Drag Racing

Reports of illegal street racing have increased throughout Monroe County.

A local business may have a legal alternative.

Reports of illegal street racing have increased throughout monroe county.

Residents complain of loud noise and unsafe roads because of the races.

But as our allie martin reports, there could be a legal way for the street racers to enjoy their sport, without causing chaos in neighborhoods.

The owner of northeast mississippi motor sports heard about the increase in illegal street racing, so he contacted the aberdeen police chief and the monroe county sheriff with a possible solution.

"it's just a lot safer out here when it's just two people beside you, one car on each side."

Robert brown built northeast mississippi motor sports playground of power in 1991.

He leased the drag strip to another operator, but recently took it back over after hearing about a pressing problem involving illegal street racing.

"some cops came to me and said what can we do to minimize street racing, so we started looking at how we could incorporate the race track into street racing, so we've done that."

Restrictions on public gatherings delayed the re opening of the drag strip.

But this past weekend, street racers and racing fans were able to see the action, while following social distancing guidelines.

"we opened the gates at 7 and at 6 30 when i got here there was people waiting.

But it's a lot better because they can just all hang out, versus, having to run from the cops, or whatever, so it makes a lot of things safer, you don't have to get away from anybody, and when you race, there's nobody like, you can't run into something else, i guess it's a chance you could hit the other car, we've never had that happen yet and we've been opened for 30 something years.

" a major event set for this weekend had to be cancelled because of concerns over the coronavirus, but brown expects larger and larger crowds as word gets out about the opportunity for safe and legal street racing.

In monroe county, allie martin, wcbi news monroe county sheriff kevin crook wasn't available for an on camera interview, but said quote "i hope it helps and i believe it will help some, but i also think some people just enjoy the thrill of breaking the law and don't even consider or care about they danger they are putting our community in."

End quote.