Naperville cops: Street racers took off right in front of marked squad

A 26-year-old Elgin man apparently didn't look behind him before he began street racing with another driver, Naperville police say.

Immediately behind the black Mazda 3 driven by Justin Ellis Nodurft was a marked Naperville police squad car, Cmdr. Jason Arres said.

A Naperville officer pulled over Nodurft about 9:30 p.m. Thursday after he and another driver "aggressively" took off heading north on Route 59 from a red light at Aurora Avenue, according to a police report.

"They rapidly accelerated," Arres said. "The black vehicle squealed its tires from the red light."

The driver of the other vehicle, a silver sedan, got away, Arres said. But the officer took Nodurft into custody, and he has been charged with street racing and squealing his tires.

"Neither vehicle realized a police officer in a marked squad car was directly behind them," the responding officer wrote in a police report.

This is the first time Nodurft has had any police contact in Naperville, Arres said. According to DuPage County Court records, he was fined $120 for following too closely in January on I-88 in Lisle Township.

The intersection where the brief street race took place Thursday in Naperville is in a construction zone where the Illinois Department of Transportation is nearing the end of a two-year project to widen Route 59 to three lanes in both directions.

So far, Nodurft has not been given any additional citations because he began racing in a construction zone, Arres said. Typically, additional fines for construction zones are related to speed.

Arres said Nodurft is free awaiting a court date after paying an unspecified amount of bail.