So this is pretty f'd up and I saw someone else in these forums with a similar but very different situation who had posted and gotten a fair number of responses so I thought I would see what you guys thought. I will note early on that I am 22 with a perfect driving record, no accidents, no speeding tickets, and no parking tickets in 7 years, yet with roughly 50-70,000 miles under my belt.

I was designated driver for the evening and behind the wheel of my friends 2007 BMW 335i (he trusts me... alot apparently). We pulled up to a stoplight that an early 2000 mustang had been waiting at for a few seconds. The mustang started revving its engine. My friend and I had a good laugh and then my friend reached over and dropped his SMG from M2 into first. The light turned green and before the mustang even had time to reach the floor pedal, we were a good 4 car lengths in front of him. At this point I stopped accelerating. I never hit 40 mph, in fact I stopped accelerating as soon as I hit second gear. The mustang turned left after a block, maybe two. We laughed about how quickly my friends car could accelerate and continued driving down the road doing the speed limit. This is when I noticed the unfriendly headlights and the slight glimmer of a roof rack in the dark on the car behind us. I sighed realizing it was a cop and hoped that I hadn't done anything that appeared wreckless. Since I had not reached excessive speeds by any means and since the mustang had immediately turned off the road, I was not worried too much about any kind of ticket, so I started hugging the speed limit and following every good driver habit possible. The officer continued to follow me for about another minute and what amounted to about 8 blocks going exactly the speed limit before turning on his lights.

I was cited for "racing" against a car I did not know that turned off the road immediately and to top it all off, the road we were on merged together which also gave me the excuse of accelerating ahead to get in front of him and merge over. Unfortunately the cop heard the stupid mustang revving his engine and decided that one of us should be pulled over for racing.

My question is, how well will I be able to defend myself in court? It seems like such an absurdly outrageous accusation given the circumstances that I would hate to spend any money on a lawyer who would be given the easiest case he has ever seen in his life. The police officer did not have another officer riding with him while I had a witness in the car who had not had a drink in 3 hours and was paying astute attention to my speed as we accelerated. I would even be willing to go as far as to request the police cars dash cam to prove that the mustang immediately turned. I can see how a car that does 0-60 in under 5 seconds would appear to be moving pretty damn fast but since I was not clocked or even paced going at any excessive speeds and I have a witness, not including myself, who can vouche for never going over 40, how much can this racing charge really hold up? 'Racing' by definition is a contest of speed. If any contest happened, which it clearly didn't, it would have been a contest of acceleration over the course of less than two seconds. That doesn't sound like any kind of race I have ever heard of.

Thanks for reading and for any helpful input. I haven't received the citation in the mail yet so I am not positive what the 'exact' charges are, or I may not even get a citation in the mail at all, the cop seemed to feel bad after I pleaded with him that I was not racing and never got over 35. It seemed more like he wanted to teach me a lesson for buying into the mustangs revving.

[aut0sh0cker]

I would say, from what you have described, you could pretty easily get the charge reduced to "exhibition of speed" which carries a much lighter sentence than racing. This means something along the lines of displaying your car's power by any of the following: accelerating beyond what is safe or reasonable, performing a burnout on public roads, etc.

good luck with the law,
Scott

[mPlasticDesign]

"Reduced"? Are you kidding me? As soon as you tell the judge you shifted your friends 335i's SMG M2 into 1st, he just might throw you in prison!

First of all I did not shift the car and second, why would I tell a judge that I shifted the car into first. Now that I think back, I was in auto shift mode. That was a typo.

PS. I read up on 'exhibition of speed'. That is a typical down plea for DUI drivers and infers that I chirped my tires or burned out. I was not DUI and I did not exhibit my speed or peel out.

[!Xoible]

fight it for sure wtf

[aut0sh0cker]

Originally Posted by hopps01

First of all I did not shift the car and second, why would I tell a judge that I shifted the car into first. Now that I think back, I was in auto shift mode. That was a typo.

PS. I read up on 'exhibition of speed'. That is a typical down plea for DUI drivers and infers that I chirped my tires or burned out. I was not DUI and I did not exhibit my speed or peel out.

Exhibition of speed is not limited to chirping your tires. Accelerating hard is enough to get pulled for this, and it carries a penalty similar to a speeding ticket. I dont know about you, but that sure as shit seems better than getting possible jail time for racing, license suspension, not to mention your insurance rates reaching for the stars after a citation like that.

[ADHD]

335 with SMG.. LOLOL...WOW,

[chuck92103]

Racing is against the law so what part don't you understand?

From your point of you, wreckless driving is ok as long as you are going under the posted speed limit.

Are you like 18 years old?

You did a great job reading. I state my age in the first 3 sentences and also, I am making the argument that I was not racing. Did you seriously just read the title and reply?

edit - hey autoshocker, should i fight the citation or should i plea for the down sentence with the prosecution? with all the consequences of a racing misdemeanor, i'm thinking legal council might be the way to go just to make sure there is no way racing gets put on my record.

[Zoomby_U]

Hello Hopps01,

First off just man up and admit that you were trying to race the mustang ... as your clearly stated that "The light turned green and before the mustang even had time to reach the floor pedal, we were a good 4 car lengths in front of him". That to me sounds like you were trying to out accelerate the mustang which is racing. However that being said you definitely have to fight the ticket and I would suggest you get a lawyer or use one of those ex-copper guys as if you have a clean record as you say then you should be able to get a reduced charge. We've all been there before and none of us can say we haven't done it before ... so accept it, learn from it and move on.

Cheers,
Zoomby_U

Racing is a contest of speed. Given the cars, there was no contest (lol). Accelerating to the speed limit to the best of your cars abilities without peeling out is not illegal and since there was no equipment used to determine speed, the charge of racing is based purely on the police officers opinion that we both accelerated quickly along side one another, whether or not we had any intention of racing or not. Especially since the mustang immediately turned off the road and especially since we were on a merging lane. Well nevermind. I will get a lawyer and have the citation dismissed. This did help though, from all these "Yoooouuu were racing! Har har!"s, I don't think I would want to take my chances on my own in court.

[Androo000]

if you were 4 cl ahead of him by the time he dropped then i would definitely say you should ask your parents to pay the ticket and stay in school. And dont get a bmw. Ever.

[flyinbrian]

Most people are missing here is that the cop was just being an A**hole. How many of you have not accelerated hard near another car? Cops are just generating revenue with out any form of discretion.

[Deda]

Originally Posted by flyinbrian

Most people are missing here is that the cop was just being an A**hole. How many of you have not accelerated hard near another car? Cops are just generating revenue with out any form of discretion.

+1!

[MTV]

You technically were involved in a race. The Mustang revving his engine and causing you to floor it off the line is proof.

The ticket is complete bullshit though, and I would say to 100% fight it.

[TiAg335i]

I would say you deserve an exhibition of speed ticket, rather than racing, from what you posted. Obviously you should fight it, as with every other moving violation.

[mPlasticDesign]

Originally Posted by ADHD

335 with SMG.. LOLOL...WOW,

Thank You! That was the whole point of my previous post! LOL

[BMWE90]

Troll?

[OO---OO]

So..... you were trying to race and the mustang was smart enough to pull off.. is what youre saying?

Ahhh yes, you should get a ticket for racing and being stupid.

K, THX, BAI