Welcome to Indiana-ville: On the Road (Again!) with ARCA Racing Plus Back to School

Youngster Chandler Smith Picked Up Another Dominant ARCA Win From Pole

The last two weeks bounded by three weekends have continued my whirlwind summer with classes starting again at the Excel Center Noblesville where I teach. On top of that I had three long drives for three straight weekends to shoot races at three very different tracks in the ARCA Menards series. First there was the 3/8ths mile in Elko, Minnesota, then came the 7/8ths mile Iowa Speedway and fiinally the 2.5 mile superspeedway at Pocono Raceway. I started writing this post on Saturday evening July 20th while sitting in the media center at Iowa Speedway waiting out a rain delay for the NTT Indycar Series. At the beginning of that week, school had resumed where I teach and after four days of teaching, I had left Indy for Iowa right after work Thursday July 18th and arrived at about 11:00 pm local time after a seven hour drive to Newton, Iowa to work the June 19th ARCA event. I stopped at the I-80 truckstop on the way for the first time and it was a hoot - the world's largest truck stop so they claim. Friday turned into a grueling 17 hour day in conditions unlike any I'd ever experienced at a race before, in dangerous heat that felt like more than 110 degrees. It was still 85 degrees at 11:30 pm when I got back to our hotel after the race! It was crazy how hot it was - it just pressed on my chest every time I left the media center that day. On race day July 19th, I got my second (or third) wind before ARCA's "Friends With Benefits" 150 and loved the chance to work this cool little track again for the fifth time since 2015. I know everyone felt wiped out Friday evening in Victory Lane as Chandler Smith picked up another dominant ARCA win for Venturini Motorsports. I told team principal Billy Venturini afterwards that their teams were killing it this season and they continue to rack up pole positions and race wins with a variety of talented young drivers. Their team has clearly been the class of the series this year.

Iowa weather seemed almost as fickle as Indiana's!

Ever since it was announced last year that ARCA would race Friday night and Indycar on Saturday night at Iowa, I had planned to shoot both races and return to Indy on Sunday. The weather forecast for Indycar's race day (July 20th) promised a bit of relief from Friday's oppressive heat and we did get some relief but the timing was awful. The track was hit by a ferocious rainstorm complete with lightning just as the Indycar grid was supposed to be forming. For a race that was supposed to start at 6:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT), that rainstorm was very unwelcome, since it sent everyone's plans into a blender and no one knew if (or when) the race would be run. A couple of hours later came word that Indycar would shoot for a 10:30 CDT start if the track could be dried and no more rain fell. But there was another storm cell to the west so everyone was a bit nervous since no one wanted to deal with a postponement to Sunday morning for an 11:00 a.m. start. At about 10 o'clock, they started rolling cars to the grid and it looked like we were going to get the race in so everyone was relieved. I especially enjoyed having a lot of time to walk the whole Indycar grid and get driver photos. I'm pretty sure I got at least one decent shot of every Indycar driver in the race. The highlight for me was talking to Conor Daly who is from Noblesville so that was cool making a connection with him even though we have been social media acquaintances for years.

Josef Newgarden was on a mission at Iowa

I wrapped up my Indycar shooting of winner Josef Newgarden in Indycar Victory Lane about 1:30 local time, went back to the media center to download my images and then sort out what I was going to do next. Since I had not made a hotel reservation in advance and it was closing in on 2:30 in the morning in Iowa (3:30 a.m. back in Indy), I decided to drive awhile and see how I felt. I got almost to Iowa City before the need to sleep started hitting me so I pulled into a rest area and slept for a couple of hours before a tour bus full of giggling and chatting high school girls behind me work me up. Back onto I-80 east I went and drove a few more hours before stopping again at another rest stop somewhere in Illinois for an hour more sleep. I finally finished the drive home at about 1:30 p.m. in Indy. What was normally a seven hour drive became an exhausting ten hour drive with just enough sleep mixed in to keep me from crashing my Civic Si. I don't think I've ever been so glad to home; a nap followed almost immediately!

Chandler Smith also won at Elko

The weekend before Iowa, I had driven to Elko Speedway just south of Minneapolis, Minnesota for ARCA's 250 lap race there on July 13th. That was a 10 hour drive on Friday followed by the race on Saturday and then a return trip to Indy of another 10 hours on Sunday. I had never been to Elko before and I really loved working that little bullring. I worked the entire race photographing the action from the flagstand and along the outside track wall. Seventeen year old Chandler Smith picked up another impressive win for his Venturini team which set the stage for Iowa the next weekend. The Monday following Elko, we started the first day of our new school year and it was quite an adjustment. I have to admit I was feeling some travel fatigue as I had not done a drive that lengthy since going to Charlotte in May.

Christian Eckes continued the Venturini sweep of July ARCA races

The week following Iowa, I left Indy Thursday evening after school for another long drive - this time to Pocono in far eastern Pennsylvania - for another one day show where we would practice, qualify and race all on the same day. I got to our hotel after 2:15 Friday morning and had to be up early to go to the track, so I was one tired puppy after the Pocono race was over. At least this time I had somewhere to stay (unlike Iowa) so I didn't try to drive home until Saturday. I have been called crazy for keeping this kind of schedule but I am not the only one doing it. In a span of 15 days, I drove about 3,650 miles to shoot four races in three different states, plus I sandwiched my regular teaching job in between the race dates with eight days in the classroom! It was another stretch where I felt like I was working two full time jobs. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining! I love to drive and motorsports photography is a huge creative outlet for me.

Christian Eckes celebrates his Pocono win

Part of the reason I committed to doing all of the ARCA Menards Series races this year is because hardly anyone is certain what is going to happen in 2020 when NASCAR takes over full control of the series. The schedule for next year is not available yet but races at Phoenix in March, a rturn to Iowa in July, a single June race at Pocono, plus Talladega in the spring and the annual pilgrimage to Daytona in February have already been announced. I will definitely be going to Phoenix when I hope my brother and his family will be able to come up from Tucson. There's a newer addition to my niece's family I haven't even met yet and he's already two years old so it will be good to get together with all of them. The rest of the 2020 ARCA schedule is still up in the air and my plans to return to Le Mans for the 24 Hours next June will hopefully not have too great an impact on my ARCA photography. I love working for the series as I have a lot of creative freedom, I know I am contributing to making the cars and drivers look good, and the series attracts some of the best young talent in stock car racing, so next year promises to be very exciting. Stay tuned for more as we get into the final stages of 2019 with only five races remaining. I will have more to add another time as more information about next year's ARCA schedule becomes available. In the meantime, be sure to visit the series website by clicking here to see more photos and the latest news about the series. Until then here's a few of my photos from Elko, Iowa and Pocono for you!