Burnt Rubber & Flashing Lights – Transcript

Host Intro: After a deadly crash claimed the lives of two at a stunting event earlier this year the NYPD and the automotive community are in a race to define the future of motorsports in this crowded city. For the New York City news service, Alex Corey takes us to the starting line.

Alex Corey: I grew up loving racing. Whether it was my uncle’s drag racing,[Legal Drag Race Tape ], or the many afternoons I spent watching the Speed Network with my dad. It was always something special to me. But what I didn’t expect, was to find it in New York City

[Team Whiteline Race Tape]

Euro Empire Car Club Member: Aye Yo, Let Me Run It!

AC: You’re listening to an average Friday night for teens and twenty-somethings in Queens. We’re on Francis Lewis Blvd and racers are getting prepped to go head-to-head.

[Team Whiteline Sideline Tape]

Team Whiteline member:Hell yeah, hell yeah. Nah that was crazy, yo Kasa what car, what car?

AC: As soon as each race starts there’s a stream of screams and chants to signal to the crowd to keep the lanes clear and their eyes open.The races are regularly stopped to allow for traffic to pass through before everyone gets back to their fun.

AC: But that fun may not last for long.

[Team Whiteline Euro Bust Tape]

NYPD Officer: Roll the window down. Roll the window down now! Turn it off!

Euro Empire Car Club Member: What the…?

NYPD Officer: Give me the keys,give me the keys, get out of the car.

Euro Empire Car Club Team Member:Keys are right here. We’re getting out of the car. I got you. Open the door, open the door.

NYPD Officer on radio: We got em good over here their all turning around…..

AC: That was a raid of an underground racing event that occurred at the end of April. The bust was organized by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry and was one of the first conducted by the new NYPD task force established to combat street racing. During the raid Daughtry made sure to meet the community at their level, filming a Cops esque video on-site that was posted to Instagram and twitter.

Daughtry: [Instagram EURO Empire Bust Clip]

Daughtry:New Yorkers are fed up with the drag racing going on, on Francis Lewis Blvd. we put a comprehensive plan together and we have over thirty vehicles we’re probably going to be taking tonight.

AC:While the post elicited jokes and video game references in the comments when reposted in automotive circles. Daughtry has made combatting the racing community his personal mission to tackle what he sees as a quality of life issue.

[Pix 11 News Tape]

Daughtry: Your sitting on the grand central parkway trying to catch your flight and you got fifty cars stopped on the grand central parkway.

The Message is very clear we aren’t going to tolerate that

A quick look at 311 reports shows that street racing has been a thorn in the side of some New York residents for some time. But for some who like to hear their engine roar on public roads, the racing community was there for them when nothing else was.

Javi: I grew up without family. I grew up without parents.

AC:That was Javi he’s known as one of the most notorious Mercedes Benz drivers in the city. He’s been featured in numerous Instagram reels, TikTok posts, been reposted by large pages, and is one of the faces of the community. Despite not showing his.

Javi: It wasn’t my intentions to make a name for myself bro. “It wasn’t like yea I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna go viral.”It was just, this car is all I have. This car is all I care for and this car is the only thing I, ever, like never, like type shit, want to lose.

AC: What built Javis brand online is the same thing that’s brought a lot of eyes to the New York Street racing scene recently, and that’s swimming. The act of slicing through traffic like a knife while either racing from one freeway exit to the next or weaving through traffic in a group with no hesitation just for the sake of getting one of the best video clips or lap times that week.

Javi: but I’m not the type of guy that does runs or you know, goes in a straight line on an empty road like if I have a person that tells me like yo bro race me it’s gonna be exit to exit.

AC: While Javi isn’t an old-school drag racer like the ones in my family they’ve still got the same thing in common. Cars bring them something that nothing else comes close to.

Javi: So the first time I ever went to a car meet it was dead. But it’s just the fact that I loved being around the cars and I didn’t even have a car at that point.

AC: Guys with oil in their veins like Javi live for this community, but it can cost them plenty.

Javi: I did know Gio a little bit

AC: Gio was an organizer in the community who died at the start of this year while riding with a swinger.Swingers enjoy doing feats of skill rather than slicing through traffic like swimmers. Typically they’ll be seen at group meet-ups called takeovers breaking traction so that they can spin their rear wheels and swing the car in a circle known as a donut.

{Takeover Clip}

Team Whiteline Member: I’m Lowkey tryna get in the middle

But something went wrong that night while the driver was showing off for the crowd.

{Pix 11 News Clip}

The Chrysler they were riding in spun out, while drifting in circles.striking a red parked truck.A Fifteen year old and Twenty-one year old were killed.

AC: And Gio’s death, along with another passenger, was the final push that caused the NYPD to start raiding the races and cracking down on the community as a whole while many were still mourning.

Javi: One minute I was with him, I dap him up. I’m happy we’re laughing. The next minute he’s gone. It just shows you how life is bro. One minute things are fine the next minute it just changes the whole genre

AC: Moments like that hit the community hard. For guys like Javi, it doesn’t stop them from driving the way they do because as he says

Javi: There are certain people that tell me it’s dangerous just be careful. You know, drive safe and I do. I know the type of shit I do. I know I’m actually pretty good at it at this point in my life. I wasn’t good when I started but I’m good right now.

I do want to be able to be out there. I want to be able to own businesses and have my shit right and the only way I’ll be able to do that is if the numbers on that screen keep adding up.

AC:Those numbers going up can be a very lucrative thing. With names like Street Alpha and Swim Team turning illicit actions, and interviewing those who do said actions, in the scene to sold out merch lines.While it’s risky for those on the road, for those who have the talent it’s a clear path into the motorsports industry. Which consistently lacks black and brown representation with NASCAR having a total of 19 black drivers in its history.

AC: But for some of the older members in the scene like Shemarr, the owner of Minty detailing on Long Island, they pivot away from the more illicit side of automotive culture in the city and find different ways to make a name for themselves.

Shemarr: I feel like creativity is key. You know, it’s not so much like copy and paste. If you see somebody do something, you do the same exact thing. You don’t separate yourself. You actually just blend in.

AC: Blending in definitely doesn’t describe Shemarr. He’s a young black guy in his late twenties who carries himself in a way that shows he knows what he’s doing and your car is in good hands. But In an industry where the most known faces look more like your average lacrosse team, he has to set himself apart.

Shemarr: A lot of people are surprised that I’m the owner. A lot of them, because I really handle everything like to a T.

AC: Shemarr is proud of his work cutting out his space in the community with his shop cleaning the vehicles of the most known Swimmers, Swingers and high rollers. But the creation of the task force and the heat on the community has made him rethink the ways he wants to be involved.

Shemarr: The car scene now versus when I entered the car scene, it’s different. I’m not a fan of the car scene right now. I’m not, I wouldn’t even consider myself in the car scene.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s also the culture too. You know, you got these takeovers now where people are doing burnouts and hitting each other’s cars and hitting people and causing riots.

AC: Like many others in the community he’s not a fan of Takeovers or reckless action and is mostly focused on events like Cars and Coffee where he can network and actually grow rather than watch cars spin in circles.

Shemarr: Those people, are wealthy so they can teach you or show you a few things or two versus me going to a takeover. What am I going to learn or what am I going to do there? I’m just wasting my time. I can’t network there. You know what I’m saying? So that’s why I say the car scene is just going to the, to the shits.

AC: Shemarr isn’t wrong. Every race and takeover I’ve been to haven’t exactly been networking events. You won’t see a single suit in sight. Just a sea of black hoodies and phone lights.

AC: But even though he isn’t a fan of the scene at the moment, he still thinks those involved should have a place to do what they love.

Shemarr: If there was like a racetrack somewhere close in New york , that,we wouldn’t really have street racing. If Takeovers gonna be a new sport then why don’t you just provide somewhere?

Ac: I noticed while researching after talking with Shemarr there were places to do what this community loves.It just seems like they were a few decades too late. It turns out there were numerous racetracks in the state of New York with a few not too far from the city. But all of those on Long island except Riverhead Raceway bit the dust years ago. With increases in land value and encroaching development, race tracks just don’t pay the bills. Even famed tracks like Laguna Seca in California are fighting just to hold on, as local residents sue them to close their doors.

But what was it like when they were still up and running,when there was a place to race? I asked around my family in the city expecting to be pointed to some grizzled mechanic who kicks me out the shop a few times before he’ll speak with me. But to my shock everyone I asked pointed me straight to my grandparents. So I caught a flight and sat down with them.

Ann: I was young once to yaknow.

AC: So you guys were into watching drag races back then?

Ann: Yea Yea

Franklin: Street Races….

AC: Oh wait you guys were around for the street races?

Ann: Oh yea! Over in Queens off the conduit at a certain hour of the night when traffic dies down. Boy those guys…

Frank: Quarter of a mile!

AC:This is a side of them I’m completely new to but It’s interesting how few things change between generations. But I can’t believe they light up over the same things that light up a crowd at every meet I’ve gone to.

Frank:The sound & the smoke

Ann: (Makes Motor sound) They getting ready.

Frank: Oh Yea and sometimes some engine blowing too.

AC: They’re in their seventies but they look off into the distance like they can still see those big block Chevys and Mustangs tearing up the pavement. But my grandmother absolutely lost it when I told her it was still going on.

Ann: Really?With flags and everything?? And they bring the two flags down and the two cars takeoff. (Clap) Iyaaa! En espanol dio yo.(Laughs)

Frank: It was funny. It was fun.

Ann: Yea we enjoyed all types of sports and crazy stuff.

AC: But when I filled them in on the recent busts and the cities crack down My grandmother understood the safety concerns and the need for order but didn’t think this was the right way forward.

Ann: If you want them to do the right thing then you have to create environments.

Frank: Absolutely

Ann: Or situations where they can feel that they can exhaust that feeling of adrenaline that’s running through their bodies. Without feeling that “Oh I better be careful because the NYPD’S gonna get me.” Create the environment that is safe for them to do what they love to do. Because everybody loves to do different things.

AC: I guess the scene’s circular in ways I didn’t expect. But for now, with the crackdown in full force and without a good faith median option from the city on the horizon to bring back the tracks of the 20th-century members of the scene are figuring out new options. Earlier this year the Long Island Bimmer Car Club hosted their first legal race event at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania. And with Scrambul Motorsports hosting their Three Borough racing tour in July of this year maybe the community has a new direction to launch into.