德州着力政治街头飙车

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A different sort of car concern across the country - illegal street racing, putting the pedal to the metal is often glorified on the big screen, but in reality street racing can be deadly, killing dozens of people every year. It’s become such a problem in one particular Texas town that a professional track is welcoming would-be raced... Oh, I should say drag racers, in an effort to keep the danger off the public roadways.

It’s not NASCAR and it’s definitely not Indy. “One, two.”  But these races at the Texas Motor Speedway may be much more important.

"We are trying to get people off the streets from doing this illegally.”

And with good reason, just last week, a teen died in a drag racing accident in Fort Worth. Across the country about 30 people die each year in racing accidents. So officials at the Texas Motor Speedway came up with the plan - open this racetrack to everyone.

"It’s an eighth of a mile, so we try to pair them up to where my PT Cruiser isn't racing as a star, you know, Mustang, Shelby Cobra.”

So far the event's been a huge success with about 125 drivers each week. Drivers paid a play just 20 bucks.

"It's just the burning-out, just not having to worry about the cops. And everything is safe.”

"Fastest I've been so far in the eighth mile was 6.1 at 114-mile-an-hour.”

Chad Marquez admits he’s done illegal drag racing before but says it’s not worth the possible jail-time or worse.

"There I read the car hurt somebody, it’s not worth it.”

Here fire crews are standing by just in case.

"Your most drags strips are a quarter of mile, so you can get going a whole lot faster than you can here, a lot of these cars aren't going, 100+ miles an hour when they get to the end. But I think it just gets back to, you know everybody’s get a little bit hot rod in them, you know, that's, that’s the appeal.”

In Fort Worth, Kris Gutierrez, Fox News.

Notes:

The pedal to the metal: when a vehicle is going as fast as it can.

NASCAR: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is a family-owned and operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events.

Indy: Indy Racing League, is an American based open-wheel racing series sanctioning body.

PT Cruiser: a car manufactured by Chrysler

Mustang: Ford Mustang

Shelby Cobra: a car manufactured by AC Cars

hot rod: tuned old cars