On Tue, 10 May 2005 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dont fight the law, fight the closing of sanctioned racetracks. All over the country they are closing drag-strips, road-race courses, etc because of dumb people moving in towns around the tracks then complaining of the noise that come from them.
I'll second that. Some of these lawmakers drive me nuts... they go on about stopping street racing and "taking it to the track," only to turn around and support people who are petitioning and complaining to have dragstrips closed. Don't they realize that if they're taking away the safe alternative to street racing, people are going to race on the street?! Nobody's going to just stop racing when the tracks close down, and when they have no legal place to run that isn't several hours away, it's pretty obvious what they're going to do.
The same exact thing you mentioned happened here recently. The only remaining drag strip on Long Island, in Westhampton, was finally forced to close last summer because of idiots who moved into the surrounding area - knowing full well that there was a dragstrip nearby - and then complained about the noise. This wasn't even a strip that held evening or late-night drags, either... they only held test-and-tunes and events on Fri afternoons and Sat/Sun mornings and afternoons. Yet people around there lobbied for years to get the strip to close, and the owners finally gave in last year. Now the nearest track is a 2+ hour drive to NJ (Englishtown), or a 3+ hour drive to upstate NY (Lebanon Valley). Not too big a problem for hardcore drag racers, but sucks for those of us without trailers if we happen to break our cars that far from home.
How much longer before some of the big-name tracks start being forced to shut down? It is a pretty lousy time to be a drag racing enthusiast on a small budget.
-- Paul McGovern http://www.nyisles.net
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