It was 1964-68, and most of the street racing around here was stoplight to stoplight out on US70, a four-lane stretch just outside of the city limits. It wasn't chock full of businesses like today, and our county only had one or two state troopers on duty at any given time.In those days, NC law split street racing into two types:1) spontaneous, where you just rolled up beside someone at a light, asked them if they wanted to go, and nailed it on the green; 2) pre-arranged, where the racers met somewhere 1st to decide when and how the race would be run. Anyone doing prearranged ran the risk of having the book thrown at them if caught--arrested, car confiscated and possibly sold by the court; anyone who gathered to watch the race got charged as well if they were caught. There was some of this going on in a county next door, even to the point of marking off the quarter mile with spray paint. The highway patrol watched this one pretty close, so you had to pick your night and time.
I had a 57 Pontiac Star Chief 2dr hardtop that was good off the line, good enough for a few stoplight encounters till I got smarter. Lots of Chevelle SS 396s, GTOs, modified 57 Chevy's, Mopars of all descriptions, you name it, it was out there.
The town got bigger--more police, more troopers in the county, lots more traffic, and we grew up. Nobody crashed, nobody got hurt, and only a very few ever got arrested for prearranged racing...most of the tickets that were written for spontaneous racing got changed to speeding or reckless driving in court.Different days then. I have heard it said that experience is really nothing but being able to survive your mistakes--may be something to that.