Southlake Mayor John Terrell puts the pedal to the metal at the Mayor's Cup.
Annual DFW Mayor's Cup Raises Awareness aboutbrIllegal Street Racing
By Linden Wilson, Assistant Editor
We've all seen car racing glamourized on thebrbig screen — in The Fast and the Furious franchise,brBiker Boyz and Gone in 60 Seconds — but the deadly consequences that can come frombra need for speed are rarely publicized. Since 2011, two North Texans have diedbras a result of drag racing — one was an innocent victim hit by a speedingbrvehicle, and the other lost control of his car as he sped 100 mph down NorthwestbrHighway. Two years ago, several DFW-area mayors began working in conjunctionbrwith Texas Motor Speedway to promote racing in a safe, controlled and funbrenvironment by putting on a single-elimination drag racing competition for thebrchance to earn a coveted Mayor’s Cup trophy as well as a year’s worth of braggingbrrights.
ThebrMayor's Cup is part of a six-week summer series created in 2009 called FridaybrNight Drags, which works to curb illegal street racing in the Metroplex bybrproviding a safer alternative — more than 1,000 competitors havebrparticipated in the program since its inception. The Texas Motor Speedwaybrconverts its pit road into a 1/8-mile drag strip for participants to race on.brSouthlake Mayor John Terrell, who won the Mayor's Cup in 2012, lost in thisbryear's semifinals but was confident as ever before the race began.
“Ibram here to bring home another championship for the City of Southlake,” he said.br“The competition was very tough last year, but I'm going to try for a two-peat.brWe do a lot of smack talk, so there is a lot of friendly competition that'sbrgoing to happen today.” Much of that friendly competition was between Terrellbrand Roanoke Mayor Scooter Gierisch, who joked even if he had to push the pedalbrthrough the floorboard to beat Terrell, he would do it.
“Lastbryear, he got a jump on me, so this year we're going to fix that,” Gierischbrsaid, adding he was happy to be part of an event that shows people a venue doesbrexist for safe drag racing.
Thisbryear, 13 mayors participated in the race, making it the largest turnout ofbrelected officials yet. Frisco Mayor Maher Maso was ultimately crowned the 2013brchampion. Adam Gerety, a Friday Night Drags racer from Trophy Club, spokebrbefore the race about the positive impact the program has had on DFWbrcommunities.
“Inbr2009, I had just gotten a new Camaro,” he said. “I had a need for speed, but Ibrdidn't want to do it on the streets. The venue here was nice, fun and safe, andbrI had a lot of competitors. It's a great, family-friendly environment; mybrfamily is usually up in the stands videotaping and cheering me on.” Gerety'sbr16-year-old son has been driving a Scion — which sponsors the program annuallybr— for a little more than six months, so his dad used Friday Night Drags as anbrexample to show there are safe ways that allow him to enjoy that type ofbrentertainment without putting his life, other drivers' lives and pedestrians'brlives at risk.
“Youbrsee all types of cars out here, from the guy who just bought his brand new Volkswagenbrto the guy who has the Fisker electric car he paid $120,000 for and everythingbrin between,” Gerety added. “There are even pickup trucks. There's just a lot ofbrinterest, people trying to have a fun, safe time.”
Accordingbrto the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle accidentsbrare the leading cause of death for people ages 16 to 20, and an average of 135brpeople are killed per year in car crashes related to illegal street racing.
“Allbrof us have seen the end results of that, and it's not pretty,” said Fort WorthbrMayor Betsy Price. “It's a risky situation. This is a great message to kids tobrnot race on the street.”