The bike muffler sound roars. Flocks of teenagers aged 14 to 18 lined up alongside Baru Taliwang Street (JBT), Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Wearing t-shirts, shorts, and flip flops, they get ready to race with modified bikes. Accelerating to beat each other’s speed, showing off and acting like pro bikers. Some other teenagers come to watch the race, often bringing betting money. Every afternoon, JBT is always noisy with bike sounds and crowd’s applause.

“Maybe falling hurts you. But to us, there’s pleasure and pride to it.” said Jabon (16), a teenager from Narmada, West Lombok, who started doing street racing since primary school.

In Lombok, street racing is a big thing for local teenagers. To them, racing is not just a hobby, but part of their identity. It’s not a matter of who is the fastest, but a matter of respect and group pride, although they often get hurt, some even die from it.

Street racing is nothing new in Lombok. One of the supporting factors is the easy access to get a motorbike through credit system. The Indonesian Statistic Bureau noted at least 1,174,340 motorbikes in Indonesia in 2014, and the number keeps increasing. Bikes are no longer a luxury in Lombok, almost every family has two or three. Aided with the straight, smooth and quiet local roads – it is no wonder that street racing is a big thing.

There has been multiple efforts to curb street racing. But, the race and the “racers” always finds a way to keep going, that the activity has become a sub-culture among the society in Lombok.