CSI: NY

Things are getting testy out there. Who said this was just an exhibition?

Davi, this is a show, not a race. Ease up, all right?

What the hell is he doing out there?

What he always does-- winning.

Should I tell him to slow down?

I'll tell him to cool it.

Come on!

Hey... Cool it out there with gray.

This is supposed to be fun, not a competition.

It's all the same to me.

Easy for you to say, you don't own the car.

But I own the spotlight.

Don't push it.

Announcer : We have an accident on the track.

Everyone please remain calm, stay seated,

Let the emergency crews do what they do best.

All right, if anything changes either way, give me a shout.

Thanks.

I've watched davi santos race for years.

Get out! Didn't know you were a motorhead.

The man's a legend.

Your legend's over at trinity general...

Right now, in critical condition.

These drivers wear suits...

That protect them from 700 degrees celsius heat.

According the doctor, santos was well protected,

But seared his lungs breathing in the flames.

Doesn't look good.

Formula fbz cars are not only built for speed, but safety.

They don't explode like this unless somebody makes them.

Suggesting it was deliberate.

This was slipped under santos's door last night.

"get in that car tomorrow...

You die." yeah.

According to the team owner,

It's the fifth threatening note santos received this month.

Santos received death threats, decided to race anyway?

Guy's a showman.

Didn't want to upset his fans.

It's the hottest ticket in the city.

Hotter than anyone expected.

Sync By YesCool

"C S I : N e w Y o r k"

Mr. Wells, any idea... Who wrote these letter threats?

I hired investigators to look into it weeks ago.

Nothing came of it.

You were in the pit area before the explosion.

You see anything unusual?

No, sir.

I take every precaution to protect my drivers.

Everything I saw today was routine,

Except what happened to davi.

This was supposed to be a simple exhibition.

A prelude to start the season.

Well, the season will have to wait.

Someone tried to kill santos by sabotaging his car,

And we have to determine what happened here.

Until then, the new york 400 is on hold.

Oh, davi and I go way back.

He was always the driver.

I was always the crew chief.

Guess who got the girls?

After last season, we were supposed to...

Walk away from all this, retire,

But he talked me into coming back.

Now, I'm standing here, he's in the hospital,

And I have no idea what the hell happened here.

I know this isn't easy, mr. Bernard.

Is there anything else you can tell me...

About the exhibition race?

It was for the fans,

But santos seemed to make it more than that.

Davi and liza gray, they're both competitors.

You put them in anything with wheels,

They're gonna drive hard.

That's what makes them champions.

Can you think of anyone...

Who might have been responsible for this?

Davi was the definition of hell on wheels.

He'd drive around you, over you...

Or through you to get a win,

So he left a lot of enemies in his wake.

Thank you, mr. Bernard.

What do you think?

I think our best witness is right there...

In front of us.

We need a closer look at this car.

That's not going to be easy.

Team cietro is claiming proprietary rights...

On the car.

These racing teams-- they pay millions...

To make sure their competitors...

Never find out what's under the hood.

Well, that's unfortunate,

Because this car is our crime scene.

Okay, come on through!

Stop. Good.

Somebody did a bad thing to a good fin cooler.

You a racing fan? Anything that rips it up...

At 200 miles an hour, you gotta respect.

That's my girl. You grow up in montana,

You love race cars.

Maybe stock car.

But open wheel -- that's a whole different thing.

I know what you mean.

Paddle shift versus stick.

Front and rear wings. And you have the whole lcd...

Steering wheel that you basically need...

An engineering degree to operate.

You race?

Playstation.

But those games are very realistic.

All right, speed racer, calm down.

We got 1,200 fragments here.

What caused the explosion?

I don't see any signs of a detonation device.

No timers.

No remote triggers.

And... The soot doesn't indicate...

Any oxidizing agent, but it does indicate petrol gasoline.

These cars might have been designed by the nasa type,

But they basically run on the same type of fuel...

As my dirty-ass beater.

That being said,

The body of this car was designed...

To be fireproof, and in order for it...

To burn like this, it had to be covered in gasoline.

That sounds like a fuel leak,

But no explosive.

There was no bomb added to this car.

The car itself was a bomb.

Had to be a spark for the gasoline. All right.

We're gonna have to put this race car back together,

Figure out who rigged it.

I know how much money is at stake.

That has nothing to do with this investigation.

If the mayor wants to discuss it,

He knows where to reach me.

The president of the racing coalition...

Made a call to city hall.

They're threatening a breach of contract case against the city,

If the new york 400 doesn't go tomorrow.

And they're calling for your head if it doesn't.

Look, I know what the stakes are.

New york's been trying to land a racing event for 50 years.

There's money and jobs on the line.

And in this economy, it would be a shot in the arm for the city.

That might be true, but santos is our main concern.

I'm not going to let this race compromise this case.

Any word on him?

He's still in surgery.

Where are we with those threatening letters he received?

That was my next stop.

Talk to me, hawkes.

They're all handwritten.

I'm running a textual analysis through the fbi database,

From word usage to punctuation to misspellings.

Well, all comes down to how you cross your t's and dot your I's.

I've processed these letters...

Front to back-- no prints, no trace.

All the letters match?

Same handwriting, same ink used, same paper stock.

Common materials, nothing unique.

Except for the messages.

"you drive fast, but hypocrisy will catch up to you."

And now, "get in that car tomorrow... You die."

Each one's becoming more serious,

More threatening.

Somebody wanted to be heard. And now they have been.

Loud and clear.

Hold on.

This is a threat sent...

To a new york congressman last year.

Same linguistic profile as our letters.

They identified the author as josh weaver.

36-year-old former political science professor.

Assault on a police officer.

Sent threats to congress.

Also sent threats to cietro spirits.

The sponsor of santos' racing team.

So what does a racing sponsor and congress have in common?

I can barely change my own tires, much less blow up a car.

Don't play absen t-minded professor with me, okay?

I've read your rap sheet.

I write letters. I don't act on them.

Really?

'cause you seem like the persistent type.

You know? You wrote letters to congress.

You wrote letters to cietro spirits.

When that didn't work, you sent threats.

I'm thinking, when the threats didn't work...

They were hypocrites, okay? Someone needs to wake them up!

And that's your job?

You ever see a family of four...

Mowed down by a drunk driver?

I mean, can you even comprehend...

That level of tragedy?

I know about your brother and his family,

And I know that the driver walked away...

With a clean bill of health...