AutoEnthusiast

Hello everyone!

As a frequent visitor to the TR forums and a long-time auto enthusiast, I am familiar with the issues surrounding the Saturday night meets on 4th Street North, Gandy, and Clearwater Causeway. The recent police raid on race spectators is the perfect example.

Today I had the opportunity to personally meet with Bill Foster, one of the mayoral candidates for the city of St. Petersburg. Interested in the issue, I brought up the question of street racing. After some constructive discussion, we were able to agree on a series of points:

1.Street racing in St. Petersburg is a historic problem—both in terms of being a threat to resident drivers and nearby public as well requiring the use of police resources that could be deployed elsewhere.

2.The Friday/Saturday night “meets” are not characterized exclusively by races—many individuals see them as an opportunity to congregate with fellow enthusiasts.

3.There are viable alternatives for racing on the streets at 2:00 AM that are currently being underutilized.

4.In lieu of point #3, Bill is genuinely interested in listening to what YOU think is the best solution. Is there anything the city can do to increase attendance at the track? As part of his campaign to create a unified city and community, he very clearly recognizes that listening to what you think is absolutely imperative for creating a comprehensive strategy that he’ll explore implementing if elected the mayor.

I’ll be meeting with him again next Tuesday, July 20th. If you guys have any constructive suggestions, please feel free to write down your thoughts—he’ll read through and consider all ideas.

Thanks!

AllShowNoGo

Have Sunshine speedway opend up friday and saturday and have free admision to all who are 21 and younger. If given the chance people will go to the track to run instead of ccc and 4th.

fatboys_typeR

have one street open where theres no traffic like 28st and two cops there and just let people sit there talk and race up to a late hour. so u dont have to worry about people running from the cops and getting in to accidents ... the only reason why there is so many accidents in the summer at the races is because there to many little kids taking the parents cars out there and acting stupid you really dont see that happen in the winter ... i agree with the comment above but people really done have the money to pay to race ..... that just my thought

defekt

+1

It will never happen though. The sunshine idea is a good one, but lets face it. Sunshine sucks balls. The track is all bumpy and full of holes(Last time I was there was 2 years ago btw) and its only a 1/8 mile!

Skreet racers like racing from a roll ( ) and goin more then a 1320ft distance.

pnrcaraudio

Whats up with getting out onto the Old Gandy Bridge (The walking bridge) on Friday and/or Saturday nights with a semi controlled environment of some sort.

People wanting to race could race across and take the Regular Bridge back across.

sprjit22

It will have to be a track they are not going to close a road lets be logical. I wish sunshine was longer but, it is better than nothing but, on the strets is better when compared to sunshine.

AutoEnthusiast

Thank you for all of the feedback. If at all possible, try to encourage more of the TR users to write down their thoughts---the more, the better.

wb_map3

The coolest thing and the thing that would get the most support from racers would be to shut down a street and let us race, however we all know that is not going to happen.

wb_map3

there is many things that can be done but lets face it they will only cut down the street racing not eliminate it, there will always be someone who pulls up next to a muscle head in a mustang (or pulls up to some kid in a civic) at a light and just wants to race them, its in the human ego.

senor honda

Talk to this guy about how he got the support of the county sheriff
and gets street racers off the streets a few times per week.-Bob

www.centralfloridaroadcourse.com