Amato challenges fellow racers to help fight illegal street racing

Joe Amato, the most decorated driver in Top Fuel history with 52 national event wins and five NHRA titles, will serve as spokesman for SEMA's Racers Against Street Racing (RASR) program in 2004 and beyond.

"Going fast is cool," Amato said. "I built my career around going fast, but we've all seen too many kids dying for no reason. You can't pick up a newspaper or watch the news these days without seeing another needless tragedy.

"I think it's time for the racing community as a whole to band together and get the message across to our young people that illegal street racing is a killer," added Amato. "We all understand the need for speed and the exhilaration of beating the guy in the other lane, but why be stupid about it? We can make a big impact if kids start hearing this message from their racing heroes."

Amato's representation of the RASR program has already begun; he displayed the RASR logo on his Darrell Russell-driven Top Fuel dragster at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals. The logo will become a permanent part of Amato's race car, and he hopes other teams will follow.