What Happened to 2020?

Empty grandstands are symbolic of the racing year

In many ways for me, 2020 has been a lost year. I'm sure I am not alone in feeling that way. Back in February, I had big plans for this year but they all got quashed when the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown hit Indiana on Friday, March 13th. It's the first year I can remember since 1976 when I didn't attend or work an Indycar race. I went from working 21 racing events as a photographer last year to only four so far this with just two more on my radar. The silver lining in all of this has been I am still healthy. I've also probably prolonged the life of my Civic Si by a couple years after so little driving this year!

Chad Bryant (left) and Ron Drager confer in 2019

Watching from the sidelines and seeing what the various racing series have done this year to get their seasons completed has been amazing. The ARCA Menards Series, where I was chief photographer the last five years, has managed to complete 19 races with only one to go now. It's not the same 20 races that were on the original ARCA schedule, but they are getting it done with just the finale in Kansas remaining. While I was not fortunate enough to be assigned to shoot any ARCA races this season, which of course was disappointing, I still have friends in the series and follow the race results closely. It's still a thrill seeing my photos still being used on the series' website or on Instagram. I know they used quite a few in their media guides this year and I downloaded those for my portfolio whenever I saw that. I always know which photos are mine even when they don't have photo credits! Kudos to Ron Drager and all the ARCA staff for managing the season the way they have.

The NTT Indycar Series likewise has only one race to go and the pandemic restrictions on media kept me from shooting any of the races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year. Missing the Indy 500 was heartbreaking, especially after Takuma Sato won since I have been a regular contributor to Autosport Japan magazine since 2013. I don't know who I will be shooting for next season, so I have my work cut out for me this off-season to find another media outlet to work for in 2021. I have several friends who were able to shoot Indycar races this season and I have been living vicariously through their photos. They have done some outstanding work under some really trying conditions. I hope to be out there with them all next May.

As for the NASCAR Cup Series, they raced at Talladega yesterday and I couldn't help but think about all the times I've made the eight hour, 500 mile trek to Alabama since 2011 to shoot for either ARCA or Associated Press (and sometimes both). I'm pretty sure I would have "made some freaking pictures" yesterday, as the late AP Bureau Chief Dave Martin used to say. The "Big One" where Kurt Busch got airborne happened near the start-finish line and the melee would have come right to me if I had been positioned across the track in my usual photo hole. Unfortunately for me and many of my Alabama friends, none of us got the chance to shoot this weekend due to similar restrictions that I encountered in Indy, so I will set my sights on next Spring and hope that things have opened up by then and I can return to Dega where they say "It's More Than A Race."

Ayrton Senna, USGP Detroit 1984

It still amazes me that racing was able to resume during the pandemic and there hasn't been a catastrophic outbreak similar to what seems to be happening in college and pro football. Restricting photographers at races never made much sense to me since we can still get photos and socially distance simply by using a longer lens, but I understand the need to be cautious and limit "outsiders" who might not be a part of the usual "bubble" of participants. Formula One has probably done the most extreme job of this in racing from what I have seen and has put on great races in new venues while changing its schedule seemingly at the drop of a hat.

All that being said, every series has had to be flexible. Therein lies the lesson for me in all of this: I need to be flexible too. I understand why all the restrictions were put in place but I didn't like them because they put a major crimp in my plans for this year. On the other hand, since I might be more at risk than many people,  I have to say those restrictions were a hidden blessing for me and kept me from being potentially exposed and having to go through what my father endured before he passed away from the effects of Covid-19 this past June. You might say that racing saved my life this year, but in a dramatically different way than in years past. 

As the late Steve McQueen so famously said in the movie LeMans, "Racing is life; anything that happens before or after is just waiting." 

 And so I wait.

19 Down - One to Go

My game face on race day

This has been the busiest year of my life as a motorsports photographer by far, but the end of my season is just around the corner. Next weekend I will make my last long drive of the season for the ARCA Menards Series when I hit the road for Kansas Speedway just west of Kansas City. That will be the 19th ARCA race I will have worked this year for the series since starting the season at Daytona in February. When you factor in my lung cancer surgery later in February, I am still amazed that I only missed one of the series' 20 races all year! Add in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indy 500 in May, and the Iowa Indycar race in July, I worked a total of 22 races with 21 of them in the span of six months (April through October). The work and all the walking at the racetracks have been instrumental in my recovery this year so I am grateful for the chance to work all these events.

Youngster Chandler Smith got his 5th ARCA win in only 10 starts this season

This past weekend was a "home" race of sorts, since I only had to drive to Clermont on the west side of Indianapolis for the Herr's 200 ARCA race. It was a beautiful day and evening until a rain shower cut the race 33 laps short and one of the young firebrands of the series, Chandler Smith, made a pass for the lead shortly before the rains hit to snag his 5th win of the year. This kid is barely 16 and he's kicking butt on short tracks across the circuit so I am excited to see what he does as he gets a little older. I felt bad for another youngster Saturday night though, as Ty Gibbs was on his way to a second straight dominant win until he got hip checked into the wall by Joe Graf, Jr. who made a desperate move for the lead on new tires when Ty was just nursing his until a final pit stop could be made. Joe's lead didn't last long as Christian Eckes came to the front and stayed there until Smith got past him in the nick of time. Second was still a great result for Christian as he took over the series points lead from teammate Michael Self and grabbed the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge trophy as well. So now it all comes down to Kansas in about 10 days to see which one comes out on top.

Michael Self could be the 2019 series champion

Last weekend's ARCA race event actually started on Friday evening for me as we did a studio photo shoot with both Michael and Christian to prepare photos for whichever one wins the season title. We had lighting and a backdrop set up at the hotel where the Venturini team was staying and got a lot of great photos of each guy with the championship trophy and other candids of the two of them together enjoying the moment. I don't get to work with studio quality lighting very often so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards I realized there were a few other things I would like to have tried but couldn't, so those went into my notes on Evernote for next time.

Ty Gibbs (18) was dominant at Lucas Oil Raceway

On Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway, we got to meet with the NASCAR person who will be overseeing the photo operations for next season so it was very exciting to hear about the plans and expectations for 2020 when NASCAR has full control over the series. The week before the Lucas Oil Raceway event was a big one for news about the ARCA Menards Series. NASCAR and ARCA announced the extension of the ARCA brand over the current K and N East and West Series so next year they will be known as ARCA East and ARCA West. Multiple championships are going to be available for teams and drivers who will now have a unified platform of car specifications with marketing support regardless of which part of the United States they come from. The full 20 race ARCA schedule just came out yesterday (read all about it here), and I am really looking forward to 2020. There will be 20 races on 20 different tracks, with two road courses including one of my favorites - Mid Ohio! I've already identified ARCA races I can work next season to go along with my Indy 500 and LeMans commitments. I'd like to think that my work for the series as Chief Photographer since 2015 would speak for itself but you never know what decision makers are thinking in a transitional situation like this, so I am just glad to have the chance to be considered. They did use one of my photos with the press release for the 2020 schedule, so I am proud of that contribution. Photographer assignments for next season's ARCA races are likely to be decided by Thanksgiving so stay tuned! I can't wait to see how it all plays out.

Christian Eckes has fought back to take the season championship lead

Once the season is over, I will have more time to reflect on how this year has gone and do a "Best Of" photo compilation which I think will be fun. No matter what happens going forward, I have loved every minute working with the folks at ARCA. I have to thank ARCA officials Ron Drager, Mark Gundrum, George Mergen, Tom Legeman and a person I consider a friend and mentor, Doc Hunter, for putting their trust and faith in me to do the job. I hope I've made them proud. Since 2013, I've worked more than 80 races for the series as a photographer and the experience has been invaluable to my growth as a photographer. As the drivers always say, "I can't thank them enough" for the opportunity and no matter what else happens, I know I gave my best. Here's a few more from Lucas Oil Raceway. For full photo galleries go to the ARCA Menards Series website here which includes photos from colleagues Rich Corbett, JD Scott and Mike Alley. Or you can check my Google page here. See you in Kansas!

Ty Gibbs was on his way to a second straight dominating win when he got taken out.

The Bashams (Mike, left) and Darrell (right - blue firesuit) have been ARCA mainstays

Chandler Smith has been amazing to watch this season!

This young guy got to sit in Travis Braden's car - I want to do that!

Hailie Deegan was the big attraction during the pre-race autograph session.

Talladega For The ARCA Menards Series Win!

Todd Gilliland and father David enjoying the spoils of  a Dega victory

Today's blog title is for both myself and for Todd Gilliland, who led more than half the laps at Talladega Superspeedway last Friday and snagged his second career ARCA Menards Series win! For me, I made my longest drive so far this year since my lung cancer surgery in February and set a new personal best time on the return trip after shooting for the ARCA series at the biggest and fastest oval track around! The race itself was a blast. It was my third this season and it had its share of surprises, including having Brandon Lynn jump into a Venturini Motorsports Toyota and take pole position in group qualifying. He ran an excellent race but couldn't get around Riley Herbst in second or Gilliland who had the field covered most of the second half of the race. The top 10 finishers included other one-off entries like Ty Majeski and Gus Dean and they, along with the ARCA regulars, put on a good clean show right to the finish. And then Todd did himself proud afterwards with a very nice burnout! The ARCA Menards Series website has all the details on the race along with photo galleries so click here to check those out.

Brandon Lynn took a surprise pole position at Talladega

I love Dega and I love the drive on I-65 from Indianapolis, especially the section through Nashville as the road bobs and weaves through the city. This coming weekend will seem like deja vu all over again since I follow those same tire tracks south for the next ARCA race which is at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. For the Talladega weekend, I left Indy Thursday night and came home Saturday afternoon so I drove 1080 miles in three days. The one track day I had was Friday and I shot over 2200 photos on the day which started at 6:00 a.m. and ended about 10:00 p.m. when I got back to the ARCA hotel east of Birmingham. I was a tired puppy when I got home to Indy Saturday afternoon since I barely got 5 hours of sleep Thursday night after working 8 hours at my teaching job and then driving 8 hours to Birmingham. Then Friday was a 16 hour day at the track followed by another long drive home on Saturday. But it was all worth it and I still think this gig is a helluva good deal. Plus I am feeling better each day as I get stronger and am able to renew something close to my regular physical activity. The month of May will be a real test of how my physical recovery is going!

Sean Corr led quite a few laps

The weather on Friday and Saturday was a massive improvement over Thursday and I had daylight to work with. Driving down on Thursday, I hit alternating periods of heavy rain and spray pretty much all the way from Indy. Then I got to Birmingham very late and discovered the interstate was closed in downtown. Getting to the hotel was a challenge as the detour signs weren't very helpful and I drove around in circles in downtown Birmingham for awhile before I found a side street I recognized and took that to I-20 and then to the hotel. I drove through some interesting neighborhoods around midnight that night so I was happy to get out of there as I saw a lot of old, abandoned industrial sites, quite a few boarded up houses and the street lights often didn't seem to be working, so it was kind of sketchy. Thankfully I have been going to or through Birmingham since 2011 and I felt like I knew my way around or it might have been scary. I guess that's one benefit of traveling a lot by car - I am very confident I can find my way no matter where I am.

Michael Self leads the driver's points again

It might seem a little crazy to some people to make a banzai round trip of more than 1000 miles to photograph just 200 miles of racing, but that's what I'm called to do for ARCA and I am happy to have the opportunity. Through the years, I've made some good friends in Alabama while shooting for Associated Press (AP) so I look forward to seeing my "Alabama Gang" whenever I go down there. Many times I have shot for ARCA first and then stayed to shoot for AP for the Xfinity and Cup races, but I didn't think I'd be able to handle that physically barely 9 weeks after surgery so I had planned all along to blitz home on Saturday. I also wanted to get home to my fiance who was recovering from her own even more recent cancer surgery. She's one of the real stars of this road show as she supports my passion for racing photography and I send her photos or texts from the road or the racetrack to stay connected. I've tried to talk her into coming to Dega with me - she's been to the Indy 500 dozens of times - just to see how big and crazy Talladega is, but she won't do it unless I stretch the trip out a bit more. Maybe one of these days I can add a couple of extra days off to do the trip in a more leisurely fashion. She used to go racing with me quite a lot when we first started going out in 2008, and it helped her understand how passionate I am about what I do. But now with deadline pressures and specific responsibilities to address for ARCA, it's not as much fun for her. But we do love to travel together. After all, we did LeMans together in 2017 and hope to do it again next year.

Fast and wide - that is what makes Talladega great

Having made the drive to Talladega now more than a dozen times since that first trip in April 2011,  the long drive seems rather pedestrian now whereas I used to be scared to try it on my own. But that was only because I had never done it before and didn't know what to expect. Now a drive of eight hours or more is no big deal and I will have several more this season, but thankfully Nashville is relatively close - about five hours from Indy. So it's back to short track racing this weekend and ARCA is teamed up with the super late model teams from CRA and the Southern Super Series, so there will be some great racing on that storied old half mile. And another blog post to write next week after taking a couple thousand more photos. Until then, please check out the photo galleries on the ARCA website and my own at this link. Here's a few to tide you over! Thanks for reading. See you at Nashville, Or Indy. Or Charlotte. Or...

The 26 car field was full of competitive equipment with multiple potential winners

2016 ARCA champion Chase Briscoe (left) walked the grid before the race and spoke with drivers like Thomas Praytor

Todd Gilliland did a dandy burnout all along the Talladega tri-oval

Christian Eckes bounced back after missing Salem but go caught up in someone else's wreck

Grandson of "The King" Richard Petty, Thad Moffitt, ran a very reminiscent of the STP glory days

Thanks Mr. Hylton. #RememberHarveyAndTweet

Godspeed Mr. Hylton

That's what I always called James Harvey Hylton: Mr. Hylton. When I left Talladega Superspeedway and headed home last April after working the ARCA race, little did I know that I had seen Mr. Hylton for the last time. This silver haired legend of a racer lost his life in a highway crash as his #48 race team was headed by to their South Carolina base after that same race. His son, James, Jr., known to everyone in the ARCA garage as "Tweet", was also killed in the same accident. It was a surreal experience to get home and find out about their accident and the tragic outcome. In the years I've been photographing ARCA races, this was the first time I had lost someone from racing I had worked with so closely. I have mourned the loss of many race car drivers I had admired, but grieving over someone I knew so well was a different matter entirely. And it hurt to know I wouldn't see Mr. Hylton again. God rest his soul and that of his son's.

Mr. Hylton got a special gift from Salem Speedway in 2013

As part of my year end review of my life and my photography work, I decided I needed to add my own personal tribute to the many others which have been posted since that day in April by sharing these words and some photos I've taken of Mr. Hylton through his years in ARCA. I never saw Mr. Hylton get upset and every time I greeted him, he would smile and say he was doing great and call me "young man", which was nice. He often had an unlit stogie in his mouth or so when didn't have one, it was very unusual and it was hard to get a photo of him without one. You could tell from his demeanor that he was always happy to be at a racetrack. He had been involved in racing for more than 60 years so the racetrack was a second home for him. And we were his second family.

After a 2017 accident, they arrived at DuQuoin after sunrise towing their car with a school bus

I have always found it especially ironic when a race car driver dies in a highway accident as you know they have all escaped calamity on racetracks many many times. Mr. Hylton's team hauler had been in an accident the season before his death but they still made it to the next ARCA race when they showed up at the DuQuoin mile dirt track Labor Day weekend 2017 with a short school bus towing his car on an open trailer. I had never seen a school bus used as a race team hauler before, but the open trailer was not a new sight. Making it to the next race was in doubt right up to the minute they arrived at DuQuoin as they were the last team to arrive. But they made it like the true racers they are.

Sponsorship was always hard for the team to come by

Mr. Hylton's was a low budget team, even by ARCA standards. With veteran driver Brad Smith behind the wheel the last few years, the team carried on in 2018 after Mr. Hylton's accident and they were there every week. I remember a race weekend not that long ago when Mr. Hylton was still driving when the team had fans (or anyone who happened to walk by) taping dollar bills to the #48 car. Some people might have thought it was gimmicky but my guess is they really did need the money as there were many times when they would show up with hardly any decals on their car. You have to give them credit for uniquely drawing attention to the team and it showed that they loved to race. It's one of the reasons I always had so much respect for Mr. Hylton since you knew they probably weren't going to be competing for race wins but they were at every race working hard anyway. That spirit continued on even after his death as Brad Smith continued to make each race and the crew was always working their butts off to get out for practice and run as many laps as they could in the race.

I think Mr. Hylton fancied himself as somewhat of a ladies man and he always impressed me as someone who fit the definition of a southern gentleman. Everyone seemed to like him and he was a fan favorite everywhere that ARCA raced. For someone who had been competitive in NASCAR during the 1960's and 1970's, it was amazing to watch him work the crowds anytime there was an autograph session. He was really in his element at the annual black tie gala ARCA holds at the end of each  season - it seemed like everyone wanted their picture taken with Mr. Hylton. As the event photographer for ARCA since 2013, I was more than happy to oblige. I really felt his absence at this year's awards banquet and the ARCA staff did an excellent photo tribute to Mr. Hylton with numerous photos that pre-date my regular involvement with the series. In this photo from 2011, he is sharing a light hearted moment with the Winchester Speedway trophy girl during driver introductions prior to going out to race. You can tell by the reaction of others around him that was loved by everyone.

Losing people you care about is never easy and not having Mr. Hylton around the ARCA garages this season after the accident was tough on everyone in the series. I know there are plenty of other stories about Mr. Hylton that others can add, but I just wanted to add my two cents worth and do what I could to honor a gentleman racer who I liked and respected. And for James Jr., and the whole Hylton family, I say Godspeed and thank you; I'm so glad I got the chance to know you. More of my photos of Mr. Hylton can be found by clicking here.

My 2018 Racing Season By The Numbers

My trusty 70-200 2.8 and I have seen a lot

If you have read my blog before, then you know that I am a Math Teacher in an adult high school by trade so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that my year  in review  blog post for  2018 would feature numbers. I am not scheduled to shoot any more races this year  but I still have  one event booked that is  racing related  and that is the ARCA Awards Banquet  in Indianapolis  in December. This black  tie event is  held in conjunction  with the  Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show and is one I have shot since 2013 for the ARCA series.  It's also traditionally the last time I get to see my ARCA friends each year before the holiday break. Once Christmas and New Year's has passed, then everyone at ARCA will start focusing on the first race of 2019 at Daytona in February - myself included.

Shooting from the back of the pace truck at Berlin was a huge thrill

My main racing photography commitment in 2018 was the ARCA series. This year's numbers are down somewhat from the last three years as I had held time for a return trip to Le Mans that didn't pan out so I wasn't scheduled to work any of ARCA's June races this year. Evenso, I still worked 10 race events in seven different states. If you count the two weather postponements we had, I actually did 12 race weekends for the series since we had to make return trips to Berlin Raceway in Michigan and Lucas Oil Raceway outside of Indianapolis. In chronological order, the races I worked for ARCA were: Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennesee; Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana; Talladega SuperSpeedway in Alabama; Iowa Speedway; Berlin Raceway, Marne, Michigan; Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield, Illinois; Berlin Raceway (again); DuQuoin State Fair, DuQuoin, Illinois, Lucas Oil Raceway, Clermont, Indiana; Salem Speedway; Lucas Oil Raceway (again!) and finally Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas. These spanned from March to the end of October. We froze in Nashville, baked in Springfield and cooled off at Kansas so it was a fun year.

Night racing and gorgeous sunrises are Daytona Rolex bonuses

My racing season actually started in January again this year as it did in 2017 with the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, so add Florida to the list of states I visited in 2018. The Rolex was blessed with perfect weather this year, in stark contrast to the conditions in 2017. Another contrast was I drove to all of the ARCA races from my home in Indianapolis and racked up a ton of highway miles in my Civic Si whereas I flew Southwest to Orlando for the Rolex race. I  already have a similar flight booked for the ARCA race at Daytona next February but I doubt I will be able to shoot the Rolex race again next year, which is a shame as I've worked in 2014, 2017 and 2018 and loved every minute of it despite the grind it requires as a photographer. Maybe I like it because of that actually, as it does fell like multiple races rolled into one event. The rhythm of the Rolex is one thing I absolutely love: walk, shoot, edit, rinse and repeat about eight times. We had a gorgeous sunrise this year which would be hard to top so if it turns out that 2018 was my last Rolex 24 for awhile, I've got some fantastic images to remember it by. I appreciate the opportunity to work with my friends at the Associated Press in Florida and look forward to doing it again someday soon. Working a race in Florida upped my tally of states to eight on the year.

There's nothing quite like the Indy 500

The middle of my 2018 season was all about Indianapolis and the Month of May, with two races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) beginning with the Indycar Grand Prix on the IMS road course and capped off with the 102nd Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day weekend. As in 2017, I shot Indy for a French media company, although the name of the firm was different this year: MPS Agency. Working track time in May around my full time job is always a challenge and this year was no different. I am grateful that the people I work with at The Excel Center understand my passion for motorsports photography. Next year it looks like I will get to lead a student outing to the Speedway so I will get to directly share that passion in more than just photos. With Indianapolis added to the mix, that gave me a total of 14 race events for the year, counting the two ARCA rainouts. Not a bad total for 2018 but I anticipate that 2019 will be even bigger! You can best believe I am working hard to top this year and it looks like my main client will be the ARCA racing Series once again.

Fan favorite Salem Speedway had a spectacular sunset for ARCA this fall

One consequence of shooting fewer races this year was that my driving mileage dropped somewhat from years past, although I still logged about 6500 miles behind the wheel in 2018 just going to race events. I also had two road trips of more than 1000 miles each (Talladega and Kansas); next year I expect I will have those two plus several more that exceed that number. My pedometer also got a bit of a break this year with fewer races but not by much as it was not uncommon to log 15,000 to 20,000 steps per day at the racetrack as most days I spent 15 hours or more shooting and editing. Lest anyone think it's an easy job to do, you should come out and follow me around on a raceday and see what it's really like. I don't usually have the luxury of just showing up to shoot the race so I get quite a workout at most events I shoot. I'm glad for that. My fiance didn't nickname me the Energizer Bunny for nothing! I'm sure I easily shot over 50,000 images this year and it will be interesting to see what the shutter counts are on my two main camera bodies when next May rolls around! The crazy thing about me is that I can always identify pictures I shot when they are posted on the ARCA website or when the teams or sponsors use them, and I can always find the originals - the images are that clear in my mind's eye. I shot them; I should know!

ARCA Champion Sheldon Creed will be moving up in 2019

With the season over except for the ARCA banquet, I have a couple of other photo projects I am working on as well as trying to plan out my travel for next year. There are some big things in the works and I don't want to jinx myself so I will leave them unsaid for the time being. If you want to know more, then stay tuned and be sure to check back with me!

Until next time, keep the shiny side up everyone and go take some frikkin' pictures. Come see me at a race next year!

Shooting sports car racing offers many unique challenges but I try to go where the light is good.

It was damn cold at Nashville this year

Salem has hosted more ARCA races than any other track and is on the 2019 schedule twice again

We found out at Talladega that ARCA would be joining the NASCAR family in 2020

Will Power kicked off May with a dominant win on the IMS road course

Then he raced to his first Indy 500 win to make a clean sweep of the month of May

Everyone seems to love Iowa Speedway and this year the weather was reasonable rather than blast furnace hot

It took two tries to get the Berlin race run thanks to Mother Nature, but fans saw a slam-bang finish that started a social media firestorm

The dirt races at Springfield are always entertaining

DuQuoin is one of the few places where I can get this close to the action

It took two tries to get the Lucas Oil Raceway event run, but at least that one is close to home!

The Kansas Speedway ARCA finale ended up being a crashfest so it was a wild way to wrap up the 2018 season