With the help of movies and television shows, street racing has been fully embraced by pop-culture. Now, you could argue that its generally illegal nature is what makes it so compelling. But, our over the edge reporter, Greg Carloss found an event where that notion goes up in smoke.

GREG CARLOSS: “Americans love street racing, but it’s illegal and dangerous. Obviously that presents a problem. Well, that’s why we’re here at Dominion Raceway in Spotsylvania, Virginia where they’ve found the perfect solution!”

In this country at least, street racing is seen as a unique genre of motor sport, unhindered by official rule books and precision timing devices. It’s pure, heads up drag racing.

In 2018 Steve Britt, the Owner and Promoter of Dominion Raceway and Entertainment noticed the growing street racing scene.

STEVE BRITT: “Street racing got kind of popular on TV and we were like ‘well we can do that’ and so we started Friday Night Street Racing here and this is what you get.”

ZAC ASH: “Atmosphere is lively. There’s a lot of friends and family out here. Everyone gets together, just has a good time.”

GREG CARLOSS: And with an eclectic crowd, comes a wide array of vehicles.

Daniel Ultsch: I seen diesel trucks come out here and bend their front axles. I mean I’ve seen Mustangs come over these curbs here, but yeah I’d say the craziest one was probably that side-by-side.”

GREG CARLOSS: Drivers can run on their own or against someone else. Just pick an opponent and get in line. Rolling starts can be negotiated, but a traditional standing start remains the favorite.

Naturally, burnouts are welcome.

Once the cars stage, a starter triggers the lights and the one-eighth mile sprint begins.

TEEJAY SNIPES: “Here it’s a never prepped surface. So the same way your car acts on interstate 95, on route 3, that’s how your car’s gonna’ act here. So we have a true no-prep experience here.”

GREG CARLOSS: This is Teejay Snipes and for those seeking top competition with more at stake than just bragging rights, he’s the man with a plan.

TEEJAY SNIPES: “I’m president of Modified DMV, we’re a local car club here and we got with Dominion to host these events to get everybody off the street. Give somebody something to do on a Friday.”

“Any questions? Alright I got a bag over here we’re gonna draw numbers.”

“Basically when we get guys come out here for shootouts, there’s a buy-in whether it’s 20 bucks, 50 bucks, 100 bucks. We get everybody together, they put the money into a pot and somebody’s gonna take it home at the end of the night.”

GREG CARLOSS: Unfortunately I didn’t have any cash...or a car. That is until I met Stavros Kaplaneris from Rocking Nissan of Stafford…

STAVROS Kaplaneris: “Well I’ll tell you what. How about I give you the keys to my ZL1? You can take a couple passes down that way.”

GREG CARLOSS: “Are you serious?”

STAVROS Kaplaneris: ON CAM

“Yeah absolutely. The only rule I have is if you wreck it, you buy it.”

GREG CARLOSS: “I can live with that.”

So off I went in a 650 horsepower car owned by a complete stranger to roll race against a modded C6 Corvette.

GREG CARLOSS: “Well that wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be, but hey we finished.”

So, I didn’t win any respect, but I did get an authentic street racing experience without breaking any laws.

TEEJAY SNIPES: “Dominion, they’re giving us a place to race. A safe place to race...so it’s definitely a good thing and we’re helping the community keeping racers off the streets.”

GREG CARLOSS: So next time you find yourself in a car with something to prove...just know that street racing doesn’t have to be done on the street.