Sherry Heyl, writer of one of the blogs I read daily (So…What’s Next) wrote a post just for me that made me laugh. Its about her racing adventure one night, where she quickly found out that she had faced off against Miami’s finest in Blue.
It reminded me of all the hilarious stories I’ve heard from fellow racers (and a few of my own…) about their speedy run-ins with the police.
Here’s one of mine….
Back when gas was cheap in 2003, I made a weekend road trip from Orlando, FL to Cincinnati, OH in my turbocharged 93 coupe. That thing made about 600 horsepower to the rear wheels, and it was built with the purpose of outrunning Z06’s on the highway (not that its safe OR legal…. I was young and dumb!), which meant it would do well over the normal governed mph of 120, and it would do it QUICKLY.
I was making REALLY good time through Georgia and into Tennessee (*AHEM* which means I hadn’t been caught speeding yet) when I started to pull into the outskirts of Knoxville. The landscape was a little hilly, but the traffic was moving right along. I, of course, felt compelled to lead the pack, which had me doing about 90-95mph as I peaked over a hill, and right into the Radar of Mr. Nice Tennessee Highway Patrol man waiting at the bottom of the hill.
Before I could even get passed him, I see his lights flash, and a big cloud of dirt as he spins the car around in the median. I had the split-second Oh-Shit-WhatDoIDo hesistation, but being that I knew I was already in deep doo-doo, and traffic behind me was pretty heavy, I did a dumb thing…. I GOT BACK IN THE THROTTLE.
Now I am no Bo and Luke Duke, who always seem perfectly poised to outrun the local cops. I had no idea about the landscape, and I really didn’t want to end up ripped out of my car and splat on the aphault on the next episode of Why I Ran or Cops (cue cheesey music). But I also knew that he only had a Crown Vic, and my car outpowered him by about 400 horsepower and a few psi of boost pressure.
The hills in that area were rolling, so after a few up-and-downs, I lost sight of him behind me as the next exit presented itself. I quickly got off, and pulled past the gas station (they ALWAYS look there) into the next lot, a hotel. I immediately pulled around back and threw the thing in park, frantically thinking of what I would say when he rolled up behind me, guns drawn and ready to shoot.
I paced my way up to the front of the hotel, just in time to see him circling the gas station and heading further down the road still looking for his ellusive runner.
Shaking like a craps game, I ran back to my car and promptly returned to the highway, going about 5mph UNDER the speedlimit for the rest of my trip.
Talk about dumb!!!!
What dumb things did you do in your youth that got the attention of the blue flashing lights?
RIP Steve Engel