#81 Lanterne Rouge Racing 1997 BMW M3 Red: Jeff Warncke, Robbie Kollar
When its still in the dark of the AM, its quite cold out and I am driving to Road Atlanta, it must be time for Santa’s Toy Run. The weekend starts off with an 8 Hour enduro on Friday morning. Last year, the were not as many participants, so I was very pleased to see so many cars on the grid on this morning. Its an 8:30AM rolling start, so I was wandering around the paddock and pits shooting away and pausing to talk to some of the NASA regulars. Did I mention it was cold? My intent for this year’s enduro was to shoot in a more editorial style, so I planned to shoot more in the pits and paddock areas rather than the usual cars on track type of photography.
The call came down for 5 minutes to start, so I went over to outside of turn one to shoot the rolling start. The start went off without a hitch and the morning light was beautiful so I walked further up the hill to shoot outside of turns two and three for a while.
Race Start for Santa's Toy Run 8 Hour Enduro
Right before Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta has cleared out the kudzu along the outside walls so that photographers might survive the treck down to T6. During Petit it was a bit of a muddy mess, but today, the new grass seed had filled in and we got to walk on crunchy grass instead of gooey clay. Conveniently, this is also about the time I last swore I would buy a carbon monopod to replace my freezing cold aluminum one. As I’ve mentioned umpteen times, shooting these smaller events, especially in the cold of the December morning, is downright surreal. You pretty much have the place to yourself. The friends and family members tend to stay in the paddock area and nearby spots such as T10 and T2, the rest of the place is wide open and eerily haunting. Then again, if you have never been to Petit or any other major race, you can’t imagine the difference. Why haven’t you been? Its easy, go to Road Atlanta’s Website and order tickets to something.
#3 VDS Racing Adventures 2007 Ford Mustang: Raphael van der Straten, Christian Kelders, Christophe Kerkhove
Surprisingly, the day went by pretty quickly and we found ourselves in the pits waiting for the checkers. The #8 Porsche of Lucky Dog Racing was the enduro winner with The Lunatics taking third. The second spot on the podium went to the Belgian VDS Racing Team. My friends at Fandango Racing had to be content with a 4th place finish, but it seemed like they enjoyed the competition well enough that their final ranking didn’t matter much. The NASA-SE Santa’s Toy Run at Road Atlanta is a great event to attend, I saw some old friends and met a few new ones. You should find a NASA event near you and check them out. Thanks for reading and looking. My entire Santa’s Toy Run Enduro Gallery is available for viewing on DPerceptions MotorSports Photography
Enduro Winners #8 Lucky Dog Racing 2005 Porsche GT3 Cup: jack baldwin, sean rayhall
-Darren
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