Dave wrote on Apr 5, 2006 8:53 AM:Since the 1970s we have seen continual closing of legal venues for racing in order to accomodate rampant greed by developers who want to commercialize every square inch of southern California real estate. We have just lost another facility in Carlsbad, so where are people supposed to go to participate in motorsports?

Mark wrote on Apr 5, 2006 9:56 AM:Dear Dave, they can participate in motorsports anywhere away from public traffic or residential areas. It's not the developers fault. The city council has promoted growth. The city could've told them to go away but they welcomed the destruction of the natural setting that was once Murrieta.

Steve wrote on Apr 5, 2006 11:11 AM:More Nazi mentality from the cops. It is NOT illegal to modify a vehicle. There are CARB standards to which one must adhere, but it is certainly not illegal. And the details of this article state that while the car was modified, it was done LEGALLY. As a responsible auto hobbyist myself, I take STRONG exception to this comment...."Officers are trained to identify possible modified racers visually or by how the car sounds, the corporal said".....and to the assumption that just because one has a LEGALLY modified vehicle he is a "street racer".

Pattie wrote on Apr 5, 2006 12:53 PM:In 1979, one of these little contests of speed killed my 16yr old sister, say what you will, but it is illegal for good reason. Not one more kid should be killed for this nonsense. Street racing is not a motorsport, there is no excuse for it, and it should not be tolerated in any way shape of form. It is as deadly as drinking and driving and should result in the offender being taken immediatly to jail. Period. No 250hrs of community service and a piddly little fine. Take them to jail, now! Way too many kids dead, and this summer it will get worse, it always gets worse in the summer, and it seems to me it is really on the rise the past several years! It's tragic.

Carl wrote on Apr 5, 2006 6:48 PM:I'm just appalled at the pro-street racer feedback, using land development and lack of sanctioned racetrack facilities as an excuse to break the law with such impunity and complete lack of regard for public safety! When you take your driver's license exams, you also make a commitment to exercise safe and prudent driving practices and not use public streets for your immature speed contests recreation and entertainment. Those of you who continue to embrace this behavior and disrespect authority don't deserve driving privileges. You're a menace to society and the law-abiding masses who don't abuse driving privleges.

Kimberly wrote on Apr 5, 2006 8:18 PM:I agree wholeheartedly with Pattie and Carl. A driver's license is not an inherent right. Responsible auto hobbyists should know there is a time and place for everything. Racing along public city streets and highways is not the time or the place for illegal street racing. I've seen far too many young people racing up and down the I-15 and local streets, in complete reckless disregard of the lives of innocent people. It's a game to them. Until, of course, one of them ends up in the morgue. And as sad as it may be to lose a young person, I can't help but think that's one less idiot on the road I have to worry about. Thank you to the officers out there furthering their education and those who are members of task forces formed to rid our streets of drivers who have no business being on them.

Mike wrote on Apr 12, 2006 1:23 PM:...."Officers are trained to identify possible modified racers visually or by how the car sounds, the corporal said" So just because my car is turbocharged and has a dual exhaust means that I'm a street racer? Oh, and it has two black racing stripes, so I guess that means I'm a street racer as well. Police are starting to get out of hand with these kinds of accusations that just beacuse a car looks or sounds a certain way then it automatically means there a street racer. Don't think that I'm for ileagal street racing because im not, and I do feel sympathy towards anyone who has lost a friend or loved one in an automobile accident. But with all seriousness, I was pulled over about a week ago on the main street in my town due to the fact that a police officer thought that I had an illegal exhaust on my car and that I was trying to show off to the car next to me. Now, I'm not one to say my car is slow, but I don't think a 7,400 plus pound dodge durango can exactly stick with many other cars on the road. To top it off, I wasn't even going over the speed limit. The police need to back off a little bit when it comes to judging who is and who isn't a street racer and save their time for when they see two cars fly past going over 100 actually putting themselves and others in danger.

hopelessluver wrote on Dec 9, 2006 1:39 PM:this is very sad, but i have a question. has anyone heard of a race that involved the hood of a car being clipped, hitting the windowshield and a boy dying? i know its kinda specific and morbid but it would be a great assistance thank u.

brandin wrote on Jan 17, 2007 5:15 AM:hey i dont get how you can tell visualy or by how a car sounds and make the assumption of it being a street racer. I have a legally modified Volkswagen Jetta. I have a twin turbo package, six speed transmission, intake, exhaust, also port and polished heads. I also have a wildly designed paint job but does that mean that I street race. Well, no it doesn't, although I do. I orginlly made my car into a show car. I then went out with some friends and was involved in an "Illegal" street race, I do not see how it is illegal if we are not on a road that is not occupied, in a business park. I enjoyed the adrenaline rush and continued to do it. The only crash that I have ever witnessed was my friend putting his mitsubishi eclipse into a guard rail at 140 mph.

Bob The Builder wrote on Feb 9, 2007 8:07 AM:Da Da Da Dooom!!!!!!!!!!

Bob The Builder wrote on Feb 9, 2007 8:08 AM:Da Da Da Dooom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Evo Street Racers wrote on Mar 24, 2007 11:53 AM:There are viable alternatives to street racing. Check out the association that is assisting in the evolution of street racers into motorsports racers: Evo Street Racers ...

Sgt. Ryan wrote on Mar 27, 2007 5:02 PM:This goes to Steve, Mike, and any other nugget who participates in this juvenile behavior: Although in most cases it is not illegal to modify a vehicle, anyone who does certainly doesn't do it so they can take a casual 25mph stroll on the streets or highways. If you put out the time and effort to spend your hard earned McDonald's paycheck into all your modifications, you intend to break the law...and you know it. Rest assured, myself and other officers of the law are putting in a lot of effort to get you off the streets and into a jail cell where you belong. While you may not be caught today, tomorrow, or a year from now, we will get you...and we'll prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

Jax from Oregon wrote on Mar 27, 2007 5:58 PM:I'm going to have to agree with Mr. Sgt. Ryan in this case. I've never known anyone to modify their car,so as NOT to go faster. I've never street raced myself, but last July 29 I was in a single car accident in which I was driving my friend's Mercedes SL500...He was very proud of his car and how fast it could go and wanted me to feel the "power" so to speak. On a straight stretch of back road (after his suggestion to "punch" it) I reached a speed of about 100 mph. Coming up to a 30mph corner, I slowed the vehicle entering a second straight stretch of which, again,(at his suggestion to"punch" it)I at one point reached about 100mph. There was a 40mph curve and I lost control at the curve and over corrected causing the vehicle to go through a telephone pole and then role numerous times before coming to a stop about a 1/4 mile down the road on it's top. Neither of us was wearing a seatbelt (mine was inoperable) and he was ejected from the vehicle. I crawled out of the car and found him on the side of the road with no vital signs and gave him CPR until I felt a faint heartbeat, then ran to a near by house for help. He never made it, my friend passed away at the hospital a couple of days later. Tell me "street racers", how many of you are willing to live with the fact that another person has died from your judgement in error? This is something that will be with me always and I've made a commitment to his family to speak at local highschools about the dangers of high speeds and always using your seatbelt.Think about that, next time you get a wild hair and make the wrong decision to drive recklessly on public roads, ANY public roads. Please consider the alternative, NHRA speedracing drag strip. It originated in CA so they're out there. Find 'em and use 'em. Thanx for listening.

7th grade dude wrote on Apr 9, 2007 2:45 PM:Dang, I was researching illegal street racing in school, and I came across this article. It needs to stop, but this is out of control with the unable to mod a car. Just because a car sounds cool or looks nice doesn't mean you race it. Sometimes it's out of control, but racing just isn't safe on the streets.

the unknown power to street racers wrote on Apr 16, 2007 2:04 PM:Illegal street racing involves two cars in a competition for the lead. But to all men and some women who street race, its all pride. Illegal street racings gone insane. Its not the people who race, its the rookies who TRY to. People who attened sideshows, or people who knew when it rain and still race on a street full of pedestrians. These people all ruin things like these for us. For example, Stockton, Street racing was big, till the donuts, hyphy thingings began, and to this, they call it street racing??? its sides shows and stupid people who ruin it for people like us. Drag racing is a hobby, and till the future, it'll never end.

josh wrote on Apr 24, 2007 9:40 AM:wow! this is a sad story. Street racing should definately be banned however, being able to modify your car just is not fair, in my opinion! people should sterio-type cars and classify them as street racers just because their car has volume. But such incidents should have the highest punishment!

Thaddeus wrote on May 14, 2007 1:46 AM:This is truly amazing to read as an auto enthusiast. And normally I couldn't give a rat's ... about public opinion; but there are some sweeping generalizations being made here and someone needs to take a stand. An enthusiast views himself as part of California culture and auto culture. We don't jeparodize people lives because we don't race. While some of us can be seen going north of 100 mph on a highway, this will most likely be done in the wee hours of the morning on deserted stretches of highway that the enthusiast has driven repeatedly to learn. And while I won't go as far as to condone excessive speeding...I will tell you that you have little fear of Enthusiasts who hate random events like pedestrians and school buses and utterly despise traffic. California has a strict law that allows the authorities to confiscate any cars found racing. A guy that spends 5-10 years restoring and modifying his car...isn't going to risk having it confiscated or worse crashing it. We are allowed to exist because we have a small footprint. You may witness some nose to tail and some follow the leader but not racing. That's primarily the sport tuning culture and while most of you can't tell the difference between an enthusiast and a "tuner" the difference is quite large. Do not lump us all together as a public nuisance and a social hazard. And as far as modifying your car is concerned, just what do you think a BMW is? All of them have tons of horsepower on stiff suspensions. A BMW M5 has 500hp not to mention all sorts of modified suspension and exhaust as compared to the 5 series BMW...but I guess it's ok because they have money. And before you vilify people who modify their cars, you might want to look at the horsepower ratings of the '07 models. You be hard pressed to find anything with less than 200 horses and several (I.E. more than 5) with more than 300 horses. And I don't hear you complaining about that. But what I'm really ticked about is this "we know why you modify your car" - nonsense. We modify our cars because we like cars, and they fascinate us. Maybe you like driving the latest econobox that is identical to 100 of thousands of other cars in just southern california; but some of us like to personalize our vehicles. Some people like $5000 spinning rims and some people like $10,000 car stereos... and some like performance modifications. And while you can't be killed by gawdy rims and excessive stereo volume, the decision to make the change is motivated by personalization and not fantasies of becoming the "king of the street". And as far as the police man who posted is concerned...I guess you'll be stopping a lot of Ferrari's and Lamborghini's and Aston Martin's and inspecting their cars ..cause they all have loud exhausts and sit abnormally low...but somehow I suspect that his comment was not meant to instill fear into the numerous population of exotic cars in southern California...cause if you have money...you can drive a fast car. I would like to point out that traffic moves at 85-90mph so stop making 100mph sound like recklessness. What's reckless is an SUV moving at 90+, what's dangerous is people time it so they can pass in the rightmost turning lane and then quickly swerve back into the continuous lanes. It's bad enough that the state legislature blames us for the smog problem now we're responsible for all the racing on surface streets and highways too. We didn't do it! I hate street racing too because it gives guys like me a bad name. Just make sure you direct your comments and unauthorized police searches to sport tuners who are doing all the racing.

Lee wrote on Jun 20, 2007 1:24 PM:To start I found Sgt. Ryan's comments juvenile so to him, you can be a leader in life or follower you are not leading anything in this regard by talking down to these kids who are making poor choices. Stay above them by not making fun of them by name calling and putting down their choice of employment. It doesn't matter where you work as long as it's an honest living. Secondly in the news recently it was reported in California now when cars are impounded for illegal street racing they can and are being crushed as a deterrent. I don't agree with it but it's fair as long as every single vehicle impounded for a DUI is crushed as well. The biggest problem we face as a nation on the roads is not street racing its driving while intoxicated and I hope no one forgets that.

tuner car 4 life wrote on Jul 1, 2007 3:43 PM:their wouldn't be street racing if we had a track to go to. if their isn't a track near by then we make are own on the street. so if you don't like that SGT. Ryan then thats too bad.

jon wrote on Jul 3, 2007 2:13 PM:Though this article has a lot of good points, street racing is unsafe especially if you're 17 and driving in the daytime on a crowded street, we cannot punish enthusiasts who break no laws. Sgt. Ryan is your typical bully, he hides behind a badge while ridiculing "McDonald's workers." Unlike Sgt. Ryan, I have a college degree and I do invest a significant amount of money into my integra. Right out of college, I make a lot more than Sgt. Ryan ever will, so I don't really care if he's out to get me since I can buy a new Acura in a couple month's worth of paychecks. But this just reinforces the fact that the rich can race, while the poor get screwed and ridiculed by Sgt. Ryan. Anyway, I've met quite a few tuners and the knowledge they have of engines, mechanics and electrics rivals that of graduate students in those fields. For a lot of these tuners, these cars provide an outlet for their creativity and skill, so to take that away from them would be ridiculous. Yes, many of these tuners cannot resist showing off their projects by racing others with the same passion, but you cannot target and villanize them. Give them an outlet to show off their product by increasing the amount of race tracks and decreasing the regulations affiliated with these tracks. Offer them a chance to race local police cruisers on the track to increase the trust and mutual respect between the two. These kids use their cars as their anti-drug, anti-violence and to get away from their everyday problems. To destroy their dreams is to force them to use their time in less creative ways (i.e. drugs). Give these racers some decent tracks and make this information vastly available!!

To Jon: wrote on Jul 3, 2007 3:23 PM:You wrote: "....Give them an outlet to show off their product by increasing the amount of race tracks and decreasing the regulations affiliated with these tracks...."---Having been involved in engine building and legal drag racing for many years in SoCal (we're talking mid-7 second, single 4 bbl carb motors NOT on nitrous in the late 1980's, I might add), it would take a miracle to ever have another track built just about anywhere in Southern California. The land is just too expensive. Look at the counties Orange County Raceway had to draw from and the land was STILL sold off. And, Carlsbad Raceway, one of the fastest tracks in the entire U.S., could never be developed because of so many surrounding issues. If you want to race legally, Fontana or Pomona are about your only choices left. And guess what? For braggin' rights, you'll even have a legitimate E.T. slip to back up how "bad" your car is.

Daman c wrote on Jul 10, 2007 11:17 PM:Sgt Ryan your comments are an example of how LEOs force their ignorance upon those of us who choose to modify our cars and respect the law simultaneously. I have a Lancer Evolution that has been modified with only CARB legal parts, retains every emissions control device in working condition, and have never street raced nor participated in a contest of speed on the streets. I take my racing to the local tracks (Infineon and Sacramento raceway) and get accosted while leaving the track (modified exhaust tickets for a DOT certified and once again CARB legal exhaust system). I have officers ignore speeding vehicles to pull me over because my car came with a wing or I have aftermarket wheels or the officer sees my gauge pod and ASS-U-MEs I am a racer. The dragnet program, and every program like it, is less about stopping street racing and more about revenue generation from a group that is in the minority. Street racing very well may be a problem but lumping all modified car owners/drivers together is wrong and you as an officer of the law should know it. It is just a shame the officers or the county cannot be forced to reimburse every vehicle owner who is issued one of your bogus modified vehicle tickets.

nena wrote on Apr 21, 2008 2:13 PM:if u wannt to race be redy to what evers

john wrote on Jun 6, 2008 9:51 AM:street racing will never die, so use some of our tax money and start makeing tracks, my 350 hp acura rsx-s wants to play, so until then you can find me on the street

John wrote on Jun 6, 2008 9:52 AM:street racing will never die, so use some of our tax money and start makeing tracks, my 350 hp acura rsx-s wants to play, so until then you can find me on the street.

Bob wrote on Jul 24, 2008 2:40 PM:Boy racing is only good if you dont exeed the speed limit or put others in danger so otherwise it is pretty dum haha.