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Police seek drivers of sports cars engaged in high speed race across North Fork

Southold police are searching for the drivers of two high-powered sports cars engaged in a street race on Route 48 from Peconic to Mattituck Sunday afternoon.

An officer reported seeing eight exotic sports cars traveling westbound through Peconic at around the speed limit shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The two lead vehicles, a blue 2017 McLaren and a red 2016 Ferrari, slowed to about 25 miles per hour, briefly driving side by side before rapidly accelerating to speeds in excess of 130 mph, according to police.

After an officer pursued them with lights and siren engaged, the cars began to slow down, but still maintained speeds of more than 100 mph.

Both the McLaren and Ferrari could later be seen going through a red light at Depot Lane in Cutchogue at more than 80 mph, driving in the shoulder to avoid westbound traffic that was stopped at the light.

At this point, all town patrol units on the road were advised to observe the vehicles if possible, but not to pursue due to the reckless nature of the drivers, police said.

An officer who stopped north and southbound traffic at the Wickham Avenue intersection then saw the two vehicles drive through the red light there, again at a speed of more than 80 mph.

Carol Gillooly of Orient said she was driving to Aquebogue when the cars passed Wickham.

“I thought I would make the left,” she said. “All of a sudden an officer jumps out of his car and shouts for everyone to move to the left. At that point these two cars go by. They were going at least 100 miles an hour, one in front of the other. They were going that fast. I looked back and here comes six police cars chasing them. This was something like you see in a movie.”

A short time later, a good Samaritan who spotted the drivers turn off Route 48 was later able to flag down police near Harbes Family Farm in Mattituck and the two unoccupied vehicles were located on Hallock Lane Extension.

Following a search of the area, the two drivers could not be found and police were unable to locate the registered owners of the vehicles. The abandoned vehicles are worth in excess of $250,000, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Jacey Lengyel, an employee at Harbes, said she heard two engines revving and saw the vehicles speed past going at least 100 mph sometime after 1:30 p.m.

“They were going so fast they almost hit a bunch of people,” she said.

She said it was a scary situation because people were in the road to see what was happening.

“If they came back down this road they obviously didn’t care what was in their way,” she said.

Police remained on scene for at least two hours, she said.

Anyone who may have video of these cars or know the identity of the drivers is asked to contact Southold Town Police Det. Sgt. John Sinning at 631-765-2600.

Police did not say what happened to the other six vehicles involved at the start of the incident. The impounded vehicles were in Peconic Monday at police headquarters.

Top photo caption: The two cars parked at Southold Town police headquarters Monday morning. (Credit: Mahreen Khan)

The 2016 Ferrari parked at police headquarters. (Credit: Mahreen Khan)
The 2017 McLaren being towed Sunday by police. (Jacey Lengyel/Courtesy photo)

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