Street racer wants to work with drivers for safety

By Cathy Logg

Herald Writer

Rich Kelby has been a street racer since he was 14.

The 23-year-old Tacoma resident understands the tensions between law enforcement and street racers who try to get around them.

Kelby began his speed career early with skateboards and go-karts. A youth who had “massive problems in school,” he didn’t fit in any group, he said.

“We really weren’t cool, we didn’t party, we didn’t do sports. (Street racing) was a way to escape the tough realities of growing up,” he said.

He found what he called his “only escape” when his father, a retired police officer, bought a 1969 Chevy El Camino SS and the two began rebuilding it. The activity that became his lifelong passion also helped him bond with his father.

Along the way, they got to know each other and bridge the generation gap. His father took him to his first couple of races, then he began racing on his own. When he acted irresponsibly, Kelby’s parents revoked his driving privileges. As an inexperienced driver, he lost control on a wet corner and put the car into a ditch – not while racing, but on his way home.

“My mom said, ‘You’re not going to drive fast until you learn to drive fast,’ ” he said.

His parents made him get a job – and use the money he earned to attend the Skip Barber Racing School and learn how to drive, and race, safely. Now, he has a license to race cars on a track, but still favors street racing. Unlike many street racers, he outfitted his car with a rollbar and harnesses for the passenger and driver.

“I’m a firm advocate in getting the kids educated in how to drive. I know my mistakes, and I’ve come close to absolutely destroying my car a couple times,” Kelby said.

He’s had a couple of minor accidents, none of which involved racing, he said.

Kelby typically races in Tacoma, Fife, Kent or Bremerton, but also has raced in Seattle and Everett. He has his own rules: He never races where there’s other traffic and he takes responsibility for what he does. If he’s caught speeding, for example, he accepts the ticket. Enough time has passed that his last ticket no longer shows up on his insurance record.

“It is a very big risk, but it’s been a very big way of life for me for so long that it’s hard to give it up,” Kelby said. “I’ve never done drugs, I didn’t drink until I was 21. The only escape I had as a teen-ager was to hammer the gas.”

He’s been at a race where someone was killed, he said. In San Francisco’s North Bay area, the police showed up and everyone started running, he said. The two cars lined up took off.

“A girl was running across the street got clipped by one of the Mustangs that was running and got killed,” he said.

The girl’s mother later said that her daughter died because of the panic when police showed up, he said.

“I’ve seen cars lose control and bounce across the road, clipping the sides of cars. It has happened. My sport is not as safe as tennis or something, but we try to make it as safe as we can.”

Dedicated racers have more spotters and safety rules than trendy racers, he said. They don’t allow drinking or drugs while racing, and don’t condone the theft of auto parts to build up race cars, he said.

The release last year of “The Fast and the Furious” brought street racing “to the eyes of a large group of youth who were looking for an identity. Basically the kids that hop from one trend to the next. Suddenly I saw the thing I’ve loved to do for years turn into the most trendy thing since Rollerblades. Those are the kids I see on the street that are revving on me at stop lights.”

Kelby calls those racers “newbies” and estimates they account for about 80 percent of current street racers. The other 20 percent – mainly the older, more experienced racers who are “more dedicated to the sport” – have nothing more to prove. Racers typically range from 16 to 50, but mainly are older teens, he said.

Kelby wants the public to understand street racers and accept their subculture. Racing gets them away from drugs and gangs and gives them an ongoing activity, he said.

He disdains the “ricers” – those who drive late-model Hondas and other fancy cars and deck them out with flashy gear. The hard core racers drive plainer, “sleeper” models and spend their money on auto performance rather than cosmetics, he said.

Kelby drives a 1986 Toyota Corolla, which was preceded by a 1971 Datsun. He spent $2,700 to buy, build and register the Datsun, which turned 11.2 seconds in a quarter mile at 120 mph, he said.

“What street racers need is a place to run, much as skateboarders lobby for skate parks,” Kelby said.

Some places accommodate them rather than fighting them, he said. In San Diego, officials have begun closing down a street for racers and allowing police to monitor the race, and a city in the Midwest has opened up an old airfield and allowed racers to operate there, he said.

“That’s basically a way to contain them,” he said.