Four arrested in Sonoma County street-racing rally involving more than 100 cars

Drivers behind the wheel of more than 100 cars staged a three-hour street-racing rally Sunday night into early Monday morning at multiple intersections in or near Santa Rosa that led to the arrests of three city men and a Cotati 17-year-old.

Called a 'sideshow,' the illegal rally featured drivers doing stunts and doughnuts with their vehicles in front of many onlookers. The high-speed event tied up traffic, may have contributed to a nearby crash, and resembled a similar rally last April in Santa Rosa, that ended with the arrests of two Santa Rosa men, authorities said.

Santa Rosa police officers made 45 traffic stops in connection with the latest sideshow, citing and releasing six people for speeding, Sgt. David Linscomb said. Several others were cited for various vehicle violations, he said.

The sideshows, typically held in summertime, are a widespread problem in the Bay Area, Santa Rosa CHP Sgt. David deRutte said Monday. The rallies apparently got their start in East Oakland in the 1980s, as events for drivers to show off their cars. They quickly became what they are today: venues for street races with drivers spinning in circles blocking intersections and sometimes causing accidents. Police here and in communities across the region have been trying to crack down on the illegal car rallies. San Jose last April took the extraordinary step of making it a crime to be a spectator at a sideshow.

The rally Sunday was first reported to CHP officers at 9:17 p.m. on Guerneville Road and Willowside Road, an intersection west of Santa Rosa. Officers were told several drivers were blocking the intersection for about 10 minutes, but by the time they arrived the cars were gone, deRutte said.

About 15 minutes later, Santa Rosa police were notified a large group of cars converged on Fulton Road and West Third Street, about three miles southeast of the Guerneville Road intersection. Callers told police drivers were speeding, spinning their cars in circles and blocking the intersection, Linscomb said.

'According to the original call, it came in as hundreds of vehicles,' Linscomb said, adding that an officer at the first scene estimated the rally size to be closer to 100 cars.

Speedy drivers reconvened again in several areas throughout Santa Rosa, including on Yulupa Avenue and Bennett Valley Road near the Bennett Valley Golf Course and Sebastopol Road, Linscomb said.

Three people sustained minor injuries in a rollover crash about a mile east of a sideshow. They were trapped in an overturned sedan on Sebastopol Road and Lombardi Court, authorities said. Since the crash occurred near the car rally, police suspect the car may have been involved in it, though Linscomb said officers are still investigating. Firefighters had to cut open one of the car's doors and pull the passengers out of the car, which had struck a pole that fell on top of the car, Santa Rosa Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Dahl said.

As Sunday night's rally spread and eluded police, CHP officers joined Santa Rosa police about 10 p.m. to contend with the speeding rally drivers.

CHP even deployed an airplane that earlier Sunday had been south in Santa Clara, while the San Francisco 49ers were playing their way into the Super Bowl, to provide an aerial view and pursuit of the street racing around Santa Rosa.

CHP officers in the plane spotted a Pontiac G8 leaving the sideshow and directed patrol officers to follow the car, authorities said. The driver and a passenger abandoned the Pontiac on a street off Grange Road, southeast of the golf course, and both of them got into another car. That vehicle, an Acura, drove toward Petaluma Hill Road at Crane Canyon Road, where more cars had arrived and were getting ready to start another sideshow, the CHP said.

The CHP plane continued following the Acura, which was eventually pulled over by an officer in a patrol car. That driver was arrested, suspected of aiding and abetting the driver of the Pontiac. The driver of the Pontiac, who was still in the car, also was arrested for allegedly participating in the illegal car rally, deRutte said. A driver in a black Ford Mustang also was arrested. The 17-year-old from Cotati who was driving a separate car was released to his parents after his arrest since he's a minor, while the three Santa Rosa men arrested were booked into Sonoma County Jail, he said.

Because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, deRutte said he wasn't able to provide more information Monday about the three adult suspects or the crimes they are accused of because his office was closed.

Meanwhile, the late-night, street-racing rally apparently ended with a group of drivers city police saw at Sebastopol Road and West Avenue, an intersection surrounded by several eateries in Santa Rosa's Roseland neighborhood, Linscomb said. One person threw a bottle at an officer's car as police responded to the sideshow, which finally died down about 12:30 a.m. Monday, he said.

As a result of the major illegal car rally, Santa Rosa police plans to work with the CHP and other law enforcement agencies to step up enforcement of the road racing events, city police Sgt. Summer Gloeckner said Monday night. The road rallies are organized, often at the last minute via social media, but they can last several hours with dozens of drivers quickly dispersing across a wide area before police close in on them.

'... It's something we've been fighting for a long time,' deRutte said, noting the sideshows are 'super unsafe' because you usually have a crowd standing along the road watching just feet away from cars spinning towards them.

Staff Writer Chantelle Lee contributed to this story.