Street Racing

By Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
This Corvette was one of nine vehicles impounded after state troopers arrested drivers for racing on I-71 in Delaware County.
WBNS-10TV
This Corvette was one of nine vehicles impounded after state troopers arrested drivers for racing on I-71 in Delaware County.
After midnight, the pack of drivers would stop their cars on I-71 near Polaris, line up three abreast and then race north at more than 100 mph.

With at least two prior illicit races going off without a hitch — or tickets— the drivers returned early today.

This time, the State Highway Patrol was lying in wait north of the Franklin-Delaware county line.

With a plane overhead and the area flooded with cruisers, officers arrested nine drivers. They also impounded their cars, ranging from late-model Corvettes to a tricked-out 1985 Honda Civic.

The drivers of about a dozen other cars eluded capture, but troopers are working to identify them, said Sgt. D.J. Smith of the Delaware post of the State Highway Patrol.

Most of the racers got off I-71 at the Rt. 36/Rt. 37 exit. The largest group headed east to Sunbury and then south on Rt. 3, where troopers blocked the road near Galena.

Troopers arrested eight drivers and Westerville police nabbed a ninth farther south on Rt. 3.

The drivers were charged with street racing, a first-degree misdemeanor, and booked at the Delaware County Jail.

If convicted, the drivers face up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine and the loss of their licenses for 30 days to three years.

Troopers previously responded twice to reports of the five-mile stretch of I-71 serving as a drag strip, but never located the racers, Smith said.

Thanks to a tip that the drivers gathered at the Sonic restaurant on Polaris Parkway, a State Highway Patrol pilot monitored the area from above early today.

At 12:43 a.m., the cars left and stopped to line up on I-71 for more than one minute, while three lanes of traffic cleared out in front of them and stacked up behind, Smith said. The race to catch the racers then was on.

“The act of stopping traffic on I-71 is incredibly dangerous,” Smith said. “People aren't prepared to come to a complete stop on the interstate … and the median is small. If someone blew a tire or lost control …”

Troopers arrested brothers Anthony Grey, 23, and Eric Grey, 24, of Gahanna; Jason Wyne, 21, of Carroll; Kyle Sargent, 24, of Reynoldsburg; Christopher Kolb, 38, of Hilliard; Steven Lenegar, 20, of Westerville; Andrew Meade, 25, of Reynoldsburg; and Sean Smith, 20, of Columbus.

The name of the driver arrested by Westerville police was not available.

The group speed contests apparently were arranged via an Internet message board devoted to amateur racing, Smith said. The Web site says it “does not condone illegal street racing.”

The racing was unrelated to the Goodguys car show at the state fairgrounds, troopers said.

rludlow@dispatch.com

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waybomb said:

Than I got married.

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