Spec Racer Ford 25th Anniversary Celebration
April 9th and 10th was the Spec Racer Ford 25th Anniversary Celebration at Road Atlanta. I was at Road Atlanta as a Contributing Photographer for SportsCar Magazine, the Official Magazine of the SCCA.
I set out to photograph the day’s events with many concepts and themes in mind to help give shape to the magazine’s coverage of the event.
Here Comes Trouble
What do seventy-three of the closest racing, most competitive cars in Road Racing look like charging towards a green flag?
Featured in SportsCar February 2010
My coverage of the American Road Race of Champions has finally hit the cover and contents of SportsCar Magazine’s February 2010 issue. For the first time, the ARRC has earned the cover of the magazine.
After the Rain….Sun!
After Friday night’s weather, the skies cleared beautifully for the weekend. I felt lucky to have this type of weather for the 2008 American Road Race of Champions.
The scheduling for the ARRC helps create some improved photographic opportunities versus most races during the season. With the sun coming up later, and going down earlier, combined with nearly a full day of racing means the cars are on track during the best light of the day, the early morning and late afternoon.
The two photographs show the front straight and turn one in the early morning light, followed by the late afternoon light.
Cover Photo!
One of my photos from the ARRC landed on the July 2008 cover of SportsCar Magazine (Official Publication of the Sports Car Club of America).
The July cover is the “Get Involved” feature, and my photograph of the #74 ITA Acura Integra of Willie Phee (Alpharetta, Georgia) is dead center on the cover as part of the composite image.
SCCA June Nationals
I’ve been attending SCCA races at Road Atlanta as early as the late 90′s, and photographing them for this website as early as 2005.
Over this time, the race groups have generally grown with some exceptions. However, it looks like the gas prices have definitely had their impact on the distance racers are willing to drive. With gasoline last weekend right at the $4 mark in Georgia (and Diesel much higher) the price of competition has gone up. (Race fuel has hit more than $8 a gallon for certain grades.)
However, competition stayed strong on race day despite the smaller groups. A smaller Spec Racer Ford group ran with the production cars and still had a great show.
Formula Enterprises also had it’s own show within the faster formula car race.
Back to my Roots – Motorsports
Shooting motorsports, and sports car road racing in particular, was my original entry to sports photography. I still photograph three to six motorsports events a year, especially at the club level right now.
My photos from this event, the American Road Race of Champions, will appear in the January edition of Sportscar Magazine (the official magazine of the Sports Car Club of America). They usually do a feature piece on the event – which means an opening two page double truck image is needed. I try and come up with something different than just a picture of two cars racing. Ideally, I like to show some interaction between the cars and the spectators. This photo was taken from near turn five at Road Atlanta.
I’m also aiming to incorporate some time of year and time of day information to the photographs. Here, you can see the turning leaves and shadows from the trees across the track.
Another take of a car with leaves. This was taken from the opposite side of turn five from the photo above. I think this also illustrates the amount of elevation change at Road Atlanta.
Another view of turn five – this time the exit from turn five uphill towards turn six. It’s amazing all of the views possible in this one area of track.
