Sideshows and street racing

[Damn True]

With the recent [feigned] crackdown here in the bay area on sideshows and street racing something occured to me.

20 years ago this wasn't a problem here in the Bay. We had the strip at Sears Point, Sacramento and of course Baylands raceway providing easy access for people who wanted to run their cars.

Sac and Sears are still open, but are quite some distance away particularly on weeknights when most open bracket drag events occur. The land Baylands once occupied held a 1/2 mile dirt oval, a 1/4 mile dirt oval (for midgets and karts) a paved kart track and a 1/4 mile dragstrip. It was closed to make way for a business park in 1989 that has yet to come to fruition.

Do you think that if there was a place where kids (young and old alike) could go blow the cobwebs out of their cars that it would alleviate the problem on city streets?

[68BNUT]

You know thats the running problem in alot of places. It seems that most people would rather take there car to a track were they have lights, safety and some times a time slip to prove who won and by how much!

[MrQuick]

Actually street racing was a big problem and always will be...even with the other tracks..... Baylands , Sears point , Half Moon bay and remember this one? Champion raceway in Brisbane. Oh man, am I dating myself?
Racing at Brotherhood way , Great Highway, Cargo Rd in SF, Canada San Mateo, A street, Bailey road Santa Clara , 7st in Oakland, Skyline in San Mateo and others were packed all night long even when tracks were open and less than 20 min away from these sites.40-90 cars in one night was not uncommon. Its the intrique and lawlessness that atracts racers and side show-ers.
Half moon bay reopened for 2 races in the early 90's then was scraped due to funding...no one wanted to put up for the insurance. Thats the trick, everyone that screams "WE NEED MORE TRACKS" don't usually want to pay for them.
Remember the drag strip Big Willey opened up in the LA area? I heard that was tanked for lack of funding too?
There was a program to open tracks up but its still going through its planning stage. Its government funded and run by local racers and backed by law enforcement. I believe there are 15 tracks around the country but I haven't heard more on it.
I will try to do a search....how serious are you to get an open area for legal sideshows? I've been in contact with the Oakland city council...right now security is a big issue.The fear of a violent out break is the deal crusher. Might try Richmond next???

[JLM]

In my opinion, it's becoming a very bad time to be a car enthusiest. Especially in highly urbanized areas.

The problem is lots of people with too much money complaining about everything. Case in point...Colorado is starting to see quite a large problem with street racing in certain areas. Westminster, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction in particular. Race tracks are few and far between in Colorado and it doesn't help when people start building huge homes next to a track that was there 40 years prior. They complain to city council about the noise and the track gets shut down (this is happening to 2nd Creek Raceway right now). At the same time, these people are complaining about all the street racing and cruising that is going on. It's just kind of a very frustrating spot to be in if you're a car enthusiest.

In my opinion low cost track facilities is a major key in reducing street racing. Nobody wants any to be built though. Look at Bandimere Speedway for instance. They've been trying to move now for about 4-5 years. Each sight they choose to build a new motorsports park is shot down because of traffic and noise concerns. So they're left with upkeep on an aging facility that needs constant attention. Those costs get passed on to the racers. It sucks to drive an hour and a half, pay $35.00 for a test and tech that is only 1 night a week and only get maybe 3 runs in if you are lucky.

okay I'm done with my rant now.

[wantahertzdonut]

We have a few tracks in the Cleveland area (Thompson, Dragway 42, and of course Norwalk) but they all have one thing in common: a 1 hour drive from the city of Cleveland and most of its suburbs. That's a lot of gas and time for most people.

Any place closer would run into the noise issues that were already mentioned. Now to an extent I can understand, but at the same time there are houses next to the airport and right on the highways which I'm sure are just as noisy as any track. So what's worse? You don't hear about people complaining to City Hall to close the highway, do you?

For every reason to open a new track there's another reason to close it down. Urban sprawl will probably not stop (despite climbing gas prices) so tracks will get pushed further and further away, and fingers will be pointed as to what to do about street racing, which will never go away.

[ProdigyCustoms]

street racing is different today then it was . Used to be a couple guys would see one another at the local cruise spot, or speed shop, make a race and go to the woods somewhere. Or find a dead piece of interstate at 3:00AM. Kids today, and mostly ricers, will race from any stop light, in any busy traffic. Hell, they were racing on my street in front of my house at 4:00 in the afternoon in a neiborhood!

Not that what we did was legal, or much safer, but it s different no less. Our local track has Midnight drags and Fundays with no times, but it still does not take the kids off the street. It did however completely eliminate street racing with my muscle car friends.

Long story short, the kids today, and agian, mostly the ricer crowd are stupid with were they do their hell raising. I guess the difference is they want to show off and be seen by everyone, and we never wanted anyone to see that did not need to be there!

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Frank hit the nail on the head with the ricers. They want to race anywhere, anytime. It's pretty funny. It seems every other stop light that I stop next to a kid in a ricer, he wants to run 'em, especially at night.

The other big problem is the lack of tracks as mentioned. They closed down the local track (30 mins away) and now the closest track is 2 hours away. Who wants to drive 100 miles each way, pay $15 bucks in tolls, plus costs to race, and then get 3 runs in. If lawmakers want to stop street racing, they need to start building some more easily accessable tracks, that are open late on the weekends.

[vanzuuk1]

most of the import guys seem scared of my car(my car isnt even that fast) , a guy in a tricked out evo was the only one who ever tried to run me. When i said no he just said "nice car " and took off.The way his car launched he would have smoked me, the whistle from the turbo sounded like an f-16.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

most of the import guys seem scared of my car , a guy in a tricked out evo was the only one who ever tried to run me. When i said no he just said "nice car " and took off.The way his car launched he would have smoked me, the whistle from the turbo sounded like an f-16.


Most evo and sti guys dump the clutch at redline, and those suckers take off HARD. After that, they kind of fall on their face a little bit. A friend of mine just bought a WRX (not an sti) and from about 2k-4500 it doesn't have much in the way of acceleration, but from about 4500-5k to redline it pulls pretty good. Damn turbo lag.

[vanzuuk1]

Mr quick, guys use to race their bikes on the service road at pocono during an event, basically street racing at the track! The crowd would stand in front of the bikes and only move once they launched.
The last time I ever streetraced is when I hit a guy and spun him off his feet with my gsxr.He had jumped out to look down the road just as I launched, he jumped up after I clipped him and grabbed his cigarette and walked away.I almost had a coronary. A week later a guy I knew died at the same hangout (federal road in danbury) and I got smart, kind of walked away.

[F70t/a]

I have not seen or heard sideshows around here in a while. :bicycle:

[harshman]

If I was a cop and I caught a race I would impound their cars, strip them and sell ‘em on ebay (imports only of course). That way they could charge me less when they catch me speeding. :doh:

[MrQuick]

I gotta vent.
well I got the big "hell no" from the city concil last week...no funding available for police overtime required for security...then I see this. What a bunch of bull! http://cbs5.com/video/[email protected]

I don't understand what the mayor is thinking???? Why not allow a legal show and pay overtime for 4-8 cops for 1-2 hours instead of the plan they have now. A 10-15 crew overtime from 12-4am friday thru sunday. I don't get it. Looking to try Albany.
Also that group that uses gov. money to fund legal street drags is www.racelegal.com. It loks like the program works.They are based in San Diego but the program is available nation wide.

[yody]

um, hes thinking Oakland has WAY bigger problems than people who want to do donuts?? People now act way more wild than before. Back in 80(I was barely even alive) the country was a lot more low key. Now anything goes, people act way more crazy. Why are there car jackings now? murders? Sideshows have been around for years, at least in oakland. Just didn't have publicity like they do now. All the suburbian people who never have set foot in east oakland are now seeing it on T.V. at their homes and think this is some new thing. It has been happening for years. Making it legal in some race track type thing won't work. Most of these people don't really even leave their city, and if they do there just jumping to the next neigborhood in other cities. All of the "peers" and people who they want to impress are "on" the street not in some legal parking lot. Its just the way it is. It really isn't that big of a deal, when they start doing it in my neighborhood I'll have a problem, but for now they are doing it where they live. They said 8 deaths in the last 3 years with sideshow incidents. Big deal!! what is that like 1% of total accidents/deaths in oakland?? They should worry more about all the murders/drugs. oakland only started doing something about it when outsider white kids from other cities thought it was the thing to do and started coming in, and their parents etc complained about it. It went on for so long because it didn't affect anyone but the people in those neighborhoods. You can ride through certain streets and the intersections will be almost Black from tires.

[MrQuick]

true, there are lots of problems but this is one they can help. I know it won't stop the problem but they ask for help and don't get it.
most of the deaths and injuries occure when the police come to break it up. It turns into a real dangerous stamped. I saw a guy drive through a fence that people were sitting on.

[yody]

up late eh?

[MrQuick]

yeah just going over wedding stuff.im out

[Damn True]

In San Jose the problem is begining to be worse as a result of the cops showing up. The kids scatter like roaches when the light comes on. They have hit a couple of their own and wrecked their cars into homes and business' while running from the cops. I have seen them racing from one location to another on numerous occasions.

[Damn True]

There's a couple more video's: http://cbs5.com/video/[email protected]

[steemin]

What is a sideshow?

Yes I live in Indiana....
Scott

[yody]

watch the video linked above

[TonyL]

side shows are smokey parkinglot burnout contests. or exibisions of speed.... whatever that cop called it....

I can't believe people are stupid enough to stand in the way of a car doing doghnuts at night in a parking lot.

[6'9"Witha69]

Hell, all I have to do is drive after dark on the weekends and I am in danger of being pulledn over as a racing suspect or challenged by a bunch of Ricers. And believe me, So. Cal. has a TON of ricers! These are the guys who screw it up for the rest of us. Of course it does take all types.

[steemin]

Apparantly there are some advantages to living in rural areas.
We have none of the "sideshow" action here.
That looks like a recipe for disaster!
There are a couple of locations where cars will meet and run late at night.
No big crowds. No traffic. Very much under the radar.
Kind of like the old days that were described in an earlier post.
We still have the ricers running around town but they are not organized.
Thank goodness.
Scott