Kids race cops--legally--in program geared to . . . : Getting on Right Track

Behind the wheel of a souped-up ’79 jet-black Camaro, California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Kelly revved up the engine of the vintage muscle car as he edged to the starting position on the drag strip.

The “Christmas tree” of staging lights flashed.

Yellow, yellow, yellow, green!

Kelly and a challenger in a blue and white ’69 Camaro Z28 in the next lane zoomed down the quarter-mile track at Pomona Raceway.

Kelly lost. But that’s OK.

It’s all part of a program that promotes friendly competition between police and young drivers in efforts to get the dragsters to race on a legal strip instead of city streets.

“It keeps kids off the street and from racing where it’s dangerous,” said Kelly, who works out of the CHP’s Santa Ana office and drives the agency’s Camaro in the Beat the Heat competition at the Street Legal drag races at the raceway.

Hundreds of high school-age drivers--and adults of all ages--participate in the Street Legal drags, held one weekend a month from February through November.

Street Legal is conducted by the National Hot Rod Assn. with the support of 15 Southern California law enforcement agencies. Placentia Police Department and California Highway Patrol, Santa Ana office, are the only Orange County agencies involved.

Local law enforcement authorities say that giving young drivers a safe, controlled and legal place to race curbs street racing.

“What we’re doing is getting kids interested in cars as an alternative to gangs, drugs and tagging,” said Placentia Officer Eric Hanberg, who builds dragsters to represent his department in Beat the Heat races. “The primary goal is to get them off the street.”

Hanberg, 49, a 24-year officer, said the drag strip is a far safer place for the races than city streets.

“If we can save one kid from being killed, then the program’s worth it,” said Jim Murphy, 55, of Corona, who helps Hanberg build the cars.

The young drivers agree. Dan Miles, 17, of Yorba Linda, who has spent countless hours under the hood to turn a wrecked ’64 white Ford Ranchero into a competitive dragster, agreed that the program “keeps the urge to race on the street away.”

“It’s safe here so it makes it more enjoyable because you can’t get into trouble,” Miles said.

The program also encourages fathers to participate with their children.

“It gives us a common thing between us,” said Tom Miles, Dan’s father. “He’s learned a lot about cars and what he is capable of doing on his own. Now he gets irritated when I try to help him.”

Hanberg, who over the years built dragsters with his four sons and their friends, now promotes Street Legal in area schools, to other police agencies and out on the street. He hands “Get Out of Jail” cards for free admission to the Street Legal drags to teenagers with cars modified for racing. Usually, racers pay a $10 entry fee and compete for trophies.

In September, Hanberg and other program supporters will visit high school auto shop students in North County schools to introduce them to Street Legal, show them how to build their own dragsters inexpensively using junk parts and warn about the dangers of street racing.

Drag racing, Hanberg said, is “challenging and something anybody can do with any kind of car.”

Countless volunteer hours have been spent by Hanberg and half a dozen other drag race enthusiasts to build cars for the program, including the CHP’s Camaro. They all chip in money to buy parts and pay for ongoing expenses.

An ’84 black and white Camaro with light bar was also built to race in competitions. Drag racer John Beck, 43, of Orange, who built the engine, drives the car for Placentia police.

Over the last two years, the program has grown dramatically, with more than 1,000 participants turning out each weekend, said Bernie Partridge, director of Street Legal for the hot rod association.

“To really attack the street racing problem, you have to give them a place to race,” said Partridge.

The program was started in 1994, he said, at the request of police and city officials of La Verne, which had a street-racing problem. Pomona Fairplex donates the drag strip for the program.

Drivers race in everything from motorcycles to pickup trucks.

“It’s a big rush!” said drag racer Olivia Merry, 17, of Orange, who on a recent Sunday raced her mother’s ’88 cherry red Z28 Chevy Camaro. “It feels like I hold my breath from the starting time to the end.”

The next Street Legal event is Aug. 2-3. Information: Eric Hanberg, (714) 993-8164, or Pomona Raceway, (909) 392-4795.