Will Long Island Finally Get New Dragstrip?

• By Susan Wade
• Posted on June 24, 2019

Street racers on Long Island slide out of bed way before the dawn they might never live to see and take a chance even more scandalous to them: that they might get busted by the cops.

In more industrial sectors of Suffolk County, they gather on isolated streets buffered by factories and garbage dumps, with their matchless hot rods and their best new-millennium James Dean adaptations.

Their reputations are on the line. They whip out their wads of cash, peel off dead presidents, and slap them onto the car hoods with bravado. Talk is the cheapest currency in this ghetto-glam, want-to-be-cool-cult of throttle psychos and testosteracers. Reciting a line like some twisted Irish blessing, one wisecracks, “May you live your life always 10 seconds ahead of the police.” They have the passion and skills to make an engine sing, but they’re reckless and rebellious.

And sometimes their shtick goes horribly wrong, like it did in May 2014. A 17-year-old was engaged in an illegal street race that killed the driver of the other car and his four teenage passengers when that car smashed into an SUV that happened upon the scene. The collision seriously injured the driver and passenger in the SUV. That’s not the first disaster that has resulted from these “unauthorized speed contests” that uninformed media members too often call “drag racing.”

Drag racing takes place with prepared and inspected race cars in a safe and controlled environment with state-of-the-art medical equipment standing by in case of an emergency. Street racing is a wantonly illegal indulgence with no safeguards. A writer for the website Alaska Drags put it well: “Illegal street racing is costing and changing lives negatively and tearing families and friendships apart. Drag racing creates sportsmanship, unity, and lifelong friendships [with] a fun and safe environment to race cars. DRAG RACING IS A SPORT. ILLEGAL STREET RACING IS A PROBLEM.”

And that’s what Long Island has discovered. Actually, it has known it for decades. Since the disappearance of National Speedway in Center Moriches, Islip Speedway, and L.I. Dragway at Westhampton, legitimate racers have to travel to New Jersey and beyond to participate in sanctioned programs. The closest track is Island Dragway at Great Meadows, N.J. So the daredevils and scofflaws still take to the streets to perpetuate their irresponsible subculture.

Videographer Greg Filipkowski has documented them for his “2 Fast 2 Real” and “Long Island Extreme” productions. He used the line “Smoke tires, not drugs.” Even just after the turn of the millennium, he said he isn’t glorifying illegal street racing but rather trying to send a message to the various lawmakers in New York and Long Island that “if we don’t have a track in New York, this will get bigger.”

The Westhampton strip was the last one to close, in 2004, plagued by financial trouble and the age-old problem of neighbor complaints. Riverhead Raceway is Long Island’s only motorsports facility, but it doesn’t include a dragstrip.

Lindenhurst resident Donald Schilt told WABC-TV’s Kristin Thorne in a February interview, “We need a legal track to get the street racers off. You’re never going to stop them all, but you’ll get most of them.”

That’s the goal for John Cozzali, of Mastic, and the 16,000-member-strong Long Island Drag Racing Club he leads. The movement has a Facebook page, accessible at https://www.facebook.com/groups/L.I.NeedsADragstrip/, and an Instagram presence at longislandneedsadragstrip, as well as a website, www.lineedsadragstrip.org.

Cozzali and Schilt are steering committee members, along with Johnny Consoli, Gary Romonoyske, Bob Buehler, Andy Schilt, John Nicosia, Mike Taliercio, Chris Stapleton, Gary Courtier, Tony Candela, Dennis Quitoni, Neil Rosenberg, Nick Filippides, Steve Daidone, and Mike Scano

“It’s past time to bring racing back to Long Island,” Cozzali told Newsday. “You can do practically any sport or hobby that you want on Long Island, except drag racing. There’s no place for us to go.”

He advocated for all racers, not just drag racers, in the WABC interview: “I would like to see a quarter-mile dragstrip and a road course, a motorsports park where everybody can enjoy their racing hobbies, whether it be quads, motorcycles, [or] drag racing.”

Finally, lawmakers are receiving the message and are beginning to respond in bipartisan fashion. But the avoidable loss of life didn’t move their needle before, not as much as a recent 22-page report the United States Motorsports Association (USMA) published, at the Long Island Drag Racing Club Corp.’s request. It presented some attractive statistics that sweetened the pot for Suffolk County lawmakers.

It estimated, according to Riverhead Local reporter Denise Civiletti in an April 17 article, “that a drag strip on Long Island would bring 328,138 visitors annually and produce more than $17.6 million in annual spending. Community benefits include dramatically lowered illegal street racing, charitable contributions, additional tax revenue, and more overall economic activity on Long Island through racing and non-racing events.”

Civiletti wrote, “A Long Island track would host an average of 84 event days bringing in 328,138 visitors, both racers, their teams and spectators, according to the USMA report. Each racer will spend $115.45 per day per event — beyond the cost of admission and racing entry fees, the report says.”

Robert Brodsky, in his May 10 Newsday article, wrote, “Tracks, for example, on average, put nearly $750,000 every year into the community by providing jobs, supporting caterers, hiring accountants and attorneys, paying taxes and an assortment of other spending, the report contends.

“And race teams spend a lot of money, mostly at restaurants and hotels. Often, they tack on a few days before or after a race to take in the sights. In a year, racers lay out about $7.4 million: $3 million for hotels; $2.3 million at grocery and retail stores; $1.1 million on eating out and just under $1 million for fuel, the report said.”

Brodsky quoted the report: “Race teams should be viewed as small businesses coming into town, regularly consuming all types of services and adding to Long Island tourism.” He said, “Add in the cash that fans spread around and the annual spending figure skyrockets — to $17.7 million.”

Many tracks maximize their revenue and presence in the community by hosting fairs, concerts, car shows, flea markets, first-responder training, endurance-course contests, and other events. Advocates for a dragstrip have guess that would draw another 108,000 visitors spending as much as $3.1 million.

Furthermore, the USMA report declared that “currently there is no market as large as Long Island in the entire United States without at least one drag-racing complex.”

Legislator Robert Trotta, of Smithtown, said in the WABC presentation, “There’s no reason why I should be going to North Carolina to see a race or going to New Jersey. We need revenue in this county, and this is just the thing we need.”

Legislator DuWayne Gregory, of Amityville/Copiague, said, “There’s so much energy behind this move that we have to give it our best effort.”

Suffolk County Legislator Tom Cilmi, of Bayshore, spearheaded the formation of an ad hoc committee to examine the prospects for a drag strip in Suffolk, Civiletti wrote.

Results from such a study aren’t expected to be available for about nine months. But Civiletti quoted Cilmi as saying, “I agree that there’s the potential for tremendous economic benefit for a well-run racing facility in Suffolk County. There’s a tremendous market for it. It’s the No. 1 sport in the country. But the land options are very limited.”

Industry experts, according to the Newsday article, have said a developer would need 100 to 250 acres to build a quarter-mile track, seating, garages or pit space, and other buildings. The USMA report said the project likely would incur construction costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million, most realistically from a private investor. And Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Mass., told Brodsky, “In this economy, investors are flush with cash as compared to 10 years ago. But real estate prices are strong, and investors are paying a premium for space. A dragstrip takes up a lot of valuable real estate, so I wouldn’t expect a bargain.”

Each of the leading site candidates has drawn opposition.

Newsday laid out the leading scenarios:

“In 2001, backers doing business under the name Calverton Motorsports Park offered $50 million to put a track on 200 acres at the old airstrip location that fans like so much. Community opposition stalled the deal, which would have included a half-mile drag strip, a 5/8-mile oval, a go-cart track, and a two-mile-long road racing course.

“For fans, the site in Calverton seems perfect: a 7,000-foot runway at the 2,900-acre Enterprise Park, where aviation giant Northrop Grumman once assembled military aircraft, including the Navy’s F-14 Tomcat.

“All eight members of the Suffolk County legislative committee agree the old airstrip is the best spot because it isn’t near any homes, according to legislator Gregory. But the property isn’t for sale — at least not now.

“Riverhead Town is in contract to sell 1,643 acres at EPCAL — the rest is preserved for open space — to Calverton Aviation and Technology, a joint venture between Luminati Aerospace of Calverton and Canada-based developer Triple Five Group. The company plans to use more than 600 acres for a million-square-foot aviation and technology hub.

“But the town is taking a second look at the $40 million deal after learning that Luminati Aerospace is being sued by a Connecticut company for allegedly failing to pay property taxes and defaulting on conditions related to a $10 million loan. Calverton Aviation and Technology didn’t respond to requests for comment.”

Retired teacher Steve Kuhl, who lives near the proposed Enterprise Park location and heads a civic group called EPCAL Watch, said, “The last thing this community needs is a drag strip. There are a lot of retirement communities in the area, and the noise would be a big problem.”

Gold Star mother Michele McNaughton, whose son, Staff Sgt. James McNaughton was killed in Iraq in 2005, told Newsday she has no problem with a new dragstrip coming to Long Island but is against the EPCAL site. She said, “Calverton National Cemetery is sacred ground.” That’s where her son is buried.

McNaughton, president of the North Fork chapter of American Gold Star Mothers, said, “You would never build a drag strip outside Arlington [National Cemetery in Virginia], so what’s the difference with Calverton? I am not against drag racing. I would love a track on Long Island. But they need to find another spot.”

A key voice in the conversation is that of Center Moriches resident John Montecalvo, the 2009 IHRA Pro Stock champion and 2010 ADRL Extreme Pro Stock champion.

Montecalvo, one of the principals in Calverton Motorsports, told Civiletti, “I positively would be interested in participating in developing this. Not for me. I race all over the country. I want today’s generation to be involved in things like this. Racing teaches teamwork and so many other skills. When I was growing up, my father would let me use one of the paving shops [the Montecalvo family is in the asphalt and paving business]. My friends would come over at night and we’d work on our cars. It kept us out of trouble. I travel all around the country, and I personally don’t think there’s a better place anywhere than what we have right here.”

Montecalvo said fans will “want to see everything we have here. People come early and stay late. They will arrive a couple days before the race and stay a couple days after it. There are a lot of positives, but more than anything for the youth of today.”

And he told Civiletti he stands by his support of the Calverton property, citing its location and size.

In an interview with WABC’s Thorne, Montecalvo said, “I want today’s kids to be able experience what we did growing up. A lot of my friends went into drugs, alcohol. Not me. I had to work day and night so I could buy wheels for my car, whatever I had to do. It just helped me in so many areas of my life.”

The Long Island Needs A Dragstrip group, John Montecalvo, drag racers and fans, and racing-industry-related business owners agree that Long Island indeed does need a dragstrip. The whys are givens. How soon, where, and with whose help remain the major questions.