DRIFT BAN HEARING (Update)

[Tracy]

WOW Mike you definently do sound like a " good ol, boy"

Thus the LS1 conversion and sideburns

[teamINERTIA]

Thus the LS1 conversion and sideburns

HAHA

Well in all seriousness Mike does make some good and valid points, he just comes off harsh like he knows best. It is easy to say what you shoul, could, or would do but when you are in the middle of this the way all of us Nor-Cal guys are you see both sides and all the beauracratic BS that goes along with it.

#1 Mike, I have been to every driftbattle event ever put on at altamont, and while yes drifting was done at the auto-x battle it was not done the way they told you it was, and from my understanding alameda county approved "drifting" for the april 15th event so they themselves could review it.

#2. The owners of altamont should have renewed their c.u.p and should have been more on the ball but they were allowed by the county board to run racing events and other events there since 96 when their c.u.p was expired, Drifting is a motorsport event, where else other then a racetrack should it be held? the county never said altamont could not hold drift events along with their regular nascar events, it was banned simply due to the neighbors.

#3 The neighbors said that altamont is endangering the lives or endagered animals, yet the same nieghbors built a fullsize motorcross course on the same exact land that the said animals live on all withing 2 years, where as amp has existed since the 60's and the animals have been entirely fine.



The biggest issue now is that the seirra club is involved with the rivards and is helping them and from about 10 years of experience with the sierra club all i can say is that they are a bunch or whining pricks with no sense of reality.

[Al]

Actually Atlamont BOS allows them to do most that stuff, HOWEVER the track hasnt renewed any of their permits, and has had since november to turn in things.

They Did turn in some of it Mid-March though.

I think the best remedy to this situation would be Mr. Lagura deleting all the phone numbers he posted before those guys get pissed because of all the phone calls, because like I had figured before I called, theres no reason it should be posted anywhere, and they aren't the people making the calls.

Tell your idiots hitting mail boxes to stop street drifting, and the entire community who hates the whole entire concept of Altamont Raceway wont have the drifting community as an easy source to place their displeasure.

Lack of responsiblity policing your own events outside the event seems to be the biggest problem up there for you guys.

Sure you can say you cant control it, but you can always hire a couple officers to do that for you.

The GM of the track didn't help the cause by holding an auto-x with style points during the temprorary drifting ban before the hearing. Which should also be noted.

On a side note, I dont think theres a damn thing wrong with sobriety checkpoints, if youd drinking and driving I hope you slam into a telephone pole drivers side 1st at 80 mph and survive after a month of ICU and a couple lost limbs.

Do you always believed what you read and hear on the paper? Why am I even asking this question, you're an idiot and everyone knows that.

It wasn't about the drifter hitting mailboxes because it never happen. It's pretty hard to do donuts on Midway road but we have never seen it with our eyes. We usually have staff that drives back in forth in Midway road that no one is speeding, doing donuts or any other bs that they can think of.

Midway road is use by 100's of people that takes back road of Altamont to Livermore. You can't blame solely to drifters about the whole issue going on at Midway.

It's because the Rivard it hit the fan about drifters, they profiled us gangster, we bring threats to the community and all kinds of other *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* that they can make up to get everyone's attention and apparently it got the COUNTY'S attention.

I've tried to speak to Mark Rivards about the issue and you know what he told me straight to my face?

It's not about drifters, its not about mailboxes getting hit, it's nothing at all about drifting. It's the TRACK owners that he has issues with. It's all a pissing contest between him and the track. He really wanted the track but did not get it and after speaking with AMP owners, it hit the fan because AMP told him to *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* off and will not be selling the track. He was pissed at these whole issue and tried to find every loop hole he can to shut them down.

Drifting was the easiest one to target, profiled us that who we are, what we've been doing, and etc... and 99.9% are all BULLCRAP.

Now lets talk about the permit, AMP's permit have expired in 2006 of Nov, but they can still continue to forward with the business as long they are trying to pursue on getting the permit. THIS IS THE LAW IN CALIFORNIA. So AMP had the right to keep running the track even if the C.U.P was expired. Why it's taking too long? Because AMP wants to expand their race track and make it nicer, as you can see that track is still looks like from 1960's. Before they meet the requirement, it requires the Sheriff's approval, Board of Planning members approval, and all kinds of approval just like when you are trying to put a business together. It takes time and effort.

Lets forward regarding the hearing...

The whole council in the meeting had no IDEA what drifting was. Karin Rivard showed a 3 minute video of everyone spinning out, understeering, and all kinds of mess. NO FULL DRIFTING.

So the council based their knowledge of what drifting was, spinning, doing donuts and understeering. They think this was drifting. They move on to, it's a sideshow and blah blah.

Smokes are hazardous and all kinds of crap.

We followed what the requirement to have an event, hire an EMT with an Ambulance, 10 Million dollar insurance, Fire Truck, and all other things.

If if required Security, police or any of that. We would have hired them. We also told the council that we are willing to hire or how we can make a safer event at Altamont and even educate certain people what "DRIFTING" really is.

Rivards made 100's of complaint to the county so this all goes back to Scott Haggerty the president of Alameda County. In my opinion, because of all the issues that Rivard have brought to the table of Alameda, it was easier for Scott Haggerty to say, F*CK IT, SHUT THE DRIFTER DOWN AND HOPE THE NEIGHBORS STFU.

[Al]

I forgot to add.

On April 12th we had the county out there and showed what we are planning on doing on the 15th.

We had stop watch (time), auto cross section and car control section.

They said it was fine so we went and forward with our plan on Sunday.

So STFU about we tried to go around the loophole. The county was there and approved what we're doing on SUNDAY.

As I said, it was easier for the county just to shut us down than dealing with the Rivards because Rivards has tons of money and will not stop.

[MonkeySlide]

My question is WHAT WAS THE DEFENSE?

Did they give you guys a chance to speak? What about the lawyer? I could have sworn there was a post somewhere sayin that you guys hired a lawyer.

What did you guys say in defense to everything that the rich folk were saying and to that stupid video?

[Bebop]

You guys really need to make a video of your own, or have formula D hook up a video or something. I sent the Rivards a email telling them to come on here... I want them to show us the video they put together for the city council.

And please, have them stop calling us kids. Most of us are over 18 with jobs or careers. Not some little kids with skateboards bought by out mothers for christmas.

[Al]

We even made it on DIGG!

http://digg.com/motorsport/Uptight_N...amont_Speedway

[psykkoshft]

haha i drive with no speedometer...

i hope other tracks doesn't start to follow the ban. there already isn't a lot of places to practice as it is, and who ever associates drifting with drug dealing and all that other stuff is retarded. they see something that young people are getting into and they label it as bad. if we all started staring at the walls for countless hours they'll probably find something wrong with that too.

[Tracy]

They have been trying to shut down Road Atlanta for years. The neighbors complain of the noise the track makes. The funny thing is the track was there way before the houses and the track is what makes the houses worth something. It's still an ongoing battle. Luckily the neighbors haven't won yet. At least they aren't singling out drifting. GHEY!

[Tracy]

I like what this guy had to say:



Wow, a story that almost directly effects me.

So I live in San Joaquin County and write traffic safety grants for a local government agency. While I'm not going to give a personal opinion on this I will say that if the people who use Altamont Raceway wanted to effect the local bureaucracy on this one here is what you need to do:

1: Contact the California Office of Traffic Safety (www.ots.ca.gov). Ask them if they can point you in the right direction to get statistics for SJC on street racing deaths in our county over the past few years. They'll probably send you to the DMV's R&D department, which is a good place to start.

2. Once you have those statistics get the OTS's reaction on them. Get the local CHP, PDs and courts opinions.

3. Come up with statistics on how many people use your speedway on the nights in which racing has been banned and how many of them would keep racing at other locales despite not having access to the raceway.

4. Run those numbers by the same organizations.

5. Contact the media and have them publicize all of these statistics and reactions.


That'd be my plan of attack. For those not from our little neck of the woods we have a raging problem with Street Racing. This year especially we've lost carloads of kids monthly, and that is not an exaggeration. With the problem being what it is, if the community were to hear about it possibly worsening so a wealthy couple can have quiet there would be a lot of pressure on the local government to tell these people to buy sound-proof windows.

[Al]

OMG!!!!

I got some good news today!!!!

I will post it in a few hours but I have to go meet the lawyers and stuff! There's 90% chance that we are getting back to the track!!!!!

All the letters, emails, phone call, etc... WORK! YES IT REALLY WORK!

[Bebop]

OMG!!!!

I got some good news today!!!!

I will post it in a few hours but I have to go meet the lawyers and stuff! There's 90% chance that we are getting back to the track!!!!!

All the letters, emails, phone call, etc... WORK! YES IT REALLY WORK!

Grrrrrreat!!!

[Al]

Supervisors Haggerty overstepped his authority and mishandled the decision that was presented to the Board. The fact that the Board was asked to answer the appeal... and ONLY the appeal... and that Haggerty took the discussion to a new level presents an opening for us to have the decision reversed.

At their past meeting, the Board – led by a tyrannical President Scott Haggerty – has banned Sprint Car Racing, Sports Car Racing, Figure 8 Racing, Autocross Events, Midget Racing, Kart Racing, Motorcycle Racing, Supermoto Events, Drifting, Enduro Racing, Driving Schools, Gymkhanas, and Club Rallies at Altamont Motorsports Park.

The top lawyers for Alameda County and County Planning Staff have met and are considering it's not a done DEAL!!!!!!!!

We still need your help to send all those emails! We will have new information on our website and will update ASAP!

[Tracy]

I sent my letters. Good luck guys and keep up the good work.

[riight112]

Any updates on this matter?