NASA-SE Santa’s Toy Run Weekend
The southeast region of the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) has an annual event at Road Atlanta called Santa’s Toy Run. Aside from three days of racing, they collect toys for Toys For Tots. If you bring a toy to the track for donation, admission is free. A very good deal in my book.
Eric Kuhns' 1988 Porsche 944 E2 at dawn just before the start of the Santa's Toy Run 9 hour enduro
Friday starts off bright and early with an 8:30 AM start for a 9 hour enduro. This year, there seemed not to be as many cars entered in the enduro as in past years, but the quality of the cars and drivers made up for the lack of numbers. Santa was on hand for the drivers meeting and to wave the green flag at the start of the race. Road Atlanta is a fairly long track, so when there are not a huge amount of cars running, a photographer tends to get bored and unmotivated. Normally, in this situation you are shooting a short sprint race that lasts twenty minutes or so. This time, I was faced with nine hours of 22 cars on the track. I needed to stay focused, creative and awake. Also, it was COLD. The sun stayed in view for a few hours and then disappeared behind a solid mass of gray clouds. It was still in the sky though and wreaking havoc by suddenly appearing just as I started shooting. Sudden four stop jumps in light are always fun.
The start of the 9 hour enduro for the NASA Santa's Toy Run Weekend
I started out shooting outside turn one so I could capture the start of the race and then went up a ways to shoot back down into the turn. I don’t really like shooting back that way since the background is often so cluttered. Did I mention it was cold? I went up to shoot under the Suzuki bridge, but the light wasn’t right so I decided to try inside turn 7 so that I could work with the direction of the light. I always think of Road Atlanta being surrounded by pine trees, but the obvious lack of leaves made for some interesting blur effects in 6-7.
Gert Adolphsen takes his 1965 FFR Mkii ES through turn seven
As I have mentioned previously, having the track nearly to yourself often leads to new discoveries. This time was no exception; just past the inside of turn seven, I found a perfectly worthless photo hole. Its too high for a driver climb through, you cannot get a clear view of the exit of seven and you cannot get a decent angle on 8-9. The hole is precisely, perfectly not in the correct spot. I suppose you could pan cars on acceleration from seven, but you can do that all over the place.
After shooting in many of my usual spots, I decided to head to the pits so I could hang with the crews and see what a NASA pit stop looked like. Seems like I picked the perfect time as most of the runners were coming in for tire and front bake pad changes. After working the ALMS pits for a year, these stops were amusingly sedate. Not that the crews weren’t hustling and working hard, just that the pace was, well, different. The #58 Mustang driven by Dean Martin from Rehagen Racing won the enduro. I completely enjoyed the toy run and will be back next year. I will also definitely put NASA-SE on my shooting calendar.
Rehagen Racing pits for tires towards the end of the enduro
My entire image gallery for the NASA Santa’s Toy Run 9 Hour Enduro is available online for viewing and instant download. Thanks for looking.
