POLICE have begun "targeting" car enthusiast groups

[Quicksand]

Did a search and couldnt find this posted anywhere else. The lines between 'Hoon' and 'Enthusiast' continue to blur.

POLICE have begun "targeting" car enthusiast groups that allegedly ignore road laws, charging the head of a notorious Adelaide car club with an anti-hoon law that has not been used before.

All Car Club president and self-confessed "hoon" Peter Wayne Barnes is yet to plead to a charge of promoting an event involving the misuse of motor vehicles.

Barnes, 20, of Seaton, is the first person to be charged with the offence, which relates to a "car cruise" at Parafield in September last year.

Inspector Philip Newitt, officer in charge of the Major Crash section, yesterday said police will "continue to target and arrest the organisers of these illegal events".

"There is a clear intention from organisers to incite, solicit and encourage drivers to commit serious and dangerous traffic offences," he said.

Barnes, however, yesterday claimed the All Car Club no longer existed and that another popular cruise club, Ragers Commodore Klub, had barely 10 members - down from 400 a year ago.

He said police, who follow the cruises and impose unwarranted defect notices on roadworthy cars, were victimising him.

"They have won," he said. "People are too scared to come on the cruises now for the fear their car will be targeted by police."

Barnes is also listed as the creator of an anti-police Facebook page titled "I've been *************** over by the Taskforce Diagonal one too many times.!!!" The page, which berates the SA Police anti-hoon squad, has 173 members.

"Please let us know what happened and if u were a victim of there b*****(sic)", Barnes writes on the site. As part of his bail agreement, Barnes is not allowed to participate in "any kind of club cruise, most especially Ragers Commodore Klub and All Car Club."

A curfew prohibiting Barnes from being outside between 8pm and 7am also had been imposed, but was revoked last week.

Police recently laid charges against another man who allegedly is the head of South Australia's other main hoon car club.

Barnes has previously told The Advertiser "male testosterone" and the need to "show off" is behind his club's car cruises.

After a cruise in July, which involved about 250 cars, Barnes said he had told police "what happens when I finish the cruise is not on my shoulders", despite it shutting down sections of the highway and leaving it coated in oil and rubber.

He was also photographed participating in a "breakaway" group of the cruise where drivers took turns doing burnouts and "circle work" in a 100km/h zone.

"I'll admit that I'm a bit of a hoon," the Findon father of two said last July.

"I'll go to their burnout spots but I've got kids now and I'm back with my missus."

Barnes, who has previously lost his licence over traffic offences, also said the nights were about "showing what your car is made of".

"It's a bit of male testosterone my-car-is-better-than-your-car type of thing," he said. "It's fun. It's just showing what your car is made of. We're just letting off a bit of steam."

He faces a fine of up to $2500 as well as a licence disqualification if found guilty.

He will appear again in court next month.

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/s...-1225870268546