For Usa Street Racers

August 4, 2003

Enthusiasts face misdemeanor, not just ticket

BY DAVID OVALLE

dovalle@herald.com

George Perez loves his silver 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spider.

He has spent more than $7,000 on accessories. Racing seats. Neon lights. Chrome rims. The car even had a cameo in the film 2 Fast 2 Furious. It also cost Perez his marriage.

Perez is part of South Florida's devoted racer scene, a mix of people who barrel speedy Japanese imports down deserted stretches of West Miami-Dade County and congregate in strip malls just to hang out and show off their souped-up rides.

They are also being targeted by police who vow to crack down on illegal street racing by using toughened laws. Early Friday morning, scores of state troopers and Miami-Dade officers swooped in on Okeechobee Road and took about 200 people to jail for racing or just watching.

Most of those people thought they would get speeding tickets and be let go. Instead, they got slapped with misdemeanor charges of street racing or illegal assembly.

''We can't allow these kids and some adults to take over our streets,'' said Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, who cosponsored the new law that made racing a crime rather than a moving violation. It passed last year.

LONG TRADITION

Street racing has been ingrained in American culture since the James Dean days of the 1950s. Today, the vehicles have morphed, from muscle cars to nimble imports.

''My wife left me because of the car, but I love the sport,'' said Perez, 29, who was not on Okeechobee Road on Friday. ``I'll be 100 years old and still doing this.''

The 2001 action flick The Fast and the Furious was a sleeper hit set in the traditional stronghold of street racing in California. Its sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, which was filmed in South Florida and released this summer, was set in Miami.

Several deaths in the United States have been attributed to the influence of the sequel, including the June 13 death of William Lacasse Jr., a 17-year-old Miami-Dade boy who was speeding and crashed his Corvette into a concrete pole after seeing the movie. At least seven other people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have died since 2000 from illegal street racing, according to police reports.

But some enthusiasts say that while the movie boosted car accessory sales and exposed souped-up cars to a mainstream audience, the attention has hurt a scene that has flourished for years.

''You have your veterans who know the area, know where it is safer to run races,'' said Benzo, who asked that his real name not be used. ``Then you have other kids who just finished watching the movie. They throw $15,000 into their cars and they think it's fast and they're just reckless.''

INFLUENCE OVERRATED

A spokeswoman with the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association, a trade association of auto accessory dealers, car clubs and race teams, said too much is being made of the movies' influence.

''It's a natural urge to not only show off your equipment, but to show off how you can perform with it, whether it is a horse or a car,'' spokeswoman Rosemarie Kitchin said.

Even Perez said that while his latest car is ''all show, no go,'' he has experienced the backlash from the heightened exposure.

''I've gotten pulled over three times this month. I've never been pulled over before,'' said Perez, a handler of security dogs at Miami International Airport. He said he received no tickets in the recent stops. But, he said, he does race occasionally.

The South Florida car culture has always been vibrant.

On any Thursday, especially during summer vacation, some strip mall parking lots in the suburbs of Miami become showcases for cars with spoilers, stripes, fat mufflers, gleaming rims and to-the-ground suspensions. Sometimes the cars number in the hundreds.

Their owners are young, in their late teens and early 20s. Many just hang out. Others find empty roads where they can race.

''They're not out there to do drugs, they're out there to show off their cars and how much they spent,'' Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Barry Tierny said before Friday's raid.

NEW TACTICS

While authorities admit that illegal street races cannot be quashed completely, they hope to send a message.

The Broward Sheriff's Office sponsors programs that teach young drivers about the dangers of driving too fast. ''When you mix inexperience with a powerful 2,000-pound piece of metal, it's a dangerous situation,'' said Hugh Graf, a BSO spokesman.

When troopers did a similar crackdown on Okeechobee Road two years ago -- before the new law -- they charged most of the people there with illegal assembly. But prosecutors had trouble making charges stick, because officers had trouble remembering faces.

On Friday, before police blocked off the road at 1:15 a.m., undercover officers photographed the racers and spectators.

As the cars were forced to run the police gantlet, officers checked their film and notes and marked each windshield with a ''DR'' for driver or ''S'' for spectator.

Helicopters hovered. Parents were called. Cars were towed away or picked up by relatives.

First-time street-racing offenders face a $250 to $500 fine and the loss of their licenses for a year. Repeat offenders face $1,000 fines and two-year suspensions of their licenses.

NOT GOING AWAY

Still, some South Florida hot-wheel fans say that the new law will do little to curb a pastime that is part of Americana.

''It'll just cause the enthusiasts to try and avoid the normal hangouts,'' said Len Monserrat, 29, a professional drag racer who lives in Miami. ``The bottom line is that it's a sport. It's their high and they're going to want to go out and do it no matter what.''

Monserrat is part of Racers Against Street Racing, an organization of professional drag racers who advocate legal alternatives to illegal street races. The group has sent videos warning of the dangers to the driver education classes across the nation.

The group also promotes having legal tracks for amateur racing -- especially in South Florida, where the closest legal drag track is Moroso Motorsports Park in North Palm Beach County. Miami-Hollywood Motorsports Park shut down in the early 1990s. A legal drag racing event in Hialeah fizzled in 1995.

''The only way to minimize illegal street racing is to build a local facility,'' said Monserrat, who works for Dynamic Turbo, an accessory parts retailer. ``It doesn't have to be fancy, but it has to be a place where there are sanctioned events.''