Jail for burnout that led to blackout

A LOVELY Banks drag racer received prison time yesterday after doing a burnout in his car and then crashing the vehicle into a power pole, leaving the area without power for hours.

Corey Vanderlei, 38, was sentenced to two months in jail after pleading guilty to numerous driving charges including driving in a manner dangerous.

The Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard Vanderlei had been driving a vehicle east in North Geelong when he “intentionally heavily accelerated the vehicle, causing both tyres to lose traction”.

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Jackie Davis said Vanderlei performed a 160m-long burnout before losing control of the vehicle and sliding sideways into a power pole.

“The car was designed for drag racing, with a highpowered V8 engine capable of using 641 horse power,” she said.

The court heard the tyres fitted on the car had a label that read: “Not for highway use, drag racing only.”

Vanderlei sat in court with an arm injury and when magistrate Hugh Radford asked how he had got it, his lawyer told the court his client had been in a “car accident”.

She said her client attended Calder Park to drag race “under supervised conditions” and his injury was not related to this incident.

In sentencing, Mr Radford told Vanderlei he was lucky he wasn’t up in County Court facing culpable driving charges.

“If you’d killed someone . . . you’d be up in the County Court with a judge and jury, facing nearly 20 years and living with the guilt that you killed someone,” he said.