Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

STREET RACERS DESERVE RESPECT - AND A SAFE PLACE TO RACE

Illegal street racing is a huge problem in the US and many other countries, and even the high price of gasoline won’t stop it. The truth is, whether we like or not, whether it makes any sense at all, racing is going to continue until the last drop of high-test is gone. (In this photo from the NY Times, former illegal street racers in Lodz, Poland, compete on a public street closed to all traffic by the police commissioner; the city spent more than $20,000 for timing equipment and this Christmas tree, and the track is open once a month).

Soon, gas/electric hybrids and clean diesel engines will be tuned for racing; hydrogen fuel cell EVs will be competing as soon as they hit the streets in any numbers. There will always be competition between cars and their owners, and there’s no reason that racing won’t continue with tomorrow’s cars. These people will start showing-up at the annual Las Vegas Automotive Holy of Holies, the SEMA Show, probably this year.

Today’s hot rodder is often a computer nerd.

Here’s why this problem needs to be addressed in new ways:

In Maryland a few months ago, a car on a turnpike where illegal races were being held ran into a group of spectators and killed eight bystanders. (In this 1950s photo from an LA-area auto show, NHRA founder Wally Parks, in the light suit, and his wife Barbara spread the word about legal NHRA drag racing).

In San Diego, where the street racing problem has been termed "epidemic," 16 deaths and 31 injuries were directly related to illegal street racing in 2001.

And an incident which has garnered worldwide coverage, being discussed at length even on Larry King Live, Nick Bollea, the son of wrestling personality Hulk Hogan, drove his Toyota Supra, which had been highly-modified for racing in a sport called drifting, ran into a tree at over 100 miles per hour. When that happens, the tree always wins. Bollea was, amazingly, unharmed, but his friend John Graziano, in the passenger seat, didn’t fare as well.

Doctors say he’ll remain bed-ridden and unable to communicate for the rest of his life in a near-vegetative state, his brain severely damaged and part of his frontal lobe having been surgically removed. Nick Bollea, lawyered-up with dad’s money, got  eight months in a county jail near his home. Eight months.

(Nick Bollea's mug shot; Hulk Hogan's son escaped injury when he drove his Toyota Supra, modified for racing, into a tree at over 100-miles per hour; his best friend, US Marine John Graziano, who saw action in Iraq, was in the passenger seat and doctors say he will never again be able to walk, eat normally or engage in any meaningful communication. He had to come home to suffer because Bollea couldn't drive his car, which incidentally is registered in his father's name. It also bring up the subject of driver education and training, but that's for another, future posting.).

Click below for more on the need for illegal street racing to be brought to controlled racing environments, and the history of Big Wille and Brotherhood Raceway.

HULK HOGAN ON NEAR-BRAIN-DEAD VICTIM GRAZIANO: "THIS IS TO MAKE JOHN A BETTER PERSON"

We all love to see the mighty brought down ... It's a natural human reaction when those held-up as heroes and celebrities make mistakes and hit the skids ... Especially when it's as a result of that person's standing in society, their money, their attitude that "the rules don't apply to me". The Germans have a word for it: Schadenfreude, defined, in short, as "delight in the suffering of another". When it comes to Hulk Hogan and his son, Nick and all their problems ... Hey, we're Hulkster fans! Have been as long as he's been on the scene. About ten years ago, we were at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey, CA for a press preview of a new Rolls-Royce model, when a huge stretch limo pulled-up to the hotel's front, where we were standing with Roller people and other journos. And when HULK HOGAN got out of it, we went nuts! It was GREAT, this huge guy getting out of THAT limo in his bandanna, torn t-shirt and everything else ... and he came right over and slapped our backs and checked-out the cars ... The Rolls people couldn't have been happier, and Hulk really seemed like "one of the boys". I'll never forget meeting him. (We'll save for another time the story of how the Mayor of Moscow was also at the hotel and offered to buy all the Rolls' on display ... about ten of them ... for cash, right at that minute).

But this sudden sadness surrounding his family, and the Hogans seeming to take no responsibility, and the recently-released jail cell phone calls which were devastating to their "cause" have all made Hulk and his family, for good or bad, a target. Hogan's appearance on CNN's Larry King Live this evening only added to their troubles, and maybe even put Hulk Hogan out of the public eye, forever ... (Photo - What was left of the Supra after Hulk's 17-year-old son Nick crashed it into a palm tree at an estimated 100-miles-per-hour; his passenger and best friend was permanently brain-damaged, Hogan suffered no injuries).

The Hulk Hogan "spectacle" seen worldwide on Larry King Live on CNN tonight revealed Hogan  to be blaming everyone ...  and everything ... except himself and his son, Nick, for Nick putting his "best friend" in a near-coma for the rest of his life due to Nick's over-100-mph crash into a palm tree in a Toyota Supra, modified for racing, which is registered to Hulk Hogan (family name: Bollea).

The entire hour was unseemly, sleazy, embarrassing ... Painful to watch. You felt like you needed a shower afterwards. A sad shadow of his former self with a do-rag wrapped around his bald head, Hogan is reduced to a teary-eyed, bleary-eyed man-mountain, throwing himself on the mercy of Jesus, who can't seem to tell the difference between right and wrong, can't keep his family together and is, ultimately, a loser ... even with all his bling.

Nick Hogan was sentenced to eight months in jail, and will probably be out in half that time. He's serving it in a county jail near his home, not a state "prison". Interestingly, CNN thought it necessary to run, on the crawl on the bottom of the screen, that the victim, "John was not wearing his seat belt". Big deal. Talk about tabloid-style "attacking the victim" as to that and other comments Hogan made throughout the show subtly and slyly demeaning and belittling Graziano and his family for being "angry" about the accident and coming at them with a civil suit. A suit which we hope they win, big-time. And isn't that the sort of thing which helped make Hogan such a celebrity in wrestling, his masterful style of needling his opponents? (Photo - From left, Sylvester Stallone, Hulk Hogan and wrestling impresario Vince McMahon; if you're real quiet you can hear the steroids coursing through their veins).

Hogan's crocodile tears on CNN, his claims of new-found religion and "spirituality at this point in my life" and his incredible statement at the end of the show, with his attorney sitting next to him, that "this whole thing is to make Nick a better person, to make John a better person, I have to believe that" were quite disturbing. We got news for Hogan: John is now a rutabaga, thanks to your son and the way you raised him; not a "person" as we generally use the term.

A viewer asking a "video question" in the show's third-quarter made Hogan visibly squirm. Summing up and paraphrasing, he asked, "We saw you on video going to the liquor store with your son, drinking with him on the boat, Nick getting off the boat and getting into his car with you cheering him on, you knew he had at least two speeding tickets, you bought him that race car, you knew he drank, you knew he drag raced, and yet you still let him drive the car ... and you seem to take very little responsibility yourself ... why is that?"

What did Hogan say? "I didn't hear the question, Larry." Right. Yeah. The problem was he DID hear it, just  as well as deaf-old Larry heard it; it just hit too close to home and he had no lawyered-up "pre-canned" answer for that one.

(Photo - A flattering photo of Larry, and he deserves no less ... God knows we have enough lousy ones of him ... But he went after Hogan, which surprised us, as he so often goes easy on even the most disgusting politicos, like Henry Kissinger and David Gergen, but King knows when the momentum, the BigMo, has "left the building," as it has for Hogan).

Click below for more on Hulk Hogan's appearance this evening, June 10, 2008, on Larry King Live.

UPDATE --- NICK HOGAN DENIED HOUSE ARREST; FILES SUIT AGAINST SHERIFF

THIS JUST IN ...

Nick Hogan, 17-year-old son of wrestling star Hulk Hogan, has had his request to be released early from the county jail near his home and allowed to participate in "house arrest" at that home, denied. Hogan was recently sentenced to eight months in jail for charges stemming from a car accident, in which Hogan was driving his Toyota Supra "drifting" race car at over 100-miles-per-hour on city streets, and slammed into a palm tree, destroying the car, and resulting in his best friend and only passenger, John Graziano, suffering brain damage which has put him in a "semi-conscious" state for the rest of his life, doctors say. Graziano can not breath on his own, and is connected to a respirator; he is confined full-time to a hospital bed and can not interact with others in any meaningful way, nor speak or eat. Hogan is expected to spend less than four months in confinement as he receives one "good day" for each day he spends in jail without causing problems for his jailers or other inmates. (Photos - Above, what was left of Hulk Hogan's car after his son Nick drove it into a tree at over 100mph, Below, Nick Hogan in better times).

On the same day Hogan had his request to leave jail early denied, June 3rd, Hogan's attorneys filed a civil suit against the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department for releasing audio tapes of phone calls Hogan made from jail (see posting below for that audio and transcripts of the conversations between Hogan and his parents). Hogan is being held in solitary confinement because of his age, even though he was tried as an adult in court.

UNBELIEVABLE HOGAN FAMILY JAIL CELL PHONE CALLS: OUR VERDICT? STEROIDS, STEROIDS AND MORE STEROIDS ...

Nick Hogan (family name: Bollea), 17-year-old son of wrestler Hulk Hogan, was sentenced to eight months in a county jail in Florida, near the family home, for driving a Toyota Supra owned by Hulk Hogan into a palm tree at over 100 miles per hour. His passenger and best friend, John Graziano, a US Marine who had served in Iraq, suffered extensive brain damage which resulted in the removal of part of his frontal lobe (lobotomy) and the possibly permanent removal of a large part of the front of his skull. Hogan received minor injuries and was released from a hospital the same night of the crash. Both Hogan and Graziano had been drinking alcohol. Hogan has been cited at least twice before in Florida for driving at over 100 miles per hour on public streets. A law enforcement guest on CNN's Nancy Grace show this evening (6-2-08) said that Hogan was stopped twice in the same day on the same road for going over 100mph ... But his passenger talked officers out of writing tickets. His passenger was his father, Hulk Hogan. Nick Hogan once campaigned cars in "drift" events around the country. (Photo Above - Nick Hogan, right inset, and John Graziano and what was left of the Supra which, in Hogan's hands, ended any semblance of a normal life for his "best friend").

These tapes and transcripts (see below) of Hogan talking with his parents from jail surfaced today, June 1, 2008.

Click here for audio track 1 of 3 of Nick Hogan's jail cell calls...

Click here for audio track 2 of 3 of Nick Hogan's jail cell calls...

Click here for audio track 3 of 3 of Nick Hogan's jail cell calls ...

Their most shocking aspect, we thought, is that all three participants, Nick and his parents, seem  interested in just two things: Their bank accounts, and freeing Nick from jail and placed under "house arrest". Not only do they speak negatively about victim John Graziano, Linda Hogan, the mother, speaks disparagingly of the victim's mother. (Photo - Now, here's three guys who never used steroids, right? Hulk Hogan is flanked by, on the left, Sylvester Stallone and, right, WWE "Chairman" Vince McMahon).

My long-ago verdict on the Hogan family? Easy. Steroids.

"Hulk" has never denied using them because, he says, "they were legal" in his day. And the loud, obnoxious, ultra-selfish, arrogant, hyper-sexual, super-aggressive "side effects" which anabolic steroids cause seem to effect the entire Hogan clan, mom and dad, Nick and sis ... 'Ozzie and Harriett' it ain't. Nick's illegal street racing is a symptom, mom Linda seen in videos cheering him on as he does a burnout in front of the exclusive Ivy restaurant in West Hollywood while he's driving a Dodge Viper, has one thinking "drugs" about them both and the not-always-so soft-core porn which the sister and mother provide cameras at a moment's notice, and then take the entire life story of Hulk himself ... It all screams: STEROIDS!!! (Photo - Supra, owned by Hulk Hogan, after the over-100mph crash which occured at the hands of Nick Hogan; his police mugshot is seen at bottom of page).

And the family might have even more to look forward to; some of you might remember Oakland Raider football star Lyle Alzado confessing to steroid use and saying it caused the brain tumor which soon after killed him, in 1992, at age 43. Is that something else The Hulkster will bequeath his wife and kids? Or will kidney and/or liver damage do them in early?

America is in a fit of "Zero Tolerance" and host to a population eager for and in favor of biblical-based punishments (Sharia, anyone?), boot camps for 10-year olds, rogue cops who do 'whatever it takes to get the job done' and convicts, children tried as adults, phony victims, child molesters (NBC must be so proud of that series) ... Yet if it happens on TV, it seems that for many people, it's all somehow alright. Combined with the average American feeling that it is his/her RIGHT to be on TV, and we have a country with a large, sick mass; a cancer growing on the population. And the Hogans are not even the First Family in this battle to see who can be most disgusting.

From the Hogan family to the Osbournes to "Dr. Drew" Pinsky to cable TV's "Intervention" to racist Hawaii bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman and his family to motorcyclist Jesse James to the Gotti family ... and on and on ... American TV is filled with sick, twisted, tormented racists, drug addicts, Nazis, alcoholics, two-timers, "Cheaters" and on and on ... Then we have those who offer the "cure" of being on TV, including Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer evil spawn Steve Wilkos, Oprah and all those judges; Judy, Marilyn, Joe, Greg, Maria, Lynn, David, Glenda (the good witch?) and even the Mafia/Gotti lawyer, Bruce Cutler, has his own show, playing a judge with some phony cases presented before a three-person jury of C-list celebrities ... and of course, AI's Simon, Paula and Randy ... and all the rest ... All the TV judges distributing TV justice ... America's teeming and wretched White Trash ... and all others ... have no lack of TV teachers in how to live one's life ... And the importance of taking, like a proud, devout American, the righteous punishments dished-out by TV judges for the 'crime' of merely copying their favorite TV personalities.

Click below to read more comment and the transcripts of Nick Hogan's jail cell phone calls.