My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Washington
It was wet out and I was driving uphill. My car lost traction, and the officer saw/heard my exhaust/tires spinning on the wet pavement, and wrote me the neg 2 stating I was revving up and causing my tires to break traction and my car to fishtail. I have a couple questions pertaining to this.
I admit that I pulled out of a business center, and onto a wet uphill road (Which the officer mentions in his report) and I do have an aftermarket exhaust (which is why he heard me.) and I lost traction when I shifted from 1st to 2nd gear. I wasn't sliding all over the place and never left my lane, although the officer says I was fish tailing and did it multiple times. Here is where things get a little tricky for me.
He states I did it several times, and that when I turned from one road to another, where he lost sight of me, that I did it again, and he could hear me revving and losing traction after I had turned the corner. He mentions that I wasn't gaining much speed, but eventually came up behind another car. He states that car continued through the light, and that I turned a corner. This part is incorrect. I was following my friend in his car, and he turned the corner in front of me, and I followed him. After turning the corner, my friend was the one that was making noise, I was driving normally. I'm wondering if he can come to court and testify that he was the one making the noise/fish tailing after the officer lost sight of me and if that'd help at all.
The officer mentions that half of my exhaust appeared to be missing (It was dual, converted to single) and that the car had rear oversized tires. I'm planning to attempt to argue that it was wet out, I was going uphill, and I have rear summer tires, and an exhaust leak, and that I did lose traction, but wasn't intentionally sliding around, and that the loss of traction caused my engine to rev up which is why the officer heard me.
Also, the ticket was written for 550 dollars, yet the RCW states it's a penalty of 250 dollars. I'm wondering why this is? I tried looking this up but had no luck finding a solid answer.
The law is pretty vague, and I'm trying to figure out a good argument. I didn't ever exit my lane. I wasn't even going the speed limit when I lost traction, I had just pulled out of a business complex onto an uphill road, and when I shifted into second, the car lost traction. The law talks about harming people/property, yet like I said, I was going slow, and didn't hit anything. Wondering what my best bet is.
Thanks for any input.

