If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
The deadly world of street racing July 17, 2006 BY CAROL MARIN Staff Reporter And DON MOSELEY NBC5 Producer http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...s-speed17.html In the wee hours of the morning, public streets are blocked off, crowds gather, and bets are placed. Two cars line up, side by side, engines roaring. >From start to finish, they will race just a quarter mile but at speeds close to 150 mph. One winner. One loser. In the last three months, from Elgin to Gary, Ind., at least seven people have been killed in what police describe as drag racing incidents. It is an underground sport, and, according to Chicago Police and those involved, street races are happening across Chicago and the suburbs, fueled in part by summer weather. Until three years ago, 34-year-old Marko Djuric of Chicago, with his 1993 modified Toyota Supra, was considered one of the top illegal street racers. "It's me vs. you for usually a sum of money or for pride to settle the score," he said recently in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News. >From his teens to his early 30s, Djuric said he and his friends routinely raced on the streets of Chicago, at breakneck speeds, sometimes with the knowledge of law enforcement. Djuric defended what he described as the "careful" way the races are run. "Of the thousand-plus street races I have witnessed," he said, "there hasn't been one single incident of one getting hurt or any accident involving any kind of injury." "Basically, they are breaking the law," said Deputy Police Chief Mike Shields, whose job it is to try to shut them down. "They like the risk, the fast cars, the women; it's just [a] typical macho thing," said the nearly 20-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. Shields' district covers the South Side, where he said illegal street races are a continuing problem in Chatham and South Shore as well as parts of the Pullman and Grand Crossing neighborhoods. "We've had problems out here before," he said. "They are not happy about it being broken up, and we've had some people fight with the police." But according to a DVD called "Scandalous Street Racing," which was produced in Chicago and is sold via the Internet, the illegal racing scene in Chicago involves black and white neighborhoods. A deadly sport In April in Gary, four bystanders were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, when a car spun out of control and plunged into a crowd. According to published reports, witnesses said two cars were drag racing. In May in Elgin, police said a drag race took two lives. The 20-year-old driver of one car reportedly lost control, striking several trees. He and his passenger, also 20, were killed. Also in May, 17-year-old Ryan Meinken of Libertyville died while apparently racing his brother. Authorities said Meinken appeared to be driving in excess of 100 mph. According to Matthew Chancey, chief of the felony review division of the Lake County state's attorney's office, an investigation of the crash continues. And in one case, drag racing appears to have produced a homicide. On the night of May 31, a shooting erupted in the 8400 block of South Chicago Avenue where, according to police, a large crowd gathered to watch a drag race. Darryl Banks, 34, a car mechanic, was shot and killed. Six others were injured. An investigation, according to Chicago Police, is ongoing. No one has been arrested. "When you have all of those people together, the potential for violence increases," said Shields. Who's racing? The DVD, produced by On-Airr Productions of Chicago, captures a late-night world of bragging and illegal betting, mostly by young men who appear to be in their 20s and 30s. It was shot on location three years ago in Chicago, Miami and Houston. Two cars take part in an illegal street race somewhere on Chicago's North Side, in this scene from the DVD "Scandalous Street Racing." "My friends are all professionals," Djuric said two weeks ago, describing in an interview who the racers are. "I mean, there's a guy who is a vice president of a bank. There's a couple of police officers." When asked if Chicago Police officers were involved, he declined to say, but added he has seen off-duty State Police officers at races, as well. "I can't mention names, but they have been out with us on more than 10 occasions watching us and helping us do it right," Djuric said. According to Mike Guglielmucci, host of a weekly racing show on WJOL-AM in Joliet, this kind of racing is not spontaneous but carefully planned. Guglielmucci has been involved with legal racing for more than two decades, and at the Sun-Times' and NBC5's request, he viewed the DVD called "Scandalous Street Racing." "These guys have done their homework," he said. That includes, he said, using nitrous in their fuel for more acceleration and large gum-ball tires for extra traction. "Whenever you are doing this you are on the edge," said Guglielmucci. Not cheap Even small-time street racers, Marko Djuric said, will spend as much as $30,000 outfitting their cars to race. Djuric, a suburban contractor, said he spent as much as $100,000 retrofitting his car. But Djuric said the recent rash of deaths should not be attributed to those who, like him, have engaged in organized though admittedly illegal street races. "What percent of the people are engaged in street racing as I know it?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't know, probably like 10 percent. And the rest are just careless, reckless drivers who are engaging in speed contests randomly on public roads." Police don't see much of a distinction and are out, they said, to stop it all. "We have the resources to combat it," said Shields, but a lot hinges, he admitted, on good intelligence to find and stop events before they get started. 'We put them in jail' In California, authorities have instituted what are considered the toughest laws in the nation to crack down not only on street racers but on spectators. In 2001, police in San Diego began the Drag-Net program. "We don't give anybody a ticket, we put them in jail," said Sgt. Greg Sloan of the San Diego Police Department. San Diego police set out to create "a sense of paranoia" for street racers and spectators. "They want the audience," he said in a telephone interview. "So we created a spectator ordinance which says if you are there for the purpose of observing, you are guilty of a misdemeanor." According to Sloan, more enforcement and tougher laws cracked down on events where thousands showed up to watch a series of two-man races. These days, he said, 10 cars constitute a big crowd. "If you are convicted twice of street racing," Sloan said, "you forfeit the car." In Los Angeles, the law is even tougher. Authorities, said Sloan, "smash the car" at a junkyard on the first offense. Change of heart Djuric said he stopped racing on Chicago streets three years ago and now races only on sanctioned tracks. "There's too much risk involved now," he said. "I was successful because I never had an incident or ever witnessed one, but the risk was still there," Djuric said. "Knowing what I know now, I realize I could have done without all that." Copyright © The Sun-Times Company |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
> http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...s-speed17.html
> Even small-time street racers, Marko Djuric said, will spend as much as > $30,000 outfitting their cars to race. Djuric, a suburban contractor, > said he spent as much as $100,000 retrofitting his car. Why don't they just race at the local track? |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
> "What percent of the people are engaged in street racing as I know it?"
> he asked rhetorically. "I don't know, probably like 10 percent." ....of the population? No wonder car insurance costs so much. The idea that so much as ONE percent of people engage in serious underground street racing, as opposed to the occasional display of attention-seeking behavior or impromptu penis derby that happens to take place on the public street, doesn't even have the ring of truth to me. Methinks that either the quote's badly out of context (e.g., perhaps he means that 10 percent of street racers take it as seriously as he does), or else it's spin doctoring to try and make the activity seem much more mainstream than it really is. Or maybe he just exhibited the quite common reflex to throw out "10%" as an all-occasion canonical number. --Joe |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
On 17 Jul 2006 17:09:30 -0700, "Ad absurdum per aspera"
> was understood to have stated the following: >Methinks that either the quote's badly out of context (e.g., perhaps he >means that 10 percent of street racers take it as seriously as he >does), Re-read it; that's EXACTLY what he means. --- "Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?" ~ Senator Ted Kennedy, 1973 -- El Pollo Loco (Laura Bush Murdered Her Boyfriend) demonstrates it's complete gullibility, stupidity, and state of delusion when it falls for an April Fool's joke, hook, line, and sinker: > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.p...6999983?hl=en& Ragnar wrote: > Gods, you're dumb. Its a rather obvious April Fool's joke. And you're > the Fool. This is no joke. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
In article >, Dave Head wrote:
> 2) The race track is usually 25 - 50 - 100 miles away 'cuz race tracks are > noisy, so must be located in the boonies And then people build homes near the race track and complain about the noise and get the race track shut down. > 4) Race tracks are of limited length and configuration - drags are 1/4 mile, > big road courses are full of turns that slow the cars down, and they're not > going to get permission to go out onto the ones that don't have many turns, > like Talledega and Daytona. You _rent_ those tracks with BIIIG bucks... Considering how much the article says they are spending, a membership in the race-track country club out by Joilet IL would be in the budget |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
if they'd shoot the scumbag pigs, they could drag race in peace
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
The Deadly World of Street Racing
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Racing AutoCross! Like Formula 1! Need Advice & Tricks 4 More Speed! Drifters!! | TradeMiataUsa4MiataEurope | Mazda | 2 | March 17th 06 12:22 AM |
Offline racing | Big Blue Racing | Simulators | 0 | November 6th 05 03:42 AM |
Ford Needs A Street Version Of This Racing Mustang! | [email protected] | Ford Mustang | 10 | July 1st 05 09:19 PM |
Mustang Returns to Sports Car Racing | Grover C. McCoury III | Ford Mustang | 0 | January 29th 05 05:39 PM |
Tough to Enter the Racing Sim Scene | Chuck | Simulators | 14 | November 10th 04 05:27 AM |