The second race on the 2012 NHRA was my favorite stop on the circuit. Not because its a cool track or its a big race but because I get to sleep on my own bed every night. Lets get right to the action of a gorgeous weekend in the Arizona desert.
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After a long season coming for the NHRA tour it came down to the final race at the most historic track on the NHRA circuit in Pomona, CA. On top of the high number of professional cars it is always a great event to cover for the fact that the champions will be crowned in all classes. This is a long blog but I assure you its a good one!
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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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Race two of the three races on the Western Swing brought us to one of my favorite tracks on the NHRA circuit, Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. I usually have pretty good luck at this track so I was hoping to continue the streak this weekend.
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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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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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After shooting NASCAR and NHRA the previous month I was very excited to shoot the season opening race for the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS). Even more exciting though was the fact the race was taking place just 10 miles from my place. One of my favorite sports + a weekend in town = WINNING!
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A week earlier I was on the east coast covering NASCAR in Daytona, a few days later it was over to the west coast to shoot the season opening NHRA Winternationals. As everyone knows, drag racing is one of my favorite sports to shoot. With that in mind it was off to Pomona, CA motivated as hell to start off my 2011 NHRA season with some good shots!
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As most of you guys know I shoot several NASCAR races every year. 34 of the 36 races races take place on various oval tracks but two occur on road courses where the drivers have to make left and right turns. Thats where things get fun. On top of seeing top level drivers look like confused amateurs it also is great to shoot unique photos that you cant get at any other tracks.
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I have really been trying to make an effort to cover more NHRA this year so with nothing going on for the weekend I decided to make the trek up to Sonoma for the Fram Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway. I have been to this track several times to cover NASCAR but never for NHRA. I am very happy I went to the race because this is without a doubt one of my favorite tracks to shoot drag racing at.
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