Street Racing Sucks

Alexander Roy is an asshole and a punk. He's a street racer, claiming to have recently set a new speed record for the New York-Los Angeles drive. Sure, he's fabulously wealthy and his exploits utilize a wildly modified BMW and a chase plane (no kidding) to spot cops. But he's really no different from the dumb kids who line up around the country and drag race down the city streets, oblivious to the risks to themselves and others.

Like the idiots in Los Angeles whose race ended with the death of a mother and her two children. It's one thing when the racers off themselves or those that egg them on - that's got Darwin Award written all over it. But to risk the lives of innocent passers by just so you can prove your manhood is asinine in the extreme:

Trais Hand, 17, a senior at John W. North High School in Riverside, who had just received his driver's license a month earlier, found that out too late.

Hand served 106 days in juvenile hall after an impulsive midday race last October resulted in the death of Reyna De Leon.

'It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment, a heat-of-the-moment type thing, and I ended up making a bad choice,' Hand said. 'I didn't intend on harming anybody.'

Hand was stopped at a light in his 2001 Jetta when a friend pulled up on his right with the window down.

'He said something like, 'My car's faster than yours,' ' Hand said. And then it was on.

The two cars made a right at the light and then started to race on Olivewood Avenue.

'I just lost control,' he said. The car smashed into a light pole, the air bag deployed and the car slid 100 feet, hitting and killing 38-year-old De Leon, who was in a wheelchair.

Since his release from juvenile hall, Hand has attended counseling sessions and spoken out at Riverside County high schools about his experience. 'It helps relieve some of the guilt,' he said.

I'm a car guy. I get the desire to go fast. But there are so many safe, legal, and fun ways to get your jollies that taking it to the street is just mind-numbingly retarded. If precise car control and intense competition is your thing, there's autocross. If parking lot battles aren't your thing, there are lots of options to get out on great road courses like Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, and VIR - track days, time trials, full fledged road racing. Or, if pure acceleration is your thing, there are hundreds of drag strips across the country where you can let it rip without worrying about pedestrians.

Street racing is dumb, dangerous, and illegal. There is no such thing as good street racing. And the only good street racers are those that have seen the light, grown up, and moved on with their lives before they ended somebody else's.