Race Wars helps give back to community

ROYAL CITY - Under the hot desert sun, the Double the Performance racing club held its fifth annual Race Wars in conjunction with SummerFest in Royal City last weekend.

Race Wars is a fundraising event for the car club to help give back to the Royal City community. DTP club founder Jesus Esparza said many of the DTP members are also members of the Royal City Lyons club. The club was presented with a community service award last year for its help in Royal City's Lions Park, including the installation of a drinking fountain.

Esparza and the DTP racing club helped resurrect the floundering Lyons club as a way to give something back to the community, Esparza said.

"[It was a way to] do something good for the community," he said.

The DTP racing club, comprised of members who primarily build high revolution tuner vehicles, or high rev tuners. High rev tuners are four-cylinder compact cars, usually Honda Civics with modifications to produce more than 500 horsepower.

The DTO racing club of Royal City holds Race Wars twice a year on a private airstrip outside of Royal City so competitors may do battle in the quarter mile, instead of on the street.

Esparza said the Race Wars format is simple.

"You pick a guy, line up, and go for it," he said.

The Saturday even drew more than 2,000 spectators to watch more than 300 vehicles take to the track. Vehicles competing in Race Wars included muscle cars, high rev tuners, vans, trucks, and motorcycles, with each driver trying to prove they had the fastest vehicle.

Competitor Ivan Torres of the Tri-Cities said he would rather compete at Race Wars rather than race on the street to avoid getting caught street racing.

"I would rather race on a track," he said.

Esparza, a former street racer, said he used to race on the streets because there were not any tracks close enough to race on.

"I am not gonna lie," he said. "I used to go race on the streets. You had to drive two hours, and that was too far."

Royal City Police Chief Darin Smith said he doesn't believe his community has a problem with street racing any more and credits the DTP racing club.

"It's been a while since I've seen it, we don't get a lot of that anymore," he said.

The DTP Racing Club will only have one Race Wars this year because of scheduled maintenance on the airstrip later this year.