I was doing some catching up and cleaning up and finally read you article
"Racing against the law" in the Aug. 13th issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
Just to give you some info about myself; I grew up in Southern California and
have been part of the "hot rod scene" since I was in high school. I've owned
a few cars over the years, from American muscle cars to modified Japanese
sports cars. My favorite pastimes in high school and college were working
on my car and cruising the boulevard. I've lived in the Bay Area since 1979.
What I find amusing is that with a few minor changes, your article could have
run 30-35 years ago and been accurate! IMHO your article could have spent
a little more time on the biggest issue with street racing. In the section
"Growing scene", you state "Authorities stumbled upon the problem in the
early 90's..." This corresponds to the shut down of Baylands Raceway in
Fremont and has little to do with the "growing import scene". Of course the
police and city planners will never admit this, as it would be admitting bad
judgment of their part...
The point, we've come full circle! 35 years ago in Southern California, we
had a number of drag strips. At that time they were limited to professional
racing, with strict car class structures and high entry fees. The hot rodders
raced on the street, because it was free. There was even a club, LA Street
Racers, that organized street racing events. Some of the race cars even
arrived on trailers, with activities very similar to what goes on today. This
went on until the president of LA Street Racers died while street racing. LA
Street Racers, apparently passionate about fast cars and friendships,
campaigned and succeeded in starting "Grudge Night" at the local drag strip.
Cheap, safe drag racing for the masses. For something like $5 and passing a
basic vehicle safety inspection, anyone could run anything at the drag strip.
This spread to most drag strips near metropolitan areas including Baylands.
Over the years, urban sprawl and myopic planners gradually shut down most of
the drag strips near metropolitan areas in California. So the hot rodders
went back to the streets and now we have a street racing problem again. The
solution should be rather obvious, unfortunately the police, city planners
and community leaders don't see it...
John
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* John Schubert; Morgan Hill, California
* INTERNET: jes@rx7.org
* PACKET: KC6OVN@N0ARY
* WWW: http://www.rx7.org/jes, http://www.rx7.org
*
* The opinions contained herein are my own, because nobody else wants them...
* "Ban low performance drivers, not high performance cars."
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