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N.C. sheriff plans to take on street racing by confiscating cars, smashing them like pancakes

Tire marks on Zion Road were left behind by street racers who accelerate their cars beyond 100 miles per hour to the finish just an eighth of a mile away. Photo courtesy of the Gates County Sheriff's Office.

SUNBURY, N.C. — Black tire marks stain a stretch of Zion Road in Gates County, North Carolina, where street racers jam their accelerators, tires spinning and smoking before the competing cars roar away.

It’s the scene of frequent races that — with money and pride on the line — last a few seconds in front of spectators gathered on the roadside.

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The races are dangerous and illegal — and Gates County Sheriff Ray Campbell is fed up: He announced his intention Tuesday to crack down on the underground activity. Racers will be charged and their cars confiscated, he said.

“I’m sending a message that I’m not playing,” said Campbell, a Gates County native. “It’s no different from assault or breaking and entering. Street racing is against the law.”

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A post on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page announcing his plan to catch illegal street racers has drawn more than 200 comments of praise and criticism. People should be allowed to be free to have fun racing, one said. Another said other crimes should take priority. Many wrote of the dangers to spectators, oncoming traffic, and pedestrians and welcomed Campbell’s actions.

Street racing has gone on almost as long as there have been cars. The isolated back roads of rural eastern North Carolina counties make ideal tracks. Drivers come here from Virginia and Maryland, Campbell said.

Campbell understands racing is fun, but when someone gets killed, the public will ask why didn’t he stop it.

No one has died yet in Gates County, but a man was killed near Charlotte in October when the Jeep he was racing ran off the road and crashed into a tree. A father and son were killed two years ago in Elkin, North Carolina, when a street racer struck them as they turned into a gas station. Four people died in 2015 in Johnston County when an illegal racer lost control and drove into spectators.

Anyone who wants to race should go to the Northeast Dragway, a sanctioned racing venue in Perquimans County, Campbell said.

A conviction for prearranged street racing is a class 1 misdemeanor that could mean the loss of one’s driver’s license, fines and jail, depending on any prior criminal record. Car insurance rates would soar, he said. It’s also illegal to loan a car for street racing or bet on the contest.

The Sheriff’s Office can also confiscate the car and has the choice of selling it for parts, use it for law enforcement purposes or destroying it. Campbell chooses the latter.

“I fully intend to take it to the scrap yard and mash it flat as a pancake,” he said.

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Edward Moore lives in a house on Zion Road a few hundred feet from the starting line. They don’t race past his house, but he hears the noise. His son-in-law has worked with the sheriff to try and stop the racing, he said.

“Sometimes they race during the day and sometimes it’s at night,” Moore said.

Racers often gather at a nearby store in Sunbury near the intersection of U.S. 158 and N.C. 32, Campbell said. They travel about a mile away to the straight stretch of Zion Road that is the most popular racing spot in the county. Pine trees line the narrow shoulder, limiting room for error.

Honda Civics with turbocharged four-cylinder engines are the most popular race cars, Campbell said. A turbocharger forces more air to the engine and makes it faster. The cars are street legal with license plates, he said.

Two cars line up next to each other, one in each lane. A starter stands in front of them on the center line and gives the signal to go. Drivers gun their engines and quickly accelerate to more than 100 mph to the finish line, just one-eighth of a mile away.

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Lookouts are placed where they can spot law enforcement coming. Races can happen fast and the participants are gone even before it can be reported.

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Arrests are hard to come by.

“They see us before we get there,” he said.

Gates County only has six deputies, with two working per shift, Campbell said.

But he has new tools not available in the past. One is a helicopter owned by the North Carolina Highway Patrol which has a high-powered camera able to spot faces and license plate numbers from seven miles away at night, Campbell said.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” he said. “The mouse gets away 99% of the time, but the cat is patient. Sooner or later, that mouse is going to pay.”

Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com


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