding the track. I watched a what was fast at the time sh*t bucket Firebird launch, sideways, never lift, and literally just barely touch several people. That was the end of street racing for me. A few weeks later a drunk girl pulled her Honda out on the road in front of a 4 way bike race. There were deaths, and the cops shut that road down. The racers moved to another part of town.

    It’s tragic and it probably won’t stop as long as adrenaline exists. The town will go crazy until something distracts them, like somebody wanting to build a Twin Peaks.

  5. Ty

    Really, You guys need to pull your head out of that dark place its in. Any one who can say anything positive about Street Racing is unable to learn from 60+ years of history. Just wait for the lawsuits to fly on this.

  6. scott smith

    Street Racing is like a drug. YOU WILL NOT stop it.
    Pomona Raceway was built just for this reason back
    in the 50’s.
    A cheap nightly operational drag strip with basic barriers and services is NEEDED to prevent more deaths period.
    There use to be numerous drag strips throughout So Cal.
    There should be no surprise this is happening and will only get worse.

    1. Ryan

      I like the idea of a cheap nightly operational drag strip(s) as you suggest. I suppose the costs to the racers would need to be kept to a minimum so that racers did not just take it back to the street. Maybe the city/county could be approached to provide emergency medical services as the cost to provide that would be far less than the resources needed to chase these kids around on the street, then provide medial/investigative and prosecutorial assets after the fact of an accident. As for the Outlaw show. Pure crap, all it does is glamorize and underlying problem for many communities. Where the spectators stand is not the lesson people take away from the show. Street racing is cool is the lesson they leave with. I am a car guy, so I get it really! However, I do not like, or condone street racing, but I love my fellow man and hate to see people hurt or killed.

  7. RockJustRock

    NHRA has gotten to where it is by making drag racing better, NOT by anything it said or did about street racing. There is risk in ANYTHING. Trying to eliminate risk in drag racing and pointing out risk in others just ain’t getting it. 99% of street races won’t hurt anyone. The right crash in drag racing will kill people no matter how fast or slow the car is going and what the restrictions are on it. People die on our highways without breaking a single law all the time. And don’t get me started on keeping things “fair” in any sport. NHRA still pretty much owns drag racing. That may or may not be true in the coming years. There are trends that won’t be denied. Drag racing WILL always be more about going fast than ANYTHING else. Whether NHRA still will own it is their decision, BUT they MUST own going fast.

    1. RockJustRock

      Where was NHRA in 2013 when Street Outlaws premiered? Two years reaction time is NOT going fast.

    2. rhaar

      How is it better? The reason these kids street race is because NHRA has made it way to expensive for them to afford on a 10$ hr job. Entry fees are ridiculously high. Every time we go out for a day at the track its $500 minimum. The rules on how often safety equipment must be replaced just to please sponsors is a joke. You can run a 50 yr old seat belt to 12.0 but go 11.99 you have to have a $400 seat belt that has to be replaced every few years. NHRA has created the street race beast its time they own it.

      1. RockJustRock

        Drag racing got better and better in the 60s and 70s. Funny Car eliminator added in ’69. Pro Stock added just one year later in ’70. Lately? Meh, not so much……Women are winning in Pro eliminators, wait Shirley did that in the 70s too.

      2. HotRod

        Street racing was around before the NHRA so they didn’t create it. In fact the reverse can be said. But it is true that they’ve made it way to expensive to go to a strip for the most part.
        I have replaced any safety equipment for a while. But then I don’t go to class racing. I attend street race night. It’s better racing.

      3. Bob

        Absolutely correct! NHRA is all about money and they will screw anyone and everyone to get it.

  8. Michael Vaughan

    sorry sbg but that’s total crap ! Car crashes that happened in normal traffic cannot be compared to street racing. The closing of tracks doesn’t give anybody the right to race on the street, and certainly doesn’t mean that the NHRA is at all responsible for peoples poor choices. Sounds more to me like someone trying to place blame, rather than manning up and taking responsibility for there own actions.

  9. HotRod

    Street racing is not only illegal and dangerous but it’s stupid. But with drag strips closing everywhere where are folks going to race? And they will race.
    The state sized SGMSP last year and my understanding is they closed it. Now folks in Valdosta have to drive to Orlando, FL to get to a strip. I live 46 miles from the closets strip to Savannah. There was an 1/8 mile strip in Chatham county until 8 year ago when folks that built houses close it knowing the strip was there forced it to close. Just since 2000, 4 strips in Georgia have closed. Make if 5 If SGMSP is closed. And it’s worse out in LA.
    I personally think that every county in every state should have a drag strip. But good luck with that.

    1. dogshitsniffer

      SGMP is not closed .. I was there last weekend for lights out 6 and there were 40,000 people there. Ozzy who owns Orlando and Lakeland drag stip bought it . Another keyboard cowboy putting misinformation out .

    1. HotRod

      An even better idea is not to have the race. But since it’s going to happen your right don’t stand in front of the cars.

  10. Guy turner

    NHRA usually isn’t the reason for tracks closing ! It’s usually politics & ever expanding metro areas them people bitching about noise

    1. Tom

      And 9 times out of 10 the whiny neighbors moved in AFTER the drag strip was established. If I was emperor for a day, I’d put a law on the books saying that if you file a court complaint about a race track, airport or any other facility near you being too noisy, and you moved into your place after the source of the noise opened for business, a judge would automatically throw out your case and tell you to pound sand.

  11. keezling

    Like the tv ad says; “when did auto racing start, when car #2 was built”. Street racing is already against the law. Problem should have been solved …

  12. Tom Slater

    I do not and will never street race.
    I totally understand why it happens, though, when drag strips are 50 miles away and expensive to get any time on.
    People are going to race the same way people are going to do drugs. Shrill voices and new legislation won’t fix it. Community drag strips &, if I’m going to keep going with the analogy, low to no cost rehabs are the answer here.
    I would *love* to know what my ’57 does in the 1/8th or the 1/4 and it is damn tempting to try it out on the road. Not gonna, just saying: I get it.

  13. Texcuda

    Shelby Mustang? Try Mustang GT. The photos on the local news affiliate site clearly show the hood, fenders and trunk. All of which mark the car as a GT. I doubt the veracity of the $100,000 in modifications as well. Maybe a few K but 100K for a 25K car?

    Street Racing will never go away no matter what you do. Short of a free track within 25 miles that practically pays people, some people will be too inconvenienced to go there. Too many people enjoy the thrill of street racing to go to the track. Street Outlaws for instance, the whole draw of the show is “street racing”.

    1. Brett

      Definitely a 2013 GT. It has an aftermarket power adder (turbo from the sound of the launch), and from the pictures of the hood up- It appears to be a twin turbo kit.

      Hope they find him and the driver of the GTR, both will be facing murder charges, though it is really manslaughter (unintentional murder 2), but prosecutors always over charge.

  14. HEADACHE RACING

    Point one: The show Street Outlaws sucks
    Point two: .The show Street Outlaws sucks
    Point three: The show is over scripted not real street racing (yes they may race on a street but it is a closed street with more lights than a N.H.R.A. meet and police and fire/rescues there) I never saw any of that when we allegedly street raced in Chicago all those years ago.
    Point four: there has always been street racing and there will always be street racing. Is it dangerous…yes. Do people get hurt or killed……yes. But how many other people were hurt or killed that night in the lovely state of California by violent crime????? A lot.
    Have a great day and be safe.

  15. Tracy

    So it’s OK to break the law and race illegally on the street? Why is it OK to break some laws and not others? I’m gonna break some laws… You’re safety is at stake…

  16. randy

    No its not ok to break one law and not the other, it is also not ok to prosecute one law. And not the other

    Goodbye illegals

  17. Brendon

    Typical stupid (liberal) reactionary solution from someone who doesn’t even understand the problem: “Los Angeles city councilman Mitch Englander has promised to introduce two ordinances that will allow police to seize and either sell or destroy confiscated cars that are associated with street racing or reckless driving that results in “great bodily harm or death”

    This won’t work because it will only cause the street racers to flee the scene/ create a chase to keep their car and as we all know from watching the chases on TV they can end with even more people hurt. Who’s gonna pull over and hand over their car to have it sold off or destroyed? You can be sure they will try to run. Way to go, Mitch Englender. You’re only putting more innocent lives at risk.

    Better solution: BRING BACK/ OPEN RACE TRACKS AROUND LOS ANGELES. Give people a safe place to play. It worked in the 50’s and it’ll work today, too.

  18. Toolman

    Every town, suburb, city, and school district has 5 golf courses, but they take away all the race tracks (not just the strips). We can’t even hold our autocross anymore because they ripped up the parking lot we used to build another damn strip-mall, and we are having a heck of a time finding another location that will let us set up and race… And people are surprised street racing goes on?!?

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