But that could end starting tonight. District C-6 Capt. Joseph Boyle promised Newmarket Square merchants today he'll have officers assigned to the square tonight to break up the Friday-night races before they begin.

That's good news for Victoria's Diner owner Damian Marciante, who says the drag racing - and the drag racers - are killing his business. At a meeting of the Southampton/Mass. Ave./Newmarket Safety Task Force this morning, he said his weekend business has dropped 30% because of how the "very combative" racers are scaring off people who might otherwise want to eat at the diner.

"I've been trapped inside," he said.

Sue Sullivan of the Newmarket Square Business Association said a hot-dog vendor who normally only plies the streets during the day has started setting up shop on Friday and Saturday nights to feed hungry drag racers, who sometimes assemble in the South Bay parking lot, and their fans, who gather in parking lots of other businesses in the area.

Sullivan said, however, merchants have approached the hot-dog guy about not doing that anymore and that he seemed amenable.

Police said part of the problem has been that the races, typically on Friday and Saturday nights, tend to start just as their shifts change at midnight. Also, police won't chase drag racers once they've begun, because the risk of a dangerous crash is just too high.

Still, beyond sending officers down, police and merchants agreed there are several options to try. Business owners should post "No Trespassing" signs on their parking lots, which will let police clear them out after hours. Police will take to management at the South Bay mall about adding security sweeps after hours to keep the racers out of its parking lot.

And while the city won't install speed bumps on the area's streets - they can pose problems for fire trucks, delivery trucks and snow-removal vehicles - police said they would talk to the DPW about the possibility of rumble strips, which might be more acceptable to truck drivers, but still force the drag racers elsewhere.