The LA Times ran a very interesting story recently about a proposed regional law enforcement task force that would be committed to fighting the street racing problem that the region suffers from. Not only is this a problem that is annoying to motorists, it is killing people, innocent people, at a pretty scary rate. Barely a week goes by without hearing of fatal accidents in that part of the world and while it is nothing new, police say that it has reached new heights of craziness because of the ease of meeting up via social media and other means.
The story is a great read for many reasons but there is some stuff in here that made our eyes bug out. The fact that there are cities that really don’t know if they have a problem, the fact that virtually no records are kept to research a rise or fall in the number of wrecks or deaths associated with street racing, and the fact that lots of departments just don’t seem to care all that much.
The fact that the Irwindale track is apparently closing the doors this year doesn’t seem like it will help this situation at all but the reality is that even with a couple of available tracks, the menace persists. The fact that so many innocent people are being killed and that it does shed such a negative light on the sport of drag racing because the stupid media can’t actually call street racing what it is, sucks. There’s got to be a solution. You will not stop all of it but maybe the worst of it?
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY ON THE PROPOSED TASK FORCE
quit closing race courses and it will cut down street racing
That involves too much common sense derbydad276, expecially when it comes to the idiots that run the state of California.
If they put as much money into legal racing as they do a damn \”task force\” they could build a nice facility plus let people race for free. Course that would promote global warming and is not in line with the green California way (deep sarcasm).
even if they have tracks, the tracks have made it way to hard and costly to run..
all in the name of ,safety.. Then will wonder why car counts are down..
Make no mistake this is part of the plan with the epa to outlaw building vin cars into race cars, as a street raced car would also fall under the epa’s law and allow the states to impound and destroy it..
all part of the plan.. to bad those around can’t put one and one together..
lawyers and insurance co. have tied tracks hands and racing is big money in set up cost.. and that will not change, so the only other way to get those that can’t afford to race on a track off the street will be outlawing anything that looks like a fast car..
Drag racing has become a joke, even the old cars can only idle on the starting line because the .N.H.R.A. can’t write a waiver to save it’s life.. and sites like this one get moist because a car is “cackling on a starting line”
The ones that started it all would laugh in the face of these, you can’t run that it’s not safe enough..
I am glad you brought the cackle thing up even though it is not related to this. Cackle cars are ridiculous. There needs to be some exemptions allowing them to run, at least half track. Watching the violence of a nitro car just sit and run is like dry humping a mattress.
Crazy,
that’s pretty funny and so true about the “old” cars. So what happened to singing a release that says: I the driver of said old car assume any & all responsibilities and release the track from any obligations or legal stuff blah blah you get the idea. I race triathlons (swim/bike/run events). the disclaimer you sign to compete is pretty inclusive such as any preexisting medical issues etc. they seriously cover their backside from anything. You race at your own risk period. end of story.
as far as street racing I dunno as long as there are two dummies willing to “run-em” without any consideration of the rest of us motoring public I have no answers. the biggest common denominator seems to be location: crowded urban streets, highways, & neighborhoods. Its almost like the gun debate. guns don’t kill people, people kill people etc. Replace the word gun with street racing or cars. Tough issues tough questions. I want to thank Bangshift for keeping us all in th eloop on these kinds of stories and problems. Thanks guys.
One can argue that even with tracks available folks will still street race, and that is probably true to some extent, however, with no tracks available there is zero places to run safely, so you will have everyone that’s willing to run be forced to run on the street. At least with tracks available there is a chance that people will take it to the track instead. I say that we need our tracks, especially here in soCal, then we can figure out how to operate them in a way that’s both safe and enticing