From Le Mans to Iowa Speedway

It was a gorgeous night for a race at Iowa Speedway

Needless to say, Le Mans, France and Newton, Iowa are worlds apart in so many ways. While they are a study in contrast, they also host races so they have that in common. Driving to Iowa from Indy took me about 7 hours and oddly enough, I was struck by some similarities about the Midwestern and French countrysides. We had traveled to Le Mans from Tours, France by car and by train, so we saw a lot of the area. The Le Sarthe and central Iowa regions both contained lots of farmland and numerous small communities, plus I saw corn and beans growing in both. Even the weather was similar: hot and humid. Both circuits also had exciting races with interesting finishes. But that's about where the similarities ended as ARCA's "Fans With Benefits 150" was over in less than 2 hours compared to 24 hours to run Le Mans.

Youngster Dalton Sargeant  won Iowa

An obvious contrast between Iowa Speedway and the Circuit de la Sarthe is size. Iowa is a purpose built 7/8ths mile banked oval which takes a stock car about 24 seconds to lap. On the Le Mans road course, which is comprised mostly of public roads, a lap is more than 8 miles long and takes a prototype sports car over 3 minutes to complete. The sounds you hear are completely different as well, but racing is still racing so I love them both. In case you were wondering, I am already thinking about how I can get back to Le Mans and if ARCA keeps going to Iowa, then I expect I will be back there next year too. I have to say I went through a bit of culture shock last weekend as I arrived at Iowa Speedway to shoot the ARCA race for the series. It was great to be back on the ARCA trail since I hadn't seen my friends and colleagues in the series since Talladega at the beginning of May. It was very cool to have so many people ask about my experience at Le Mans and I had a blast telling stories about our 17 day trip to France and Italy. It was nice to be back at a racetrack, especially since the Iowa race marked the end of my summer break from teaching and I had to go back to my school life on Monday following the weekend.

Helio Castroneves finally got a win after 54 races

Last year my brother met me at Iowa and we stayed through Sunday so we could work the Indycar race also. As much as I wanted to stay again this year, I just couldn't justify it. Last year I got home at 3:15 Monday morning because the Indycar race started so late Sunday afternoon and I remember being exhausted that first day back at school so I headed back to Indy Sunday morning this time. I was safely ensconced on my couch for this year's Indycar Iowa Corn 300 but it sure seemed weird watching the telecast from a track where I had just been less than a day earlier. I did manage to grab a few Indycar photos Saturday in between my ARCA duties, but I probably spent less than 20 minutes trackside to get those since ARCA was my first priority.

Every ARCA weekend starts with an early morning officials meeting

And Saturday had been a very long day at the racetrack as I got there a little after 6:00 a.m. for our 6:30 officials meeting and didn't leave the track until close to midnight. In between, I shot about 1600 photos for ARCA, got over 18,000 steps on my pedometer app, shot a sunset and the full moon rising over the track. This ARCA season has seen its share of wins by young drivers and the series has become known for that. It was fun standing in Victory Lane after the race talking with winner Dalton Sargeant, second place finisher Austin Theriault and third place Sheldon Creed in between photos as I really feel like I get to know these guys n ARCA. I have nine more races to do for ARCA this season and I'm sure that familiarity will come in handy. At one point Saturday, Austin had come into the ARCA marketing trailer where we work up our photos to look at what we had on the 52 car to see how the splitter looked relative to the track surface entering Turn 1. That was interesting and I know lots of drivers do that but it was the first time I had been there when it was happening. That's one of the advantages of familiarity in this series I think, and another reason why I enjoy working for ARCA so much.

My next race is another "home" race as ARCA comes to Indy to run on the short track at Lucas Oil Raceway on the westside Friday July 21st. That will be another very long day but the series always puts on a fantastic show at the relatively flat 5/8th mile oval and the 9:00 p.m. start guarantees we will be shooting under the lights, so it will be another opportunity to hone my night shooting skills. In the meantime, here are links to my photo galleries from Iowa Speedway and a few more photos from the event. Enjoy! Come on out to Lucas Oil Raceway next Friday and say hi!

Iowa Speedway ARCA Racing Series "Fans With Benefits 150"

Iowa Speedway Indycar Iowa Corn 300 Practice

Shane Lee put the 22 car on pole giving Cunningham two top contenders

JR Hildebrand hit the wall during practice but took a front row spot in qualifying later

Dalton Sargeant organized the obligatory team selfie after winning for the second time this season

The late afternoon sunlight Saturday made for some interesting shooting;  here's Graham Rahal in Turn 4

My First Le Mans: But Not My Last

The #1 Porsche had the field covered until it broke

I hardly know where to begin writing about my experiences at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. It was my first Le Mans and my first time in Europe, so this may be my longest blog post ever. There were multiple times during the trip where I would say to myself "I can't believe I am here" but I have the photos to document it! I have been working on and thinking about this trip (some of my friends and family might say I have been obsessing over it, which I can understand) since the end of May last year after meeting and working with two gentlemen from France at the 2016 Indianapolis 500. I bought the plane tickets last November and was all in from that point forward. I told my French friends during Le Mans week that they probably thought I was full of shit and would never actually make it over for the event. But I did, and I dragged my fiance along, and it turned out to be the most epic trip possible with perfect weather every single day and nary a misstep on any of the travel arrangements I had made.

Seeing scrutineering in the heart of Le Mans made it all real

The 24 Hours was the centerpiece of our trip and the race did not disappoint, and although the LMP1 field was slim, the fight for the overall win more than made up for the reduced numbers of the top prototype hybrids. The Toyotas were quickest in practice and started up front, but the Porsches were steady and when the #1 broke, the #2 Porsche was there to take the win even after enduring lengthy repairs of its own. What made it really exciting was the LMP2 Rebellion team taking the overall lead in the #38 car and nearly holding on for the overall win. Not only that, the Aston Martin team made a late charge and a last lap pass to take the LM GTE Pro win over the American Corvette Racing team. I have always loved shooting sports car racing and Le Mans was my second 24 hour race this year, following Daytona in January, so I had a little idea about what I was in for. But reality blew away what I had imagined and it was all done on a wing and prayer since having credentials was not assured until about three weeks before we left Indy for Paris.

The driver's parade was s study in contrasts

I sure hope I get the opportunity to work Le Mans again and I will be working on that. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about the trip, from the planning and booking to the side trips and all the planes, trains and automobiles we used to get around. When the idea was first broached last May, I started doing research into plane fares and calculating a budget. One of my French friends suggested sing Booking.com for hotels and that worked out perfectly. I also used Air BnB for lodging during the race weekend and we ended up in a great home about a kilometer from the main entrance to the circuit. I wanted to be there for the whole week of Le Mans and had to be sure my fiance had time to enjoy Europe and not just get trapped at the racetrack so we decided to go for 17 days, beginning in Paris and ending in Rome. So we flew to Paris Wednesday June 7th, then took a high speed train to Tours, France on Sunday June 11th where we got a rental car for a few days. That allowed us to take a side trip to the Chenonceaux Chateau and I could drive to Le Mans. Ironically, I left my fiance in Tours for two days as I stayed near the racetrack in another French home since the turnaround from Wednesday night qualifying to Thursday morning track activity was so tight. Friday morning June 16th I drove back to Tours, picked up my fiance, returned the rental car and then we hopped a train back to Le Mans so we could go to the driver's parade. We landed in our Air BnB home that night excited to be in the city with the race less than a day away. After the race, we ate dinner in Arnage on Sunday and collapsed into bed since we were set to fly to Venice the next day. so Monday June 19th we took the high speed train back to Paris, then rode a shuttle bus to ORLY Airport and flew EasyJet to Venice. Our stay in Venice was brief but memorable and we took another high speed train Wednesday June 21st to Rome. The next two days we spent in Rome sightseeing at the Vatican, St. Peter's basillica, the Colosseum and the ancient city before we took our return flight to Indy on Saturday June 24th. And just like that the trip was over, but I had about 10,000 images on my cameras and cell phones to memorialize it.

We had to stop at the Le Mans museum and gift shop first!

Our first day in Le Mans was Monday June 12th and we went to the credential office and racetrack first. It was an easy drive from Tours and we found ourselves driving into the City on the Mulsanne straight but going the opposite direction of what would be the normal race traffic. I drove inside the track and found the parking area for my pass and then wound our way downtown to the Place de Republique where the Pesage was underway. This public tech inspection (or scrutineering) was in the heart of Le Mans and hugely popular with race fans who could see the cars up close and get photos of the teams, cars and drivers. I tracked down my French friends who I had not seen since Indianapolis in May of 2016 and we arranged to meet for dinner later that evening. On the way, the GPS in the car I had took us the wrong direction so one of the guys had to come get us at the credential facility and lead us to the restaurant. Afterwards we went out in my rental car and I got to drive on the public roads of the racetrack from Tetra Rouge down the Mulsanne, and through Indianapolis and Arnage corners. I shot video and was absolutely thrilled to have that opportunity.

Great light Wednesday between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners

My fiance and I took our road trip to Chenonceaux the next day and then on Wednesday I headed to Le Mans to get down to business. I had to hit a photo meeting before I could go shoot in order to get updated on the safety rules which were quite a bit different than what I normally see in the USA. My French friends are the Le Mans experts through their company Vision Sport Agency, and while I had been studying the track map for months, I had no idea how to get from Point A to Point B. They had me tag along with another experienced Frenchman who took me to all the right locations for the first four hour practice session and the lighting was just perfect everyplace we went. He couldn't speak much English and I couldn't speak much French but we managed to communicate through the common language of racing photography. They let me borrow a 500 mm lens and I was in another world for that practice session. There are places photographers may go at Le Mans where it is just you, a three-tiered guardrail, the woods and the track so you really must pay attention and it was eerie at times to think how close the danger was with no catch fencing between me and the cars. But I loved it.

Night qualifying was spectacular from the center island

That first track day also included a night qualifying session between 10 pm and midnight and I got another thrill: the guys let me borrow a firesuit and helmet and work the pit lane during that session. The Le Mans pits are unlike anything else I have ever experienced so I was a little overwhelmed at first, but then I remembered lessons I learned long ago: keep them in front of you and don't turn your back on the cars. That was especially important since the LMP1 prototypes were hybrids and they would whistle silently into their pit stalls and you wouldn't even hear them coming. The Le Mans pit lane has a center island area where the engineers sit with their computer monitors adjacent to the racetrack where it is also possible to shoot. And because we have to have helmets and firesuits, you can walk back and forth across the pit lane and around the cars while they are pitting. So I walked the island all the way to the other end of the pits and crossed back to the pit stalls and walked the other direction so the traffic came toward me. I did that routine twice during the session and got the chance to experiment with available light and second curtain flash in ways I never had before. It was an amazing experience but my adventure for that day didn't stop there as I had trouble finding my host home in the dark that night, but the hostess waited up for me and offered me bread and cheese while we tried to communicate.

There's something special about night racing that I have come to love

Thursday June 15 was a very long day at the track with early sessions, the Road to Le Mans series and WEC Le Mans qualifying that ran until midnight again. I went to several new shooting locations and added to my steps total with more big numbers, and then was left to my own devices for the night qualifying session. I experimented with some longer exposures and went to the esses that lead onto the main straightaway. At that location I was also able to see the cars under heavy braking and get some nice shots of cars trailing each other through that series of corners. At the end of that day, I went back to my host home and got a few hours of sleep before heading back to Tours the next morning to get my fiance and bid our farewells to our BnB hostess there. I was so excited to get back to Tours and tell my fiance about my experiences and hear about her days on her won, and then we had a train to catch back to Le Mans.

After walking the grid, I went up towards the Dunlop Bridge for the start

Friday June 16th we were together in Le Mans at last and got picked up at the train station by one of our French friends so we grabbed a leisurely lunch downtown and then had fun with the driver's parade which started after 5:00 p.m. and ran until about 7:30. The contrast between old and new in downtown Le Mans was striking and then we were ready for race day. The funny thing was, I needed to do laundry! So our Air BnB hosts took us to a laundromat race morning and then we packed up our stuff and walked to the Circuit. I had purchased an ACO Club membership for my fiance so we found where she needed to go and then went into the Vision Sport Agency office to get ready to go to work. We agreed to meet at the ACO Club facility at midnight so I could walk her back to our Air BnB home and grab a couple hours of sleep. I was back at the circuit at 5:00 a.m. and headed immediately for the area of the Dunlop Bridge as I had an image in my mind I wanted to try and get.

Sunrise came around 6:00 a.m. 

Sunrise at Le Mans is an iconic image and although I am happy with what I got, it was not quite what I had envisioned so I want another crack at it. That will have to wait for my next trip to Le Mans and I know there will be one. That Sunday morning sky was still way better than what we had at Daytona this year at the Rolex 24 Hours where it was pouring rain at dawn. From Wednesday through Sunday, I was struck on more than one occasion just how awesome it was to even be there, trackside at Le Mans, after dreaming about going to that race for years and seeing the work of other photographers year after year.  The theme for the 85th Le Mans was "Mythique" and I certainly experienced that feeling as I watched the race unfold, and the Toyotas dropped out, then the #1 Porsche failed with a huge lead, and the GTE battle went to the last lap. There was no big controversy this year and I shot several thousand images over the course of the week so I had a lot of editing to do once the race was over. We had a plane to catch the next day to Venice so the editing would have to wait, but I was already thinking about the next time I could come to Le Mans as we ate our post race meal in Arnage. Our Air BnB host picked us up after dinner and took us back out on the racetrack as the public roads were re-opened just hours after the checkered flag flew, a perfect bookend to the way our Le Mans week began.

There's so much more I could write about my first Le Mans experience, but for now I will try to let my photos tell more of the story. Here are links to my galleries from the week:

Le Mans Race: Sunday 

Le Mans Race: Saturday

Le Mans Pesage, Qualifying and Parade

Road to Le Mans Series

Post race Victory Lane celebrations were absolutely joyous

Morning light at Le Mans was magical

Of course I had to go to Indianapolis Corner for photos

Shooting in the woods between Mulsanne and Indianapolis was unbelievable

Sato Takes Indy 500 Win - We Head to France

2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato

What a month of May this has been. I turned 60 the last day of May and as my fiance likes to say, "The Month of Jay" concluded with another highly entertaining Indy 500 race which was won in the last few laps by hard charging Takuma Sato. Taku became the first Japanese driver to win Indy and he did it with a Honda engine behind him that was stronger (and lasted longer) than all the rest. The Chevy powered teams were just no match for Honda this year at IMS and it was a joy to watch Takuma get his first 500 win after a near miss in 2011 when he crashed trying to pass Dario Franchitti on the last lap. This year, there was no denying the man whose motto is stitched onto his caps: "No Attack, No Chance" and I'm sure his fans in the far east were partying in the streets after their hero took the checkered flag. And that after the buzz all month had been about Fernando Alonso skipping the Monaco Grand Prix to race at Indy! It was amazing to see how happy Sato and his Andretti Autosport team was in Victory Lane as he chugged the milk and then poured it on himself. He bore a smile that just wouldn't quit.

Fernando Alonso  clearly enjoyed Indy

As for me, I was happy too since I have provided Indy 500 photos for Autosport Japan magazine featuring Takuma the last several years and began thinking excitedly that this could generate a nice payday for me, or maybe even a cover shot! How crazy it seems to think that this Hoosier with a yen for Indycars and racing could get a cover photo in a magazine in the land of the rising sun! For now, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I provided a month's worth of coverage in photos for my friends in France who credentialed me at Vision Sport Agency (VSA). I also managed to get photos used through VSA in French and German publications after Sato's win. As if that international exposure wasn't enough, next week my fiance and I head to France where I will get the chance to shoot my first 24 Hours of LeMans race and I will have credentials to do it. One bucket list item after another seems to have been ticked off the last few weeks and I'm sure I will be feeling the immense distance between little Salem Speedway and the famed Circuit de la Sarthe once I am there.

Sato is a hard charger and calculating racer

I knew heading into May that my schedule would be packed with activity and the month seemed to fly by as I worked my teaching job and went to the Speedway every day I could, often doing both on the same day. Everything came together on race day as I got tremendous cooperation from the IMS staff on the access I wanted, including a Victory Lane pass for race day, all month long. I think that bodes well for the future for VSA at Indy and I hope they continue to use me as their Indianapolis representative. Trust me when I say I understand how fortunate I am to be doing these things but I also know that opportunities like this aren't just handed out. I know my work is good and it's an incredible feeling to have it get recognized in the form of a trusted assignment.

Which leads me to LeMans: ever since I met the guys from VSA at the 2016 Indy 500, I have hoped and planned to go and shoot the race. I only found out this past Saturday that credentials had been approved for me and that was after submitting about two dozen PDF's of publication proofs for the event organizers to review. Twice. Once we set plans in motion to go last summer, I never backed off, buying plane tickets last November and booking rooms and other travel connections "as if" I would be working. We decided long ago that we were going even if it was just as spectators so I just did the legwork and left the rest up to others. Getting that LeMans confirmation on the Saturday morning of Indy 500 weekend was a sure sign of good things to come.

Scott Dixon led from the start but his race ended spectacularly

And there were other signs of good fortune as well. I had asked a trusted photographer friend for advice on how to raise the profile of VSA with the IMS staff the previous week and had emailed information to the IMS photo director with no real hope of a reply. But lo and behold, come race morning I got the vest I needed to shoot outside by the wall and my name did not get crossed off the Victory Lane list. To top it off, I got to the winner's trophy shoot on Monday and found a chair reserved for "Alley" in the front row which was totally unexpected. Another race day sign involved a photo of my Mom at the track (who passed away in July 2015) I had decided to take with me in one of my lens pouches. Unbeknownst to me, it fell out on my way to the Penthouse roof. High on the Penthouse walkway, I hear a woman holler "Number 38! Hey!" which was the vest number I had been given, and she handed me the photo which she had seen me drop. I could hardly believe it but I knew I was going to have a great day shooting once that happened. And I did. Not only that, the predicted thunderstorms held off until well after the race was over which made for a nearly perfect day on the job.

I have a lot to be grateful for right now and it starts with my fiance Julie. When I decided to change careers in 2009, I told her I wouldn't be able to do it without her and now it's surreal to look back and see all that has happened since I decided to become a teacher and really concentrate on my motorsports photography. There's another list of people I'm grateful for in my life too but I'll save that for the next post. But if I've said "thank you" to you lately, you know who you are. I couldn't have done this without you either. Next stop, Paris, then Tours and LeMans. See you there!

To see a few of my photos from the 500, then click here to follow this link. If you want to see more, then please click here to visit the Vision Sport Agency website. And then tell all your friends!

Honda personnel at Indy had their hands full with blown engines but Taku's went the whole 500 miles

Michael's Andretti Autosport team fielded six (6) cars including the winner

Fernando Alonso proved to be quick and Indy fans loved him

ARCA, Alonso and Alabama

ARCA raced at Salem for the 101st time on April 30th

Since the last I had the chance to write, I've been kind of busy! You may wonder what the heck ARCA, Alonso and Alabama have in common and why I used these in my title. On the last weekend in April, I made two trips to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana for the 101st ARCA race at the old high banks. Then Wednesday May 3rd I went out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to cover the first test session for two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso on the IMS oval since the news came out that he was skipping Monaco to run the 101st Indy 500 instead.

ARCA teams turned out in force for Talladega 

Then the first weekend in May I did a banzai trip to Talladega, Alabama, driving through torrential rain Thursday night, to shoot the ARCA, NASCAR Xfinity and Monster Energy Cup races, before returning home to Indy at 2:45 a.m. Monday morning so I wouldn't miss any work that day. The Alabama weather was miserable on Friday when we were supposed to have run the ARCA race as it was cold and rainy, although we did get on track for 30 minutes of practice. as a result, the race got postponed to Saturday afternoon once all of the NASCAR track activities were completed so I ended up shooting the Xfinity Series race for AP and the ARCA race for ARCA that afternoon. The night before we had gone to a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo, which probably wasn't the best decision, but we had fun and I was ready to just relax Saturday night.

Four wide at Talladega is the new normal

I was still dealing with a credential snafu that night for the Cup race and I wasn't sure it would get worked out at all, but I went to sleep trying to trust the process and hope for the best. The next morning I not only got into the track with the right credential to shoot for AP, I got assigned to the Turn 1 tower so I had a great view of the pack racing which made for some interesting photos. Even though I didn't sell any pictures to AP from the Cup race, I left via the "secret exit" as soon as I turned in my photo vest and was happy with the work I had done as I headed back to Indianapolis Sunday evening. The common thread is racing of course, and I nearly set a mileage record for the week!

Will Power won on the road course at Indy again

Fast forward a week and I've done another race - this time a little closer to home - at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where Indycar ran on the road course in its Indycar Grand Prix to kick off May track activities at IMS. Now that the Indycar GP is over, practice has started for the 101st Indy 500 and Alonso has gotten some real track time under his belt, and he has really seemed to enjoy it. He has adapted well to solo and pack running since his limited number of laps to pass his rookie test on May 3rd. Fernando has also seemed to enjoy the close contact with fans and I have been surprised that photographers and fans alike have allowed relatively easy access to him, even in the pits. He ran as high as 4th quick on Fast Friday so he may yet be a real threat to win the 500 next weekend, but there's a host of Indycar regulars who stand between Fernando and the Borg Warner trophy.

Will Power was unstoppable on Indy's road course

Although it is a bit disappointing that there are only 33 cars entered for this year's 500, the quality of the field is high and three crashes during practice (veteran Josef Newgarden, youngster Spencer Pigot and rookie Zach Veach) is about normal for the first week at Indy. I have had a blast shooting for Vision Sport Agency (VSA) and adapting to their more sophisticated techniques in Adobe Lightroom for processing daily images. It has also forced me to be more critical of my own work so I am trying to do hard edits each day as I cull through my photos looking for the 4- and 5-star images.  It's nice to see the results of my work immediately on the internet and I hope it generates more interest for the series and for VSA's involvement both now and in the future, especially here at Indy since this is my home race.

Penske, Ganassi and Andretti drivers made the Indycar GP podium

Will Power won the Indycar GP again this year leading 61 of 85 laps to get his second win at Indy, albeit not on the oval in the big race. Michael Andretti has six cars entered this year for the 500, including Alonso's so on sheer numbers alone, an Andretti driver has the best chance of winning this year at 18.18%. Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi both have four cars entered so they will certainly have much to say about who wins this year's race. In any event they will have to fend of the Andretti phalanx of cars which may get an additional technology boost with the involvement of the McLaren braintrusts from Formula One. Since I'm a numbers guy (I teach Algebra after all) the odds of an Andretti, Penske or Ganassi entry winning the 500 stand at 42.42%. That's a number I would bet on. So as the late Sid Collins used to say, "Stay tuned for the Greatest Spectacle in racing." I will do my part to bring it to you in photos so be sure to check the Vision Sport Agency website on a regular basis.

Fernando Alonso seemed quite comfortable on his first laps on Indy's oval 

Spencer Pigot found the wall in practice but is expected to be ready for qualifying

Race Photography Adventure Begins

Salem Speedway will host the ARCA series for the 101st time this weekend

And so it begins: a race photographer's heaven full of events starts this weekend with a road trip to Salem Speedway to work the ARCA race for the series. The weather forecast isn't great for either Saturday or Sunday but ARCA knows how to get an event in so I am pretty sure the 200 lapper scheduled for Sunday afternoon will get run sometime before I have to be back on my teaching job Monday morning. Those old Salem highbanks drain fast and the track workers know how to get it dried off. There have been numerous times where it didn't look like racing was possible there but it happened despite my prediction, so I am going to stay out of the weatherman business and just go with the flow. I will have pictures to make regardless.

Dega is one monster of a racetrack: I love it

This Salem weekend begins a stretch of racing unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Next Wednesday May 3rd is Fernando Alonso's test on the big oval at Indianapolis Motors Speedway (IMS) so my plan is to get out there for a couple of hours in the morning to get some photos for Vision Sport Agency. Then Thursday night May 4th I hit the road for Talladega as soon as I get out of work, which usually means I get there about midnight Indy time. Friday is ARCA's day on track at Dega so I will be there shooting for the series as we practice, qualify and race all on Friday. Then Saturday and Sunday I will stay over and shoot the NASCAR races for Associated Press, which should be interesting since Dale Earnhardt, Jr. announced this week that he intends to retire from NASCAR at the end of this season. The Alabama fans absolutely love Junior so I will be trying to get some candid shots of him at one of his best racetracks. Then I drive home Sunday night to be back at the head of my class Monday morning.

Simon Pagenaud won the 2016 Grand Prix

The following Friday May 12th action picks up on the road course at IMS for the Indycar Grand Prix event which includes support races for the Indy Lights series. I will be there both days for VSA and hoping that Simon Pagenaud or Sebastian Bourdais can snag a win as those pictures would go over well in Europe for VSA. I will be a one man gang for VSA at Indy this May so I will probably end up setting some steps records by the time the month is over. After the Grand Prix May 13th, I get Sunday off but I will probably still be doing some editing as the track time far outweighs the editing time for the road course event. The rest of that week I will be teaching all day and trying to zip out to IMS for Happy Hour any day the weather permits for Indy 500 practice and more photos of Alonso and all the rest of the Indycar regulars who will be getting ready for the 101st running of the 500. I will also keep an eye on Takuma Sato for Autosport Japan magazine which has used quite a few of my Indy 500 photos of Taku in its publication the last few years. Keeping up with international and domestic relationships has become a major goal of my photography work in motorsports. I am grateful for every opportunity.

There's nothing like the start of the Indianapolis 500

Saturday and Sunday May 20 and 21st are qualifying days for the 500 so I will be working at IMS both days. Then it's race week and after teaching Monday through Thursday I will be at IMS for Carburetion Day Friday May 26th, covering the final practice session for the 33 qualified cars, plus the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race and the pit stop competition. I have always considered race weekend my birthday weekend since my birthday is May 31st, so we will be celebrating my 60th the day after Carb Day. Then 300,000 or so people will join the celebration the next day at IMS for the 500 on May 28th. So between now and the 500, I will have one day off where I am not teaching or working a race event. And I couldn't be happier about that.

Then life calms down for a few days as we wrap up our school year and make final preparations for my biggest travel adventure ever. We leave 10 days after the 500 for Paris, France and the 85th 24 Hours of Le Mans. My fiance and I are going together and while I am unsure what kind of access I will have for the 24 Hours race, you know I will bring back pictures. That's what I do.

So stay tuned race fans! Follow me on twitter @alleygroup to read all about it!

Salem Speedway is a historic track which used to test the best that Indy had to offer

Talladega is a high speed crapshoot to see who can miss "The Big One"

Running clockwise at Indy during the Grand Prix still seems a bit odd to me

Indy 500 pit stops are choreographed mayhem where the quick and precise prevail

ARCA Nashville - New Winner Chad Finney Emerges From Crashfest

Chad Finney grabbed his first career win in the ARCA Racing Series

This past weekend was the second race weekend of my 2017 season and it was a study in contrasts compared to my initial photo assignment for this year back in January at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Thousands of laps were run by IMSA's WeatherTech sports car series competitors across four classes on the Daytona road course and it rained buckets throughout the night. By comparison, my Nashville weekend involved an aging half-mile banked oval where the ARCA Series ran the Music City 200 lap under the watchful eye of MavTV personnel and a live television audience. I had perfect weather from Friday through Sunday so driving to and from Nashville from Indianapolis was a piece of cake and race day Saturday was quite pleasant. The sports car race had a battle for the lead right to the end and the longest caution period came during the night when rains peaked between 5:30 and 7:00 Sunday morning. At Nashville, the lead was held by the #78 of Kyle Weatherman most of the night but tire strategy handed the win to Chad Finney after the completion of 95 laps under caution. They were even crashing after taking the checkered flag!

Kyle Weatherman led 134 of 200 laps but finished second

Perhaps it's not fair to contrast my IMSA and ARCA series weekends but as a photographer, they have a lot more in common than you might think. For instance, Saturday at Nashville stretched from 7:30 in the morning at the ARCA officials meeting to well past midnight once my editing was completed. That's about a 17 hour work day whereas Daytona is a few hours longer. A big similarity was my approach: I had photo goals for both events in order to keep my personal challenges elevated and stay sharp creatively. I did not meet all of my goals at either race event so I know I still have more to work on. I will get the chance with ARCA again in three weeks when the series goes back to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana for its spring visit. I will have to wait until June to hone my chops on 24 hour sports car racing again when we go to Le Mans.

Christian Eckes (15) took 3rd Place ahead of Austin Theriault (52)

Another contrast involves travel. In January, I flew to Orlando and then drove to Daytona. For Nashville, as I will for all of my scheduled ARCA races this season, I drove solo in my 2015 Honda Civic. I cracked the 32,000 mile mark on way back from Nashville, which seems like a lot given I only got the car in September of 2015. I truly love to drive and it's nice to find someone to run with on a long trip, like the white Grand Am south of Lousiville on Friday. Hearing the wind and the singing noise that my Continental Tires make on the highway when I'm at speed is a love song I look forward to hearing every road trip.

Nashville is a historic short track with some very old pavement

This was my third trip to Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway for an ARCA race and it is an interesting old facility, located on the State Fairgrounds property south of downtown Nashville. Some people may think the ARCA race was being held at the Nashville Superspeedway; while it is true that ARCA has raced there in the past, that track is pushing up daisies now after going through bankruptcy. Daytona's road course is huge compared to the little Nashville bull ring which is only a half mile long.

Austin Theriault is on a comeback tour to restart his career

One of the common themes for race weekends nowadays is the friends I see at the racetracks, and it doesn't matter what series I am covering or which track I visit. Invariably I see people I've known for years as a photographer. More and more, however, I am renewing friendships with drivers, crew members, team owners, PR people and many more, as I return to familiar tracks. Or I am meeting people in person, some for the first time, with whom I've connected on social media. Sometimes the word "family" gets used in this context, but to me it's more like a community of like minded souls who love motorsports in all its forms. That is really a cool thing to be a part of and I have been very fortunate to experience that in many different settings.

Brehanna Daniels has her eye on a NASCAR crew career

And then there's the surprises, like the young woman I met on pit lane during ARCA qualifying on Saturday afternoon. I noticed she was wearing an Excalibur Pit School shirt so I asked her how she was doing and whether she was on a crew. She very excitedly told me her name, Brehanna Daniels, that she was a former Division I basketball player at Norfolk State University, and that she was going to be the first African-American female pit crew member in NASCAR! My first thought was, oh to be that young again! I will be keeping tabs on this young lady and I hope she makes it, as ARCA is a great training ground for crew members, crew chiefs, team support personnel  and others - not just for stock car drivers.

And then there's the fans. While many people don't know much about ARCA, there's also people like Rowdy Maglite who has an internet radio show and covers the series extensively. Or the shirtless guy in Victory Circle after the the Music City 200 was over and was yelling "Hell yeah!" as loud as he could towards the winning team members for some reason! Whatever your flavor, you can find it in racing and the attraction is strong as half the starting field in the Nashville race was making their first season start - and some were making their first ARCA start ever. So ARCA really is the place to go if you want to see tomorrow's stock car stars today. Plus, you can do it for a whole lot less money than a Cup race. If you don't believe me then come out to Salem Speedway April 29th and 30th, camp out at the track and watch the action all weekend. It will be ARCA's 101st time race at Salem so the history is there; you should be too. See you then! In the meantime, here's a few of the photos from my Nashville gallery and a link to the full gallery.

Nashville Music City 200 Photo Gallery:

https://goo.gl/photos/Zg6nPCkXcsrhfqr7A