Driving a news van can be a real drag. Evidently so, as news crews from KDBC-TV and KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas took it literally during their coverage of opening night at El Paso Motorplex. In response to the crowd's wishes, both overweight vans -- packing a full assortment of electronic equipment and sporting satellite dishes on the roof -- staged at the tree. Reaction times were slow as both lumbered off the line, sans wheelspin, and hobbled down the quarter-mile strip. Neither news station posted slips, but the driver from KDBC-TV was let go for his performance (one has to assume the only thing he broke were the station rules). Lucky for us, video cameras caught all of the action.

CNN's Anderson Cooper reported the event in the video after the jump with this cynical lead-in: "What were they thinking?" His follow-up crack of, "...seriously, the folks in the van should have known better..." was only topped by the comment from his female co-host who blurted out, "I didn't realize it was legal anywhere to drag race... shows you I don't get out much." Doh! Turns out they thought the media face-off was in pour taste because a person had died in that area the previous night in what may have been an illegal street-racing incident.

It is, however, still legal to drag race on quarter- and eighth-mile tracks all over the country, and we think the impromptu event was a pretty cool publicity stunt for EP Motorplex. In fact, next time let's turn it up a notch with some big names going head-to-head for pinks. Are you listening CNN and FOX News? Thanks for the tip, Nick!

[Source: SouthWestDrags]

Continue reading VIDEO: News van drivers go drag racing (legally)

VIDEO: News van drivers go drag racing (legally) originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.