Crash at Reopened Drag Strip Kills Lomita Driver, 50

A Lomita man was killed when he lost control of his car on a Terminal Island raceway that reopened last year, police said Sunday.

Newman Perry, 50, was cut from the wreckage of his car with the Jaws-of-Life rescue tool after it crashed on the Brotherhood Raceway drag strip and was ripped in two about 9:15 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

The driver was taken to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital and was declared dead at 10:08 p.m., police said.

The crash was the first of its kind at the raceway, which reopened last year under the auspices of the Brotherhood of Street Racers, said Mike Bowen, a vice president of that organization. The raceway originally opened in 1979 but was closed in the mid-1980s when the Port of Los Angeles needed the land for other purposes.

Bowen said he doesn’t expect the crash to hurt business. Drag-racers are very aware of the risks of racing, he said. “It’s just an unfortunate aspect of drag-racing,” Bowen said. “The faster you go, the better the chances are that something will happen.”