Car Racing: Social Issue or Sport?

By: Urayon Carrasquillo Santiago

(This

is me in the racetrack in Carolina with the

Super Pro Dragster Nio Luisin. The original
owner is a friend of my father and his son, who I
practically grew up with, is the current driver).

Puerto Rico has a growing problem of

people who modify their cars in order
to go street racing. While racing cars
its actually recognized as a sport that
should be practiced on a race track
designed for this purpose, many people
choose to do it illegally on the streets.
Most street racers are actually young
people, usually from a Community

College that specializes in developing

mechanics, for example Mech Tech
College and Automeca.
More recently the local newspaper El
Nuevo Dia reported on his October 27th
edition about an incident in which
patrol cars were called to a place where
street racers were performing theyre
usual street racing activities, called
locally as La Fiebre. However only
two patrol cars were available and
when they got to the scene, the people
threw them with rocks and plastic
bottles and the cops had to flee the
scene. This happened in Bayamon and
Dorado. Two days later that same
newspaper reported another article
about how street racers coordinated
through social media the places where
they gather to street race. This is a
problem that happens often, mostly in
the north and east sections of the island.
But with racing being legally
recognized as a sport which you can
practice legally in a race track, why
these people choose to do it on the
street? Puerto Rico has two main race

tracks, the Puerto Rico International

Speedway located in Salinas, and the
Mech Tech College Race Track,
previously known as La Pista de El
Tuque in Ponce. In these tracks the
racing happens along a mile
(1,320ft.) of prepared asphalt for
racing, there is one other track, the
Arecibo Motorsports Park located in
Arecibo where the stretch of road
prepared for racing is a 1/8 mile long
(660ft). There is one more track in
Puerto Rico, with is also a 1/8 mile
long, but its not recognized by any of
the governing entities for racing and
its in bad shape, this track is located in
Aasco called the Underground
Motorsports Park. If you noticed, most
of these tracks are located in the south,
west and northwest region of the island.
Most of the reported street racing
activities have been reported in the
metropolitan area of the island
extending from the towns of Dorado
and Bayamon to Caguas. Could it be
that the absence of a race track is
whats causing people from this are to
race on the streets?

On November 7 of 2014, Jay Fonseca

again posted in his Facebook account
news about local mechanic Edwin
Burgos and his car named Loquito
Killer (Crazy Killer) breaking the
record for a rotary engine car with an
elapsed time in the mile of 6.19
seconds at 230mph. Mech Tech
College who takes them to the US to
race against other cars from the
mainland.
Lots of US racing legends have come
to PR to race against local racers and
most of those times, weve beaten
them. In the 90s Pro Stock legend
Warren Johnson came to race against
local racers, he got beat by Angel
Guelo Garcia and his Chevrolet
Camaro sponsored by Budweiser the
first time he visited the island.

(Warren Johnson in the blue and white car vs. Angel

Guelo Garcia in the white and red car in the
racetrack in Carolina. Circa 1995)

Also another racing legend from the US

also visited Puerto Rico, it was Shelly
Anderson, one of the fastest Top Fuel
drag racers of all time with her Western
Auto Top Fuel Dragster. She raced in
the Caribbean Raceway Park against
another Top Fuel Dragster sponsored
by Castrol GTX. Both these cars were
capable of running the in 4 seconds
at over 300mph. In fact, the fastest pass
ever recorded in PR was in the
Caribbean Raceway Park (the now
destroyed Pista de Carolina) with an
elapsed time of 4.99 seconds at
277mph.

Drag racing could have a big economic

impact in the island. For example in
Florida in the town of Gainesville, once
a year it celebrated a drag racing event
known as the Gator Nationals in which
over the course of one weekend, cars
from different categories race. The
economic impact of this event is huge
with over $60 million in ONE
WEEKEND.
With at least one track in the Metropolitan
area, the street racing issue could be
minimized. It cant be a coincidence that
street racing issues arent reported in the
Southwest region of the island, where there
are two racetracks in Ponce and Arecibo,
as frequently as in the Metropolitan area
where there are currently no racetracks
available. How can we not see this? Why
dont we solve a problem and take
advantage of it to do something positive
that will both have an impact on our
economy and help keep putting Puerto
Rico in the map of the world of sports?