Racetrack Offers Creative Solution To Illegal Sideshows, Street Races
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — As Los Angeles lawmakers work on a measure to increase penalties for promoting or encouraging street racing and sideshows, Irwindale Speedway has offered a creative solution.
"I thought to myself we just gotta give these kids and these people a place to go do that — to be able to express their passion for automobiles," said Irwindale Speedway President Tom Huddleston. "And be able to take them and put them to their limits and experience what a car can do in a safe environment."
As the only remaining short racetrack in Los Angeles, for $20 Irwindale Speedway opens up a "burnout box" every Thursday night. According to Huddleston, the racetrack gets 75-100 cars a night with about 500 people in the crowd watching drivers burnouts safely.
"There's a fireman there," he said. "There's an EMT there — it's designed to do it safely."
Illegal sideshows have recently taken over streets throughout all of Los Angeles for three nights straight. In Venice over the weekend, cars were seen doing donuts and burnouts with hundreds of onlookers.
"I'd never seen anything like that up close." said neighbor Jack Geren. "I'd only seen video of it. I was struck by the coordination and the circle of people and how they blocked off all the streets."
The most recent street takeover in the beach city happened at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Abbot Kinney Boulevard on Saturday night with another one happening the day before right underneath the iconic Venice sign.
"At first I was like this is cool, but then I was like 'This is not as cool," said Emily Berry who witnessed one of the sideshows. "I was just hoping nobody got hurt."
On Sunday, another sideshow happened at University Park near USC with drivers doing donuts around a circle of viewers.
Police did not make any arrests at the most recent sideshows.
According to an October 2021 study from California Highway Patrol and AAA, reports of illegal street racing and sideshows have risen 27% from the year before.
