Police are pleading with motor enthusiasts to keep their racing on the track and not on the road in the lead up to the next round of the National Drag Wars Championships.

Police received calls after the previous round of competition where fans appeared to confuse “structured, organised events with mayhem on the roads”.

Police are asking people to race on the track, not on the road.

Senior Sergeant Rupert Friend says in two hours one highway patrol unit on State Highway 1 detected eight vehicles travelling at speeds over 135km/h with the worst offender found travelling at 171km/h.

He says this is simply unacceptable on any public road, let alone a busy highway.

On the night of the earlier drag event two people lost their licences, two others were issued tickets that were for speeds 1km/h short of losing their licences, and one driver’s wife rang police and thanked them for stopping her husband and suspending his licence.

“Our concern is not with the legal race event where members of the public can enter their road legal cars and race on the relative safety of the drag strip, but the actions of a few who then carried on their competition on our roads.” Rupert says the concerning thing for those who deal with the aftermath of the illegal street racers’ antics is that for years many people have defended boy racers involving themselves in illegal street racing saying that if they had somewhere they could go and do it off the streets safely then they would.

“But this just shows that even when you give them the opportunity to race legally, there’s a small number who continue to flaunt the law and put the lives of all road users seriously at risk.

“Police are absolutely appalled by this behaviour and we will be putting steps in place to ensure there isn’t a repeat after this Friday’s event.”

Apart from risking death or serious injury drivers found travelling over the posted speed limit will face enforcement action, while those travelling at speeds of 41km/h or over face having their driver’s licence suspended for 28 days, says Rupert.

“Anyone travelling at 50km/h over the speed limit will be put before the court on charges that will result in you losing your licence for another six months.

“Speed limits are there for everyone’s safety and are just that- limits, not a targets. Please drive to the road conditions and remember - roads are public spaces where everyone deserves to be safe, not race tracks.”

The next round is in Meremere this Friday.