EPPING, N.H. – It’s just before sundown and Travis Goodie and his two buddies are standing next to their cars making small talk. The sounds of rumbling engines and screeching tires fill the air, which is already thick with exhaust and the smell of burning rubber.
In a few minutes, Goodie will climb into his shiny red Honda Prelude and punch the accelerator to the floor. He wants to beat his most recent time here on the New England Dragway. He also wants to beat the guy in the car next to him.
In the end, though, “it’s all about speed,” the 26-year-old from Colchester, Conn., confesses with a grin. “I just want to go fast.”
As legislators and law enforcement officials nationwide try to crack down on what they consider a burgeoning culture of street racing, some thrill-seekers have turned to sanctioned tracks, where gunning your engine and challenging your friends is not only allowed, it’s encouraged.
“It’s just not worth getting caught on the street,” said Goodie’s friend, Jay Grosso, of Vernon, Conn., who brought his girlfriend’s Subaru WRX to the track.
The New England Dragway is one of several hundred two-lane speedways across the country that sponsor “street racing” nights, when anyone with a valid driver’s license and insurance can race anything as long as it passes a safety test.
Limousines have faced off here. So have souped-up snowmobiles.
“You can drive your mother’s old Chevy station wagon if you want, as long as she knows about it,” said track manager Joe Lombardo. “We just want people to come up here rather than go on the street when they have an adrenaline rush and feel like they need to prove something.”
In the past decade, incidents of street racing have been on the rise nationwide. The activity has been celebrated in movies such as “The Fast and the Furious” and in video games.
In New England, the contests have started looking more like the sophisticated races common out West, authorities say.
“They’re getting wiser here,” said Capt. Dennis Collyer, of the Revere, Mass., Police Department. “The kids use their cell phones, pagers, radar and other methods to call in whether the coast is clear. It’s worth it for them, but makes it harder for us.”
According to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, drag racing citations increased from 510 in 2002 to 578 last year. They’re expected to go up again this year, said Amie O’Hearn, a spokeswoman for the department.
“It used to be you didn’t really see it here because New England is full of horse and buggy roads, not long straightaways like in California,” said Revere City Councilman George Rotondo, who is pushing for more resources to monitor illegal races along city streets.
Last month, a 17-year-old was killed in Billerica, Mass., when he was racing a friend on a local road at speeds up to 70 mph.
Charles Ware, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the Ford Explorer he was driving after he lost control of the SUV. His friend, Michael Ferguson, also 17, later was indicted by a grand jury for drag racing and operating to endanger.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, deaths from speeding have gone up in recent years. In 2003, 45 percent of fatalities for drivers under 20 involved speeding, up from 43 percent in 1999.
“We have made gains on drunken driving and seat belt use with various campaigns, and speeding is always a target of our effort,” said Brook Chipman, a spokesman for the Governor’s Highway Safety Bureau in Massachusetts. “But given the numbers and information we have, there are plans to develop specific programs to also address street racing.”
Some programs tested out in communities nationwide include controlling races, not just stopping them.
San Diego, Los Angeles and other California cities have been successful at chipping away the number of organized street races with stiffer penalties that include fines for race spectators and legal races staged in stadium parking lots or professional tracks.
At the New England Dragway, racers pay $17 to participate in the “street legal” programs which take place for four hours on Wednesday and Friday nights. Drivers can race down the track as many times as they can fit into the night. They get a time slip to prove how fast they went. Racers ages 16 and 17 need permission from their parents.
At some events, law enforcement officials even get in on the act. A Texas-based program called Beat the Heat Inc., helps organize drag racing events where drivers can test their speed against police cruisers.
Stephen Bender, a former professor at San Diego State University and founder of San Diego-based RaceLegal.com, said offering safe environments for racing is the only truly effective way to curb the activity.
“Racing is a very big thing right now. Cars go faster than ever before and kids are sophisticated in knowing where the cops are,” Bender said. “It can’t be solved simply with law enforcement.”
RaceLegal.com organizes legal drag races in the San Diego area. When it started keeping statistics in 2002, the group reported 16 deaths and 31 injuries from illegal street racing that year in the city. There have been no deaths and three serious injuries so far this year, according to the organization.
“It’s just stupid to fool around on the street,” said New England Dragway racer Brent Abrams, 55, of Lexington, Mass. “If something happens here at the track at least you have a chance of living. Out there, who knows what could happen?”
Goodie said he used to street race but decided its dangers and consequences – from fines or jail time to having your car taken away – make it too risky.
“Sure, it was fun. But, like I said, it’s all about speed,” he said. “And here you can get that without all the other worries.”
On the Net:
www.newenglanddragway.com
www.beattheheatinc.org/
www.racelegal.com
www.ihra.com
www.nhra.com
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