Ageless Kenny Schrader Schools ARCA Kids at Salem Speedway

Kenny Schrader wins at Salem again

Everyone in racing knows the name Kenny Schrader. He is a true racer - a throwback to the days when drivers would criss-cross the country and race anything on wheels. This past weekend, this ageless wonder brought his Federated Auto Parts sponsored stock car to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana and proceeded to spank the field of youngsters in the ARCA Racing Series Federated 200. I was working as ARCA's photographer again at what was originally supposed to be a two day show, but was condensed into Sunday after Saturday's activities were washed out. It turned out to be quite a show, which is not surprising if you have ever seen an ARCA race at short tracks like Salem Speedway. I will be back with the series again starting with Pocono in June so I am looking forward to a busy summer!

Rain took care of Saturday's schedule

I made two round trip commutes from Indy to Salem to work the event and added more interesting travel experiences to my vita. I passed a lot of cars both days and I would really like to see all the slow driving, brake tapping, scaredy-cats get out of the way and move over. If you don't, I will just fly by at the first opportunity. I don't know what was going on with I-65 northbound on the way home Sunday, but I managed to avoid two long backups by getting off the interstate (twice) and taking a much more scenic route through southern Indiana.

If you drive enough, you will inevitably encounter delays like I did Sunday, but that doesn't tell the story of my weekend. The most interesting thing that happened was having Kenny Schrader come into the ARCA marketing trailer where I was working before the race. I had just finished shooting the driver autograph session and I asked him if he wanted to sit down. He said no thanks, he'd be sitting the rest of the day. I asked if he needed to see anyone and his response was he was just looking for a place to hide out before the race. I completely understood that as the trailer is normally pretty quiet and he seemed happy just checking his phone. I asked him one more question and figured I should leave him alone:  did he feel that Salem owed him one after last year? His response was pure racer: no track owes a driver anything; you have to take it. And that's exactly what he did Sunday afternoon, despite being involved in an early incident that damaged his left front fender. At last year's spring Salem race, he tangled with a backmarker while leading with only a handful of laps remaining, cut a tire and hit the wall. There would not be a repeat of that situation this year as he controlled the race tempo after taking the lead on lap 63 which he never relinquished. He was clearly peddling it through the corners late in the day, comfortable with his advantage and ability to rack up the laps. In the process, he got his first win at Salem since 1999. It was really special to be there and be a part of it.

Schrader held off Haley, Ursetta and Kyle Weatherman on a late restart

Hopefully the youngsters he raced this weekend at Salem learned a thing or two from Schrader. It was the 97th ARCA race at Salem and the man to beat going into the weekend was Grant Enfinger who had won the first three races of the season. Grant found the wall late in the race which dropped him to 13th which opened the door for the youth brigade to charge into the top 10. Kyle Waetherman took second and his 15 year old little brother Clayton took 8th. Dominic Ursetta took third in only his second ARCA start followed by JJ Haley, who barely looks old enough to shave, let alone drive these big, heavy stock cars. Last season's rookie of the year Austin Wayne Self grabbed fifth and was followed by Brandon Jones in sixth. For Jones, it was his lowest ever finish in an ARCA race! Veteran Tom Hessert in seventh must have felt like a graybeard with all these kids around him as current rookie points leader David Levine followed the younger Weatherman home in 9th. Another veteran James Swanson did a very nice job to finish in 10th with perhaps one of the lowest budget teams in ARCA, so that was really good to see.

This week ARCA heads to Talladega Superspeedway and I had originally intended to work this weekend for Associated Press but I just couldn't make it work. So I will be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday instead for opening day and rookie orientation for the Indy 500. I am excited to be shooting again this May for motorsport.com and am grateful for the opportunities to travel and shoot so many excellent events. Indy is home, however, and it is nice to sleep in my own bed every night after long days at the Speedway, so stay tuned for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. See you at the track!

ARCA Descends on Salem Speedway This Weekend

The 2010 spring race at Salem had beautiful weather

Other than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I've been to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana more than any other racetrack through the years. The parallel to my history is that ARCA has raced at Salem more than any other track on its diverse schedule. The last time ARCA raced here, the win wasn't decided until the last corner of the last lap as 2014 ARCA champ Mason Mitchell made a last ditch passing attempt on Tom Hessert that came up short, resulting in Hessert's third Salem win in the last five tries. I expect more of the same close racing this weekend.

Ken Schrader congratulated Grant Enfinger on his 2014 win

Ageless Ken Schrader will be back to challenge the ARCA field which must be getting antsy to do something about Grant Enfinger's early season dominance. Enfinger could win his fourth straight race (out of four) this weekend and he won at Salem last year before making the switch to his current team GMS racing, so he would have to be booked as the favorite. Don't count Tom Hessert out though as he has found ways to win at Salem that in hindsight must have seemed improbable. Ironically, one of his wins came in Schrader's #52 Federated Auto Parts machine but his Cunningham team clearly knows how to prepare a car he likes for the bumpy high banks of this historic short track.

Tom Hessert knows the way to Victory Lane at Salem

One of the great things about the spring race at Salem is the fact that it is a two-day event and fans bring their motor homes, pop-up campers or tents and spend the whole weekend on the Speedway property. The fall race is run at night where ARCA practices, qualifies and races all on one day, so the spring race's extended schedule is not quite as hectic and probably gives fans more track action for entertainment. Race fans in southern Indiana love this track and I do too, as I started shooting the ARCA races here in the fall of 2006 and have only missed one ARCA race at Salem since then. The pits are crowded, the action in Turn 1 is always intense, often three or four wide, and there's always a certain amount of beating and banging that goes on. Teams must have a good supply of racer's tape when they come to Salem. As a photographer, I have to make sure I stay out of the way, especially during pit stops, and keep my head on a swivel to make sure I stay on top of the hectic action.

Salem pit action is always exciting

Two hundred laps at Salem can go quickly and there's a lot to do once the race starts. I am shooting for ARCA again this weekend for the second time this season and my job will start on Saturday before practice even begins. I enjoy the variety of assignment work I get when I shoot for ARCA and when I see teams using photos I've supplied on social media or their websites, I know I will have done a good job. A lot of the required shooting will get done Saturday and include the Pole Winner award so look for that on ARCA's website late Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning always involves an autograph session on the front stretch where fans can meet all the drivers and get hero cards or personal memorabilia autographed. This series does a great job getting fans in touch with the men who drive these machines, and if you haven't been to an ARCA race because you think it's a lower tier series, then you are really missing out. After all, these drivers are the future stars of stock car racing and you can say "...you knew then when..." if you get to an ARCA show. And they will put on a show once the green flag drops.

Expect a good crowd when you come to Salem Speedway

One of the nicest things about going to Salem for me is the short drive: it's only 110 miles from my house in Indy, so it is easy to get to and doesn't involve a long trip home. I will "commute" this weekend, going down and back both Saturday and Sunday, so I will still rack up some miles, but not nearly the amount of other trips I will take this season. The photos I shoot will be on ARCA's website within a day or so after the race, so if you can't make it to the race, at least check the site for photos to purchase. If you do make it down to "God's Country" this weekend, then give me a shout and I'll take your picture! Until next time, here are a few from prior years at this fast and historic racetrack nestled in the rolling hills of southern Indiana. Godspeed and safe travels everyone!

Frank Kimmel during a pit stop last year; Brandon Jones will be running the Menard's colors this weekend

Tom Hessert also won at Salem in 2013

Ken Schrader ran afoul of a lapped car while leading last year and hit the wall

Let's race!

ARCA History Made at Nashville

Grant Enfinger and  his GMS team have started 2015 on a roll

I got back on the road this past weekend to shoot racing for ARCA and Grant Enfinger wrote his name in the ARCA record books with his win at historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the first time in more than two decades that ARCA had raced at Nashville and Enfinger's win made him the first driver in ARCA's 63 year history to win the first three races in a row to start two consecutive seasons. It was a hectic one day show and a very long day at the racetrack, but I was ecstatic to get back to work for this highly competitive and always entertaining stock car series. I have said it before but it bears repeating:  many of these drivers represent the future stars in fenders so you need to get out and see them race. Salem Speedway in southern Indiana is next April 25 & 26 where ARCA always puts on a good show, so come on down!

Me and my RSX-s shadow on the road

The last few weeks leading up to Nashville were super busy for me and involved lots of driving. If you know me, you know I love to drive but the stretch of late March through early April was near record setting for personal mileage. March 22nd I blitzed to Chicago and back as my fiance's older daughter had just given birth to a baby girl. The next weekend I drove to Akron as my Mom was back in the hospital, then I brought her back to Indy to stay with us over the end of my my spring break week. The Monday before I went to Nashville, I took Mom back to Akron after my teaching day was over then returned to Indy the next morning so I wouldn't miss any school. Finally last Friday, I headed south to Nashville to shoot the race and got back home Sunday afternoon. Probably about 2400 miles all told and being at the racetrack was a relief in many ways. I love shooting for ARCA and the feedback I got from officials and team reps was very gratifying. Now I'm looking forward to Salem and only having to commute 110 miles each way.

Kyle Weatherman took pole and finished 5th at Nashville for Cunningham Motorsports

My day at Nashville started at 7:30 in the morning with an ARCA officials meeting and wasn't over until midnight after I had finished my preliminary editing. I have a step counter on my phone which registered 21,733 steps for the day so if you think shooting a race is going to be easy, then you better think twice and bring your walking shoes! There were quite a few brand new drivers to the series on the entry list so I had to get green screen head shots of each of them in and around my other shooting responsibilities. I also walked the whole track in the morning to see what kind of access I was going to have for the day and scout out potential shooting locations. I was a little concerned about lighting since it was a night race but I had my flash battery pack, two extra sets of lithium batteries for my flash, and was determined to shoot as much available light as I could get away with. It turned out to be quite a challenge once the green flag dropped after 8:00 pm local time, but I left the track that night feeling like I had done some of my best night race work so I was tired but satisfied.

Matt Tifft on the grid ready to race - shot with available light; he finished second

One of the things I try to concentrate on during a race is to show the actual racing through my photos. I don't find single car shots very useful once a race has started, but anytime I can get two or more cars in the frame, then I am happy. I know my job is to help tell the story of a race for the series, and provide photos that the teams will want to use in their own promotional efforts. It's fun to see those photos end up on Twitter or Facebook when the teams use them and I think it is a valuable service provided by ARCA. I know I am fortunate to be filling this role. I also know I learn something new about photography every race I shoot and this race was no different. There's a certain peace that comes over me during a race once I put on the ARCA radio headset and start working my coverage strategy. It's a feeling which is hard to describe but one that comes naturally after so many races. Ironically, my horoscope for race day said something about "being in my element" and that sure turned out to be true.

So now Salem is next and that weekend's timeline won't be quite as rushed as Nashville, since track activities occur over a Saturday and Sunday. Until next time, I leave you with the following sampling of my Nashville photos. If you want to see more, then go to www.arcaracing.com and check out their photo site.

Back to the Racetrack This Weekend

The ARCA Series races on all kinds of tracks, including Talladega

Spring break for my teaching job is over which means it's time to get serious about my racing photography again. Since I went to Atlanta at the end of February, lots has happened in my personal life but I haven't had much news to write about relative to racing. This weekend that all changes as I head to Nashville, Tennessee to work as the photographer for the ARCA Racing Series, a job I truly love. It should take my mind off of other issues and will provide another chance to get creative at a track I've never been to before. The race is Saturday at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and ARCA hasn't raced there in over 20 years so it should be interesting as a whole new crop of young drivers is on the entry list to challenge a handful of ARCA veterans who continue to support the series.

Brandon Jones returns in 2015 - this time in the prime Venturini ride

I've always enjoyed shooting ARCA for the chance to see the up and coming drivers like Brandon Jones who will eventually graduate to the NASCAR ranks. Jones won in his first two ARCA starts last year and is in one of the plum seats for 2015, sharing a Venturini ride with series legend Frank Kimmel. It is also a chance to really be plugged into the racing action since I get to wear a radio headset and listen to ARCA race control so I know exactly what's going on all the time. At most races, I don't use a radio or any kind of communication device other than my cell phone but I've worked enough races over the years that I can usually keep track of the top five positions without any problem. At those races I keep my earplugs in and tune into the sounds of the action and listen for the silence which is usually when something bad is about to happen. Then it's time to shoot, so I have to be ready.

Ageless Kenny Schrader knows Grant Enfinger is a winner

This season the favorite for the ARCA championship has to be Grant Enfinger as he won the most races last year and finished second in points to Mason Mitchell even after switching teams in mid-season. He returns with Gallagher Motorsports this year and has already won the first two races of 2015.  He could make it three in a row this weekend at Nashville which would be the second straight year he has started the season with three consecutive wins. No one has ever done that in ARCA before so it should be fun to see how everyone handles a new track with lots of new drivers on the entry list.

Grant Enfinger

One of the best things about shooting for ARCA is I get to cover an event from all angles and pictures are used on their website for viewing or purchase by fans and teams. I typically don't have that kind of freedom when I shoot for Associated Press (AP) but that's alright since I usually am assigned a position where I can make some pictures they will use on the wire. It's always a bonus when my pictures get transmitted by AP as I get to see NASCAR at the big track of 'Dega where anything can happen on any lap with their pack racing format. I started off as a turn shooter at Indy waiting for crashes so the Dega weekend is kind of a throwback for me. Once I get to Indy in May, I will be shooting for motorsport.com, and then I have the freedom to roam again as that site expects photos from track action, personalities and behind the scenes to help support their writers. Regardless of whether I am shooting for ARCA or another entity, I will be posting on Twitter and doing numerous blog posts like this one about my experiences which I hope gives a little insight into what it's like chasing race cars with a camera.

Last year's fall race at Salem Speedway was one for the ages

After this weekend, I have a weekend off from racing which will be filled with soccer officiating, and then the real fun begins. The last weekend in April I will shoot for ARCA again at Salem Speedway. Then I go to Talladega for NASCAR with Associated Press. Then it will be May at Indianapolis for Motorsport.com for three straight weekends of Indycar racing starting with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ending with the 99th Indy 500. The end of May coincides with the end of my school's spring semester and my birthday when I will turn 58.  I will be putting a lot of miles on my RSX-S this year and this stretch of spring weekends promises to be the busiest racing period I think I've ever had. I will be doing almost all the ARCA races this season so I may have to revise that assessment later on! So stay tuned for the next installment in my racing road show. You just never know where you might see me! C'mon down to Nashville and join the fun this weekend.

Grant Enfinger's Gallagher Motorsports entry will be one to watch in ARCA this season.

Chilly Atlanta NASCAR Weekend Wraps First 2015 Racing Road Trip

Jeff Gordon ended up on the hook in his last Atlanta race; teammate Jimmy Johnson won

Atlanta Motor Speedway did nothing to live up to the ATL nickname "Hot-lanta" last weekend, but the racing was sure intense. It was my first racing road trip of the 2015 season, but it almost didn't happen. Until last Thursday, I was not even sure I would make the drive down from Indianapolis as another swath of abnormally snowy winter weather hit the area between Chattanooga and Atlanta Wednesday night. But the forecast for Friday was good and I made the drive under sunny (if not warm) conditions to start my Atlanta weekend "on the cheap". I've got a lot to say in this post but if you'd rather just look at my photos from the weekend, then scroll to the bottom for slideshows for each of the three NASCAR series that ran this weekend.

My view of the "Big One"

Some people think being a wire service stringer at major motorsports events is glamorous and exciting. I have yet to experience the glamour part but it is definitely exciting, and it starts with the journey to the racetrack. This weekend was no exception. My assigned position for AP was in Turn 3 and I did a lot of waiting for something to happen on track that would be newsworthy. That "something" finally did occur with about 25 laps to go in the Sprint Cup race as Atlanta had its own "Big One" and I got to make some pictures. Experienced Atlanta photogs told me that multi-car crashes rarely happen at the track but AP didn't use any which was disappointing after but not surprising,  I don't think it was the best crash sequence I've ever shot, and AP got shots from another photog shooting from the roof of the main grandstand who had a better angle and, frankly, better photos of the wreck than I did.  But the long weekend of waiting wasn't for naught as there are lessons I learned that will make me a better photographer and help in future races.

Joey Logano won two pole positions at Atlanta

After spending much of the early part of the previous week trolling weather websites and looking at online traffic cams for the area around Chattanooga, I had not booked a room for the weekend. I  had made the trip with the intention of getting a hotel room if the weather really got nasty, but my weekend "on the cheap" was in full force once I decided to stay at the track in my car. Some people think I'm crazy for doing a race weekend this way but stringers don't typically get paid unless pictures are used. I was excited to get there and have the chance to work. I got to the track around 3:30 Friday afternoon after leaving Indy at 6:00 a.m. The drive down was beautiful and I made all the right moves going south, including taking a well timed detour when I-65 was closed by an accident near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. When I got to the track, I knew Sprint Cup group qualifying was going to be run under the lights, and after the mess the drivers made of it at Daytona, I was hopeful that I might see some action. Sadly that didn't occur and Joey Logano took pole position after a qualifying session that had zero drama. Nonetheless, I knew I still had three races and much more track activity over the next two days, with the trucks race scheduled to run 130 laps, the Xfinity series  race set for 163 laps and the Sprint Cup race 325 laps.

Saturday's truck race was run under the lights

I typically do a lot on Twitter when I am on the road, but this weekend I decided to do short video updates on Facebook to document the trip. These were off the cuff and unrehearsed, so it was fun to use my Android capabilities to shoot the one-take videos. I was also excited to test out the new Canon 7D Mark II camera body as a loaner from Canon Professional Services. With track action extending into the evenings under the lights, this was the perfect opportunity to test the camera's vaunted low light capabilities. I was extremely pleased with the results and must say that this camera has now been added to my gear wish list. Night racing is always exciting anyway, as the lighting adds another dimension to the speed and color of an event. And I had almost forgotten how fast Atlanta really is, with speeds close to 200 mph in the Sprint Cup Series.

Matt Crafton dominated the truck race

By now, everyone knows that Jimmy Johnson won the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta, and joins Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano in the Chase for the Championship. After Saturday's action in the Camping World Truck Series, it was looking like a weekend for the 88's, since Kevin Harvick won the Xfinity race Saturday afternoon in his #88 Bad Boy Buggies machine while Matt Crafton won the truck race at night in his #88 Menards sponsored truck. Crafton was utterly dominant the last two-thirds of the race and led comfortably. Youngster Erik Jones looked strong early on but couldn't maintain a leading pace as Crafton's truck came on in the increasingly cooler evening temperatures. Harvick also won in an 88 and being a numbers guy, I started to wonder if Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 88 would win on Sunday. That almost happened as Earnhardt looked strong in the Folds of Honor 500 whether he was rim riding along the wall or hugging the yellow line on the bottom. Johnson, meanwhile, seemed to be biding his time all afternoon Sunday and made 500 miles look easy in his #48 Chevy. Just another day at the office for JJ, who now can start to get excited about the possibility of winning a 6th season championship.

Fan favorite Earnhardt thrilled soldiers with autographs and selfies

It rained overnight Saturday and the track was wet Sunday morning but showers were predicted to end by 11 a.m. When I was checking the weekend forecast from Indy earlier in the week, it looked like Sunday might be a washout, but once race day arrived, I felt pretty confident that NASCAR would get the race in, even if it meant running into the night under the lights. But man it was cold, and the damp air made it worse once the Sprint Cup machines starting whipping up a 200 mph breeze every time they roared by me in Turn 3. Most of my morning was spent hanging out at the media center just waiting. I was glad the driver's meeting finally rolled around so I could get some people pictures to go with all the race car shots I get as a turn shooter. I got to talk with a very young Army private from Augusta, Georgia who was at his first race, and the throngs of enlisted personnel around Earnhardt, Jr. was a joy to see as their faces lit up at the chance to meet Dale Jr. Lunch came and went and then it was time to suit up and go to work, albeit about an hour past the originally scheduled start time, which was pretty good all things considered.

A nice couple I met in Turn 3 said they owned one of these trackside condos

I had lots of company in Turn 3 including an older gentleman who said he had been coming to Atlanta Motor Speedway for 40 years, another younger guy with his father who had attended almost as long, and a couple of twenty-somethings who had brought their sons to see their first ever NASCAR race in person. Race fans love to talk racing, and it doesn't seem to matter what track you go to, the conversations about history are always interesting. If you ever see me at Indy, don't get me started or you may not be able to shut me up!

Once the race was over Sunday, there was more waiting, this time to get my CF card back before I could hit the road. By then, it was 7:45 p.m. and I had originally hoped to banzai home to Indy, but made the decision to get to Nashville, Tennessee and stop for the night. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I made all weekend as it started raining around Chattanooga and I had a white knuckle drive on I-75 through heavy fog and mist over the mountains. Thank God the NASCAR hauler from Furniture Row Racing led the way past Monteagle and I finally got to Nashville after midnight and found a Comfort Inn in Goodlettesville. I was happy with my work for the weekend, shooting anytime there were two or more cars in the frame to show the close racing. I was also happy to have a real bed to sleep in after two nights in my car at the track. When my alarm went off Monday morning, there was no bad weather and I knew I'd be able to get back to my teaching job in Indy for my first class at noon. That was until I outsmarted myself looking for cheap gas, and had a cross country detour that wasted an hour at the beginning of Monday's drive home. I only ended up 45 minutes late as it turned out and after driving over 1200 miles on the weekend, it was good to be back home again in Indianapolis.

I am a teacher and photographer who loves to drive. I don't have another road trip until mid-April when I will go to Nashville for ARCA, but at least I have one under my belt to start the 2015 season. It will be a busy one for me so perhaps I'll see you at a race somewhere down the road. Safe travels!

Atlanta Sprint Cup Folds of Honor 500

Atlanta Xfinity Series 250

Atlanta Camping World Truck Series 200

Green Light For First 2015 Racing Road Trip

Atlanta, here I come!

Less than 12 hours from now, I will leave Indianapolis and hit the road for the first time this racing season. I am extremely excited to get back to a racetrack and go to work. I am also a bit anxious. I am headed for Atlanta Motor Speedway to shoot the NASCAR races for Associated Press (AP) and this week's winter weather in the south has been atrocious. This weekend's forecast is marginally better and it promises to be quite chilly throughout. The only other time I got to shoot at Atlanta was Labor Day weekend in 2011 which was cut short due to weather. So as I mentioned to the AP photographer, I am cautiously optimistic about this weekend. I couldn't afford to go to Daytona this year so Atlanta is the next best thing given the fact that it is drivable in a day and there are three races to shoot this weekend which means more chances to "make some pictures", to paraphrase the late Dave Martin.

When we were at Atlanta in 2011, even though it was an abbreviated weekend, it was still rewarding shooting for AP. I did get to shoot both the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series races that year and met some nice people inside Turn 1 who let me shoot from the top of their school bus in the infield. I am hoping I can find those same folks again if that's where I get assigned this weekend. Click here for a link to one of my shots that AP used that weekend. My Indy friends had good luck at Daytona last weekend, so I am hoping I can carry the Hoosier flag well at Atlanta!

All three of NASCAR's top series are back this weekend and I have to say the scheduling of Atlanta this early in the season is a bit mystifying. The only justification I can think of is that it cuts some travel expenses for the teams, most of which are based in North Carolina. So going from Daytona to their shops near Charlotte and then to Atlanta makes some logistical sense, but that's about it, since weather this early in the year in Georgia is about as volatile as it is in Indy. But I will be dressed for the occasion and am looking forward to seeing my friends from down south again. I am also excited about shooting with the new Canon 7D Mark II that I have on loan from Canon Professional Services (CPS) this weekend, and curious to see what has changed about the track since I was there over  three years ago.

Jeff Gordon will leave the 24 after this season

Of course the biggest change heading into this NASCAR weekend involves drivers. Both Busch brothers are on the sidelines and won't be racing. Kurt "Outlaw" Busch is out after his domestic violence court ruling and Kyle "Rowdy" Busch tried to knock down a concrete wall at the Daytona Xfinity race last weekend and is out with serious leg and foot injuries. With Joey Logano fresh off his Daytona 500 win and Jeff Gordon on a retirement tour, I expect them and the rest of the Sprint Cup gang will be wrestling with cold hard Goodyears on Atlanta's old, tired asphalt this weekend. That's a combination which should make for some interesting photo opportunities. As a photography stringer, that sounds good to me.

So my 2015 racing adventures begin at last and I couldn't be more excited. I love to drive, especially when there's a race to shoot at the end of the trip, so you better pedal hard if you want to keep up with me. See you at the racetrack!

The Past is Prelude to the Future

Teo Fabi in Turn 2 at Indy in a Porsche - 1989

One of my usual off season projects involves organizing a boatload of digital image files from the previous year and digitizing another boatload of slides and negatives from races shot long ago. I shot my first Indy 500 for UPI in 1984 when just about to turn 27 with only a little more than a year under my belt shooting with a Canon A1 and a T70. I wanted to shoot racing so bad back then - and I still do. The funny thing about looking at my early film work is seeing all the crappy pictures I shot while my learning curve was Everest steep. In hindsight, of course I learned photography the hard way by just shooting lots of film and slides, reading lots of books and never taking a class or getting any kind of formal training. Even while looking at a number of shots which were underexposed, soft, wrong shutter speed, poorly framed, etc., it was still fun looking at images that I had not looked at in years.

The beautiful Nissan Camel GT machine at Columbus, Ohio 1988

But there were some gems among the thousands of frames. Mind you, I have three-ring binders filled with Tri-x and Ilford black and white negatives, Fujicolor and Kodak color film negatives, Fujichrome, Ektachrome and Kodachrome slides, that no one but me will ever see. But I can still learn from those. Going through these old shots has also made me think of all the little notebooks I used where I kept track of every roll I shot: film type, subject matter, lighting, time of day, camera settings. Nowadays almost all of that info is in the Metadata of digital files, and it's there for anyone to study. I'm glad I learned photography the way I did, and it's amazing now to think of all the things that went wrong when I was still sorting out the basics. Yet I still managed to get photos, and that has been the enduring legacy of my work with a camera, especially in motorsports: I bring back pictures.

My first year with a decent camera was 1983 - this was taken in Broad Ripple that summer

That learning process seems laborious now but it was just the beginning of my education by camera. I used to talk to any photographer who would put up with my questions. I examined and studied photos in print and kept file folders filled with shots torn from newspapers and magazines.  If I was at an event where other photographers were working but I wasn't, I watched them work and tried to imagine myself in their shoes. I still do that, and although I don't keep as close track on my settings as I used to, I still keep notebooks and fill them with lessons learned from shooting now in the digital age. Many purists love to talk about using film as the "good old days", but I much prefer digital. Not only can you see immediately whether you "got the shot" or not, the images are so much crisper and filled with detail than film ever was in my opinion.

My first race other than Indy was F1 in Detroit 1984

Even as a committed digital shooter, I find that much of what I learned in the early days has become applicable again, and I re-learned that from shooting for wire services like Associated Press and for the ARCA stock car series. I am much more conscious of being efficient with my images and not shooting millions of pictures. This means I don't just lay on the shutter release button and blast away - anyone can do that. I have gone back to really visualizing images in my mind's eye before I pull the trigger and it has helped my photography immensely. No one has time now to edit thousands of images looking for the perfect shot. There's no such thing anyway, as the idea in today's media market is to tell the story with pictures and get them out there before anyone else. While it is a little different working for ARCA, as the series has a variety of objectives for me to meet to support their competitors, timeliness is still essential so my own editing process has become more efficient as well. Perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned through the years is to watch those backgrounds! No poles sprouting from peoples' heads, and by no means are portalets ever to be seen behind your main subject! Those get trashed right away.

Paul Newman racing at Mid Ohio in Trans Am - 1988

The shooting environment has changed immensely since I first started aiming a camera at fast, loud, shiny things with wheels. At road courses like Mid Ohio, there were no tall catch fences and you could really get up close with unobstructed vantage points which made shooting easier without credentials. On the other hand, there were plenty of times where we raced back to Indy from Michigan or Mid Ohio to turn our film in at the Indianapolis Star so it could get souped for the next morning's edition, so the travel demands sometimes made up for the ease of access in an inverse sort of way. But those were fun trips too as several of us would ride together and we knew we were the Star's crew for that event. I still have a lot of my old credential approval letters from those days and think back on the excitement of those road trips when I was first getting started.

The esses at Mid Ohio for the CART race in 1983 - up close and personal

Of course the track I know best is Indianapolis, since that is where I started. I've shot more races there than anywhere else and shooting there has changed immensely too. As a turn shooter (the starting point for most stringers), there used to be a photographer every ten feet in the corners - and that was just on practice days! Then there were the characters. Guys who would drink beer all day long but never seemed to miss a crash. The tall guy with the stereo camera who always seemed to want to stand in front of you. The fellow who borrowed all of his gear from Canon and brought it out to Turn 2 in a paper grocery sack - I don't think I ever saw him look through the viewfinder. But the best was the guy in Turn 3 who had two cameras mounted on a small platform that was propped up from his chest, one loaded with color and the other with black and white film, and both focused on the same spot on the wall in the impact zone. The mantra was f8 at 1000 so you hoped depth of field would help you out, and the inevitable cry afterwards was "did you get it?" People who have only shot digital have no idea what it is like to hold the last 12 frames on a roll of 36 just in case something happened. At least then you had about two seconds of film at five frames a second so you really had to be ready when the moment came to shoot that spinning race car in front of you.

Emerson Fittipaldi  and I were both rookies at Indy in 1984

Then of course your batteries would die. Or you discovered later that the film leader didn't get picked up properly and all your shots were on the first frame since the film didn't advance. Or the tall guy stepped in front of you at just the wrong moment. Or you spun the focus ring the wrong way in the heat of the moment so your images got softer rather than sharper as the sequence unfolded. Back then I hoped to get a good shot on one out of every five or six images I took. Now I just delete the bad ones before anyone else has a chance to see them so the majority look like winners. 

When I started this post, I had no idea where it would lead me, although I had a feeling that I would end up coming full circle in terms of my photography lessons. That's why the post is titled the way it is. For now, I leave you with a few more images from my archives and look forward to going to Atlanta at the end of the month to get my 2015 racing season underway. Godspeed to you all. Go make some pictures!

The late Jim Crawford, Turn 2 Indianapolis 1987

Hugging the rail at the Hoosier 100 USAC race in 1988

Street racing at Columbus, Ohio in the mid -1980s

Go karts in Noblesville's Forest Park in 1987 - another chance to practice

Racing Into The New Year

My Updated Alleygroup Logo

What a difference a year makes; or a week, for that matter. Last year at this time, I already had plans made and plane reservations booked for Daytona for both the Rolex 24 Hours and the Daytona 500 weekends. Up until a week ago, I had nothing lined up for my 2015 racing season but things have changed in a hurry, and somewhat unexpectedly. Reading reports from this past weekend's "Roar Before the 24" TUDOR sports car test at Daytona, I was having some regrets about not being able to shoot the Rolex 24 this year even though I had an opportunity with Associated Press. Having just recently gotten engaged, discretion financially seemed to be the better part of valor this year so I opted not to make the investment in travel and lodging costs for an uncertain return. Such is the life of a wire service photo stringer, yet I am grateful that I had an option to go. Maybe next year...

Other than planning to go to Talladega for both NASCAR weekends for AP this year, my 2015 calendar was a blank slate for racing when this new year rolled around. Then last week, I contacted motorsport.com about shooting the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indy 500 and Brickyard events again this year and got confirmation they would use me for those. A couple of days later, I was contacted by my friends at ARCA about shooting more races this year for the series as the person they thought was going to cover all the 2015 races had to bow out due to an unfortunate set of circumstances. The same day, I heard from AP in Atlanta about shooting the NASCAR race this spring. Although driving through the Tennessee mountains in late February might be a challenge, I'm planning to do that race so my racing season will start just a bit later than it did in 2014. I haven't been to Atlanta since the Labor Day weekend race in 2011 so that should be a fun, and hopefully productive, road trip.

So within the span of a week, I went from having no idea what racing I would be shooting in 2015 to having quite a few options on my calendar. Feast or famine seems to sum it up for me right now, and while I still have a lot of planning to do, getting some race dates on my calendar now sure helps my outlook during the long gray Indiana winter! In the meantime, I have been working on other creative projects to follow up on the 42 Day Photo Challenge I gave myself at the end of 2014. I have been working on updating my logo, watermarks, web banners and other graphics for my Alleygroup online presence. The logo concept (above) blends old and new with a sunset colored background to match my website theme and business cards. The following graphic updates the hawk theme which I have used for the last few years with a bird in flight from one of my more recent photos along with new graphic elements. I've incorporated features like these into my website banners as well, but the next creative task I must tackle is a comprehensive update of my website! That will take some time since I have already built so many pages, but since winter is my racing off-season, now's the time to get that done, especially before I start hitting the road again. I am looking forward to it! See you at the races!

New web banner developed for my Facebook page

My 2014 Best Racing Photos

My first Rolex 24 at Daytona was an incredible experience

It's hard to believe that 2014 has come to an end already. This time last year, I was preparing for and anxiously anticipating the chance to shoot my first Rolex 24 Hours race at Daytona. While my schedule for 2015 is still up in the air, I had to take a look back at 2014 and sort through a few thousand images to come up with what I thought were my best from this past season. There are 75 images in this slideshow and they run the gamut of all the race series I covered in 2014. From the Rolex 24 and Daytona 500 weekend for Associated Press, through the month of May at Indianapolis for motorsport.com, then into the summer months and the fall working for ARCA - I had some wonderful opportunities in 2014. While I didn't get to do as many races as I would have liked in 2014, I still logged a lot of road miles and was fortunate to fly to Daytona twice, so all things considered it has been an excellent year.

Since this is probably my last blog post for the year, I think it's important to acknowledge a few people for giving me the chance to contribute and make some pictures. My heartfelt thanks go out to Mike Stewart and John Raoux at Associated Press, Eric Gilbert, Rainier Ehrhardt, Covy Moore and the gang at motorsport.com,  Richard Deaton at Salem Speedway, and George Mergen and his colleagues at ARCA. I'm sure I've missed a few that deserve recognition and I can't forget my photographer friends wherever you are today - from Chicago to Indy to Talladega to Daytona. I miss  working with you and seeing you all at the racetracks. I look forward to doing it again in 2015. Safe travels everyone, Godspeed and Happy New Year!

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.

Racing For Fans

Racers would race without fans, but there would be no sport without them. And the future of racing begins with kids - not just the ones running quarter midgets or go karts - but those who get dragged to an event and then fall in love with the sport as I did at an early age. The sounds, smells, emotion and sensory overload that fans experience at races are what keeps them coming back and what better way to ensure the future of motorsports than to start them young? That is why I chose the theme of "Fans" for the final week of my personal 42 Day Photo Challenge and as it turned out, all the photos feature kids at racetracks. What's not to love? After cycling through weekly themes of Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Joy, ending my challenge with Fans seemed only natural since fans are the backbone of racing. Now I need another photo challenge since it is the offseason for most racing although I am looking forward to 2015 and what the future may hold for me in the sport. After all, I started as a fan with a camera and became a photographer.

Fans: Day 36

These boys caught my eye at Indianapolis in 2010 when I was shooting The Indy 500 in Turn 3. The area behind the photographers in 3 is a long spectator mound where fans gather with their families and watch the race while lounging on blankets or kicking back in bag chairs. The area behind the mound is a whole different story as that is where the "Snake Pit" has moved, full of college kids and hard core partiers who come for the infield show and mostly don't care who wins the 500. I had selected quite a few photos of the party crowd to use in my theme this week, but decided against it the more I looked at my older images. The party crowd comes and goes, but these boys are all in and I loved that. I am guessing they are brothers and by the looks on their faces, they are amazed at what they are seeing, with the younger boy pointing out something exciting while the older boy is decked out in Danica gear he must have gotten in 2008 when she was running the Motorola colors. I don't know what happened to these boys the rest of that race day as things got really busy for me later when Mike Conway crashed on the last lap, but I would bet that Indy 500 experience was enough to make them fans for life.

Fans: Day 37

This photo was not actually taken at a race track, but it was taken during Indy 500 related activities in 2010. I had gone to the Convention Center downtown to pick up a 500 Festival Mini Marathon packet for a friend and noticed Danica's GoDaddy show car being lovingly admired by this young man. As I shot a few frames, I could see he was talking to himself as he first felt the Firestone tires, then the sidepod of the car and then finally looked inside the cockpit. I have wondered what he was telling himself that day, but I'll bet he's been to the 500 since then!

Fans: Day 38

Without intending to, these first three days of this theme have revolved around Danica Patrick. She took the Indycar series by storm and did so much to galvanize fan support during her years in the series. This young lady might not even have known about Danica's Indycar exploits as she waited on her parents at the Atlanta NASCAR race in 2010, wearing face paint and her Danica GoDaddy attire from her first year racing stock cars in the Nationwide Series. The faraway look on her face is what caught my attention and I hope she is still a race fan now, more than four years after I took this shot.

Fans: Day 39

I took this photo of a young boy in an autograph-covered T-shirt in 2012 at the ARCA race at Winchester Speedway during the pre-race autograph session. He was walking down the front stretch with his father and watching the crowd go from driver to driver. The T-shirt grabbed me at first but then I noticed he had a die cast race car in his right hand which made the picture for me. One of the things that ARCA does best is get fans up close and personal with their drivers during these autograph sessions, and I am always on the lookout for photos featuring kids like this one. I was shooting for ARCA that race weekend and I have often wondered if this boy's parents bought a copy of this photo from the ARCA website as a keepsake to go along with the autographs and hero cards this young man collected that day.

Fans: Day 40

Kids playing with race cars at race tracks is a common scene but I like this photo because it was both a boy and a girl having an imaginary race on the asphalt behind pit lane at Indianapolis during 500 practice in May 2013. I'm sure they had just purchased their Indycar die cast cars and with the sounds of practice all around them at the Speedway, they did what comes naturally for kids: they played.

Fans: Day 41

This girl in full Menards regalia is another photo from 2013 and I took it at Michigan International Speedway while I was shooting for ARCA. I don't know her story but I have seen her at other ARCA races since I took this shot, so she's either the biggest Frank Kimmel fan in the world or has some family connection to a race team or Menards, Frank's sponsor and the title sponsor for the ARCA series. Maybe its as simple as her favorite colors being yellow and black and she just likes the race swag, but my guess is we will see her again at the races, either as a fan, or maybe as an engineer or crew chief, or behind the wheel as a driver.

Fans: Day 42

My final photo in my "Fans" theme, and in my 42 Day Challenge, is also from the ARCA weekend at Winchester in 2012. The message on his T-shirt says it all for those of us here in USAC country:  "I'm gonna be a non wing sprint car driver." He's clutching hero cards from ARCA drivers in both hands and has started to get some autographs on his T-shirt, and I would bet that Winchester weekend was not his first race. Who knows? Maybe he will follow in the footsteps of guys like Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Bryan Clauson and so many others who have come from USAC and gone on to become big time race car drivers. If that does happen, I can see the day when he is telling his grandchildren "I remember being at Winchester back in 2012..." and you heard it here first. I got hooked on racing at about his age, so I suppose it's only natural that I would be drawn to kids like this at races who remind me of how exciting that was. It still is just as exciting and even though I'm just a photographer, I live for days like this at the racetrack where I can get that rush of excitement, smell the race fuel exhaust and hot tires, and do what I do: make some pictures.