ELYSIAN PARK : Police Put Brakes on Illegal Drag-Racing

It turned out to be a real drag for the 400 who recently showed up to participate in or watch drag-racing along a quarter-mile stretch near Dodger Stadium.

Acting on neighbors’ complaints about engine exhaust, noise and a street littered with empty beer bottles, 25 police officers issued 305 citations to the speedsters and spectators on Stadium Way. No arrests were made, but six vehicles belonging to drivers without valid licenses were impounded.

“I don’t think they’ll be back for a couple of weeks--if they’re smart,” said Sgt. Carlos De La Roca of the Police Department’s Northeast Division.

One 34-year-old resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of harassment said she has found herself caught in the middle of some of the races when she drives home from work late at night.

“They could be coming at you and you’re figuring, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” said the woman, who added that she has had to brake to avoid accidents.

The races, she said, also rattle nerves at home.

“Imagine lying in bed and just starting to doze off and hearing this sound of engines winding and tearing down the street and brakes slamming. It’s not your usual gunshots. . . . (but) it’s just a kind of thing that startles you.”

Officers blocked off Stadium Way at Lilac Terrace and at Chavez Ravine Road and rounded up the crowd after observing one or two races the night of May 12-13.

“Some of them got away before we were able to close everything down,” Lt. Mark Perez said. But the others “were just caught dead on their tracks. Officers lined them up in their cars and one-by-one cited them.”

Races normally begin at the 1700 block of Stadium Way, reaching speeds of up to 85 m.p.h. before the finish at Lilac Terrace, police said. Spectators would watch from a city-owned parking area or sidewalks near the center of the drag strip.

“It’s as much a social affair as racing,” Perez said. “That’s where the kids like to go meet.”

Most of those ticketed were 17 to 24, some coming from as far as West Los Angeles and Montebello, he said.

Spectators who cheer on the racers can be cited for aiding and abetting in drag-racing.

Those cited have been ordered to appear May 27 in Los Angeles Municipal Court’s traffic division. If found guilty of misdemeanor drag-racing or aiding or abetting in drag-racing, each could face a maximum $1,000 fine and/or six months in county jail, said Ted Goldstein of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

De La Roca said that the races, which have drawn large crowds in past summers, restarted earlier this year--mainly late on Thursday nights. Police said they had been getting about five calls per week from residents in the hills above Stadium Way.

Perez said drag-racers will be taking their chances if they decide to return: “We may be nipping it at the bud by taking this vigorous action now.”