The scene played out exactly as you’d expect it to: a highly worked over Nissan GT-R in the right lane, a Shelby Mustang with a reported $100,000 in modifications in the left lane, a crowd of people with cellphones out recording all around, VHT on the ground. It’s another race in the early morning hours of a Thursday at the “Canoga Speedway” in Chatsworth, California, but this one wasn’t going to go to plan. At the launch, the Shelby got loose, spun right, and drove into the crowd of onlookers. Two men, a still-unidentified individual and a twenty-six year old, were killed, and a 21-year old was injured. The driver of the Shelby, Henry Gevorygan, fled the scene, as did the GT-R driver. In the morning, all that was left was the impromptu burnout box and stripes on the street, the Shelby on the sidewalk, and the investigation marks from the police work. A shoe laid in the grass, separated from it’s owner. Police are currently hunting for Gevorygan, who will be facing murder charges in connection to the crash.

It’s a scene that has played out over and over again for decades now: racers and enthusiasts, municipalities and police, a lack of a proper location for racers butting heads against public safety. The ripple effects from Thursday’s crash are already being felt: Los Angeles city councilman Mitch Englander has promised to introduce two ordinances that will allow police to seize and either sell or destroy confiscated cars that are associated with street racing or reckless driving that results in “great bodily harm or death”, though you better believe that is probably just a start. Street Racing has been a hot-button issue in the Los Angeles area for decades, but ever since the closing of such tracks as Los Angeles County Raceway and the on-again, off-again Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island, racers haven’t had many options. It’s an ongoing battle between the racers, who are now utilizing social media to stay ahead of the cops, and the police, under increased pressure from constituents and leaders to crack down.

This crash also adds a new arguing point to the NHRA’s move to pull the competition licenses from anyone known to have ties to Discovery Channel’s “Street Outlaws” show. While it’s a well-known fact that the show is staged and that the racers work with the police to ensure a safe location to run their cars, the NHRA has taken a hard-line stance agains them, and some of the racers have bucked back, including Jeff Lutz of Drag Week fame:

Whenever a street racing crash makes national headlines there’s always a new push against racers and, indirectly, those who the average person perceive as a potential racer. Without question there will be plenty more questions coming out of this tragedy, and much more scrutiny from the powers that be. From the powerful cars to the lack of infrastructure, it’s incidents like this that put our hobby under a microscope, and that’s not a great place to be.

L.A. Times article: CLICK HERE

Reuters article: CLICK HERE

Los Angeles Daily News article: CLICK HERE