DENVER (KDVR) — Residents and businesses say street racing is becoming more brazen along East Lowry Boulevard and they can’t seem to get anything done about it.
Inside the Big Bear Ice Arena, there are plenty of people circling, carving their mark on the rinks. But now there’s circling outside the arena, street racing, with the rink’s parking lot serving a midway part of the stretch.
“We just redid our parking lot and with the street racing that’s been going on, they just tore it all up,” rink maintenance manager Zack Snow said. “We wanted to press charges of some sort, but we need to find who’s been doing it and the cops haven’t been too much help in figuring that out.”
Video shows racers in action
Snow showed FOX31 surveillance from 2 a.m. two Sundays ago. It shows massive trails of smoke coming from burning tire rubber on racing cars around and outside of the parking lot.
“Every time it happens, we’ll call 911,” resident Steve Ziegler said.
Ziegler lives near the racing stretch and said it’s been a problem for a couple of years now and the racers are getting more brazen with time.
“All the squealing of the tires and the loud motors,” Zeigler said. “All these cars are souped up and make a lot of noise, so it sounds like you’re at Bandimere Speedway. It’s a family-focused neighborhood and it’s so loud that people are being woken up in the middle of the night to this.”
Ziegler’s gone out in person to see what’s causing all of the noise for himself.
“They’re all upwards of 100, 150 cars on a typical night,” he said. “The next day, there’s always damage, broken street lamps. This is just so blatant and it seems so avoidable. It’s a shame.”
Denver Police Department on street racing
FOX31 reached out to the Denver Police Department to ask about the response to racing reports along this stretch of East Lowry Boulevard.
“That area near the Denver/Aurora border can be a place where street racers occasionally meet as they did on Sunday, though they do not seem to be racing much there recently,” the department said in a statement. “Officers were out there Sunday to monitor for this exact reason and dispersed the crowd but did not see any racing.”
FOX31 also asked about what police work is going into preventing the racing problem.
“DPD’s primary goal is to prevent and disrupt street racing events before they start through dedicated patrol resources – including DPD’s Air1 helicopter – and coordination with neighboring jurisdictions,” the department said. “Street racing enforcement and Denver’s Public Nuisance Abatement (PNAU) ordinance are additional tools for addressing the problem.”
Report street racing in Denver or Colorado
If someone witnesses street racing or knows of any planned events to organize illegal street racing, they are encouraged to report it online at ReportStreetRacing.com. Also, if they are in Denver and want to report street racing or reckless driving by phone, they can call 720-913-2000 or call/text 911.
Those who engage in drag racing risk losing up to 12 points on their driver’s license, fines up to $999, having their vehicle impounded for 6-12 months and incurring towing and storage fees.