ultra spikey
03-09-2006, 11:24 PM
For those who dont know what RaceLegal is, its a organization that aims to take racing off the streets by setting up legal drag racing events in venues like a stadium parking lot(you can read more about them at www.racelegal.com). I faxed them a letter earlier today, basically asking them for any advice or suggestions to get a program like RaceLegal started over here. I just thought id share this information and see if anyone else is interested in something like this..........
"Thanks for your note, let's see if we can provide you with a few ideas for your
consideration.
We are somewhat aware of the Virginia Beach street racing scene. You guys have made the national headlines a time or two of late. VB is not unique however as
you well know. Every major metro area in the US suffers from the same problem.
You also probably know from our web site that the incidence of illegal street
racing in San Diego has been reduced by 99% since our initial year of record
keeping in 2002. We have also witnessed a 94% improvement in the death and
injury associated with illegal street racing involved crashes during that time
frame.
For example, our baseline year of 2002 saw 16 young people killed and another 31 seriously injured as a direct result of illegal street races gone bad. We are
proud to announce that those epidemic numbers were reduced to 3 serious injuries in 2005. That's some turn around in 4 short years.
The reason for that dramatic turn of events is the San Diego "Closing the Loop"
on illegal street racing intervention of which RaceLegal.com is a big part.
We as a community realized early on that a law enforcement only approach (like
what most communities attempt) is not going to solve the issue. Young racers
aren't dumb, they simply move on and find another spot to practice their high
risk sport.
The San Diego "Closing the Loop" intervention is a grass root, community based
effort involving all the stakeholders, not just law enforcement. Superior
Court, DA's office, City Attorney, Public Defender, Probation, racers, parents
of victims, concerned citizens and, of coarse, the safer and sanctioned track
alternative to street, RaceLegal.com, all came together to form a coalition
who's sole purpose was to address the San Diego epidemic of illegal street
racing and the attendant death and injury that was taking place back in '98.
The object was to not only make San Diego the last place you wanted to get
busted for illegal street racing, but to be realistic and provide a safer and
sanctioned track alternative to illegal street racing. The alternative,
RaceLegal.com is offered at night in a young adult friendly environment and
specifically designed to meet the high risk 16 - 26 year olds need for speed
which is real and doesn't have to a be a bad trait.
The rest is history. The success is unprecedented and trust me when I tell you
that it will work in any community willing to invest the time and money that San
Diego chose to do.
So you would think that every other community in America would be stepping up
and going with what works and not re-inventing the wheel - right?
Unfortunately every community that I know of has chosen to view this phenomena
as strictly law enforcement in nature just as VB is doing at the moment. It hasn't worked in the long term anywhere that I know of and I predict without reservation that it never will.
So what can you guys do? Trust me it isn't easy, but it is very doable if you
get the right people on board and supportive of your cause.
When it is all said and done realize that the press is your best friend. They
can literally move mountains. It is exactly how we got the ball rolling in San
Diego.
We incited the public via the press and the public in turn literally made the
public officials stand up, take notice and take action which included the safer
and sanctioned track alternative to street, RaceLegal.com.
Get an investigative reporter who sees something in this story. You should
have no trouble finding one - that's their job. Turn them onto the San Diego
"Closing the Loop" story and have them specifically look at our
www.RaceLegal.com web site. It won't be long and they will be asking the right
questions as they relate to a RaceLegal.com alternative in your area.
We were also smart enough to cultivate law enforcement. That are not the bad guys by any stretch of the imagination. Believe me there are
gear heads in law enforcement and hopefully a few of them high enough to
identify with your cause.
I trust that you have seen our "Code Four" and "Sheriffs" tabs on the RaceLegal.com web site. Law enforcement has played a very important and indispensable part in the success of our RaceLegal.com program. If you ask the right way you will find that some of them did their fair share of illegal street racing back when they were young and a little crazy.
We even have an annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day now where all the Chiefs and Sheriffs come out and race each other in their black and whites.
Check out the pictures on our "Gallery" tab from last year's Law Enforcement
Appreciation Day festivities.
Find one of your City Councilmembers or County Supervisors who is into cars and willing to get behind your cause. A major catch would be a sympathetic mayor or two.They are out there, trust me. But you have to want it and be willing to pay the price to get the ball rolling. It won't happen on its own.
Let me finish for now with a couple of comments about a track. As you probably
know we are totally portable and run our two side-by-side 1/8 mile race tracks
in the parking lot at San Diego Oualcomm Stadium where the Chargers play. We
have to set-up and tear down all in one 18 hour day and it's killing us
financially.
Ideally you have an existing NHRA certified track nearby. You are light years
ahead if an existing track is present. If they are a NHRA certified track they
are supposed to have a "street legal" program to maintain their certification.
Bottom line, 99% of the NHRA certified tracks don't offer a RaceLegal.com type"street legal" program that specifically targets high risk 16 - 26 year olds
like we do. The reason is simple - they are expensive to run and the return on investment is not likely to be attractive for a "for profit" enterprise.
We have appealed to NHRA to at least financially get behind some pilot
RaceLegal.com type programs at their certified tracks in high risk metro areas.
We've not gotten a positive response to date and hopefully SONY Xplod who is one of our major sponsors and also the major sponsor for NHRA's Sport Compact Series will intervene on our behalf and get NHRA to entertain the notion. By the way, SONY Xplod is totally on board with the "Closing the Loop" approach to intervention which includes the RaceLegal.com alternative.
I've probably overwhelmed you and I didn't mean to do that. But I trust that
you understand that these kind of things get done by passionate people who won't
take no for an answer.
We'll assist all we can so keep us in the loop. In fact, I just got back from 3
days of consulting with Colorado Springs where they are looking at how they can
establish their own "Closing the Loop" approach to intervention including a
RaceLegal.com alternative.
Respectfully,
Steve
Stephen J. Bender, HSD, MPH
Professor Emeritus - Epidemiology/Biostatistics
Graduate School of Public Health
San Diego State University, and
Principal Investigator - RaceLegal.com"
"Thanks for your note, let's see if we can provide you with a few ideas for your
consideration.
We are somewhat aware of the Virginia Beach street racing scene. You guys have made the national headlines a time or two of late. VB is not unique however as
you well know. Every major metro area in the US suffers from the same problem.
You also probably know from our web site that the incidence of illegal street
racing in San Diego has been reduced by 99% since our initial year of record
keeping in 2002. We have also witnessed a 94% improvement in the death and
injury associated with illegal street racing involved crashes during that time
frame.
For example, our baseline year of 2002 saw 16 young people killed and another 31 seriously injured as a direct result of illegal street races gone bad. We are
proud to announce that those epidemic numbers were reduced to 3 serious injuries in 2005. That's some turn around in 4 short years.
The reason for that dramatic turn of events is the San Diego "Closing the Loop"
on illegal street racing intervention of which RaceLegal.com is a big part.
We as a community realized early on that a law enforcement only approach (like
what most communities attempt) is not going to solve the issue. Young racers
aren't dumb, they simply move on and find another spot to practice their high
risk sport.
The San Diego "Closing the Loop" intervention is a grass root, community based
effort involving all the stakeholders, not just law enforcement. Superior
Court, DA's office, City Attorney, Public Defender, Probation, racers, parents
of victims, concerned citizens and, of coarse, the safer and sanctioned track
alternative to street, RaceLegal.com, all came together to form a coalition
who's sole purpose was to address the San Diego epidemic of illegal street
racing and the attendant death and injury that was taking place back in '98.
The object was to not only make San Diego the last place you wanted to get
busted for illegal street racing, but to be realistic and provide a safer and
sanctioned track alternative to illegal street racing. The alternative,
RaceLegal.com is offered at night in a young adult friendly environment and
specifically designed to meet the high risk 16 - 26 year olds need for speed
which is real and doesn't have to a be a bad trait.
The rest is history. The success is unprecedented and trust me when I tell you
that it will work in any community willing to invest the time and money that San
Diego chose to do.
So you would think that every other community in America would be stepping up
and going with what works and not re-inventing the wheel - right?
Unfortunately every community that I know of has chosen to view this phenomena
as strictly law enforcement in nature just as VB is doing at the moment. It hasn't worked in the long term anywhere that I know of and I predict without reservation that it never will.
So what can you guys do? Trust me it isn't easy, but it is very doable if you
get the right people on board and supportive of your cause.
When it is all said and done realize that the press is your best friend. They
can literally move mountains. It is exactly how we got the ball rolling in San
Diego.
We incited the public via the press and the public in turn literally made the
public officials stand up, take notice and take action which included the safer
and sanctioned track alternative to street, RaceLegal.com.
Get an investigative reporter who sees something in this story. You should
have no trouble finding one - that's their job. Turn them onto the San Diego
"Closing the Loop" story and have them specifically look at our
www.RaceLegal.com web site. It won't be long and they will be asking the right
questions as they relate to a RaceLegal.com alternative in your area.
We were also smart enough to cultivate law enforcement. That are not the bad guys by any stretch of the imagination. Believe me there are
gear heads in law enforcement and hopefully a few of them high enough to
identify with your cause.
I trust that you have seen our "Code Four" and "Sheriffs" tabs on the RaceLegal.com web site. Law enforcement has played a very important and indispensable part in the success of our RaceLegal.com program. If you ask the right way you will find that some of them did their fair share of illegal street racing back when they were young and a little crazy.
We even have an annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day now where all the Chiefs and Sheriffs come out and race each other in their black and whites.
Check out the pictures on our "Gallery" tab from last year's Law Enforcement
Appreciation Day festivities.
Find one of your City Councilmembers or County Supervisors who is into cars and willing to get behind your cause. A major catch would be a sympathetic mayor or two.They are out there, trust me. But you have to want it and be willing to pay the price to get the ball rolling. It won't happen on its own.
Let me finish for now with a couple of comments about a track. As you probably
know we are totally portable and run our two side-by-side 1/8 mile race tracks
in the parking lot at San Diego Oualcomm Stadium where the Chargers play. We
have to set-up and tear down all in one 18 hour day and it's killing us
financially.
Ideally you have an existing NHRA certified track nearby. You are light years
ahead if an existing track is present. If they are a NHRA certified track they
are supposed to have a "street legal" program to maintain their certification.
Bottom line, 99% of the NHRA certified tracks don't offer a RaceLegal.com type"street legal" program that specifically targets high risk 16 - 26 year olds
like we do. The reason is simple - they are expensive to run and the return on investment is not likely to be attractive for a "for profit" enterprise.
We have appealed to NHRA to at least financially get behind some pilot
RaceLegal.com type programs at their certified tracks in high risk metro areas.
We've not gotten a positive response to date and hopefully SONY Xplod who is one of our major sponsors and also the major sponsor for NHRA's Sport Compact Series will intervene on our behalf and get NHRA to entertain the notion. By the way, SONY Xplod is totally on board with the "Closing the Loop" approach to intervention which includes the RaceLegal.com alternative.
I've probably overwhelmed you and I didn't mean to do that. But I trust that
you understand that these kind of things get done by passionate people who won't
take no for an answer.
We'll assist all we can so keep us in the loop. In fact, I just got back from 3
days of consulting with Colorado Springs where they are looking at how they can
establish their own "Closing the Loop" approach to intervention including a
RaceLegal.com alternative.
Respectfully,
Steve
Stephen J. Bender, HSD, MPH
Professor Emeritus - Epidemiology/Biostatistics
Graduate School of Public Health
San Diego State University, and
Principal Investigator - RaceLegal.com"