Just over a month ago I packed my suitcases and flew to West Palm Beach, Florida for a week of NHRA preseason testing. I was working for several clients so it would be one hell of a busy week for me.
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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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After missing the race in Charlotte due to another shoot I was happy to get back on the circuit at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston, TX for my fourth NHRA race of the 2011 season. It would end up being an interesting race with two predictable pro winners and two surprises.
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Race three on the 2011 NHRA tour took us to nearly everyones favorite stop on the 300 mph traveling roadshow, Las Vegas! I like Vegas more because its a nice track to shoot at and most importantly its close to Phoenix so I am able to drive my own car instead of some lame economy rental car. After this weekend I am guessing this track will now be one of Antron Browns favorite tracks as well. On to the strip!
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Normally when I post a drag racing blog I typically lead off with my coolest photo of the weekend. When a destroyed camera is the lead photo I am pretty sure you can guess what the story of the weekend will be for me!
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Indy Car has the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR has the Daytona 500, but when it comes to NHRA the grand daddy of them all is the U.S. Nationals. With all the different sports I shoot it has gotten harder and harder for me to be able to fit NHRA in my schedule but when the race fell on an open weekend in my schedule I just had to shoot this race. Strap in, here we go!
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It has been a while since I last shot the 300mph cars of the NHRA so I decided that I had to hit up their annual visit to the wine country of Sonoma, CA. Flights and rental cars were rather expensive for the weekend so I decided to make it a road trip and drive up to the San Francisco area. Lets get on to the racing.
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For the past several years I have always marked the March Meet onto my schedule. While its not a mainstream race where I have much chance of making back the money I put out in expenses it is just such a fun race that its more than worth the financial dent it puts into my wallet. Let the fun begin!
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Back in the day when I was growing up rarely would I ever miss the Arizona Nationals in Chandler, AZ. The track was only 12 miles from where I lived so it was always a must attend. As I have gotten older and been busier with work the years began to go by that I haven’t been able to attend my home town race. Finally this year I decided I was not gonna miss the race. All I can say is I am glad I made the 2010 Arizona Nationals……because I doubt they will ever race at this track again. Put on your seatbelts, its about to be a bumpy ride!
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