Four men have been cited in connection with two incidents of drag racing on Interstate 75 near Hamilton Place mall, according to Chattanooga police.
The men were part of two loosely organized illegal street racing events on Dec. 27 and Jan. 15 on I-75 northbound near the mall, Chattanooga Police Department spokeswoman Lt. Kim Noorbergen said.
Cited for drag racing were Brandon Green, 23, of Chattanooga; Brandon McDaniel, 23, of Ooltewah; Jack McKenley, 33, of Ooltewah, and Keith Ratcliff, 24, of Cleveland, Tenn., police said.
A court date for the men is set Feb. 15 in Hamilton County General Sessions Court, Lt. Noorbergen said.
The group used the Web site www.streetcarforums.com to advertise the races, Chattanooga police traffic investigator Joe Warren said.
After the Dec. 27 race, police received a tip about a second round of races in the same location that was announced on the site.
“We had to go and find unmarked vehicles — it was kind of out of our norm,” Mr. Warren said. “In this particular circumstance, if we used normal marked patrol cars and got behind them and attempted to pull them over, it almost assuredly would have resulted in a car chase.”
During the Jan. 15 race, which took place about midnight, there were dozens of spectators lining the concrete barriers along Interstate 75 “right next to the guys racing,” Mr. Warren said.
The racing vehicles slowed traffic behind them to between 15 and 20 miles per hour, then accelerated to more than 100 mph before exiting the interstate.
The stretch along Interstate 75 where the races occurred has a speed limit of 55 mph and is in a high-traffic area where many drivers are trying to merge and take the Shallowford Road exit, Mr. Warren said.
“A lot of people were just in a bad location and, if one of the guys were to lose control, they were about to get hammered,” he said.
The men were driving what Mr. Warren described as heavily modified muscle cars equipped with lightweight wheels and tires that typically do not handle well. The men were sober at the time and have no previous criminal records, Mr. Warren said.