I have been around race tracks and motorsports most of my life, learning photography on a drag strip. That's the safe place to race your hot rod street car, not the streets, as I have seen all over Kern County for years.

Sergeant Robert Pair of the Bakersfield Police Department has been on all of the local news stations and radio broadcasts commenting that, "It's not just law enforcement's problem, it's a community problem."

On Aug. 9, the Bakersfield Police Department responded to reports of approximately 500 people involving 200 to 300 vehicles engaged in street racing activity, Pair explained. This is becoming a very common occurrence in our county. Even in the Golden Hills area of Tehachapi, I have seen many signs of street racing: tire burn outs and donuts on the pavement.

"Ten vehicles have been impounded, eight citations, two arrests," Pair said regarding the street racing activity occurring recently in Bakersfield. This is an ongoing problem that over the years has sometimes ended with people getting badly hurt or killed.

Mark La Ciura

Illegal street racers leave burn out and donut marks on Golden Star Street in Golden Hills.

We are blessed in our county to have many safe racing sites where people can go to test and tune their hot rods safely with emergency personnel on site, just in case anything happens. Button Willow Raceway, Willow Springs International Raceway, Kern County Raceway Park, Bakersfield Speedway and Auto Club Famoso Drag Strip, are a few of the local raceways. From my experience in racing my own Mustang years ago and doing motorsports photography over the years of living in Kern County, these are very safe racing sites.

Here are several websites to check for running your hot rod in a safe manner: http://www.buttonwillowraceway.com, http://www.willowspringsraceway.com, http://www.kernraceway.com, http://www.bakersfieldspeedway.com, and http://www.aaafamosoraceway.com.