Allan McNish in the #2 Audi R15 exiting T7 at Road Atlanta
Nonstop rain for what seemed like 2 weeks. Atlanta flooded. Then the sun came back, it was Wednesday September 23rd; time to head up to Braselton for Petit Le Mans.
When we arrived at the track, we had the usual document dance to attend: credentials, golf car, get the RV into the track, pick up photo vest, you know; the entry drill. We always land the RV in the same spot and this is conveniently very far away from most everything. After parking and a quick setup of camp, we had just enough time for lunch before practice. Since our space on the back straight is somewhat near turn six and seven, I decided to start out shooting on the outside of seven.
For those of you who do not know, seven is reached via a hike through the wild kudzu fields of Northeast Georgia. Its worth the effort, since the inside of 6-7 can be shot by pretty much anybody with a small bit of length. Doesn’t mean they will shoot it well, but the track is exceedingly close in that area. Road Atlanta is somewhat like Miller Motor Sports park in that you cannot show up with too much glass. The long stretches are begging for 400mm, 500mm glass; expensive things. My reaction times were off, I was rusty. I had not shot speeding cars since Mid Ohio in early August. Slow moving pedestrian type photography obligations had kept us from Road America and Mosport. My slow pans were horrible with a keeper rate of ~1 out of 6. Still, I came out of Wednesday with several images which I count in my most strong from the week. Plus, the sun was out.
Rock & Roll Union Jack on the back of the Drayson Lola
Thursday was again a beautiful example of a fine fall day. Blue skies with big puffy clouds. Neat to look at and groovy to float in your pictures but a nightmare for metering. Previously, at the WERA Cycle Jam, I had found what I thought to be a good spot and angle from which to shoot in the turn 10 complex. After coffee & a bagel, we loaded up the golf car and headed up that way just before the start of the morning session. A word to the wise, bring your ear plugs. Especially bring your ear plugs if you are going to be standing next to the Suzuki bridge. The sound of a screaming race engine at full song is rather loud. Put that noise in a sounding chamber like a tunnel and you reach a new level of loud. I shot from my newly acquired perch for quite a while, working on selective focus and slow pans. It is a good spot and I will keep going back as I don’t think I have gotten it quite right as of yet. There is an angle or a viewpoint that I can almost see in my mind that I have not locked into the camera.
Cytosport RS Spyder goes under the Matmut Oreca
While there, I did see a new spot to try next time. I am always looking for a new vantage point all the while trying to perfect the known locations. This can easily become a problem as I have heard more than one photographer complain about being unable to come up with something new while at a very familiar location. After shooting from the bridge berm for a while, I decided to try shooting from the area next to the flag house at the beginning of T10. I am not to sure about that spot as there are so many signs and cars on the tunnel road. I pulled out a few from there, but nothing terribly exciting. Maybe it would be a better place at night, but the area is so small that it would crowd quickly.
After lunch, my plan was to shoot practice from the pit lane as I was in need of a perspective change. Its easy to forget that there are drivers in these cars and that there are hoards of mechanics, engineers and other people waiting for their return.
The Dyson Mazda #16 waits in the pitbox during Thursday practice for the 2009 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
I shot the crews for what seemed like a very little time when suddenly everyone was rushing to the monitors. I was in the Patron pit at the time and could not see their monitors very well so I moved next door to the Flying Lizard team just in time to see a replay of Scott Sharp’s barrel roll. It was really creepy to see his car destroy itself like that. More amazing was to watch him immediately climb from the wreckage and look around at the damage. Needless to say, with 500 feet of fencing to replace and bits of Acura everywhere, the rest of the practice session was scrubbed. As far as I know, no one was hurt which is a testimony to both the construction of the car and the safety measures at the track. We had quite a while before night practice so back to the RV for food and liquids. For a lark, we decided to actually watch the Patron GT3 race from the Hill but I ended up shooting it as well.
I had decided to shoot night practice from T6 and T7. Normally, there is a long period of twilight during Night Practice where the very low sun and glowing skies make for fantastic opportunities. Due to the Patron crash and subsequent repairs, the schedule was quite off. So this year, night practice was completely in the dark. There are not too many places you can shoot at Road Atlanta in the dark. Night practice is great fun, I cannot imagine what it is from a driver’s perspective, tearing through the Georgia night in and out of brightly lit areas, flashes going off……Have I mentioned how many flashes were going off? OK, I’ll admit I have used a flash shooting racing at night. I didn’t like the way it looked and have since then sworn it off in favor of honing my low light skills. The crowds for Night Practice were amazing, literally hundreds of people lined the fences in the skid pad area. In T6 they were 4 and 5 deep. Luckily, I was on the other side of the fence and had an unobstructed view of the cars.
The Falken Tires Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in Turn 7 at Road Atlanta during night practice for the 2009 Petit Le Mans
This post is becoming a bit long in the tooth, so I will finish this part and post Friday and Saturday soon. My entire 2009 Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda 6 gallery is available for viewing and your use at DPerceptions.com
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