Between the Races
Team Sheriff’s Michael Churney
Hardcore road racers already know that racing on the street is silly, dangerous, and—compared to riding on tracks—unnecessarily dangerous. However, that’s not always clear to folks who have never tasted the pleasures of the track-day experience, and those people may be tempted to take chances on the street. L.A. Sheriff Mike Churney is doing his best to spread the word, using a cool cop-themed Honda CBR to catch attention and then sneaking in some education. We asked him to explain his Team Sheriff program.
By CJ; photos courtesy of Michael Churney

RRX : Tell us a little about your program.
Michael Churney: Well, Team Sheriff Racing is a Non-Profit Organization founded and run by Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs with the primary mission of youth education. My partner, Deputy Bill Chaffin, started it back in 1993, using drag racing cars as a way to talk to kids. I mean, what kid doesn’t love racecars? Well, he took it a step further and dressed his [drag] car as a black and white, which really caught the kids’ attention when he went to the schools, making it a lot easier to talk to them about staying in school, and staying off drugs and out of gangs.

As the program developed, we began working with street racers to get them off of the streets and into legal alternatives, like the old Terminal Island Raceway and other racetracks. Most of the team members are former street racers themselves, so we have a different perspective in that we’ve seen firsthand the dangers and consequences of street racing. As cops, we’ve also seen how one bad choice can have deadly consequences, destroying many lives and not just one.

What's your background?
I’ve been riding motorcycles since I was 9, so I’ve always been a bike nut. I never raced or anything, though. My first “car” in high school was a ’92 GSX-R 750, and I used to ride like a real squid on that. I must’ve gone down at least a dozen times in the Malibu Canyons. After a while, I got rid of that bike and got a cruiser for a few years. I really wasn’t in to it, so I got rid of it and got off bikes for a few years.

After college, I got hired with the Sheriff’s Department full-time. I’ve been a Deputy Sheriff now for almost nine years, and I love it. Even though I went to college for chemistry, I decided to go into law enforcement. My family wasn’t too happy about it, but they’re glad to see me enjoying myself. It sounds clichéd, but I always wanted to be a Deputy Sheriff. I liked the idea of helping people and going out into the world and making a difference.

How did you get the idea for getting involved with Team Sheriff?
I first met Bill in 1997 when I was a reserve deputy and saw him working on his racecar at the station. I had known about the team, and although I was really fascinated by the team and its concept, I never had a chance to meet the guys. After talking to him for a bit, I started working on the team, just helping the guys out with the races and going to schools and such.

In 2003, I started getting back into riding sport bikes—at this point, I hadn’t ridden a motorcycle for almost seven years—when Bill and I were at an open house for one of the stations. After watching the kids flock around the duty motorcycles (you know, the old KZ1000s), I started thinking about doing a sport bike and that the kids would probably really dig it. I also realized that the team had been working with cars and cagers, but we weren’t really doing anything with the canyon squids.

So I sat down with Bill and told him what I wanted to do. He looked at me and said, “Run with it,” and we’ve been going full-throttle ever since.

Was it difficult to put together? How receptive was the Sheriff Department?
Well, although I’d been helping the team out for a few years, I hadn’t really taken the handle on a project, so it was new ground for me. But Bill still sat down with me and kind of showed me some things on how to work with the different political and corporate entities.

Because the team had been around the drag scene for a long time, a lot of people knew about the program, but we were the new kids on the block, so to speak, when it came to motorcycles. Nonetheless, the sponsors were really supportive and willing to help us out.

Sheriff Baca has been a longtime supporter of the program, endorsing us long before he became Sheriff of Los Angeles, back when he was a chief deputy. Because we don’t receive any department funding for this program, we participate in it strictly on our own time, so the department really didn’t know what we had started until the Sheriff saw the bikes at our annual union picnic. After seeing how everyone’s kids went crazy for the bike, he patted us on the back, thanked us for a job well done, and then jokingly wanted to know when he was going to take the CBR out on the track.

Has it been successful thus far?
It’s been very successful, better than I could have hoped for. The bikes have done an outstanding job of getting people’s attention, bridging gaps, and letting us get our message across. I’ve yet to meet one kid that doesn’t get excited when they see the bikes, and this makes it so much easier for us to talk to them. When you’re able to capture someone’s attention, it brings everyone onto a level field and breaks down walls that we wouldn’t have been able to cross otherwise. Kids don’t see us as cops, but more of a peer. People see that not only are we people, but we’re like everyone else. Riders see us in a different light; we’re no longer that cop that cited them on the weekend up on the Crest. Street racers also see us differently. We’re not the cop that jammed them and wrote them a ticket, we’re the cops that show them where and how to do it safely and legally.

We also gauge our success by the way our sponsors have said that we’re a sponsor’s dream since we say what we do and do what we say.

Are kids ever turned off by the fact that you're a "cop"?
Like I said, kids see us in a different light. They’re so into the bikes and the racing that they think of us in a different way, even though they know we’re cops—especially the street racers. Most of ‘em that meet us for the first time think it’s the greatest thing that a cop is willing to come out and race ‘em at the track.

One thing that we have strived for is to enhance our team image, incorporating both racing and law enforcement, creating a unique look that still shows we’re cops, but also shows our racing heritage. It’s worked out quite well since not only the kids, but the adults as well, really like our program.

Any cool success stories of hoodlums you've turned around?
Sure. A few years ago, we were at a race event when we met one of the local street racers. His dad had brought him to the races to show him how real, legal racing was done. He was an admitted hardcore street racer at 18 years old and just about to graduate high school, racing in just about every city he could find a race. He said he thought the idea of cops that were willing to come out to the strip and race the public was the coolest idea. He wanted to know how he could race with us. Well, we told him that he could be part of the team; the only catch was that he had to become a deputy sheriff. After all, all the members of the team are all deputies.

Well, about five years after that, we got a call from a new deputy working the jails, asking how he could be part of the team. Turns out it was this same street racer that we had met. He had wanted to be part of the team so badly that he turned his life around, stopped street racing, applied for the department and was hired, and then had just recently graduated the academy. Now he runs the sport compact and import cars for our team.

You had a recent event. How did that go?
Well, just like any first-time endeavor, there were a few kinks that needed to be worked out on the first day, but nothing major. Everything got addressed, and by mid-morning it was going great. Being able to see that ear-to-ear smile of those that had never ridden the track before was a real treat. I had riders coming up to me asking why no one had done this before, and [saying] that had they known, they would’ve been riding the track years ago. A lot of the people that were out there started signing up for more track days with MTC and Take It 2 The Track by late afternoon.

I’d like to say it was a huge success since we were able to achieve exactly what our goal was, educating riders about the track. The hard part is to bridge that gap between the track and the canyon, and I think we did a pretty good job of it. Of course, there’s always room for improvement and we’re already working on more events and new ideas for the future.

What plans do you have for the future?
Well, putting these events together has given us a lot of input and ideas for the future. We plan on continuing with the track days and hope to have some more by the first part of 2006. We’re working with the local tracks and track-day organizers to expand the tracks we can do these at, making them more accessible for a lot of people. We also have some other programs and new ideas that we’re working on for expanding our street-racing intervention programs, but unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to go into detail right now. But you and your readers will be the first to know.

Who helps you out on the program?
We’ve been really fortunate to have the support of the best companies. American Honda and Pro Honda Oils and Chemicals have been the biggest supporters of the motorcycle division. Honda supports a huge number of charities and programs for the community, and I don’t think a lot of people realize just how involved they are in the community.

Lucas Oil Products has been our biggest supporter of the team, sponsoring us for over six years now. If it wasn’t for their support, this program would not be what it is today. A lot of people think that Lucas only sponsors drag racers, but they provide support for a lot of other racing as well.

Freddie Spencer and his staff have been a huge help to our program. Not only has their instruction brought us a long way on the track, but they’ve always been eager and willing to help out and support us however they can.

We’ve also got support from great companies like Michelin Tires, Kushitani Leathers, Chatterbox USA, RK Excel Chains, Vortex Racing Components, Lockhart Phillips, 2Wheel Tuning, Galfer Brakes, Race Tech Suspension, AGV Helmets, TyrSox Tire Warmers, and our union, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, of course.