For 10 years, Bolingbrook police Sgt. Mike Johnstone has been racing and displaying race cars to get the message out to teenagers about driving safety.

“We send the message at 200 mph ,” Johnstone said.

Throughout the past year Johnstone, family members and friends built a funny car — its official name is Illinois Patrol — that will be raced and displayed in 2009 throughout the Midwest, including at an upcoming racing expo at Pheasant Run in St. Charles and at area high schools.

“It’s amazing how the kids respond to the cars. They just can’t get enough,” said Johnstone, 44, who grew up in Berwyn and has served on the Bolingbrook Police Department since 1990. “It really gets their attention.”

Johnstone, an Oswego resident, said he got the idea to promote motor vehicle safety to children and teenagers through race cars more than 10 years ago, and since then, he has given 117,000 teenagers and young adults one simple message: “Don’t street race, drive safe,” Johnstone said.

Johnstone said he wants to provide an alternative to illegal street racing and other dangerous driving.

During races and expositions information on motor vehicle safety brochures and materials are distributed.

The car has been on display at events such as the 2004 EXTREME Scout outing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, the annual World of Wheels at McCormick Place in Chicago, and the Tons of Trucks display at the Bolingbrook Park District’s Week of the Young Child celebration.

For a decade, Johnstone and crew toured a national and regional circuit with a 1984 Chevy Caprice police interceptor outfitted with a special engine.

But in February 2008, Johnstone and John Hulbert, owner of Romeoville-based Heartbreak Towing, took a trip to Gainesville, Fla., to buy a chassis for a new car. “We drove down there, picked it up and returned all within three days,” Hulbert said. “It was about 2,200 miles round trip.”

Hulbert has had a sponsor since 1998.

“It is great to be part of this,” said Hulbert, whose company is one of several sponsors of the car.

By September, Johnstone’s  team had integrated a Chevy, 477-cubic-inch, 1,000-horsepower big block into the chassis and shell of the funny car.

During its first test, Johnstone said, the car topped out at more than 200 mph.

The old car drove a quarter-mile in 9.6 seconds at about 142 mph. The new one does the same distance in 7.5 seconds, at 200 mph. “It is really something when it gets moving, right off the blocks,” Johnstone said.

A race brings together what Johnstone calls “the team,” which includes his wife, Mary, and two daughters, Ashley and Heather.

“Mary makes sure I am secured in my seat and that the car is ready, John (Hulbert) closes the body down on top of the chassis, Heather makes sure the car is hooked up to the tow vehicle to tow it in place for the race itself, and Ashley monitors the starting line,” Johnstone said.

Some of the unit’s safety devices include a fire suppression system Johnstone can activate from inside the one-seat cockpit, a hatch on the roof from which the driver can exit and holes in each side window in which a fire hose can fit in case of a fire.

“There are a lot of safety features, which is the point” Johnstone said. “We want to show kids that driving cars is not just a game and you must follow some rules.”

The car also must comply with National Hot Rod Association guidelines, and must be certified by the organization to be eligible or racing.

What does Johnstone consider the most important messages he can impart on teenagers to encourage safe driving?

“The importance of not driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless driving and trying to show off, don’t take part in illegal street racing and not talking on cell phones while driving,” Johnstone said.