Street racers hope

By Cathy Logg

Herald Writer

EVERETT — While the Everett City Council prepares to vote on whether to criminalize attendance at illegal street races, a group of racers is rushing to find a solution to take racers off the streets and hopefully avoid council action.

But the hunt will not be an easy one. Already, one option presented last week by officials at Evergreen Raceway in Monroe has been shot down, said Don Berry, an Everett resident who is president of the Washington Car Club Council, a group of more than 100 car clubs.

The problem is the Monroe raceway only has an oval track, and street cars are geared for straightaway races.

"The way the suspension is set up, they don’t turn well. They have tires that are not designed to go around corners. All the things that make a good drag car make a really bad cornering car," Berry said.

Berry is continuing the search for safe places for street racers, including an abandoned airstrip.

Everett police have been cracking down on the increasing problem of street racing, which draws dozens of cars and several hundred people to isolated industrial areas and state highways. Police have adopted a no-tolerance policy on street racing and say racers have been lucky that no one locally has been seriously injured or killed.

Racers say their sport has been around for years, and that there’s no reasonable alternative. Pacific Raceways, formerly known as Seattle International Raceway, in Auburn is too far away, too expensive and too crowded with racecars, local racers say.

Berry has devised what he called the Everett Safe Racing Project. He and other interested racers will meet tonight to discuss the plan and other possible alternatives to the draft city ordinance.

Berry wants to avoid council action. He said he opposes the ordinance because it infringes on the right of people to freely assemble. He called the ordinance "a tool for harassment."

"We need to provide an alternative and marshal a solution rather than a punishment," Berry said.

But city council member Mark Olson said that finding a new racing site and protecting the city’s residents from illegal racing aren’t mutually exclusive propositions.

"We can do both," Olson said.

Berry met Friday with the track manager at Pacific Raceways, the closest National Hot Rod Association track.

The Auburn track is considered a less-than-perfect solution for the Everett racers.

Jason Baum 18, another Everett street racer, plans to speak at the council’s meeting on Wednesday evening, when the council is expected to vote on the draft ordinance regarding attendance at the illegal races.

"I know a lot of people are really scared of the ordinance right now," he said. "My friend Chris has been pulled over seven times in one week. His car is really decked out. He’s got a lot of engine and exhaust modifications, tinted windows, and it’s not a stock engine."

Baum said he was stopped by police three times in the last week because of dark tinting on his car’s windows. He thinks police purposely stop what they think are high school students in cars that look like street racing machines.

"It’s weird the way some cops jump on us and some don’t," he said.

He’s also working to find a solution to the conflict between police and racers who just want a place to run their cars, he said. He’s meeting Tuesday with the manager of a facility that could provide a potential racing site.

"We’re trying to make it so it’s safe for everybody to race and for people to watch," Baum said. "We’re looking for an alternate place to suit the city and give us a place to actually go and race."

You can call Herald Writer Cathy Logg at 425-339-3437

or send e-mail to logg@heraldnet.com.

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