Do your racing on the race track, not the roads is the message from Waikato Police in the build up to the next round of the National Drag Wars Championships at Meremere this Friday.
District Shift Manager, Senior Sergeant Rupert Friend, said the call comes after a previous round of the competition on Friday 01 November where fans appeared to confuse structured, organised events with mayhem on the roads.
"In the space of two hours one Highway Patrol unit on SH1 detected eight vehicles travelling at speeds over 135km/h with the worst offender found travelling at 171km/h, which is simply unacceptable on any public road let alone a busy highway.
"Our concern is not with the legal race event where members of the public can enter their road legal cars and race on the relative safety of the drag strip, but the actions of a few who then carried on their competition on our roads."
Mr Friend said the concerning thing for those who deal with the aftermath of the illegal street racers' antics is that for years many people have defended boy racers involving themselves in illegal street racing saying that if they had somewhere they could go and do it off the streets safely then they would.
"But this just shows that even when you give them the opportunity to race legally, there's a small number who continue to flaunt the law and put the lives of all road users seriously at risk.
"Police are absolutely appalled by this behaviour and we will be putting steps in place to ensure there isn't a repeat after this Friday's event."
Mr Friend said apart from risking death or serious injury drivers found travelling over the posted speed limit will face enforcement action while those travelling at speeds of 41km/h or over face having their driver's licence suspended for 28 days.
"Anyone travelling at 50km/h over the speed limit will be put before the Court on charges that will result in you losing your licence for another six months.
On the night of the earlier drag event two people lost their licences, two others were issued tickets that were for speeds 1km/h short of losing their licences, and one driver’s wife rang Police and thanked them for stopping her husband and suspending his licence.
"Speed limits are there for everyone's safety and are just that- limits, not a targets. Please drive to the road conditions and remember, roads are public spaces where everyone deserves to be safe, not race tracks."
Incidents of note
2226hrs: - S.H.1, Rangiriri initially seen at 131km/h increasing to 140km/h, overtaking and undertaking vehicles towards Hamilton. Infringement Offence Notices (ION) issued (Unsafe lane changing)
2245hrs: Observed a vehicle travelling southbound on S.H.1, Meremere at 137km/h unable to locate
2300hrs: - S.H.1, Meremere again initial speed at 135km/h and increasing prior to stopped. Had been at Drags. ION issued
2336hrs: - S.H.1, Meremere, initial speed at 153km/h and increased to 171km/h uphill overtaking line of several vehicles. He had just finished actually racing in the drags. Charged with Dangerous Driving. Licence Suspended
0020hrs: - S.H.1, Ohinewai, initial speed of 163km/h, racing and playing silly with two other vehicles. Charged with Dangerous Driving. Licence suspended. Had been at the Drags
0020hrs: - This above vehicle overtook two other vehicles that themselves were both doing 140km/h southbound on S.H.1, Ohinewai. ION Issued
0020hrs: - S.H.1, Ohinewai with above vehicle travelling at 140km/h side by side. Warned for Racing and issued ION.
End