So I'm gearin' up for the USA Nationals without the luxury of a campsite. I've got a writing deadline on Sunday so it's probably not a good idea to be up all Saturday night and then try to process photos and write a column. There are certain big weekends in my annual racing schedule that deserve special attention and the USA Nationals is one of the biggest. If somebody offers me a place in their camper to crash I might stay out there Friday night. We'll see what happens on Friday but Saturday is out of the question. I've got Thursday and Friday off work so I'll figure something out. It's a win win deal, if I find a place to spend the night on Friday I win and if I drive home I'll have a chance to work on my photos. Either way is fine with me, I don't mind sleeping in my own air conditioned bedroom.
Who do you think will win the USA Nationals? I'd have to go with Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Mars or Brady Smith. Those are the three that I think have the best chance of winning this weekend. I haven't paid much attention to who's coming up here and there are a lot of Late Model drivers I'm not familiar with. I'll have to defer to a statistician like GRP to verify how many different Late Model drivers I've seen at Cedar Lake during the past decade but I'm sure there are a lot of them. I never paid much attention to the Late Models before I started writing for MRC. I'd bring the kids out to CLS to watch them sometimes but mostly we went to Sprint shows. When I got into the website, writing and photography I came to appreciate them a lot more. Now I start having withdrawal pains if I go more than a week without seeing the Late Models. It's funny how things come around isn't it. Am I mellowing with age or just a closet four wide fanatic?
Mostly I like watching the guys I see week in and week out so I'm happy to see they've got a full program of the Nascar Late Models. I've gotten to know a lot of those guys during the past ten years so that makes it even more enjoyable. Weekly shows at Cedar Lake are a lot of fun so I try to get to as many as possible each season. It's a great bunch of people and sometimes I even regret occasionally heading to other destinations for special events. But I have to remind myself that variety is the spice of life and that I cut my racing teeth in the grandstand of a big ol' half mile and enjoy the quarter mile bullrings. This year included asphalt Midgets at La Crosse so I got a taste of some different types of racing. We even saw indoor Midgets and that's going to be something that's going to get bigger every year.
Les and I went to the Arlington Raceway last Saturday night for the IRA Sprint special. Here are a few samples of some of my photos.
Arlington is a tough place to shoot. They've got a darker color of dirt than I'm used to up here north of the Cities and east into western Wisconsin. It's not as black as the surface down in Jackson, Husets or Knoxville but it's darker than places like Cedar Lake or Princeton. Every track has different lighting and angles, taking racing photos is a moving target, that's for sure. I was please with the results from Arlington but a little disappointed with my percentage of "keepers".
This week I'll be back on familiar turf at the USA Nationals. It's going to be more crowded than usual so that makes it a little tougher getting around the grounds and getting in position to take a photo. Not only for the outside the track stuff in the grandstand and tiered parking but there are usually a lot of visiting photographers as well. Not only do you find people standing where you usually do every other weekend but somebody done planted their *ss in your folding chair while you were taking pictures. There's just more people to deal with, great for the track but it's more of a challenge for the photographer. We adapt. I've got some ideas that I'm anxious to try out. Watch my photo gallery for the results.
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