A West Vancouver real estate agent who police allege was involved in road racing his Lamborghini with 12 other high-end sports cars this summer has applied to the B.C. Supreme Court to have his 16-month driving ban overturned.
Zhuo Tony Huang got his 2009 Lamborghini back after it was impounded for seven days following the alleged road race in August.
Now Huang wants the courts to overturn his 16-month driving suspension, saying theres not a scintilla of evidence he was involved in road racing along the highway south of the Massey Tunnel.
Huang, 28, who lives in the British Properties with his wife and two children, has disputed being involved in any kind of road race with drivers of 12 other high-end sports cars along Highway 99. Huang said in an affidavit that he was only driving about 115 kilometres an hour on the highway, on his way to a farewell celebration for one of his friends in White Rock.
Huang said in court documents that he needs his drivers licence for both business and family purposes.
The superintendent should not act upon rumour, speculation and hysteria, he wrote in the petition to the court, filed Dec. 8.
Another driver allegedly involved in the same incident, Dan Na Zhu of Richmond, is also challenging the 20-month driving ban that the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles gave her.
Huang and Zhu were two of more than a dozen drivers stopped by highway police Aug. 31 after frantic witnesses called 9-1-1 to report an unusual road race taking place among 13 luxury sports in the midst of rush hour traffic. Cars included several Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Mercedes SLs, an Audi R8 and a Ferrari 599.
According to police, witnesses said drivers of the vehicles were weaving in and out of traffic, driving in a highly aggressive manner.
Witnesses described them as taking turns blocking traffic and slowing down to create space on the road that would allow two of the cars to accelerate suddenly in a short road race.
One witness who told police he had experience as a race car driver estimated the racing speeds as easily over 200 km/h, according to the police description of the incident.
Others described them as simply driving like jerks.
About 13 minutes later, RCMP officers pulled over 13 rare, high-end vehicles, a number of which had N stickers on them.
Given the timing, description, rarity and location of these vehicles police believe it would be next to impossible that a different group of similar vehicles was operating in the area at the same time, RCMP officers wrote in their report.
Police impounded the cars, handed out tickets for driving without due car and attention and sent off letters to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, asking that the drivers have their licences taken away for a lengthy period of time.
Both Huang and Zhu appealed their suspensions, arguing they had not been speeding or road racing, but their appeals were rejected by an adjudicator, who said it was improbable that so many witnesses would describe an event to police if there was no basis for their claims.
If you, Ms. Zhu and Mr. Kot (another driver who police pulled over at the scene) were travelling at approximately 115 km/hour in a posted 100 km/h zone and regular traffic was moving faster than your group, it is unlikely that would have come to the attention of witnesses in the area at that time, the adjudicator wrote.
No date has been set yet for the review.
Several of the other drivers whose vehicles were seized under the provinces civil forfeiture rules are also applying to have their sports cars returned.
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