Every Wednesday night, Edgewater Sports Park in Cleves, Ohio (just outside Cincinnati) hosts what they call the Cincy Street Wars. It’s a clocks-off, no-time event that attempts to replicate street racing in a safe manner, and we’d have to say that they’re doing a pretty good job from the looks of it.
The drivers stage using the traditional Christmas tree, but from there the street racing aspect takes over. There is a starter that points at both racers to see if they are ready, then the race is started using a flashlight as a green. Leaving before the light means an automatic loss. The racers need to keep their head/taillights illuminated, and a minimum of two spotters are used on the track to enforce the rules. For the Street Outlaw class like we see here, if a jump occurs, a chase is a race!
Here we have Jared’s C6 Z06 Corvette in the near lane and Ray’s 1999 Camaro in the far lane in eliminations, running for a chance to win the whopping $1,000 payout – pretty stout for a weekly event.
Since the races are judged by a spotter at the finish line, there is no win light, but the video description states that the Camaro took the title on this day. It’s hard to tell; once he gets out of shape the two cars are pretty evenly matched down the track.
The ruleset is pretty basic, and adheres to both the “rules of the street” along with corresponding safety rules. During eliminations, you only get one single five-minute maintenance break; otherwise you need to round-robin right back into the staging lanes. It’s a commendable effort to get the kids off the street and to the track – we have to say that Edgewater Sports Park seems to be doing a pretty good job of it.