After the previous weekend where 100 degree temps ruled the weekend in Dallas it was off to the green hills of Pennsylvania for the tours annual stop near Reading for what would be a record setting weekend at Maple Grove Raceway… Oh did I mention the weather was over 50 degrees cooler?!
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With doing the NHRA tour this year I have had the opportunity to visit several tracks for the first time. Brainerd, Minnesota would be the final track on the season that I had never been to so I was looking forward to checking the track out as well as making my first visit to the infamous “Zoo” at the tracks campground. It would end up being quite the fun and interesting weekend.
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Having never been to Bandimere Speedway before I was really looking forward to my first trip to the Mile High Nationals. New tracks are always fun to shoot at because I have three days of racing to explore the track and learn for myself where all the cool shots are to be had. Sure I could (and sometimes do) get advice from the other photographers out there but its honestly more fun to find out for myself and hopefully come up with shots the other guys don’t notice. Strap in as we go a Mile High with the stars and cars of the NHRA Full Throttle Series!
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The last time I shot a drag race at Bristol was in 1991 when I was an 11 year old punk kid with an old Nikon FM2 film camera. My father Gil would put me on top of a motorhome near the finish line and only instruct me to push the button if I saw a crash or a fire. Well the last time I was here it was for an IHRA drag race and funny car driver Richard Hartman would have a big fire in front of me. I shot a sequence of the whole thing only to find out when I handed my dad the camera to take the film out that he had forgotten to load the film for me. I was devastated and am pretty sure I cried when I found out. Well fast forward 20 years and check out my return to Thunder Valley!
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Another weekend, another NHRA race, this time at Atlanta Dragway, one of the few remaining NHRA tracks I had not yet been to. Luckily for me the track was like all the other ones where it was a straight line with a starting line and a finish line so I was pretty confident I would be able to figure it out…
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We are down to five Best of 2010 blogs. Now on tap is my best of drag racing. 2010 was a great year in that I got to cover more drag racing than I have covered since 1997. By covering several races this year I got some pretty cool stuff. Check it out.
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The NHRA season always ends in Pomona, CA but it always conflicts with my NASCAR schedule as its always during the race weekend in my hometown of Phoenix. This year I decided a month in advance that I would be doing Pomona and skipping NASCAR. Keep reading and you will see that I made the right decision.
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Most people associate Arizona with hot temperatures and dry deserts. However, late in the summer the monsoon season arrives and produces big storms that pound the area with rain, dust storms and lightning. Anytime I am in town and not working you can be sure that I am keeping a watchful eye on the local radars in hopes of some storms so I can go storm chasing.
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This past weekend the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series made a visit to the Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California for round nine and ten of the season. Due to me having to go to Oakland to shoot UFC 117 I was only able to attend the races on Sunday. With that being the case I made the most of my time and ran all over the place shooting.
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While most of my friends on the east coast are still busy digging out of the snow in early March I have the pleasure of being able to drive to several stadiums around the Phoenix area to shoot the boys of summer as they prepare for the upcoming season with Cactus League spring training. Continue on to see a few of my favorite images from this year.
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