SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Baseball loves its “If you build it, he will come” line from “Field of Dreams.”
Maybe that works for baseball, but it doesn’t seem to apply to drag strips.
NHRA has more than 120 sanctioned drag strips throughout North America, which is a positive thing.
And it offers a broad spectrum of programs for all skill levels and ages, starting for participants as young as 5 years old.
Yet, it’s mind-boggling that tough-guy wannabes, street racers and young adults with more automobiles than sense continue to endanger others and themselves by engaging in illegal street racing.
Despite the existence of plenty of race tracks in the region when he was a teenager, NHRA Top Fuel owner-driver Josh Hart said he didn’t have any of them on his radar.
“You always knew of it,” he said. “I never went. Never even thought about it.”
That’s the disconnect.
A Los Angeles Times article, bylined Richard Winton and Julia Wick, spoke about the rise in illegal street racing during the height of the pandemic and the huge role social media play in enabling the dangerous practices.
Politicians pay their lip service to the problem, passing ordinances that sound like riled up suits in a room expressing righteous indignation. Meanwhile, illegal street racers know that society-destroying “defund the police” rubbish has handcuffed the authorities and that court cases would have no bite, lingering in the system for years.
Fines, jail sentences and seizure of driver’s licenses seem to carry little threat, considering one California law doesn’t go into effect until 2025. That’s sure showing those bad guys the government means business — you have three more years before we’ll get serious.
According to the Times article — which erroneously referred to the crime as “head-to-head drag races” — the perpetrators clearly have the advantage. It read: “LAPD Capt. Andrew Neiman, who oversees the Valley Traffic Division, said officers have to define the risk when tracking or moving in to arrest street racers. ‘We were following one group, and they got on the freeway and immediately started going 100 mph. At that point we have to assess the risk of tailing them. Even with a helicopter it’s hard,’ he said. Police often struggle to capture drivers and spectators at large takeover scenes, because a handful of police cruisers is no match for the crowd of drivers leaving a 300-person sideshow.”
Oh, yes, they have cute names for it: sideshow, takeover. They have their own lingo, coast to coast. It has been this way for decades.
So what’s going to happen is illegal street racing will continue, with little likelihood of disappearing.
But 70 years ago, Wally Parks established the National Hot Rod Ass’n for the purpose of clearing the streets of such overhyped, overglamorized, felonious recklessness.
How hard would it be to reach those who facilitate and promote illegal street racing activities? How tough a nut to crack is somebody buying into the underground culture and abetting these reckless drivers?
Maybe these individuals are stone-cold hardened to the notion they could commit (or maybe have committed) murder when things go awry. We’re seeing supreme arrogance and entitlement these days, without remorse.
But, surely, significant numbers of individuals are not too far gone. Surely, some lives are worth trying to rescue from that warped mindset. Surely, it’s worth trying to show them that true drag racing — an endeavor that can provide a lucrative income and plenty of notoriety — comes on a purpose-built drag strip with safeguards, technology and equipment that’s designed for safety and employs highly trained rescue and emergency medical personnel.
Hart is a perfect example. He simply began to recognize the benefits of a structured way of participating in a speed contest. He isn’t a felon. He’s a respected businessman, providing for his family. And he’s satisfying his urge to drive quick and fast, beat the opponent and earn recognition for doing it.
How many other Josh Harts are out there, worth saving from ignorance?
Maybe the local drag strips can find them in 2022. Maybe that can be the goal this year of local drag strips, no matter what sanction (if any) they have: To impress upon the street-mayhem crowd that they can race their cars, have grudge races, throw down and even throw down some money — all in a safe way.
It’s worth a try.