Trackside Mussels Menuniere, life is tough at the track

Carolina Motorsports Park is relatively new and contains features not found many other places. Included among these are free public Wi-Fi and electrical outlets which actually work. The Wi-Fi part is especially nice as our ATT cell signal was spotty at best although our Verizon enabled Mi-Fi card had a decent 3G signal. The electrical hookups came in handy on Friday as well but more on that later.

Friday morning was grey and cold. All across the Southeast the weather stations were calling for snow. Perfect. I geared up and headed out to shoot. The sky was a giant diffuser, so I was not worried about the angle of the sun. Turn three seemed like a good place to start. After a bit of radio communication with the tower, the flag marshall confirmed that I was indeed allowed out on the track and I settled in to work on my timing. Being a bit rusty, the last time I shot cars in anger was early Decemeber, my first couple of dozen shots were, in the words of Bob Eucker, Just a bit outside. I quickly settled in and started working on my slow speed pans. The lack of sunlight was going to make this a requirement as the day went on, so I tried to work with the light that I had.

William Goldfarb in his 1996 BMW M3 heads for T3 at Carolina Motorsports Park

Note to self: sell aluminum monopod and buy a carbon fiber one. Aluminum gets really cold after a few hours out in the elements. Talking to the flag marshall in between sessions, I confirmed that CMP was not really optimized for spectators or photographers for that matter. Turn Three and turn four are essentially the only places a person can reach without crossing the track. Turn six is on the inside and can be easily reached from turn four by crossing the track, but you have to be prepared to stay there for the entire session. Friday was to culminate in a three hour enduro, so I had to satisfy myself with shooting the enduro from T4, T3, T1 and the front straight. Not exactly optimal for different point of view, but a good opportunity to think outside the box and apply myself to the situation. I kept looking for holes in the armco and tire barriers so I could grab unique shots.

Jay Andrew takes the Meyer Racing RX-8 through T4 at Carolina Motorsports Park

At one point I shot while standing on the railing at the flagstand so that I could shoot down over the tire barriers. A highlight of T3 and T4 is that you can get right on the other side of the armco as the cars cross the apex, perfect for shooting really wide with a 20mm, a favorite of mine.

By the time the Enduro started at 2pm, I was frozen. The sky continued to darken and the wind was picking up, not a perfect day for a motor race. At the beginning of the enduro, the Mazda RX-8 of Meyer Racing took the lead but was caught up a few laps later by Drew Ewing in his Fandango Racing M3. Attrition was fairly heavy at the beginning with several cars hitting the pits, some to retire entirely but a few tenacious teams kept making repairs and sending the car back out. Fandango Racing’s M3 kept disappearing for a few laps and would come back out and then disappear again. It sounded like there were a few gears missing. Drew fianally disappeared completely and I later confirmed with him that they had blown a hydraulic line to the tranny.

Drew Ewing & Josh Hoffman running Fandango Racing's M3 during the enduro at Winter Meltdown

In other BWM news, the #6 BMW seemigly blew his engine while driving past me at turn 3. About forty-five minutes before the end of the race, it started to snow. It kept snowing harder and harder and seemed like a good time to head up to the front straight to shoot the winner crossing the line. In the end, Jay Andrew driving Eric Meyer’s Xowii MX-8 won the race in what was pretty much a blizzard.

Jay Andrew finished his stint in a blizzard to the win in the Winter Meltdown enduro

I ran around the park, shooting the snowfall and after a while geaded back to the RV to warm up and open up a much deserved 750ml glass of wine. The snow was still coming down heavily at midnight, I had no idea how they planned to run the next morning, I assumed Saturday would be scratched entirely.

Saturday morning, the PA announced an “All Hands” meeting at 9AM, so I dressed and headed out into what was essentially a half foot of snow. At the meeting, Jim Pantas the regional director thanked everyone for sticking it out and announced that the daily track schedule would start around 11AM. I thought he was crazy as there was at least 6 inches of snow on the track. He said that they were going to use a technique taught to him by the people at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Essentially, they were going to drive every tow vehicle and personal car they could find around and around the track. Dubious, I went back to the RV for breakfast and coffee. True to his word, the moring schedule picked up at 11AM and cars ran their normal schedule for the rest of the day. It was very strange watching cars rip around on dark black asphalt with snow encroaching on every edge.

2006 Chevrolet Corvette of Jerry Stout braves the snow at Winter Meltdown

The unique opportunity to shoot sportscar racing in the snow was not lost on me and I made every effort to capture this in my morning images. Then the sun came out in its full glory. Snow and full sun with cars on a black surface and the sun basically directly overhead……not fun. I pressed on for the rest of the day and at the end, the snow was completely melted in most places, a very varied day of shooting.

The Honorary corner marshall for T6 during the 2010 Winter Meltdown

Sunday was essentially a repeat of Saturday as far as trhe schedule went, so after shooting until lunch, we decided that we would head back home. Carolina Motorsports Park is a great venue that I would reccommend to anyone. Additional thanks to NASA-SE for giving me access to document this highly odd racing weekend. My entire Winter Meltdown gallery is online and available for viewing and licensing at DPerceptions Motorsports Photography. Thanks for reading and looking

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.