4 Connecticut men charged after high speed drag race in Yaphank
Suffolk police have charged four men following a street takeover and drag race in Yaphank Sunday. The race car was impounded. Credit: SCPD
A drag race in Yaphank early Sunday with over 50 vehicles and 100 spectators led to four Connecticut men being ticketed once the racers had dispersed, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Speeds reached upward of 100 mph, the press office wrote in an email.
The race came to police attention from a 911 caller reporting what a department news release later called "a large gathering of vehicles," at about 1:10 a.m. on Express Drive North, west of Sills Road, part of the street takeover phenomenon vexing police departments and annoying neighborhood residents.
Officers "observed vehicles racing before the vehicles dispersed," then later detained "a truck towing a trailer carrying a race car and arrested four people," the release said.
That driver of that vehicle, the press office wrote, had been attempting to flee the scene of the race. The race car was visible when the truck was pulled over, at about 1:20 a.m., on Express Drive North.
Charges against the men — Christian Vargas Hernandez, 28; John Maldonado, 33; Lawrence Torres, 30; and Efrain Rivera, 35, all of Meriden, Connecticut — include violating a law against unlawful speed contests, sideshows and races, the department wrote in the release. Vargas Hernandez was also charged with reckless driving and unlawfully using a motor vehicle to flee a police officer.
The release did not explain the basis for the charges against the men who were not driving at the time the police pulled over the vehicle.
The men are due in court at a later date; the race car, along with the trailer and truck, were impounded.
Illegal drag racing on Long Island dates back to the beginnings of the founding of the Island as a car suburb.
Newsday reported earlier this year that in Suffolk alone since November 2024, when its police department's Takeover Task Force started, at least 122 takeovers have been dispersed, 13,002 summonses issued, 105 arrests made and 154 vehicles impounded.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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