Over 1 year after the incident, it is finally all over and I can talk about it openly!
August last year, the night before the first Ausmini WSID night drags, I took Lillee out for a drive to drain her old petrol. She was in bad shape, backfiring and not in a very good state of tune. Was at the lights at Parramatta Rd and Silverwater road minding my own business. Lillee was still cold as it was a pretty chilly night, I was struggling not to stall her at the lights, kept my foot on the accelerator to keep her revs up, watching my temp and rev gauge.
Lights go green, I took off as I normally do, 1st, then second and finally straight into 4th at 60km/h or 2400rpm on the tacho. Drove along at 60 for quite some time and I notice that there is this car next to me side by side (which I later found out was a P plater Corolla). Thought nothing of it.
Nearly 2 kms later I see flashing lights behind me, at first I thought he was after someone else so I pull over slowly and he stops both me and the Corolla. I was genuinely shocked. Officer got out of the car and I said to him "What's the problem mate?" thinking I had a missing tail light or my car was too smokey or something. He says to me "you have been caught on camera street racing". I was "Pardon? you've got to be kidding, I wasn't even going over 60km/h" "You don't need to speed to race".
Next thing I knew they were towing Lillee away and impounding her for 3 months. I said "Mate you have got to be kidding, I didn't go over the speed limit and I didn't even know the other guy was there" He said "Mate we have to take the P platers car so we have to take yours". 3 Months impound cost me $1100.
I was looking at 12 months license suspension, $1500 fine and worste part: a record. Turns out police did not have any footage, or solid evidence of my speed other than "what they saw from Auburn McDonalds carpark". We fought the charge in full costing about $4000 and in an unfortunate turn of events (Unreasonable judge and crappy solicitor) I lost and got the full penalty. The P plater on the other hand was charged but got a $200 fine and 14 days off his license as it was not a big deal.
So I appealed with a proper solicitor this time. Over one year later and the Judge has found me innocent and dropped all charges. The key quote was "Mr procecutor, if we take the corolla out of the equation entirely, we would not be here would we?". He also said "Having owned a 850, Deluxe and Cooper S myself, I am quite familiar with this model and make of car"
Basically we were not jostling for position, not speeding excessively and he doubted that I was racing the other car and more like the other car was racing me according to police statements.
Since then I have reduced the amount of noise Lillee's exhaust makes by adding a hot dog before the muffler, which I feel was a contributor to the cops noticing me at all.
Morale of the story: It's just not worth it guys. The fickle law that governs street racing can be interpreted in many ways and it carries harsh penalties so just make sure you remember this before taking off too quick at the lights. Even though I had no intention or care for anyone else on the road, it can be seen as something inchriminating and these days police have the power to take your car away without asking any questions.
That 30 second event cost me 1 year of heartache and stress and nearly $7000 in legal fees... As innocent as the event was, I paid dearly either way!
