500 Blog Posts - And Counting Thanks

Sam Hornish takes Turn 1 at Indy in 2006

This is the 500th blog post I have written here since I started in 2007, and it's hard to believe that 10 years has passed already. When I began blogging, a marriage of 18 years had ended and my career in real estate development and utility management was also in transition, so this blog was a creative outlet to write about my passion for motorsports. I still tell the joke on myself that when I got divorced, I bought camera equipment instead of furniture and went racing again, with the Indy 500 in 2006 my official re-entry into the changing digital media world. It was also my first race shooting high speed digital still photography. I am still grateful that Greg Griffo at the Indianapolis Star gave me the chance to shoot Indy again that year after I sat out 2004 and 2005 when I went as a spectator. I have had a number of great opportunities since then and now 11 years later, I am facing another transition as I search for a new media affiliation for my home races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Shooting for American Motor Journal included  USAC dirt racing

If you read my blog regularly, then you know I started shooting Indy in 1984 as a turn shooter for UPI. After that, I shot for the Indianapolis Star for five years and the Speedway's staff for five years before taking 1997 and 1998 off due to personal problems that were masquerading as burnout. Even though I kept my consecutive string if 500's alive by going as a spectator, I  discovered I missed the media work terribly and came back in 1999 with Agency France Pressed for the next five races. After the 2003 race my personal life imploded, everyone at the track switched from film to digital, and I needed time to assess where my life was going. After much soul searching, a move out of my marital home, and changes in my professional career when the housing market crashed, I bought my first good digital cameras and was ready to go racing again. And I was ready to get serious about numerous life changes I had been wrestling with. So May 2006 was a renaissance for me and I also met someone else that month who would help me rachet up my racing photography: Don Hamilton.

Chicagoland was a great track for Indycar

I had known Don for years but that May he told me he had acquired American Motor Journal (AMJ) and asked me if I'd be interested in shooting some races for him. Don passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, but the seven years I worked with him I shot Indycar at the 500, Chicagoland, Nashville, Kentucky, Mid Ohio and Michigan, plus Grand Am and American Le Mans at Mid Ohio, plus the Brickyard 400 and ARCA races at Salem every spring and fall. Throw in a few USAC dirt races here and there and I felt I was living large while doing what I lived. More changes were in store for my professional career as I got out of the utily business and went back to graduate school at Marian University to get a teaching license. My hope was to teach math, coach basketball or soccer, officiate both sports, and shoot even more racing during breaks from teaching.

Sunrise at Daytona; I slept in my car more than once here

In 2010 I started looking to branch out from AMJ as I had gotten tremendous experience shooting all aspects of race events and felt I was ready to do more. I reached out to another photographer friend from Indy, Glenn Smith, about shooting for Associated Press at places like Daytona and Talladega. He introduced me to the AP folks down south and I did my first Daytona 500 and Talladega races in 2011 and have been going back ever since. I also got to shoot my first Rolex 24 Hours race in 2014  and make new connections  that led to shooting at Atlanta for AP as well. Glenn ran into his own life problems and then passed away a few years later but I am forever indebted to him for the help he gave me with those introductions.

Shooting Victory Lane at Indy in 2013 was the thrill of a lifetime

Another key aspect of those experiences was meeting other photogs and while I didn't know it in 2012, I would be branching out again the next year as a result of the relationships I had developed. At Indy in 2012, I happened to be sharing a drop gate outside Turn 3 with another photographer and of course we were chatting during down time. That photographer turned out to be Eric Gilbert with motorsport.com who gave me one of his business cards. Over that next winter,  I contacted Eric about shooting for his site during 2013 and found out that one of his photo editors was someone I had already met and worked with at AP at Talladega, Rainier Ehrhardt. Don Hamilton had passed away in the meantime so AMJ had folded and I had nothing lined up going into 2013. Thank goodness for relationships as I got the opportunity at Barber Motorsport Park in April 2013 to shoot the Grand Am and Indycar weekend as a trial run for motorsport.com. That led to shooting the Indy 500 that year and shooting in Victory Lane for the 500 for the first time, which also happened to coincide with fan favorite Tony Kanaan's first Indy win. I also shot Indycar and ALMS at Mid Ohio and the Brickyard that year for the site. I've shot the Indy 500 since then for the site and just last month I shot my second ever Rolex 24 Hours. 

Indianapolis is still home for me

I can't even begin to tell you how much I have learned from all the people I have worked with these last eleven years, and I hope that my gratitude for the opportunities has come through loud and clear in my blog posts since I started writing on a regular basis in 2007. Those lessons and relationships have also led to the role I currently have with the ARCA Racing Series as its chief photographer through the help of Harlen "Doc" Hunter. I have learned this week that I must find another media outlet for the Indy 500 this year so I am actively pursuing other opportunities. I am still hopeful of working as a credentialled photographer at Le Mans this June for the 24 Hours but if that doesn't happen, my fiance and I are going anyway and I will do what I always do: bring home pictures. I trust the experiences I have gathered these last 11 years will continue to show themselves through my photos. So if you need someone reliable who knows how to shoot racing, then I'm your guy. Give me a call, or check my website. I am excited to see what the future holds as you know that when one door closes another opens. I am confident that I'll be there to walk through that door, but above all, I want everyone to know how thankful I am for the chances I've been given to show what I could do. It means the world to me.

Talladega has become one of my favorite tracks to work and the folks at AP have been great

American Le Mans at Mid Ohio was always a treat

Bump drafting at Daytona keeps you on your toes for the "Big One"

Indycar races at Kentucky were usually nail-biters with photo finishes

The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona this year had more than its share of drama and "moisture"

Daytona Addendum: More Rain and It's My Fault

Well I made it to Daytona exactly on schedule Thursday and everything has been great: until last night. I had a flashback to my last Daytona trip, in 2014, when I came for the Daytona 500 and rain delays pushed the race into the evening. This time the "moisture" started hitting the track around 8:30 last night and persisted through the early morning hours as the clock ticked on the 55th Rolex 24 Hours race. Back in 2014, I got back to my hotel at 3:30 in the morning and had to get up at 5:00 to catch my flight home. This year there were no rain delays per se, but the field ran behind the pace car for nearly 2 hours stating around 5:15 this morning. Thankfully, I was in the media center when that occurred, although I did get blamed by at least one photographer friend accused me of starting the rainfall. Ironically that was about the time I finished shooting some rain shots after getting maybe 2 hours of sleep in my rented Jeep between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.

This weekend has been every bit the experience I had anticipated. I have taken over 5,200 images since I got here Thursday around noon. There has been all kinds of unusual situations to photograph and lighting has fluctuated wildly so I have been able to do some "concept" photos like this one as experiments in slow speed panning. Since I have not been the lead photographer this weekend, I have been able to do variety of shooting without the need to ensure a certain image is produced. That may or may not be what motorsport.com is looking for, but I have certainly submitted enough photos so they could decide what gets run and what doesn't. The Rolex 24 is such a unique event and I am so glad I chose to come down to start my 2017 racing season here. I even went to the beach yesterday so I could see the ocean and today the rain is supposed to stop so the finishing hours will be dry.

Now there are less than 6 hours in the race and then it will be over, seemingly as quickly as it began. But after a year's worth of anticipation and planning, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise now, should it? Until next time, got to motorsport.com to see my photos and I won't be surprised if see you at a racetrack somewhere soon.

42 Day Photo Challenge: Completed

When I started this challenge back in November, my intention was to provide some structure for a daily discipline with a creative activity. With no races to shoot, I decided I needed a project to work on over a longer period of time, using photos from my archives which would be framed by weekly themes. I hope you enjoyed the daily updates over the last six weeks. Today I have compiled the entire set of photos from my personal challenge into a single slideshow to wrap up that project.

Daily Photo Challenge: Week 2 Means Water

Even Lone Star JR raced in the rain - at Elkhart Lake in 1986

The poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge included the famous lines,  "Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." Shooting motorsports is like that sometimes too, especially for road racing events. Needless to say, water and camera electronics are not a good combination but sometimes preparation will get you through a downpour. Sometimes you just get lucky. And sometimes you just get drenched.

The theme for the first week theme of my personal 42 Day Daily Photo Challenge on Twitter was "fire". For the second week, I chose "water" as my theme and you will see from the photos I posted that there was plenty of the wet stuff to go around. The story behind each photo follows, but the overriding lesson is don't forget your rain gear!

Water: Day 8

On this day in June 2008 I was shooting for the defunct American Motor Journal (AMJ) at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, and I just got lucky rather than soaking wet. I had my rain gear since it always seems to rain on races at this road course, and I had just crossed the Honda bridge to the outside of the track to a location at the bottom of the hill after the esses. A downpour had hit the area and there was standing water everywhere. Luckily, that area of Mid Ohio is shrouded in trees so I was able to shoot under cover for awhile until the downpour passed. I stayed relatively dry and my cameras did too. This time.

Water: Day 9

While I don't normally shoot the two wheel crowd, the MotoGP event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a fairly new thing in 2009 so I had to go check it out. I didn't have credentials for the event but the IMS road course offers plenty of locations to get clear shots without any catch fencing in the way. This shot of multi-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi was taken during practice for the event and I only took one camera body and one lens to make sure I could shoot and deal with the elements with minimal risk of damage to my equipment. I am still amazed that these riders do what they do under any circumstances, let alone on a green racetrack which is thoroughly soaked.

Water: Day 10

This photo of Michael Andretti (3) and poppa Mario (6) racing into the esses at Mid Ohio is from 1990 and was shot on film, most likely Fujicolor. I had gone to the race with my stepson and a friend and his son and got this shot from the spectator fencing along the track as the cars begin to head uphill in the esses. My first race at Mid Ohio was in 1982 so going there for the Indycar weekend has been a long standing tradition. With its mid-summer weekend schedule slot, it could be 85 degrees with 90 percent humidity one minute and then pouring down rain the next. On more than one occasion, this race has been wet, dry, wet, dry and wet again so shooting here is always an adventure in the summer.

Water: Day 11

The inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014 saw Indycars running in the rain at IMS for the first time ever as far as I know. I was shooting for motorsport.com, working the pit lane during practice and qualifying when a brief but heavy rain shower hit. The old song says "it don't rain in Indianapolis" but we all know that's not true! I escaped the downpour under the Pagoda overhang where the yard of bricks runs through the building and within a few minutes, the rain had stopped but the track was soaked. Shooting the cars going north on the wet front stretch yielded some nice photos with large rooster tails of spray being thrown into the air. Unfortunately for Ryan Hunter-Reay, not long after I took this photo, he hydroplaned through a puddle coming onto the front stretch and cracked the wall while going for the pole. It has been awhile at Indy since I've heard the sound of anyone hitting concrete rather than the SAFER barriers, so that was a memorable day for a lot of reasons.

Water: Day 12

My photographer friends will never let me forget the American LeMans series race at Mid Ohio in 2011. The ribbing that weekend was endless and continues even now, with witty comments such as "Don't you know when to come in out of the rain?" Apparently, I didn't. I was determined to get photos in the wet conditions, but I underestimated how wet it would become. I had been shooting in the carousel as the skies darkened, the field was running slowly under yellow and there was less than 30 minutes left in the timed race. I decided to cut through the paddock as the rain started falling more heavily to get to the exit of Turn 1 past the infield bridge, as I thought the restart might be dicey with the conditions worsening. As I arrived at Turn 1, it seemed like a monsoon hit. I got this picture - which is one of my favorite rain photos - but I paid the piper for sticking it out. More on that with my Day 14 photo...

Water: Day 13

There have been periods of time the last few years where it seemed like every race I shot was hit by rain or a rain delay. So now when I am not at a race and it rains, I like to post comments on Twitter or Facebook that "it's not my fault" and my photographer friends are all in on the joke. At Mid Ohio in 2008, both the Rolex Grand Am and Indycar weekends were effected by rain and this shot was taken in the carousel after a downpour during the Indy Lights race. One of the great things about shooting racing in the rain is seeing the different lines the drivers take compared to what would be normal on a dry track. This shot is a good example as this section of Mid Ohio leaving the carousel is usually only one groove but Ana Beatriz makes her own middle groove while chasing two other competitors.

Water: Day 14

Continuing the story of my near drowning at Mid Ohio during the ALMS race in 2011, this shot shows the depth of water after the monsoon hit as the Rahal BMW driven by Joey Hand splashes through Turn 1. Everyone was just creeping through this turn by then and the race was red-flagged shortly after this so I headed to the pit lane to shoot the winners exiting their cars and the victory lane celebrations. I was completely soaked by this time with water running down my arms and straight onto my cameras. The towels I carry for such times were soaked too and I threw them away on my walk to the pits. Even having my gear covered with plastic bags provided no relief as there was just too much water to keep anything dry. 

Then the nightmare really began. First the view screen on my 40D went blank. Then my 7D started acting up. The 40D quit working completely and I don't think I ever did get any victory lane photos. That night at the hotel I took everything apart and hoped to God my cameras would dry out since the Indycar race was the next day and I was still supposed to shoot that. Sunday dawned clear and sunny thankfully, so upon arriving at the media center in the Tower that day, I took everything apart again and laid both cameras on a ledge by the window hoping the morning sun would cook the moisture out of them. Both cameras came back to life as the day wore on and I still use them today. I know the Canon techs got a good laugh out it the next May at Indianapolis when I took both cameras in to get cleaned and checked at IMS. I think I've earned my reputation as the "regenmeister", so if we go to shoot a race together, you better prepare for rain. I know I will get some photos!

Daily Photo Challenge: Every Picture Tells A Story - Week 1

And then there was fire

Everyone knows about the ice bucket challenge. My photographer friends know about the five day Black and White photo challenge. A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed a personal creative challenge that would drive my Twitter posts @alleygroup. Since the last race I shot was in mid-September, I wanted my challenge to involve motorsports and have some staying power so I would have to be disciplined to stick with it consistently.

As luck would have it, I decided to start my daily challenge with 42 days left in 2014. That number is meaningful for me for a lot of reasons, but especially since it was the number I wore playing basketball for four years at the University of Chicago and two years at Indianapolis Shortridge high school. I thought staying on task for 42 days would be a tough challenge for me and I knew I needed something to tie it all together. I decided to frame my challenge with weekly sub-themes under these general topics: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Sorrow and Joy. As I write this, I have almost finished the first two weeks involving photos with Fire and Water. I've realized during the editing process that, as rocker Rod Stewart once sang, every picture tells a story, so this post is the story behind each "Fire" picture I've posted during Week 1 of my personal challenge. My next post will include the stories behind the photos with the "Water" theme.

Fire: Day 1

I don't normally shoot the straight line crowd but I had the chance to shoot the US Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway (then known as Indianapolis Raceway Park) in 2007 for American Motor Journal (AMJ) and I couldn't resist. I shot the drags for four days and this photo of Bob Bode blowing up at the finish line is one of my favorites as the car is engulfed in flames. I was shooting from the backside of the suites by the IRP oval overlooking the top end of the drag strip when Bode rolled through. This was back when they were still racing the quarter-mile.

Fire: Day 2

I was shooting a lot of races for AMJ from 2006 through 2012, and another event at IRP in 2007 yielded this photo of a competitor in the USA Modified series who had hit the Turn 1 wall on the IRP oval and left a trail of fire behind. This race was not well attended and there were only a handful of photographers there that evening, but I didn't care as I was at a racetrack I know quite well and happy to be shooting racing of any kind.

 

Fire: Day 3

In 2008, I was shooting for AMJ and it was bump day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500. It had been a busy month of May as I was the only shooter for AMJ and had been trying to cover the event from all angles. The last day of qualifying, I decided to shoot from Turn 3 and just wait and see if anything happened. Sure enough, late in the day, AJ Foyt IV provided some excitement. Shooting in Turn 3 often involves accidents and the view around the turn is limited no matter what position you take. As AJ IV popped out from behind the infield fencing, I noticed he was already going backwards and it looked like he was on fire. The sequence I shot was spot on and the fireball from the fueling port (which had somehow been left unsecured by a Foyt crewman) was spectacular albeit brief. Later I heard that heads rolled in the Foyt team as legend AJ was not a happy camper.

Fire: Day 4

One of my goals the last few years has been to shoot more dirt track races but I haven't been able to do as many as I would like. In July 2009, I went to Kokomo Speedway for the USAC sprint car show and was supposed to have credentials through AMJ but apparently the request never was submitted. This was one of those times where looking like a photographer paid off, as I had my photo vest, two cameras, my flash and battery pack on me ready to shoot. I had also brought a copy of the latest edition of AMJ with me so I could prove I was shooting for them. I got the credential I needed to shoot in the infield and Casey Riggs was the subject as his engine let go in a big way during hot laps.

Fire: Day 5

Although this photo from the US Nationals in 2007 did not involve a fireball, I loved the flames being thrown from the headers of Del Worsham's funny car during night qualifying. The experience shooting the drags was unforgettable as I was able to shoot right at the wall near the starting tree for this photo and remember having to brace myself against the heat and shock waves during the Top Fuel and Funny Car races. Looking through my 70-200, the air seemed to liquefy from the heat as these nitro fueled beasts roared past. I haven't been able to get back the drags to shoot since then but I would do it in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity. I think my ears are still ringing, despite the earplugs and gun muffs I was wearing that weekend.

Fire: Day 6

I've shot all kinds of racing since 1984, and it is still a surprise to see fire. That was especially true in 2000 during practice for the Brickyard 400 as Chad Little blew up in spectacular fashion coming through Turn 3. I was shooting for Agence France Presse (AFP) that year and was assigned to work Turn 3 for the weekend. I remember seeing Little spewing flames and wondering when he would spin as I shot a sequence, but he never did. I also remember wondering why the yellow light was taking so long to be shown as surely Little had oiled down the groove in the turn. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Jeremy Mayfield roared into 3 at full song and did a half-spin into the wall in front of me. I got pictures of Mayfield's incident as well, and several of my photos were used in Winston Cup Scene and Winston Cup Illustrated publications. To make that happen, I had to get prints made and meet their photo editor the morning after the Brickyard at their hotel before they left town. It was well worth the effort!

Fire: Day 7

The last photo of my fire themed week comes from Winchester Speedway and the ARCA Series race in June 2011. Jared Marks had rolled to a stop along the Turn 1 wall after contact. I was shooting for AMJ again and had moved into the pit area where you actually shoot up the banking since the pits at that end of the track are even with the bottom of the race track. I noticed smoke billowing from his exhaust pipes and then several large plumes of fire erupted as he tried to shut the car down and clear the exhaust of accumulated fuel. I like this image because Marks already had the window net down and was ready to climb out, and I only got a few frames where there was actually fire and not just black smoke. Timing is indeed everything.

Up next:  Week 2 and the water theme. Water, water everywhere but nowhere a drop to drink.

Bucket List Daytona Rolex 24 Hours: Check!

In another week, if all goes as planned and the racing gods part the wintry Indiana weather and allow my plane to escape Indianapolis, I will be fulfilling another bucket list item on my racing photography journey:  The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. I have wanted to shoot this race for years and I am very fortunate to finally get the chance to do it with Associated Press. When I heard over a year ago that GrandAm and the American LeMans Series were going to merge, I targeted attending this 2014 edition of the Rolex grind. I knew it would be a historic event, the first for the combined series, now known as the TUDOR United Sportscar Series, and would include all the best teams and drivers from both series under one banner for the first time in over a decade. The only thing missing, it seems, will be the LeMans spec and all conquering Audi prototypes! But I will be there and that's all that matters to me right now.

As a numbers guy I looked over the entry list for this year's race (I teach algebra and geometry after all), this 24 promises an epic battle over four classes among 67 entries. A twitter friend @Shayzen has written a nice piece on all the open wheel drivers who will be racing next weekend, and I encourage you to check it out at her More Than A Fan site. By my count, there are roughly 30 drivers with ties to open wheel racing, including Indy Lights, Indycar and Formula 1. There are three teams entered with drivers "TBA" yet the entry list already boasts 242 drivers among the 67 cars entered! There's an all-Brazilian driver team (#65 Scuderia Corsa) that will wheel a Ferrari 458 Italia. There's another team, also using a Ferrari 458, with three Russian drivers, including the newest Indycar rookie, Mikhail Aleshin. Oddly enough there are only two drivers listed with NASCAR connections, and one of them is the hottest young guy in racing right now:  Kyle Larson. I could count Kyle as an open wheel guy too since he came up through USAC. It appears that lady racers outnumber the stock car boys as I noted 3 women drivers listed. Katherine Legge has arguably the plum job of the women entered:  co-piloting the radical Deltawing machine. Can't wait to see that machine at speed!

The Gainsco Red Dragon leads Wayne Taylor Racing at Barber in 2013

All of these men, women and machines are vying for the coveted Rolex watches which all the winners get. With 19 of the big prototypes and all the best North American sports car racers in attendance, the race will almost surely be a series of sprints between pitstops. The top protoype teams are still the ones people will recognize - Ganassi, Wayne Taylor Racing, Gainsco, Muscle Milk, Starworks, Michael Shank, Action Express - and they have most of the big names behind the wheel, as well as team cars in many cases so different strategies can be pursued. I think this 24 is wide open and I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the Prototype Challenge teams made its way to the front and won. Winding their way through 40 GT cars will make for exciting racing. Then there's always the element of weather to add to the mix:  rain, cold, fog, etc., not to mention a grueling trek through over 12 hours of darkness where everyone is just trying to get to sunrise Sunday morning to hit the reset button and go for the win.

Scott Pruett

My pre-race favorite still has to be the Ganassi #01 entry with Scott Pruett as the lead driver. I have been wacthing Scott race since the glory days of Trans Am in the 80's and he knows how to win these endurance races, and so does the Ganassi team! But the 24 Hours is a truly global event with drivers, support personnel, engineers and crews representing countries throughout the industrialized world. I am so excited to have the chance to walk through the garage area and down pit lane to hear the cacophony of languages being spoken.

Patrick Dempsey

The universal language of speed will tie us all together, and I am hoping that this trip south will be both creative and fruitful. Sports car racing also has its share of star power and sometimes plays out like a hollywood script. If you saw the effort put in by Dempsey Racing at LeMans last year, then you know what I mean. And if the maze of car classes and acronyms for the new Tudor series makes your head spin like it does mine, then be sure to check out Tony DiZinno's blog post which likens sportscar racing to the periodic table of elements. Let's hope that the mixture of the GrandAm and ALMS elements this year is not too volatile, but then a race twice around the clock has the potential for just about anything to happen. I can't wait to get there and get to work! Until then, here's a few pix from my GrandAm and ALMS work the last couple of seasons to get you going. See you at Daytona.

One of the top GT teams, the Flying Lizard team colors will adorn an Audi R8 this season

Bruno Junquiera at Mid Ohio 2012; the Prototype Challenge class includes drivers like Alex Tagliani this year

Even with the demise of the P1 category, the Muscle Milk team should still be a contender for the overall win at Daytona

GT traffic will be heavy for the prototypes to negotiate in 2014

Magnus Racing with Andy Lally as the lead driver is a GT favorite every race

A second Ganassi entry at Daytona is loaded with Indycar driver talent - Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan

Racing in the Rear View Mirror

At Daytona - February 2012

What a year this has been, both personally and professionally. So many good things have happened and opportunities have presented themselves to do what I love:  go racing, pursue photography, officiate youth sports and teach math to young people. Sadly, as I look back on 2012, I also feel the loss of two good friends in racing this year:  Keith Pritchard and Don Hamilton. As I have written here before, Godspeed my friends, and blessings to all who knew you for the coming year.

Since the world didn't end on December 21st according to the misunderstood Mayan legend, we are still here and there is much to write about, so I will take a moment to look back and then look ahead. This year has been incredibly hectic with teaching and the successful completion of my Marian University course requirements to obtain my Indiana teaching license which was issued in May. My racing season started off again this year at Daytona for the 500 weekend, although rainy weather forced me to come back to Indy before I could shoot the Sprint Cup race in order to meet my teaching obligations. I still regard the 2200 mile round trip as worthwhile since I got the chance to shoot the Camping World truck and Nationwide series races for Associated Press (AP) and build on that media relationship.

I also stayed physically active, and even though my left knee sometimes hurt like crazy, I still managed to officiate 80 basketball games and 91 soccer matches this past year. I have to thank my schedulers and the leagues for those opportunities for their confidence in me and giving me the chance to stay involved in two sports I love. I would love to have the chance to coach either sport again and I'm sure it will happen when the time is right. 

In between Daytona and now, there were numerous other racing road trips, and I was able to expand my relationship with ARCA this year to work directly for them at several races. As I have since 2006, a lot of my racing photography and writing was contributed to American Motor Journal's (AMJ) website, although I do not know what will happen with that in 2013 since the publisher, Don Hamilton, passed away recently. A quick rundown of my racing season following Daytona included:  Salem Speedway ARCA at the end of April for AMJ, then Talladega NASCAR the next weekend for AP; then the next three weekends were consumed by Indycar for  practice, qualifying and the Indy 500, plus the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race, for AMJ. In June, it was off to Mid Ohio Sports Car Course for the Rolex Series weekend two weeks after the 500 for AMJ, then my first race shooting for ARCA at Winchester Speedway two weeks after Mid Ohio. July was relatively quiet with a week's vacation at a beach house on Lake Michigan but that all changed the last weekend of the month, when I shot the Rolex Series at Indy during the morning for AMJ and then went to Lucas Oil Raceway to shoot for ARCA the rest of the day. The next two days I was back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for AMJ shooting the inaugural Nationwide Series race at IMS and then the Brickyard 400. The next weekend I was back on the road to Mid Ohio for AMJ to shoot the American LeMans and Indycar events. The day after that, I started my new full time teaching job which consumed me until mid-September when I went back to Salem to shoot for ARCA again. Due to my teaching obligations, I had to take a pass on the fall Talladega weekend this year but I still managed to log nearly 5500 miles behind the wheel of my 1999 Integra to chase race cars during 2012.

As I do every season, I've compiled a "Best of Racing" photo slideshow of my personal favorites this year; this year's slideshow follows this post and includes Indycar, NASCAR, ARCA, Rolex Series and American LeMans competition. I regret not getting to shoot any dirt track races this season but I hope to make up for that in 2013. I will be going back to Daytona for AP in February but the rest of my 2013 plans are up in the air with the future of AMJ being uncertain. I am looking at doing more for both AP and ARCA, plus exploring other opportunities in motorsports media to stay involved with shooting my beloved Indycar series. I also have big plans for my website (www.alleygroup.net) which I have renewed for another three years, and I'm sure I'll be blogging more in 2013 as I get a handle on balancing my teaching responsibilities with my outside pursuits.

As I prepare to sign off on this, my last blog post of 2012, it would not be complete without acknowledging people who have been influential through my 2012 journey, both at the racetracks and in my day to day work. To these people I owe a debt of gratitude which I can only hope to repay someday by paying it forward to others:  Mike Levitt at LAT Photographic; Doc Hunter at ARCA; Mike Stewart and Dave Martin with AP; Jesse Ghiorzi, @followmidohio; Richard W. Smith; brother Steve @salley42; GB Abbott at Salem Speedway; Julie G; Dr. Bevis at Marian University; and of course the late Don Hamilton. I am sure I have left someone out and for that I apologize.

I especially thank you, wherever you are, for reading! Spread the word and find me on Twitter @alleygroup. I look forward to seeing you at a racetrack, soccer field or gymnasium somewhere along the way. Happy New Year everyone, and keep shooting!

Will Power on Mid Ohio Indycar Pole; Muscle Milk Dominates American LeMans

Will Power blitzes the Mid Ohio track record to win the pole

Road course maestro Will Power set a new track record in qualifying at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course to take pole position for tomorrow's IZOD Indycar Series race. In the process, he let his competition know that he is a serious contender for the season title with just four races to go including this weekend. Power oudueled nemesis Dario Franchitti and Simon Pagenaud, who continued his strong showings this season by snagging third ahead of Alex Tagliani. Scott Dixon was not happy to wind up fifth ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Sebastian Bourdais. Perhaps the most unhappy however was the Andretti Autosport team which was shut out of the Fast Six and had to settle for 8th with Ryan Hunter-Reay and 9th with Marco Andretti. Rookie Josef Newgarden rounded out the top ten with another strong showing.

The morning started off well for Justin Wilson as he was fastest in the morning practice session but he could only muster 12th when a misfire cost him top end speed during qualifying. The same cannot be said for Helio Castroneves as he had a run-in with Mike Conway heading into the Keyhole and injured his left wrist. He did not have it bandaged during qualifying but he could do no better than 13th on the clock. It will be interesting to see how sore he is tomorrow and whether it will effect his ability to race on Mid Ohio's notoriously difficult and physical road course. I would suggest that this is Will Power's race to lose however, so someone else will have to do something dramatic to take the win away from him.

In the American LeMans Series race, the Muscle Milk team of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr motored away from the field in the slim P1 class ahead of the 16 Dyson car. A stout field of 32 high tech sports cars has a relatively clean day at the racetrack with lots of close racing but few incidents of any significance. The class pole winning P2 car driven Martin Plowman finished second in class in the race to the 55 piloted by Christoph Bouchut. One of the highlights of the day was the celebration of the 100th ALMS race of veteran Sasha Massen, who has won 30 times with 3 championships during that time. He was not rewarded on track today however as he finished 8th in GT. Oliver Gavin gave Corvette another GT win over the Flying Lizards Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister.

It was a sweltering day at Mid Ohio today and the ALMS competition was as hot as the weather.  as this racetrack always delivers for the sports car crowd who come out in droves to see the most varied equipment formula of any major racing series. Tomorrow promises even more of the same, with the threat of rain added in, for the Indycar race and I'll be covering the whole track again tomorrow again, so stay tuned for more, and please enjoy the slideshows.

Will Power Storms Barber - IZOD Indycar Test at Indy

IZOD Indycar Series Points leader Helio Castroneves at IMS Test

Even though track time was limited due to rain and foggy conditions, Will Power found his way to the front despite starting ninth at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday. Helio Castroneves maintains his points lead in the IZOD Indycar Series after finishing third in the race behind perennial Barber bridesmaid Scott Dixon. It was a highly entertaining race on a track with a reputation for being tough to pass, but the Indycar drivers found ways to make moves in sometimes unlikely ways, and also found out how tough their new Dallaras can be with enough wing and wheel banging for two road course races. The best drive of the race was put in by Sebastian Bourdais who put on a show all afternoon in his gorgeous black and gold machine, giving those with Lotus engines a shot in the arm for the engine supplier which is currently short on equipment for the teams it services. But by now you have read all about the race so it's time for something different:  testing at Indy in April!

Oval Track Rear Wing Assembly Seemed Massive

Sadly, however, no Lotus powered cars were at the open test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as nine cars hit the track for the first bonafide shakedown of Dallara's new oval track aero package. In a look which reminded me of the "Batmobile" Interscope Records design run by Danny Ongais from the 1980's, the oval version of the Dallara is quite distinctive. A healthy crowd was on hand on the Turn 2 mounds and it was great to see the number of school buses arriving for tours of the track. That's how new fans are going to be created for Indycar - start them young. There was a lot to like at IMS today, although these cars are going to take some getting used to visually. Teams spent the morning running a couple of laps at a time, but my late afternoon, you could see them start to find a groove and run quicker. At times, drivers like Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson seemed to be hitting the rev limiter as their engines gave off a distinctive pop-pop-pop-pop sound that is new at Indy. Tony Kanaan,Takuma Sato, JR Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti  and Mike Conway also took part in the test today.

The Turn 2 Mounds drew a sizable crowd.

I loved the way the cars looked and sounded, and it felt like a practice day in May with the warm weather and the sweet smell of ethanol in the air. I just can't get enough and you know I'd love to be going to Long Beach next weekend, but for now these pictures will have to tide me over until opening day at Indy on May 12th. There was even bagpipe music in the air as two members of the Gordon Pipers displayed their wares for the fans in the handicapped seating section in the south short chute. It doesn't get much better than this for an early spring day in April in Indianapolis!

2011 Sports Car Racing at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course

Here's a slideshow from the two sports car events I shot at Mid Ohio this past season. I love the variety of equipment and the multi-class racing offered by both the American LeMans and Rolex Grand Am series. The series are so different in terms of their car specs but they always put on very entertaining races. This year's events at Mid Ohio were no exception and with the added element of rain, shooting at this beautiful natural terrain road course is quite the challenge. Someday I hope to cross off two other bucket list races from my list:  the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and the 24 Hours of LeMans. What a treat it would be to shoot the ultimate in endurance racing classics. The 12 Hours of Sebring or the Petite LeMans at Road Atlanta would be acceptable alternatives!

Photo Adventure @FollowMidOhio



Rain wreaked havoc on my equipment at the end of the Mid Ohio ALMS race



Shooting motorsports is not all fun and games, although most of the time it is a thrill. Even though I've been shooting racing since 1984, I still get butterflies before every race I shoot, as so many things can go wrong. It is still hard work and the advent of digital photography in photojournalism has been both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing since you can shoot virtually an unlimited number of frames and see what you got right away. No more waiting for the film to be processed. It's a curse because now editing thousands of images from a race weekend (or hundreds from a race which have to be posted online immediately afterwards) takes a lot of time. Plus everyone with a digital camera seems to think they can be a racing photographer. But if you're willing to fight traffic, come in early for mandatory photo meetings, lug around heavy equipment all day long under all sorts of conditions, and then stay well past the time fans leave in order to finish editing, then come on out and join us! You'll have the time of your life and maybe capture some great images in the process. 

Then there are those times when everything seems to conspire against you and Murphy's Law kicks in. Last Saturday's American LeMans Series race at Mid Ohio did not quite rise to that level, but a late race rain storm presented a serious challenge for me - thus the the title of this post, "Photo Adventure @FollowMidOhio". I had been in the Carousel turn after shooting pit stops when ALMS teams began changing to wet weather tires with about 30 minutes to go in the race. Several cars had spun off on the damp track and the race was under caution but the rain was beginning to pick up in intensity. I decided to go to the area of Turn 1 since I thought it could be a prime spot to shoot the next restart as everyone would have to funnel under the Mid Ohio bridge and calamity could ensue. I put my plastic bags over each of my cameras and had towels to dry them tucked into my belt bag. As I walked behind the paddock to Turn 1, a torrential downpour began and I began to wish I had grabbed my poncho when I had changed into my firesuit before shooting the ALMS pit stops. By the time I got to the fence in Turn 1, I was completely drenched, and I was shooting every car splashing past me, but the sunglasses I had on were suddenly a liability and covered with raindrops, so it was hard to tell if I was even in focus using my main camera. I managed to shoot about 50 frames before that camera quit working and flashed an error message at me that I had never seen before. I knew that was bad news so I headed back to the paddock where victory lane was as the ALMS officials finally red flagged the race with about 10 minutes remaining. Now even my towels were soaked so I ducked into a port-o-let behind pit lane and removed the memory cards from both cameras, fearing they might also be compromised by the rain. I put a new card in my second (and only working) camera, but now it started malfunctioning, as the shutter was hanging open, the auto focus wasn't working and the rear display went black. I muddled through the ALMS victory lane ceremonies shooting on full manual (just like the old days) and prayed that I'd get a couple of usable shots. I wasn't ready to panic but it was sure nerve wracking since I still had the Indycar race to shoot the next day and only one other usable camera as a backup.

Back at the hotel that night, I downloaded everything and pulled my cameras apart in hopes they would dry out overnight, but Sunday morning my main camera was still flashing the same evil error message at me. During the Indycar warmup that morning, my second camera began to come back to life and work normally. I had left my primary camera sitting in the sun inside the media center to hopefully bake out whatever moisture was effecting its electronics. Thankfully, I had no further trouble that day and everything worked fine for the Indycar race, but I said quite a few prayers along the way and trusted that my Canons wouldn't let me down. This whole episode reminds me that I am still learning every time I shoot a race and I'm grateful that the lessons I am learning haven't been too painful to overcome so far. Granted this was a rare occurrence but it is an example of what can happen on a race weekend. While trying to get the right vantage point to get "the shot", weather in the form of severe heat or drenching downpours can intervene. Equipment failures happen unexpectedly. Being distracted instead of being ready to shoot can create problems. Maybe access is what you'd like it to be. A good race coverage strategy can be spoiled by poor execution of technique, or simply not being in the right place at the right time. I've heard that luck is where preparation meets opportunity, and racing photogs need a lot of both sometimes.

So what is a good racing shot anyway? There are probably as many opinions on that as there are photographers, and I have learned from some of the best around over the years who have graciously given me tips on techniques that I am still trying to master. I love this work and am happy to share what I know with anyone who wants to talk about the craft of motorsports photography. The following photos are examples of some of the things I try to do when I get to the track. See you there!



I want to see the driver inside the car working the steering wheel. This was taken in the Carousel.



It's always better to get more than one car in frame if possible. The background on this shot in the Keyhole could be better though.





Dario's hands are working the wheel through the Keyhole turn and everything is crisp.



Crowd shots are always good for a sense of place - note the Mid Ohio bridge in the background. This is on the grid before the ALMS race.



Angled compositions can emphasize photo elements - speed in this case, with a slower shutter speed.



This is a "mirror" shot - Tony Kanaan is visible in his right side mirror as the car leans left while he's turning right.

Thanks to all drivers with clear helmet visors! We can see your face! His hand is also up on the wheel and visible.

Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes! Marco Andretti obliges with a clear visor.



Photos of open cockpit sports cars make it easier to show the driver at work; another slow shutter speed shot.




Simona is leaning on it hard in this shot! Note the right front wheel is off the ground.



This one involves some luck - to get the driver's eyes visible through a small opening in the window on a super tight pan.



On a large road course like Mid Ohio, catching a spin is often just being in the right place at the right time.