NASCAR or family car? Street racers hit the track
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FOUNTAIN, Colo. — Scott Rudy and Trey Hoffman are not racers, their banged up cherry red Mazda Miata is not a race car and the spiderweb crack forming across their windshield is reassuring no one.
Yet the crew and their car consistently burn rubber and race the clock at a professional racetrack in southern Colorado.
At the Track Attack series hosted by the Pikes Peak International Raceway, racers substitute the narrow lanes of Academy Boulevard for professional grade asphalt.
“[We’re] ready to send it into a wall,” said Hoffman. “Hopefully we drive home with a working Miata.”
Any racer in any car can register for the competitions up into the day of the event and each vehicle must pass a self-administered safety inspection before its wheels can hit the track.
In 2025, the raceway intends to host racing tournaments with cash prizes for podium finishers. But for now, there are only two things on the line: pride and bragging rights.
“You don't have to have anything special,” said the raceway’s marketing director, Rachel Tucker. “You could ride in your minivan if you wanted to.”
Street racing in Colorado is a consistent sore spot for law enforcement. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the Denver Police Department received 417 emergency calls reporting street racing. The call frequency in Denver has leveled to around 140 street racing reports per year since then.
In Colorado Springs, law enforcement continues to struggle with racing. Most recently, a 2023 effort cracked down on racers by impounding their vehicles after repeat reckless driving offenses.
“We encourage people to take it to the track and not do it on the street where it's a little scary and very dangerous,” said Tucker of opening up the raceway, which usually hosts drift events, car showcases and friendly races to drivers of all skill levels.
“We're just trying to protect people and give them a safe environment to do what they want to do,” she said.
The amateur race night held monthly offers three events including a car show, drag racing, individually-timed track sprints and gymkhana, which is a timed obstacle course that features roundabouts and sharp turns.
The competitions mimic activities typically found in illegal street race meetups while maintaining a safer, more professional environment for drivers.
Racers are free to enter whatever event they like once they’ve registered their cars, but certain races cater to certain cars.
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The gymkhana course on the other side of the raceway featured plastic barrels lining a series of straightaways and hairpin turns. In the center stood a circle made up of concrete barriers which drivers had to circumnavigate twice before finishing.
The best drivers come within a foot of the wall to optimize speed.
This is where Rudy and Hoffman’s Mazda Miata shined.
In addition to the cracked windshield and dented siding, the car donned a patterned carpet seemingly taken straight from an elementary school classroom. Slapped on the top-right of the windshield was a sticker that read “STUPID HURTS.”
While it wasn’t winning any beauty pageants, the car flew through obstacles. Rudy, who has been drifting at events like these for three years, seamlessly linked turns, leading the Miata through a series of drifts that resembled a figure skating routine.
“You’re going to see it rip just as hard as anything else out there,” said Rudy. “It’s the driver, not the car.”
The gymkhana course on the other side of the raceway featured plastic barrels lining a series of straightaways and hairpin turns. In the center stood a circle made up of concrete barriers which drivers had to circumnavigate twice before finishing.
The best drivers come within a foot of the wall to optimize speed.
This is where Rudy and Hoffman’s Mazda Miata shined.
In addition to the cracked windshield and dented siding, the car donned a patterned carpet seemingly taken straight from an elementary school classroom. Slapped on the top-right of the windshield was a sticker that read “STUPID HURTS.”
While it wasn’t winning any beauty pageants, the car flew through obstacles. Rudy, who has been drifting at events like these for three years, seamlessly linked turns, leading the Miata through a series of drifts that resembled a figure skating routine.
“You’re going to see it rip just as hard as anything else out there,” said Rudy. “It’s the driver, not the car.”
About once a month, the duo tows the Miata on a flatbed trailer to a nearby drift track. The two typically stay close to home in north Denver, but will sometimes make the journey down to Pikes Peak International Raceway to take advantage of the venue’s gymkhana course.
“It’s the stupidest, most fun thing you can do in a car,” said Rudy.
The event drew in more than 150 racers. While many are returners, Tucker said the community is ever expanding. She said the event has become a meeting ground where racers get to mingle with others who are “like minded and just want to go fast.”
Pikes Peak International Raceway hosts their Track Attack series roughly once a month and several other amateur to intermediate competitions almost every week. All upcoming competitions can be found on their website’s event calendar.