Drag-Racing Problem Stymies Police : Sylmar: They patrol for speeders four nights a week. But it’s an age-old tradition that’s not easily eradicated.

For more than two generations, young speeders from four counties have come under the cover of darkness to the remote streets of Sylmar to race their cars.

Whether it’s the most popular spot--San Fernando Road near Balboa Boulevard--or one of the lesser-used straightaways nearby, Los Angeles police can count on chasing away racers at least four nights a week.

But police said the department’s lack of resources--extra patrol officers for special assignments--prevents them from totally eradicating the problem. There have been four deaths associated with drag-racing in Sylmar in the last two years, the latest early Sunday.

That night was one of the rare times an LAPD unit was on patrol for street racers. But the death occurred on a nearby freeway before any drag race took place when a teen-ager speeding to one race site rear-ended a car carrying a family of four. A mother was killed and her husband and two young children were injured.

Capt. Tim McBride, commander of the Foothill Division, which includes Sylmar, said police have long struggled to control drag-racing, much as the department has tried to control a street cruising problem on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. He said the two problems go hand-in-hand and have become more violent with the advent of gang involvement.

“Four nights a week we have a drag-racing problem,” McBride said Monday. “A lot of time the cruising begins and they get together and decide to go race. They move to one of the racing locations. We are not talking about four or five cars. We are talking about hundreds of kids going out there.”

In the Sylmar area, the prime locations where police have spotted and dispersed drag-racing gatherings include San Fernando and Balboa, Bradley Avenue and Bledsoe Street and Sepulveda and San Fernando Mission boulevards. Police said Glenoaks Boulevard and Penrose Street in Sun Valley is also a gathering point.

The cat-and-mouse game that police and the racers play is as much a tradition as the racing itself. Police said that on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights police officers check the race spots and often thwart races. But they are just as often unsuccessful.

“As with all problems, resources are our primary obstacle,” McBride said. “We have more calls for service than we can handle with our present resources. For special problems that come up, we have to beg, borrow and steal resources to address them.”

For the most part, patrols made up of reserve officers or officers working overtime assignments watch for drag-racing activity. The San Fernando Valley’s traffic division began deploying extra officers to help control the problem this summer. And California Highway Patrol officers also help in the crackdown, with standing orders to disperse any gatherings they may see from the Golden State Freeway.

CHP Sgt. Robert Del Mese said often such gatherings are hard to miss.

“You can see them from the freeway,” he said. “I’ve seen a crowd of as many as 200 people and their cars. They know what they are doing is illegal. As soon as they see a black-and-white, they move. Unfortunately, you have to go by two or three times a night to keep them from starting up again.”

Often, the racers will move to another spot--one far from the sight of the freeway. Police liken trying to stop the races to trying to push down an air bubble in a water bed; you can eliminate it from one spot, but it comes back up somewhere else.

“It is a transitory problem,” said McBride. “It is not a situation where you can count on them being in one spot and you can put a car there and that ends it. If they see any sign of law enforcement at one spot, they’ll move to another.”

Sylmar became a hot spot for drag-racers more than 20 years ago, and the tradition remains, police said. Del Mese said some of the drag-racers that come to the area are following in their father’s footsteps.

“They have been doing it for nearly 30 years out there,” Del Mese said. “It is relatively isolated and not well-traveled at night. It’s a long tradition; they want to show off cars and girlfriends. Unfortunately, the gangs are now involved in it. There is always a potential for violence.”

Of the four deaths related to drag-racing in the area since 1991, only one involved an actual mishap during a race. In that incident, a speeding car overturned and a passenger was killed. The driver of the car was charged in the death.

But there have been two murders attributed to gang animosities at the illegal drag races in the last year.

Many of the young drag-racers, McBride said, “maintain that cruising and drag-racing is harmless. Of course, it is not so innocent. We have had several murders at drag-racing and cruising locations. They draw gang members in. They draw violent people.”

In the latest incident, the CHP said a car driven at 12:35 a.m. Sunday by Mark Botta, 18, of Cerritos was speeding on the Golden State Freeway toward the San Fernando Road exit when it rear-ended a family of four from the Santa Barbara County town of Cuyama.

The car, driven by Jose Rodriguez, 30, flipped and all four members of the family were ejected. Concepcion Rodriguez, 29, was fatally injured. Her husband, daughter, Isis, 5, and 10-month-old son, Josel, were injured and treated at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

The CHP reported that Botta told investigators that he was going to a drag race in Sylmar when the accident occurred. Witnesses said he was driving about 85 m.p.h. and that other cars were racing on the freeway with him, the CHP said. Investigators were attempting to identify the other racers.

Botta was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and gross negligence. He was released on $25,000 bail Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 16 in San Fernando Municipal Court.