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 NHRA circuit down to just three races remaining, the Arizona Nationals near Phoenix would make our break the championship hopes of several professional drivers. While temperatures would exceed 100 degrees all weekend at Firebird International Raceway making for a miserable time shooting and getting down the track for drivers, it was still 20 minutes from my place so I would get to sleep in my own bed every night.
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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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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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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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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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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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