YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Police Department responded to an industrial park on Intertech Drive between Salt Springs and Meridian roads on Youngstown’s West Side late Tuesday for motorists “racing and doing burnouts.”

The report states that the parking lot of a business “had visible tire marks throughout,” and an individual reported this is “an ongoing issue” and there is security footage of the vehicles.

The report states that officers were advised that the damage took place between 11:05 and 11:40 p.m.

The term “burnout” describes a driver forcing the rear tires of a vehicle to spin rapidly on the road, producing a great deal of smoke. Burnouts are commonly associated with the winning racer in the NASCAR Cup series of auto racing.

Apparently similar behavior cropped up June 9, 2024, when Youngstown police reported that officers were confronted by motorists engaging in what the police department called “car meets” throughout the day involving people in dozens of vehicles “disregarding traffic laws, the safety of themselves and others and common sense.”

Police never gave a more specific description of the vehicle maneuvers taking place but suggested that the maneuvers were part of a party-like atmosphere.

In one episode along Glenwood Avenue near Sherwood Avenue on the South Side that day, more than 100 shots were fired about 11:08 p.m. in an area where a “car meet” had been taking place, police said.

Te’Nya McKinley, 18, a student at Thiel College, was shot to death while in a car in a parking area beside a building along Glenwood as a result of the gunfire.

Blogger Lisa Conant of the www.carparts.com website, describes donuts as driving “in tight circles while the car’s rear wheels are doing a burnout. It also can be a celebratory maneuver.”

She noted that doing donuts “can be quite dangerous for inexperienced drivers, as they can easily lose control and spin out.”