By Samuel Spies
News & Observer
RALEIGH, N.C. The state Highway Patrol is cracking down on illegal street racing across North Carolina, from country roads around Rocky Mount to interstate roadways cutting across northern Wake County to a stretch of highway just outside High Point’s city limits.
Troopers began serving arrest warrants on 72 people this weekend in the Triad, just months after they arrested 14 people in Raleigh for racing cars at high speeds on public roadways.
“Operation DRIFT,” or “Don’t Race In Front of Troopers,” was the largest illegal street racing bust of its kind in state history, the troopers said, and more charges are possible. As of Sunday morning, troopers had seized 12 cars worth $5,000 to $150,000 and expected to confiscate 20 more.
Undercover troopers have spent long nights this year gathering evidence on illegal races, most recently on U.S. 311 near High Point. Speeds among the racers -- many of them older teens and young adults -- can reach 150 mph on open highways late at night, troopers say.
Misdemeanor charges filed for “speed competition” more than doubled statewide, from 499 in 1997 to 1,046 in 2006 before dropping to 799 in 2007. Charges issued for “prearranged speed competition,” a more serious charge, have more than tripled in 10 years, from 51 in 1997 to 184 a year ago. Complete figures for 2008 are not yet available, but the state was on track to see 222 “prearranged speed competition” charges even before Saturday’s operation.
Cruising the strip
In High Point, teens and young adults cruise constantly up and down North Main Street on Friday and Saturday nights. Highway Patrol Lt. Keith Stone and his troopers are also there, patrolling in undercover vehicles between the burger joints and parking lots and watching for signs a race is brewing.
Dozens of high-performance cars drive the strip: Dodge SRT-4’s, Subaru Imprezas, BMW M3’s, Mitsubishi Eclipses, even a Trailblazer SS, an SUV with a Corvette engine. Not everyone races, but many do, troopers say. Other cars follow in packs of roving spectators.
Two Mustangs muscle slowly past, exhausts thrumming. Stone watches in his mirror, then throws the old, dirty Ford Explorer he is driving into a U-turn and follows them north toward U.S. 311. The troopers write down license plates, getting a good look at the drivers as they pass the sports cars and head onto the highway.
Stone slows down as the troopers watch the racers stop on the U.S. 311 on-ramp. The race is over in seconds, a blur of headlights, then taillights, and the roar of engines.
Now ahead of the troopers, the drivers slow again for a “roller,” a race where drivers match speeds in second or third gear, then accelerate.
“We’re running 80 [mph], and they’re pulling away from us,” Sgt. Rodney Robles says.
‘Operation Redline’
In a three-week sting operation in Raleigh this summer, undercover troopers spent hours on surveillance, following racers and spectators.
The groups met on Capital Boulevard, mostly on weekend nights in the Michaels or Best Buy parking lots. Someone would start bragging or flash a little cash, and the race was on. They would sometimes head to Interstates 540 and 440, said Beckley Vaughan, one of the troopers who conducted surveillance.
In one video shot by the patrol, a Toyota Supra and red Honda hatchback line up side-by-side on a side street near Triangle Town Center mall.
At a starter’s signal, shrieking tires pour horsepower onto pavement.
They are unaware a state trooper is hiding in the bushes, videotaping the scene with a camcorder.
Troopers said the cars sometimes reached speeds estimated at 150 mph, while the spectators drove as fast as 120 mph to keep up.
In addition to the 14 arrests this past summer in the Raleigh-based “Operation Redline,” troopers also seized 10 cars and recovered three stolen motors.
Internet videos play a role
Experts say pop culture -- Internet videos, Hollywood movies and media reports -- that glamorize street racing have played a part in its resurgence.
YouTube videos and Internet forum posts point to Raleigh’s Capital Boulevard as a hot spot for illegal racing -- or at least before ‘Operation Redline.”
Online videos and comments discussed the sting operation and what it means for the scene:
"[I] almost got caught with my civic si that night but i got away. they didnt see or hear me cause i blacked out my lights and luckily i had the silencer on my muffler,” posted k00lball3r.
“Where are the meets in raleigh” asks shiftevo10.
“Capital Blvd.,” responds PBGreg21. “I haven’t been out there in a year or so, can’t tell you where they all meet up. it’s always changing. Just go out around 11 or 12 on a Friday or Sat.”
YouTube abounds with videos of street racing from across the country, with everything from twin-turbo BMW 335i’s against Subaru Impreza WRX STi’s, to more modest Honda Civics and other sporty import compacts.
Stephen Tibbetts, a professor of criminal justice at California State-San Bernardino, points to the 2001 movie “The Fast and the Furious” and its 2006 sequel.
“It’s movies like that, that if anything made it a culture across the nation, those did.”
Peter MacGillivray, communications director for automotive industry group Specialty Equipment Market Association, agrees that movies, Internet videos and video games can fuel street racing. As an industry, MacGillivray said, automotive parts makers want to channel drivers’ interest into legal racing. SEMA has started Racers Against Street Racing, an effort to promote young drag race stars as role models and get young drivers to drag strips with amateur events.
Garrett Edwards, 21, one of a group hanging out on Capital on a Saturday night, said when he and his friends want to race they take their cars to a drag strip in Rockingham -- about a two-hour drive.
“If they give us a track, all the street racing will probably stop,” said Edwards, a comment loudly seconded by his clutch of friends at Cookout. "[Police] won’t even have to harass us about hanging out,” he said. “If they put a drag strip here, it’d make money for the area,” said John Williams.
Troopers want felony charge
Stone and his troopers have been targeting rural street racing near Rocky Mount for several years. He’s adamant that pre-arranged racing -- a misdemeanor -- should be a felony. Stone estimates he and his officers have seized 25 to 30 cars and arrested more than 50 people for racing in the eastern part of the state.
Around Rocky Mount, it’s different, he says. Racers gravitate toward American V8 muscle cars instead of the Japanese compacts favored in the Raleigh group.
Some cars arrive on trailers, and drivers have come from out-of-state.
“You know, these guys aren’t your high school kid who comes out on Friday night and races,” he said.
At the Highway Patrol impound lot on Blue Ridge Road, Trooper Vaughan pops the hood on a green Acura seized in Raleigh. The engine is stolen, he says.
In another car, a pressurized tank of nitrous oxide is rolling around in the back seat. The gas can be injected into an engine at the push of a button and is illegal on street cars in North Carolina.
Another of the Japanese compacts has racing seats installed, Vaughan said. Then he points out the factory seat belts won’t go around them.
“These people don’t think about safety,” Vaughan said. “They just think about speed. ... Sooner or later, something’s going to happen.”
Copyright 2008 News & Observer