#36 Genoa Racing Oreca FLM09: Frankie Montecalvo, Christian Zugel (Darren Pierson)

Not the greatest of names, but I do tend to dislike rhymes in titles.  Probably an attitude problem on my part.  Anyway, Road America, a new track for us.  Its big, really big and the elevation changes are frequent and heavy.  A great track to shoot at, so many different angles an opportunities.  As I said many times during the weekend, I felt like a kid in a candy store.  Did I mention the place is enormous?  There are paths and trails that lead all over the place, you never really know where you are going to end up.  I also like the attitude of the track and the marshalls.  The essence of their instruction was “Don’t get hit and do what the marshalls tell you”  When I asked a marshall at one corner about boundaries, he essentially told me, “don’t go over the wall,  other than that, I don’t care what you do, you signed a waiver”  Those are boundaries I can live with.

#16 Dyson Racing Team Lola B09 86 Mazda: Chris Dyson, Guy Smith (Darren Pierson)

Friday morning was fog, lotsa fog.  Eerie, creatures in the mist type fog.  I didn’t get to shoot anything in it though since I had to attend the requisite 8AM photo meeting.  When I finally made it out to the track to shoot some Cooper Lites, the fog was gone but the morning light was really murky, not nice to shoot in at all.  The Friday test session for ALMS was late enough in the day that the light wasn’t the worst possible, and towards the end was quite excellent.  I shot mainly from the back parts of the track from T6 on and since I spent some of the time being in the wrong place due to my unfamiliarity with the track, didn’t get as many keepers as I would have liked.

Saturday consisted of the usual early morning practice followed by afternoon practice and quali immediately afterward.  I spent the morning outside of T1 and in T3 and in the afternoon headed to Canada and the rest of the back of the track.

#02 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F430 GT: Ed Brown, Guy Cosmo (Darren Pierson)

The clouds were in the morning were amazing, but in the afternoon, they were just big and ugly.  They soaked up just enough light to make everything flat and dull.  I was in a great spot in the carousel, ready to shoot some wide angle pans with all of the color of the tents in the camp in the background.  Then the cloud arrived and killed all of my color. Such is life.  Since the sky had decided to be uncooperative, I decided to shoot quali from the pits.  Of course the sun came back out then.  Not to worry, I think I came out with some decent work.

#88 Velox Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: Shane Lewis, Vic Rice (Darren Pierson)

ALMS has revived Sunday morning warmups, much to our photographic delight.  This particular Sunday morning had beautiful light and skies and I think I found a killer shot shooting into the exit of the bridge just before the carousel.  I don’t quite have it, but I think I’m close.  I shot the start from the flagstand which turned out ok, there isn’t really a good place to shoot it from since you have to shoot T1 through the fence (no photo holes). The race itself was quite exciting with Autocon dominating the early parts until their engine let go.  It happened right after I tweeted about their lead, sorry my bad.  The finish of the race was also rather unreal.  Klaus Graf was leading in the CytoSport Porsche and I (and several others) got a great shot of him taking the checkers.  Problem was: he had run out of fuel and had been passed by Cocker in the Drayson Lola.  My bad again although Cocker did buzz the pit wall and I doubt I could have gotten a decent checker shot from inside anyway.

#8 Drayson Racing Lola B09 60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker (Darren Pierson)

My take on Road America is that it is one of the best tracks at which to shoot.  It rivals my home track of Road Atlanta, to the point that I think it might be better.  We will see what I think come the end of September.  Thanks for reading and looking.  My entire Road Race Showcase photo gallery can be seen at DPerceptions MotorSport Photography.  See you at Mosport!

-Darren

Sunset Thursday at Road Ameica. The calm before the storm (©2010 Darren Pierson)

Kick Ass!  I have never been to this park, so I am quite excited to get out there tomorrow and shoot.  Its always a blast to attack a new track.  I have no idea where or why to shoot tomorrow, I get to spend the entire day thinking outside the box.  Hopefully I won’t come back with the same tired imagery that many have produced before me.

As we were setting up camp, listening to the sounds of the pits across the track, I was watching a cloud formation roll in.  The sun was very low and it illuminated the stands nearby.  Suddenly I could hear the distant echos of screaming racing engines.  Tomorrow, tomorrow…..

#17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Bryan Sellers, Wolf Henzler (Darren Pierson)

Mid-Ohio, the land of the photographer trailer/media center with no internet connectivity. Are they mad at us? Was it something we said? Why can I not upload any of my files?

The Thursday photo meeting in the trailer was the usual excitement. Well, not really, it was scheduled for under the Goodyear Tower and then changed to the photo trailer (sorry, the non-working SSID was media_trailor). I was late, but since nobody shot at me or anything, I assume I didn’t miss out on any new instructions. Files needed uploaded, but the wi-fi had not yet been installed or turned on so I went out into the Ohio sunshine to photograph some sports cars on the track. The late afternoon light was particularly nice and not many people had been allowed into the track yet, so the background distractions we few. The sun was in the perfect place to shoot from the most interesting parts of the track so I went out and played. While out there, I noticed some people shooting from really bad directions. Sometimes you have to go out out shoot, sun angle be dammed. Other times, you can go to where the big glowing orb is your friend. I find it strange to watch photographers shooting into the sun when they don’t have to. Weird.

#8 Drayson Racing Lola B09 60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker (Darren Pierson)

Friday consisted of two practices and then qualification. I missed morning practice. I am a bad man. Beautiful gobs of warm morning light and giant blue skies….I missed it. Had things I needed to take care of, I suck. Sorry. I did however, show up in the photo “trailor” in a vain attempt to upload my Thursday files. Nope, the connection was up and down. Mostly down. Always slow. Not a media center. Why bother? Up, down, up, dead, dead…..Are they doing this on purpose? What?! Drayson grabbed the pole in quali? How and Why? Very cool. You have to love Paul Lord Drayson’s efforts. He just wants to get out there and race. Qualification over and I am going back to camp; there is an elm there with a better signal to noise ratio than the connection at the photo “trailor”.

#8 Drayson Racing Lola B09 60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker (Darren Pierson)

Saturday, race day! Clear and not completely hot. Nah, it was hot, but not Lime Rock hot. Mid Ohio races ALMS on Saturday because Der Danika says so; annoying, but not so annoying as Long Beach. The crowds on the Grid Walkabout were not too heavy, so I headed out so shoot some of the cars on the grid. Mid-Ohio starts the race on the back straight, so there isn’t really any place from which to shoot the start. I decided that the best place for me would be the flag stand over the start-finish line. It wasn’t the greatest spot since the LMP cars were single file by that point, but the GT and LMPC classes were fairly tight coming out of the last turn. I think I got some decent shots from the stand, but I will look for a better place next year.

Race Start at 2010 Sports Car Challenge at Mid Ohio

#55 Level 5 Motorsports Oreca FLM09: Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut (Darren Pierson)

Skip forward to the end. Chris Dyson is leading the race. The snake/shark bit team was winning….finally. I thought it best to go to the Highcroft (where were they in this race anyway?) pits to watch the last few laps. Watching Brabs and Marino yelling at the monitor, encouraging Simon, was great fun although it did not help. In the end, Dyson was triumphant. Risi also continues their winning form and Level 5 was back on the top spot of the podium.

Next time we will be writing from the other RA, Road America. Join us for some fun. Thanks for reading and looking. My Mid Ohio Sports Car Challenge gallery is available online at DPerceptions.com

2009 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid Ohio

We are sitting in a campground near Mid Ohio listening to the rain drumming on the roof. Why does it seem to rain everywhere we go this summer? It even rained in the desert when we were in Utah. Whatever, shooting in the rain makes for more dramatic photography. Also, I brought my camera’s rain gear, so take that you water! Not sure what to expect out of this year’s race weekend, last year we camped at the track in a tent. Wednesday night (tonight) was freeeeeeezing and it rained Thursday and Friday quite a bit. Saturday was cloudy and then clear, so the race was quick and fun. I have seen weather predictions indicating similar events for this year. Maybe we can skip the downpours though.

2009 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid Ohio

I have mentioned in other posts that I am not too keen on the ALMS/IndyCar weekends. Mid Ohio seems to be the worst of those as the IndyCar fans drive me bonkers, I feel like I am at a NASCAR race some of the time. We will see how it goes and I will tray to stay on my side of the fence.  I really like shooting here even though I HATE photo holes.  Hopefully nobody bought their lawn chair.  EDIT: It has been pointed out to me (fairly) that some tracks don’t even have photo holes.  I prefer holes over no holes, but it seems that the photo holes are often just exactly not quite where they should be.  Similar to the mystery of who decides where the photo stands are placed.

2009 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid Ohio

Look for Thursday images to go online Thursday night at DPerceptions.com

#32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: Bret Curtis, James Sofronas (Darren Pierson)

After the desert heat of Utah, we were looking forward to the cool mountain breezes of Eastern Connecticut and the alpine majesty of Lime Rock Park. Silly us. Friday started out well enough with partly grey skies, but the day kept creeping towards monsoon season. The 1st practice was slightly wet and damp, but afternoon practice and quali were full wet conditions. During qualification, I was standing in the pit lane watching a small river run across my shoes. The conditions on track had to have been horrendous for the drivers.

#37 Intersport Racing Lola B06/10 AER: Jon Field, Clint Field (Darren Pierson)

The rain on Friday finally let up towards the end of qualification and as the times started to drop, David Brabham went out and laid down a monster time and took P1 pole.  My entire body was soggy, so as soon as the grid was set, we headed out from the track to our campsite nearby in New York.

#1 Patron Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01c: David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud (Darren Pierson)

Lime Rock apparently had an issue in their park, because they no longer allow people to bring dogs.  Last year, we stayed inside and were bummed not to have our girls with us. This year, we have been traveling with them so we had to find a place nearby.  We ended up staying at Rudd Pond State Park a few miles away in New York, which was really nice and tranquil until the three cop cars and two ambulances and a flatbed pulled up at the campsite next to us.  Apparently, our neighbor had been going around stealing things from other’s tents and had been caught.  Not sure why it took so many vehicles or what the ambulances were for since he seemed to go quietly.  It was quite odd, normally you assume your camping neighbors are on the level and trust that your belongings are safe.  In our case, it helps to have locking doors and two german shepherds with us as well.

Saturday, race day, was forecasted as hot with a 40% chance of thunderstorms.  We didn’t see any rain, but they did get the hot part right.  I was looking forward to putting on my black fire suit and standing out in the sun, this was going to be a great day.  This season, the ALMS decided to do away with morning warmups, not sure why exactly, but until Lime Rock, on race day, we had no chance to shoot the cars in morning light.  I assume since the Northeast Grand Prix is only two days:  two practices and quali on Friday and the race on Saturday, they brought back the warmups to have cars on the track.  For whatever reason, it was good to be shooting in the morning sun.  I did hear talk in the media center that they were considering reinstating the morning warmup sometime this  season, I hope that they do.  The fan walkabout on the grid looked to be too crowded, so I skipped it and went straight to turn one to shoot the start of the race.  Turn one at Lime Rock is an enigma as there isn’t a convenient way to get there.  Essentially, you have to use a pedestrian bridge to cross over the front straight to get to the outside of the track.  Before you are completely off the bridge, you have to climb over the railing using the bars as ladder rungs and jump down onto the ground.  Once down, you follow the armco down to a break where the runoff area starts and cross over the track to outside turn one.  At the start of the race, as soon as the last car passes, we have to run across the runoff and get behind the frontstraight armco.

Northeast Grand Prix 2010 Race Start

 If we don’t cross back on the 1st lap, we have to stay at Turn One for the entire race, not fun.  Lime Rock is under 2 miles, so there isn’t much time to do this.  I imagine it looks rather odd to see 20 photographers all running across the track at once.  Getting back out is the reverse except you jumped down, so getting up to the 1st rung on the railing is no easy task especially if you are holding cameras and lenses.  As I type this, I realize that an easier way to get out there, you could cross the cold track from the inside T1 flag stand, but what would be the adventure in that?

#61 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT: Mika Salo, Pierre Kaffer (Darren Pierson)

#37 Intersport Racing Lola B06/10 AER: Jon Field, Clint Field (Darren Pierson)

My plan was to shoot the start and then work the pits through the first stop, after that, I was going to shoot around the track until about forty-five minutes to the end and then go back to the pits for the finish and podiums.  I’m not sure why I planned it that way, since it caused me to have to wear my fire suit for the entire race, something that wasn’t exactly pleasant in the heat.  At one point, I was standing in pit lane, leaning against the pit wall in front of Level 5, trying to find some shade, sweat pouring down my face.  The IMSA pit boss walked up to me in much the same condition and said, “Funny that so many people think we lead glamorous lives out here in the pit lane”.  Did I mention it was hot?  There had been so many yellows, that nobody was pitting and I started to worry that I was wasting time and needed to get out on the track.  Finally a few cars came in and I got my shots and left to shoot from the slight coolness of the trees.   I found an area near a new fan viewing spot that I though might yield a good look and shot there for a while.  All too soon it was time to head back to the heat of the pits for the finish.

#6 Team Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder: Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf (Darren Pierson)

The finish was actually pretty exciting since I could hear Hindy on the PA and for once actually had an idea of what was happening.  Klaus Graf had the CytoSport Spyder in the lead, but to me the surprise was Gunnar Jeannette running in P3 in an LMPC car.  He actually ran out of gas on the last lap and lost his overall placement but still won the LMPC class.  I really enjoy shooting at Lime Rock, hopefully you can see that in my images.  We are headed North to Mid Ohio, hope to see you there as well.  My entire Northeast Grand Prix image gallery is online at DPerceptions and is available for viewing and purchase.  Thanks for reading and looking!

#62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT: Jaime Melo, Gianmaria Bruni

I thought I would try something different this race.  Thought I might post about it while the sounds of the cars were still in my mind.  We are currently hiding in a parking lot of an RV park.  Not a place we would normally stay as we like trees and distant neighbors, but it does have a few compelling offerings such as full hookups.  We have been off the grid for about a week, so its nice to plug up, run the A/C and charge the batteries.  They also advertised Wi-Fi; a thing I was planning on using to upload the final Sunday images from my last cull.  They do have Wi-Fi here, if you mean they broadcast a SSID and that you can connect to it.  If you define Wi-Fi the same way we do by meaning: Once you connect to a router, you can both stay connected to it for longer than 1 minute and that when you are connected you can go out into the internet; I would have to say they do not provide Wi-Fi.  Luckily, or perhaps merely typically, we have our trusty Mi-Fi, Bob with us.  Bob rules, he kept us online at the Grand Canyon even when we had no cell coverage.

We arrived at Tooele from Bryce Canyon on Thursday afternoon just in time to see the GT3 practice while setting up camp.  Our spot was on Momentum Mountain and we could see the entire track sans the Attitudes which were behind a viewing hill.  A great view.  I will go ahead and offer praise of the facilities at Miller Motorsports Park, their infrastructure is second to none.  The media center and the attention from the staff is unreal, they actually seem to like the idea we are there.  Not that any of the other tracks we visit are cruel and unusually mean, more like all the other tracks need to send their staff out to Miller’s for a briefing.

Friday morning started off with a fun and exciting 7:30 am photo meeting, after which, I went back to the RV for more coffee and to work out the shooting schedule.  I always like to warm up by shooting some of the support series so I went out for the Cooper Lites and Patron GT3 practices.

NGT GT3 Hops the kerbs in the Attitudes

My timing came back fairly quickly so I was into the shooting groove in time for the 1st ALMS practice.  To say Miller Motorsports Park is a vast place situated inside a vast emptiness would be accurate.  To say you cannot bring enough glass to this place would also be true.  Having quantified both of those truisms, a 300mm on a DX body is often perfect.  With a 500mm, you often have to climb hills or back up to properly frame a shot.  Last year, I kept moaning that I needed a 500mm; this year, I had to keep kicking myself to not crop out the mountains in the background.

#99 Green Earth Team Gunnar Oreca FLM09: Gunnar Jeannette, Christian Zugel in the Attitudes

After all, cars on a track can be anywhere, but cars on a track with mountains in the background cannot be in too many places, at least on this continent.  An adage about cows and grass keeps coming to mind.

Saturday arrived and I decided I would shoot the afternoon practice and qualification from inside the track.  By inside, I mean out in the middle where there is not much armco, no shuttles bringing you water, sand, heat and once you are across the track, you are in there until it goes cold again.  In this case, I was stuck out there for a couple of hours.  At one point, it started raining these HUGE drops of water.  I looked up into the sky and there was not a cloud in sight, weird.  The rain stopped pretty quickly, and did not cool anything off….it was hot, I am telling you.  Shooting from the inside was a good choice, there are some great opportunities there and I think most photographers don’t make the effort to go out there.  Shooting something othert than cars on 2 wheels bouncing off the kerbs in the Attitudes was fun.  The disadvantage of Miller’s being so open is that you have to work really hard to keep trucks, campers, signs, port-a-potties and other un-photogenic items out of your backgrounds.  Angle, depth of field and panning are your friends here.

#1 Patron Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01c: David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud heads into Sunset Bend

<rant> While I am thinking of it, can I ask that whomever or whatever organization places the photo stands trackside either actually look at what can be shot from the stands or ask a photographer to help them? </rant>  To recap, Saturday was a great shooting day and I found several new opportunities.

Sunday:  Photo meeting at……….8:30AM!!!!! how strange, usually race day meetings occur before sunrise, Sebring was particularly dark.  I get to sleep in, hooray.  Nope, house batteries died Saturday night before I could finish uploading my files, so I was at the media center bright and early at 7am for power and internet.  Drag.  The photo meeting went as usual, we were told not to get run over and where we could go.  Later, the people who actually needed to know these things showed up.

Fire suits and Utah summer sun are not friends, thankfully there was a huge grey cloud overhead for the grid line up and starting ceremonies.  Soon after the 1st few laps, the sun came out and I began baking in my black suit and helmet.  I started the day by shooting the pits and grid then went out to Sunset Bend for the start.  After a few laps, I went back to the pits to shoot there for a while.  Its unreal standing next to a car as it blasts back out of its box, the exhaust wash is incredible.  Ok, its stupid and insane to be 2 feet from a race prepped F430 as it drops and slams out of its pit.  Stupid, really stupid, but fun.

#02 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F430 GT: Ed Brown, Guy Cosmo

I shot pit stops for about an hour and then went out to the Attitudes to finish up before the podiums.  Last year, we had this plywood riser from which to shoot the trophy presentations, it was rather flimsy and actually broke during the podium ceremonies.  This year they provided us a nice solid 6 inch high riser. Pretty useless, but at least we didn’t have far to fall.

Podium Ceremony Class Winners at the 2010 Utah Grand Prix

Miller’s is a great facility to visit and I suggest you do so.  I heard that next year the race was going to be a six hour race.  Since they do not have lights, I am betting for an early start.

Thanks for reading and looking!  My entire Utah Grand Prix Gallery is available at DPerceptions MotorSports Photography.  See you at Limerock.

Darren

Ok, enough bitching about IndyCar.

We flew into the Long Beach Airport (recommend) on Thursday afternoon and made it to our hotel around 3:54.  Not quite in time for me to cab back over to the convention center for the 4PM photo meeting.  On one hand, I had nothing better to do than sit by the bay drinking Cucapá Chupacabras and eating ceviche all evening.  On the other, I was now faced with a 6:15Am photo meeting.  It didn’t really matter since the time zone killed me.  I was in bed around 8PM California time and back up at 4:30AM. The Passport Bus system didn’t start running until 6AM, so I had a cab waiting for me in the morning dark.

The Long Beach Convention Center is a huge place and I doubt I would have easily found the meeting if I had not run into Adriano Manocchia who showed me around the place for a bit.  Could this place be any more cavernous and winding?

6:15AM photographer meeting

I shot a picture with my BlackBerry so you could the glamorous life of photo meetings.  Having no real idea of where to go shoot after then meeting, I followed some good advice and headed to T11.  The light was great, but I was outside the track and was not really liking the angle so I headed up the front straight to aquatint myself with T1, the Fountain Area and the rest of that side of the track.  I imagine there might be a good shot or two in the street canyons over by the back straight, but I never made it over there as it did not look terribly interesting on the map.  I spent a good portion of my Friday learning some of the holes and vantage points on the course; thinking about where the sun would be later in the day.

#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long

Long Beach weekend  is pretty heavy for ALMS.  Friday morning practice, Friday afternoon qualification, Saturday afternoon race.  Not much time to acclimate to a very slick and demanding street course.  Not sure why they do it to be honest.

Since the race was only 100 minutes, I reasoned that I would not have time to shoot in the pits so I decided to work them during qualification.  Similarly to Sebring, the light was long and colorful during quali.  Also similar to Sebring was the extremely boring quali session.  Again, the only highlight was the LMPC class battle with Christophe Bouchut and Gunnar Jeannette trading fast laps.  I find it odd that the qualification can be so uninteresting when the race itself is full of excitement.  Hopefully that will change as the season burns in.

#99 Green Earth Team Gunnar Oreca FLM09: Gunnar Jeannette, Elton Julian

Saturday was race day and I started the afternoon by shooting the start from atop the T1 walkway.  Half of the walkway was dedicated to pros, half was sold to people who wanted the “pro” experience.  My wife, Kim, commented later that half of the people shooting from above T1 left after the 1st 5 or 6 laps; I guess if you are paying to be up there, you need to get your shots.

Race Start #007 Aston Martin Racing Lola B09 60 Aston Martin: Harold Primat, Adrian Fernandez

I spent most of the ALMS race working the inside of the last few turns as I was liking the light on T9 and T10.  I got some great shots in the hairpin, but had no idea the Pagenaud made that great pass on the final lap until I watched it later on the internet.  Happily, the hat dance was modified from Sebring and went much more quickly.  Unhappily, Long Beach did not let fans into the area to watch, so again, very few live people saw the trophies handed out.

Podium Ceremony GT Class Champagne Battle

Thanks for reading and looking!  My ALMS Long Beach Grand Prix Photo Gallery is available for viewing and instant download at DPerceptions Motorsport Photography.

-Darren

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

2002 BMW M3 E1: Drew Ewing

He recently made a video where he used some of my photography from the weekend. Not all of the stills are mine, but most of them are.   The video is interspersed with in car video, mostly from Road Atlanta.  Its interesting to see what was happening in the car and on the track while I was outside shooting the car.  Additionally, audio is provided by James Tiberis Kirk and Joan Jett, what could go wrong?

6:15AM – Soaked to the bone an decidedly awake, I made coffee and culled files before the meeting.  I threw on my raincoat, grabbed my travel mug of coffee and headed out into the deluge to find our golf car.  Several times during the drive to the tower I drove through 6 inch deep rivers of clay.  Nearing turn 10, I was amazed to see that many of the tents pitched on the downhill had been overrun by the waters.  One particularly large tent had been set smack in the middle of a small river and had over a foot tall berm of mud piled against it’s side.  The river flowed across the road, down the hill, against the tent and around it into a storm drain further down the hill.  Yikes!  I was at that point very appreciative of my dry sleeping area.

Peugeot 908 #07 leads the Audi R15 #2 though T12 during morning warmups for the 2009 Petit Le Mans

7:15AM –  As I reached the tower the rains came down even harder.  I ran into the meeting forgetting my coffee in the car.  So far this morning had been pretty annoying.  The photography meeting went as usual except there were so many photographers it was nearly impossible to hear and most of the people speaking did not remember to use the PA system they had set up.   Those meetings are somewhat odd.  Essentially the same rules exist at every track, the only differences are certain areas being red zones (no go) during the race as opposed to during practice or qualification.  Sometimes there are a few clarifications or they give us the new combinations for the gate locks.  There are always a few people who need to complain about a course worker denying them entry to an area or some other gripe.  Essentially, the meetings are held to help inform the people from area media and people who are new to shooting racing.  These are also the people who don’t seem to show up for these meetings.  You can usually tell who they are when they try to get into the pits while not wearing a fire suit.

10AM – After breakfast and more coffee, I had a pre-race meeting to attend and I shot the tail end of the warmup in the last of the morning rains.  We then headed to the front straight to join in the grid walk.  Even in the rain (it had by this time slowed to a drizzle) the grid was packed to hilt with fans.  In fact it was so packed, I gave up and headed down to turn one to get my spot for the start of the race.  The skies continued to rain off and on pretty much up until the ~11:15 reconnaissance laps.  When the cars went by us in turn one behind the safety car for the first time the track was still wet to the point where you could see the rear tires throwing up a large splash of water.  The rain had stopped, so I prepared to shoot the first lap of the race.  Turn one at the start of the Petit Le Mans can be a daunting place to stand.  Even behind yards of gravel, a tire barrier and finally a concrete barrier, I was ready for cars to come sliding my way.  I prepared one camera to shoot wide and fast in case someone decided to come through the gravel at the start of the race and the other to catch the cars as they came down the last of the pit straight.  A huge fog appeared out of turn 12 and the leaders headed our way.

Three wide at the start of the 2009 Petit Le Mans. Allan McNish goes wide on the outside to take the lead

I continued to shoot turn one for several laps as the rooster tails died down and a dry line started to form. The rain was gone and the race was on.

I was going to cover the pits for the first part of the race, so I left turn one and headed up to the tower to put on a fire suit. Here is one of the few good points of the rain and cool weather; it makes wearing a fire suit in Georgia in September almost bearable. I hit the pits a little after Noon and a few cars had already switched over to dry tires. I watched the Matmut Oreca team refuel and throw on slicks. There was still enough water in their pitbox to cause the car to slide on its way out. I heard over the radio almost immediately that Lapierre had had an off and on, so the track, while drying, was still quite wet in places. Over the next 20 minutes or so, all of the cars came in for slicks, so the pits were a very busy place to be.

The Matmut Oreca AIM pits for fresh tires during the 2009 Petit Le Mans

I had been paying particular attention to the new Drayson Lola all week as the car was completely new to both me and the team. My pit notes showed that Lord Paul Drayson was supposed to be the third driver into the car, but somewhere around one in the afternoon, Paul put on his helmet and jumped into the car after Jonny Cocker finished the first stint. I must admit that I did not pay much attention to his times, but he seemed to be holding his own. About an hour later he got out and gave the car over to Rob Bell. You could tell how elated Paul was as he jumped out of the car and started running around hugging everyone. He was smiling from ear to ear.  This was great to see, the sport needs more people who are as openly enthusiastic as him.

Lord Paul Drayson in the Drayson Racing pitbox - 2009 Petit Le Mans

The rains came and went; usually nothing more than a few drops. Several cars were having problems, mostly with crashes and offs. About 2:30 Kim came down to the pits to pick me up for some lunch. We went back tot he RV and ate while watching the race unfold on television. Then it started to rain again.

Red Flag

As we sat watching the rain come down outside we listened to the Radio Le Mans guys valiantly scramble to fill airtime.  They did an exceptional job of informing and entertaining during the lull in racing.  However, I couldn’t keep the same feeling I had during the 2005 US Grand Prix from creeping into my head. I remember standing with Kim in the front straight at Indy, mouth agape as all of the Michelin shod cars pulled into the garages. I was hugely frustrated, but had been warned the day before by the Williams Team. Much like Indy, I knew the rain was coming, but hoped it would pass.

BMW Rahal Letterman M3 #90 in the rain at the 2009 Petit Le Mans

What most people still don’t seem to understand was that we (Georgia in this case) had over 20 inches of rain the week before the race, there was nowhere for this new rain to go.  The ground was full, there was nothing the track could do other than wait.  I think IMSA, ALMS and Road Atlanta got it right, the red flag and the final checker waved 5 hours later.  At no point in between was it the track in any condition to hold a walk, let alone a motor race.  As a fan I was bummed, but understood.

Once the officials threw the checkers, we jumped into the golf car to head down for the podium ceremonies.  The trophy session (or hat dance as it is called) was obviously subdued, but the Peugeot guys did seem to makes sure McNish was completely soaked with champagne.  I am sure he was appreciative.

The P1 Podium Ceremony at the 2009 Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda6

One of the most amazing bits of the week were the fans.  We have been going to Petit for years and even through the rain, we have never seen so many people at the track.  I can only assume this means good things for the future of sports car racing.

Thanks for reading and looking! My entire 2009 Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda 6 gallery is available for viewing and your use at DPerceptions.com