Illegal racing on I-71 prompts crackdown

By RANDY LUDLOW

State troopers arrested nine drivers.

COLUMBUS — After midnight, the pack of drivers would stop their cars on Interstate 71 near Polaris, line up three abreast and then race north at more than 100 mph.

With at least two prior illicit races going off without a hitch — or tickets — the drivers returned early Friday.

This time, the Ohio State Highway Patrol was lying in wait farther north in Delaware County.

With a plane overhead and the area flooded with cruisers, officers arrested nine drivers. They also impounded their cars, ranging from late-model Corvettes to a tricked-out 1985 Honda Civic.

The drivers of about a dozen other cars eluded capture, but troopers are working to identify them, said Sgt. D.J. Smith of the state patrol’s Delaware post.

Most of the racers got off I-71 at the Route 36/Route 37 exit. The largest group headed east to Sunbury and then south on Route 3, where troopers blocked the road near Galena.

Troopers arrested eight drivers and Westerville police nabbed a ninth farther south on Route 3.

The drivers were charged with street racing, a first-degree misdemeanor, and booked at the Delaware County Jail.

If convicted, the drivers face up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine and the loss of their licenses for 30 days to three years.

Troopers previously responded twice to reports of the 5-mile stretch of I-71 serving as a drag strip, but never located the racers, Smith said.

Thanks to a tip that the drivers gathered at the Sonic restaurant on Polaris Parkway, an OSHP pilot monitored the area from above early Saturday.

At 12:43 a.m., the cars left and stopped side-by-side-by-side on I-71 for more than one minute, while three lanes of traffic cleared out in front of them and stacked up behind, Smith said. The race to catch the racers then was on.

Troopers arrested brothers Anthony Grey, 23, and Eric Grey, 24, of Gahanna; Jason Wyne, 21, of Carroll; Kyle Sargent, 24, of Reynoldsburg; Christopher Kolb, 38, of Hilliard; Steven Lenegar, 20, of Westerville; Andrew Meade, 25, of Reynoldsburg, and Sean Smith, 20, of Columbus.

The name of the driver arrested by Westerville police was not available.