Evo Street Racers Beat The Badge Race!

Focusing on the necessity of community inclusion to significantly reduce illegal street racing Evo Street Racers has created strategic partnerships with various local, county, and state police agencies. The partnership has led to numerous illegal street racing campaigns and programs acting as alternatives to the street including the Beat The Badge™ event, a drag race that features civilians competing against police officers in their cruisers on a 1/8 or 1/4 mile drag strip!

In an effort to reduce the adversarial position of illegal street racers and the police, a common interest, motorsports racing, was chosen as the venue of interaction. The neutral environment of a motorsports track has proven to be conducive to casual conversations between police officers and illegal street racers rendering a similar effect to community policing in an urban area. In the controlled, safe, and legal environment that a motorsports facility provides, the street racers/police have an opportunity to create a partnership that enables the officers to educate and encourage street racers to take it off the street and onto the track. The knowledge provided by Police Officers assist illegal street racers into better understand the dangers and consequences of racing on the street. Knowledge is power and this newly acquired "power" often leads to not only the evolution of street racers into motorsports racers, but more importantly the creation of responsible, respectful, and safe road going drivers.

...How do we arrange for police cruisers to race against civilians? Rather easily. In most Beat The Badge™ events the police officers participating are volunteering their time, the motorsports track provides insurance for the agencies and officers participating, and Evo Street Racers pays for all maintenance items and gas for the police cruisers.  Interestingly enough, as noted by police fleet master mechanic's and police officers across the country, “Running a cruiser down a quarter-mile strip is not nearly as demanding or harsh on the vehicle’s components as the daily patrol that an officer and cruiser goes through."

With a proven program that takes racing off the street onto the track, Street Scene Revolution's Beat The Badge™ event is a viable alternative to illegal street racing while introducing illegal street racers a safe, legal, and controlled environment in which they can satiate their thirst for speed.

Each Beat The Badge™ event has a unique schedule. The local police agency sponsoring the event defines the parameters of the race. Below is a list of the options that may be found in the race schedule at a Beat The Badge™ event.

Civilians Race The Cops:
The first four hours of the Beat The Badge™ event features a test and tune (grudge matches) and an opportunity for civilians to race against police officers in their active cruisers. (After each race the civilian and police officer can take pictures with each other in the winners circle.)

"Street" Race:
As dusk sets on the track it undergoes a literal transformation: the scoreboards are shut off, the christmas tree is removed, every other light tower directed on the track surface is turned off, spectators line up parallel to the concrete walls, time slips are cut in half at the ET Shack, and flag girls (chosen from the crowd) assume their position on the track. The single elimination street style race has no qualifying rounds and anyone can race in it assuming they are driving a street legal vehicle.

The Street Race is "heads-up" with a flag girl and the boards only indicate winner (no time or speeds are shown on the boards and the ET shack hands out time slips that are cut in half). Racers "call the race" for the last 16 vehicles in competition; this means that as the racers approaches the starting line they are allowed to negotiate car lengths over the PA system. Trophies and giveaways to the top eight racers.

Afterdark Race:*
When racing the cops and a heads-up single eliminations race isn't enough, but making bets on your race is, this last hour of competition is for you. With the drama of each race unfolding over the PA system the competitors have a chance to take there betting off the streets and onto the track as they make wages on how fast their care really is. The race is heads-up style, utilizing the christmas tree, and the boards only indicating winner. **

*There is no binding contract for repayment by participating in the race. The terms and repayment are entirely up to the parties involved. Evo Street Racers is not responsible for any monetary losses incurred by the participants in the Afterdark Race.

**Not available at all venues.