As many as 400 people at a time are gathering in industrial estates at Tullamarine for illegal street racing so intense that fire brigade units are called out.
Sunshine police inspector Dave Byrt said hundreds of members of a group called Northern Skids, which includes members from south Sunshine, were able to get illegal race meets together at rapid speed.
“With modern technology, these groups can organise, gather then disperse and reappear in another location in a matter of minutes,” he said.
Police believe two young people killed in a fiery crash on the EJ Whitten Bridge on the Western Ring Road at Keilor East last Wednesday had connections with Melbourne’s street racing scene.
Harley Churchill, 19, and Ivana Clonaridis, 18, were travelling in Mr Churchill’s ute at speeds of up to 160km/h when the blue Holden Commodore crashed through safety barriers on the bridge about 1.30am, catapulting through the air before exploding on impact 100 metres below.
Earlier that morning, police had disrupted a large gathering with drivers doing burnouts and wheelies at an industrial estate at Campbellfield, about 18 kilometres from the crash site.
Inspector Byrt said police were called to gatherings of hoon drivers “most weeks”.
He said the people involved were primarily young males from Broadmeadows, Werribee and Craigieburn.
“You can have 20 people or as many as 300 to 400 people,” he said.
“It’s most weeks.
“We get a number of tip-offs through triple-0 when these meets are on.
“We’ve had the fire brigade called because it sets off so much smoke. You have to fight your way through it.”
Inspector Byrt said designating areas for young drivers wanting to race, such as Calder Park raceway, hadn’t worked because many young hoons were “driven by the rush of an audience”.
“The audience enables this behaviour,” he said. “The thrill is to be out on the road.”
He said a Sunshine police taskforce had impounded or crushed several hoon vehicles, but police statistics showed Brimbank as one of the worst hoon hotspots in Melbourne.
Police are searching for two people in a silver 2003-04 Ford sedan with P-plates, which was believed to have been racing Mr Churchill’s car at the time of the fatality.
