What ever happened to street racing in Northern VA? Did everyone just grow out of it?
Did the penalties for racing become not worth the risk?

Post up your stories of street racing in the county from the glory days of running on the blacktop. Bonus if any pics.


My first taste of street racing was our at Greenbriar plaza, where a group made plans to run at the Pepsi Plant on what is now Stonecroft Blvd.

I remember going there and seeing some pretty cool street cars - and some which had plates, but clearly not legal.

As time went on, they went to Concraft (which was on 50, racing towards the Fairfax line), Possum Point, somewhere past Nokesville where a late night "arrest" of over 100 ppl was a bust in court (for the county) when It was proven the lot wasn't posted for trespass.

They also ran on the parkway where Kingstowne now stands, and on the flat spot between Backlick and Greenspring. Also out in Herndon, by some hotel, off Frying Pan Rd. And some road behind Media General in Chantilly, before Lee rd opened up.

On some nights, they'd go in town to V Street, the hospital, or Ardwick Ardmore. Those were the days...

From the 1980s, through the mid 90s, then that movie came out, which brought needless attention, and enforcement. And it ended quickly.

I remember some cool cars, like Nick's red SS (he was related to JP), an 87 blue Iroc 5 spd, a white monte ss aero which had NOS bottles across the trunk, which flipped off VW rd under an overpass. Also a guy nicknamed, BIG TALK, cause that's all he did...

So what do you have? Any good stories of days gone by?

Not really street racing, but we used to run the toll road and try to make the old speed monitor that was on one of the overpasses (maybe Sunrise Valley) flash "00".

Guy I worked with had a blue Cuda with a 440 and a tunnel ram, no real point in trying to run with him in a street legal car.

Here's some newspaper definitions of "Street Racing"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030501332.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/street-racing-crews-speed-called-a-tragedy-waiting-to-happen/2012/12/28/84ef3afe-2e86-11e2-9ac2-1c61452669c3_story.html

And in the Connection (which listed some spots I named, which were still active):
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2003/jan/14/county-combats-street-racing/


The Fairfax County Brochure on Street Racing:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/brochure/street_legal.pdf

37 charged w/ trespassing:
http://alextimes.com/2012/10/police-interrupt-street-racing-preparation-37-char-2/

61 charged in Lorton:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801571.html

I was with a bunch of guys at McDonald's on Fri/sat nights.

1969 big block camaro. Our group had a guy named Doug turner who also had a 68 camaro that was named "the Unpredicable".

His car was trailered to the race and had drag tires.
No one could beat it.

Another guy named Butch had a huge lifted jeep. We'd roll down to Edsel road to bad boys off road before the guy Jeff became the asshole he now in Woodbridge.

There was a girl in our group named Sally who had a mopar police car.
And some burn put named John who had a 70 camaro with side pipes. He wore a cowboy hat.

We drove that car to Daytone beach one weekend just for the fun of it.

Gas was cheap, cops often lined up at the corner of van dorn to race us 1/8 mile.

Some of us would go to buds creek and watch the other racers tear thier cars up.

All of us street racers are dead from stupidity. Hope we didn't kill any innocent bystanders!

As a retired FXCO Fireman we got tired of scraping your dumb-ass off the street. Tragic deaths and lawsuits finally got the cops off their asses and start busting you drunk ass rednecks.

On Guinea Road from the railroad crossing down the straightaway past the site of todays Target store to stand on the brakes before Deadmans Curve going round the left hand sweeper turn up to Pagans House on the right. A Wave at "Bunny Man" headed down to the railroad tracks, to smoke more pot, then back to pick up the cash bet at the start..Then back to W.T.Woodson. unmissed by Red Jenkins or couch "Lou" or Pugh during Gym class..

In the afternoons drags would be in the lower part of the school parking lot..Jim McKay Jr.. his bro Larry.in his Olds 442. Others "Rednecks" of Fairfax Rebels fame.. With 427 Chevys, Ford 289 Mustangs, The "dude" from Fairfax with the Nova with the hood scoop. The long hair with the dirt bike during wheel stands. A real 3 Ring Circus. And on the sidelines watching was the Pimple face guy who was in the Army..Sitting in his super bad ass Red Plymouth Superbird Daytona with the spoiler, 426 Hemi, Straight axel..90 mph in 2nd gear muscle car.. Poor guy had no girl though. Had a really Bad Zit face..so he spent all his money on the car. He got out of high school about 1969.And he babied his car ..no racing. Constant shining and polishing..I can see the big twin 4 barrel Holly carbs in my minds eye right now. The 426 Hemi decals on the engine. Gas mileage?? Who cared ? Gas was probably 39 cents a gallon.

I wont tell you details of what a "now retired fireman" told me what happened to Jim McKay Jr.. Too graphic.. about 1998 on 123 heading down to Occoquan to his boat about 930 one evening.. In a brand new Chevy Camero convertible.. MY God !..Good thing no one was in the oncoming lane..as he crossed over at 90 MPH..after he lost control on the small bend in the road that was there back then after Burke Lake Park.
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yeah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As a retired FXCO Fireman we got tired of scraping
> your dumb-ass off the street. Tragic deaths and
> lawsuits finally got the cops off their asses and
> start busting you drunk ass rednecks.


Sorry, but I call BS. There were no scraping of any "dumb-ass" racers from the streets. Sorry.

The racing I described in the original post was well organized, drama free, and pretty uneventful.

I do remember one night at Possum Point, a guy brought one of those "green/yellow/red" 4 ft tall kiddie plastic play traffic lights and the switch could be reversed so it counted from red to green. It was pretty funny when the Prince William Police came and asked how the light worked.

The guy flipped the switch and it went green to red, and the policeman said, "so you go on red?"and with it not making sense, sent everyone on their way.

Those were the days, and before that movie (series) came about.

Fast and Furious Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> yeah Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > As a retired FXCO Fireman we got tired of
> scraping
> > your dumb-ass off the street. Tragic deaths and
> > lawsuits finally got the cops off their asses
> and
> > start busting you drunk ass rednecks.
>
>
> Sorry, but I call BS. There were no scraping of
> any "dumb-ass" racers from the streets. Sorry.
>
> The racing I described in the original post was
> well organized, drama free, and pretty uneventful.
>
>
> I do remember one night at Possum Point, a guy
> brought one of those "green/yellow/red" 4 ft tall
> kiddie plastic play traffic lights and the switch
> could be reversed so it counted from red to green.
> It was pretty funny when the Prince William Police
> came and asked how the light worked.
>
> The guy flipped the switch and it went green to
> red, and the policeman said, "so you go on
> red?"and with it not making sense, sent everyone
> on their way.
>
> Those were the days, and before that movie
> (series) came about.

You could always grow some balls and go professional. Might protect some innocent lives on public roads.

Child's Play Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> You could always grow some balls and go
> professional. Might protect some innocent lives on
> public roads.


I never raced on the street, but enjoyed watching the races and the sights/sounds.

Spent many days/nights at places like MIR, Capitol, 75/80, Mason Dixon, Englishtown, Atco, and others.

This thread is about the heyday of street racing in the 80s, before the douchebaggery of the mid-90s.

We would also re-enact the dukes of hazzard over on Valley View Drive off of franconia.

There's a step hill that makes your car airborn. There's lots of oil pan scraping. I don't know if the county ever "fixed" it. There's a curve right after landing and some died hitting the tree. The bark is always scrapped off.

Fudgie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not really street racing, but we used to run the
> toll road and try to make the old speed monitor
> that was on one of the overpasses (maybe Sunrise
> Valley) flash "00".
>
> Guy I worked with had a blue Cuda with a 440 and a
> tunnel ram, no real point in trying to run with
> him in a street legal car.


Awesome call for the old speed monitor on the Dulles Airport Access Road late 70's early 80's! It was hung from the original Monroe St/Van Buren ST bridge that crosses over the Dulles Toll Road. Heading East from Dulles toward DC, you can still see the original mounting brackets for the speed monitor that was mounted to the bridge. This would be the second bridge heading East and you can still see it on Google Street View. We did the same thing trying to 'zero/zero' the monitor on Dulles Airport Access road and before the adjacent Dulles Toll Road was built... good times and a lot less congested way back then.

Prosperity about 1973 three died racing went off road hit a pole

Mid 80's Annandale road where 3 youth died racing at the Old White Mansion Curve

O0's On Lee Chapel acting like the Dukes of Hazard jumping the hill between 123 and FXCO parkway

And more..many more..but the cars did not grow legs and do it themselves. The way Liberals think Guns do..

I heard a good place to run was at the area of rolling road and Fullerton. It was blocked off by a gate for years, down from the McDonalds.

I moved to Pohick road around '86, but I don't recall this. Anyone remember this one?

It was blocked off in the area of Fullerton Road by a gate for years.

Could not resist being a FXU asshole. Yes It was blocked off and No I don't remember races there. I do remember when the 7-11 down there was the only place around. Long before the MC D's or any thing else was there. And how the Rolling Road had many snake turns going down that way in the 70's.

Grass tracks now General Washington Dr. off Edsal Rd.

Once the mini truck craze hit, some of us lifted them and took to the "pits" for 4 wheeling.

The land between hayfield road and south van dorn was nothing but dirt hills and somewhat of a dumping ground.

Lots of party's, and Bon fires.
There was also lots of weed growing back there.

Still is if you know where to look.

There were a few fights at the pits but nobody got shot. A fun and safe place to get drunk and baked.
Now that places like that are gone the next generation started joining gangs
A coincidence? I think not. Everyone needs an outlet and the pits was one

Fairfax Farms was the name we used for the stretch of route 50 between Jermantown Road and Greenbriar in the late 70's. Very dark and no cop stations. This was my brother's 69 Camaro prior to the crash.
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I remember the eighth mile marked run on what is now Backlick, before the county re aligned the road. Just after you entered Crestwood heading south bound, through the neighborhood boulevard. Forgot the name of the road then... Plus people doing sprints down the Accotink access road...

Nobody wants their car crushed and their license taken away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04SMCA_yloA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aED7X2S3q8

Gmkx9

your little effort to use politics to be an auto theif is pitiful

trying to drum up a race. are you an illegal without a car or work for fx co gov and want a cheap car at auction?

we all know VA polititians made a law that says any car caught "drag racing" automatically becomes property of the State of VA for sale at auction to government workers. also that the law was made more recently - in the "Microsoft Wordpad some illegal laws in" days.

and thats part of many confirmations i have that VA and esp. fairfax co gov have been participating in ...

GRAND THEFT AUTO, that many of the legal community are auto thieves, and have concocted countless ways which all lead to insiting to a person that their car is government property

VA law is for auto theives

I don't dare try to race seriously in VA, I take my questionable activities to MD on my lawyer's advice. If only it were easier to race on a track, I would. But after paying "x" for one go down a drag strip and waiting 4 hours for my turn, it is much cheaper and easier in the short run to do street racing or tag. Plus I like corners. Drag racing is boring.

Alive and Well
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Late 60s. Commercial Drive Springfield. We called it Shirley Industrials. There was even a mountain of dirt for dirt bikes.

Also the Dulles Access Rd, way before the toll road and nearby houses. It was so little used back then that, late at night, you could literally lay down on the road and sleep without getting run over. There was ONE FAA cop that drove it once in a while and you could see him coming for miles.

I had a '63 Plymouth Fury that I shoehorned a 426 hemi into. Blew a LOT of doors off with that motherfucker!

Fall 1985.

I stopped at a red light in Ft. Belvoir, on US 1 - to my left was the big field used for Soccer and the occasional carnival.

Suddenly, a car pulled up alongside.

I was piloting my dumpy looking, white 1971 Plymouth Valliant.

To the untrained eye, my vehicle looked like a typical piece of crap.

But underneath the hood was a V8 318 CC engine.

The car had belonged to my Grandfather, and only had about 65,000 miles on it, even though it was over 14 yrs. old.

The Engine was still strong.

Also, it was not a huge car, it was relatively compact for its time.

The engine did not have to push a huge amount of weight.

The other car was a late model American car, probably a v6, but it looked pretty powerful, at least for what we were producing in the mid 1980s.

The driver was a fellow MV high school student, one Mitchell Fadely.

I believe his dad was a car dealer, and it was a car off his dad's lot.

I had three or four guys in my car. We were returning rom "Fall Ball" baseball practice at a park, which is till there, off of Gunston Rd. It is still there and on the Fairfax Parkway,

We nodded to each other and both gunned it at the moment the light turned green.

My car quickly accelerated and I easily beat him to the point where you go downhill past Woodlawn Plantation.

I had to slow down quickly, but won our short race.

If we were on a long flat racing surface say 1/2 mile, he would have probably eventually passed me, but my car just had way to great acceleration compared to his car.

Looking back, it was crazy we did this.

We were 16 yrs old (he may have been 17).

That area was patrolled by both Fairfax County Police and Ft. Belvoir Military Police.

We could have easily been pulled over.

But, were unconcerned about that possibility.

It was man v. man. We were governed by the passions of youth. Just letting off

some steam, breaking away in one of the many ways young men do, after surviving

the stifling lack of freedom of our early teen years.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2016 11:01PM by phelpsmarc.

Hey, ricky, the hurting scene degenerated into ricer tuner douchebags congregating at the sick "Fairfax Towne Center" parking garage in the early 2000s. The money cops caught on and impounded zillions of ricers for inspection violations and bypassed emissions every weekend.

It was a show.

Borgata. Mister Seven. Money Metal House.

I use to run at the Pepsi plane in the late 80's and early 90's. My most successful car was a 69 Dodge Super Bee, it was red w/ white stripe, 440 auto. I went almost a whole summer without getting beat. It didn't look or sound fast. But it would dead hook on the street with chicken legs on the back. 1/8th mile car only.

RMitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I use to run at the Pepsi plane in the late 80's
> and early 90's.

I worked construction across the street at the Avion development. Always laughed at the burnout tracks over there.

yeah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As a retired FXCO Fireman we got tired of scraping
> your dumb-ass off the street. Tragic deaths and
> lawsuits finally got the cops off their asses and
> start busting you drunk ass rednecks.


Lawyers and insurance companies make our lives, their puppets on a string.

phelpsmarc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fall 1985.
>
> I stopped at a red light in Ft. Belvoir, on US 1 -
> to my left was the big field used for Soccer and
> the occasional carnival.
>
> Suddenly, a car pulled up alongside.
>
> I was piloting my dumpy looking, white 1971
> Plymouth Valliant.
>
> To the untrained eye, my vehicle looked like a
> typical piece of crap.
>
> But underneath the hood was a V8 318 CC engine.
>
> The car had belonged to my Grandfather, and only
> had about 65,000 miles on it, even though it was
> over 14 yrs. old.
>
> The Engine was still strong.
>
> Also, it was not a huge car, it was relatively
> compact for its time.
>
> The engine did not have to push a huge amount of
> weight.
>
> The other car was a late model American car,
> probably a v6, but it looked pretty powerful, at
> least for what we were producing in the mid
> 1980s.
>
> The driver was a fellow MV high school student,
> one Mitchell Fadely.
>
> I believe his dad was a car dealer, and it was a
> car off his dad's lot.
>
> I had three or four guys in my car. We were
> returning rom "Fall Ball" baseball practice at a
> park, which is till there, off of Gunston Rd. It
> is still there and on the Fairfax Parkway,
>
> We nodded to each other and both gunned it at the
> moment the light turned green.
>
> My car quickly accelerated and I easily beat him
> to the point where you go downhill past Woodlawn
> Plantation.
>
> I had to slow down quickly, but won our short
> race.
>
> If we were on a long flat racing surface say 1/2
> mile, he would have probably eventually passed me,
> but my car just had way to great acceleration
> compared to his car.
>
> Looking back, it was crazy we did this.
>
> We were 16 yrs old (he may have been 17).
>
> That area was patrolled by both Fairfax County
> Police and Ft. Belvoir Military Police.
>
> We could have easily been pulled over.
>
> But, were unconcerned about that possibility.
>
> It was man v. man. We were governed by the
> passions of youth. Just letting off
>
> some steam, breaking away in one of the many ways
> young men do, after surviving
>
> the stifling lack of freedom of our early teen
> years.


Come on! What did you do? Accelerate to the point of winning the pull off? I do that at every fucking light. Sometimes someone wants to play, but most of the time I'm solo because everyone else likes to stay at the light and text. Life is boring. Race on.

Greatest drag race of the 80's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuFZE8lxZ5g

Lowly 2bbl Chevelle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RMitch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I use to run at the Pepsi plane in the late
> 80's
> > and early 90's.
>
> I worked construction across the street at the
> Avion development. Always laughed at the burnout
> tracks over there.

A lot of those marks would have been mine, I use to do funny car style burn outs just to get in the other guys head.

They're all brodozing around in their stupid Jeep Wranglers decked out with light bars, big tires and winches. They're the new Civic si or Integra Type R.

Don't let women drive. Period.
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That was probably Amherst street. I lived near the corner of Essex and Amherst and there were always allot of accidents at the intersection. Never saw an actual drag race on Amherst or Backlick. Springfield VA was the Northern Virginia best for Hot Rods in the 70s. We hung out at the McDonalds at Commerce Street. R.E. LEE H.S. "Gear Heads", Sorority Girls, Fraternity Boys, and all the groups. Lots of flirting, fun and fist fights. Teasing, testing and harassing the rent-a-cop who McDonald's hired about 1975. Most changed parking lots next door at the animal hospital. Pi Phi, Psi Omicron Chi, Phi Beta were the frats, yes that's right we had frats at R.E. Lee H.S. I was in Pi Phi. Street Racing was mostly at Cinderbed Road and at the Fort Belvoir golf course road. And when M.F. wrapped his Red 1974 AMC Javelin AMX around a tree afte a race at cinderbed road, I think that woke up allot of people, he lived,thank God. One of my best friends S.S. had a supremely built absolutely perfect Blue 1968 Camaro with the 327, that he ran down at Buds Creek on occasion, and he took a few street race wins as I recall. My Hot Rod in High School was a 1963 Ford Fairlane that was fairly fast in the 1/8 mile. Just a 260 V8. Looked better than it ran.