It is finally time to bring my “Best of 2011″ series to an end with everyones favorite category (except those who appear in these pics) with my Best of Crash and Burn. Not many years ago many of the crashes you see in this post would have resulted in injuries for the drivers but thanks to todays safety technology every driver seen in this blog would walk away. The same can’t be said for their race cars!
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Nearly all my life I have been covering drag racing but never have I covered near as many events as I did in 2011. With that said lets jump right into the second to last “Best of 2011″ blog with my best drag racing photos of 2011.
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With the NHRA down to its final two races, the stop at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway would be a pivotal race for those with 2011 championship aspirations. With the largest nitro fields of the year it was sure to be a can’t miss race!
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With the “regular season” of the 2011 NHRA tour in the books it was time for everyone to turn up the heat as the six race “playoffs” began at zMax Dragway near Charlotte, NC. The track referred to as the “Bellagio of drag strips” would treat us to a historically quick weekend!
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Baseball has the World Series, Football has the Super Bowl, when it comes to NHRA, the biggest race on the calendar is the prestigious US Nationals near Indianapolis. I am weeks behind on posting this blog due to an out of control work schedule so lets jump right in.
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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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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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Race two of the 60th anniversary season for the NHRA took us to warm and sunny Gainesville, Florida for one of the crown jewels of the tour, the Gatornationals. This is one of a handful of NHRA tracks I had never been to so I went into the weekend with no clue what I was going to do or how I would do it. On to the races!
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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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