After weighing all my options and taking into consideration that I was feeling burnt out on the gig after 14 seasons not to mention that I had no idea how to come up with the money needed to make a commitment I decided to resign from writing the column. This left me in a unique situation in that I'll be paying for pit passes for the first time since 1999. My math went something like this. I consider an adequate number of races to do the column justice and keep my finger on the pulse of the sport at around 30. On average figuring gas and meals attending races at even the closets tracks costs around $25 per night with the media passes. 30 races on a media pass x $25 per night for gas and hot dogs comes to $750 on the season. That's just a ballpark number based on two tracks that are less than 45 minutes from home. I figured that I could pay at the gate to attend 6 of my favorite big shows for less than it would cost to attend 30 races for publication and in the process free up 24 weekend nights to do other things besides racing. Even the most expensive pit pass at say a WoO race or USA Nationals would be about $40, add on the $20 for gas and food and I'm at around $60. A half a dozen of my favorite shows x $60 comes to approximately $360 with no deadlines or obligations. That 6 shows isn't etched in stone and might vary according to circumstances or future developments. I'll discuss an idea I have been mulling around in my head at the end of this article. If you're a racer or involved in a racing team make sure you check out the last item I talk about in this blog post.
I just paid to have the gotomn.com website renewed for another year. The domain costs approximately $36 per year, it was registered through my old ISP in the pre GoDaddy days so I'm paying 4x today's going rate but it's easier to manage that way. My hosting space costs approximately $100 per year so when all is said and done I've got about $140 per year tied up in the website. My wife has a site that piggy backs on my account too so we're going to leave the sites up and running indefinitely. The first thing you'll see on the site since I abandoned my MRC reporter status will be the annual GRP Trivia Contest and I'm looking forward to having a part in that. I did purchase a ticket to the UMSS banquet so that's my plan next weekend to attend the banquet.
So I'm going into the 2013 racing season with no writing gig, no obligations and more website space than I know what to do with. I've got this blog, I've still got two camera bodies in working order that with a little care should tide me over until I can upgrade. I still like taking photos of race cars and attending races, I'm just not interested in doing it every damn weekend all summer long and sitting here all day on Sunday sending out photos and dealing with writers block trying to beat a deadline. Another thing about writing that I never liked is having to sugar coat things because I'm the recipient of a media pass. I have been to plenty of shows that sucked big time but I had to restrain myself when I wrote about them so as not to cause problems for the publications I was representing or risk losing my media pass for saying the wrong thing. Now that I'm paying my way I can skip the weekly shows I attended for the papers that were a drain on my budget and just hit my favorite specials. My son Les and I like to take a couple of road trips to see some different tracks so that option will be open to me now that I don't have to worry about a media pass. A little background, I always stuck to the principle that if the papers were asking me to fulfill my writing and photo obligations they had to keep up their end of the bargain and get me into the track. All of my arrangements were always made through the papers and not my doing. Now with that out of the way I can go anywhere I want and write anything I want as much or as little as I want without any obligations. I don't have to play nice, if something sucks I'll take off the kid gloves and say so.
I'll still take photos but I doubt that I'll spend the entire night in the infield. I'll buy a pit pass and shoot hot laps, time trials if applicable and probably some Heat race action before heading to the stands. I'll have the option of seeing some Features from the stands and taking shots like the one below. I might run down and shoot Victory Lane if I feel like it but I can take it or leave it. Some nights I might feel like spending the whole night shooting, others I won't. It will depend on the weather, dust conditions, how exciting the Feature looks like it's going to be and how ambitious I am on any given day.
Most photographers seem to only be in it for one thing, the money. Oh, I'm sure they enjoy the sport and like to watch some racing but bottom line, they're out there to hawk event photos and hero cards. I'm not saying that's a bad thing because somebody has to do it but I got stuck in the rut of spending the entire night taking pics from the infield without the benefit of the sales. I could have gone in a different direction and pushed the sales end of it but that's a lot like the writing, too much work for a lazy guy like me.
I enjoy getting to the tracks early and taking pit photos like this one so that is something I'll continue to do when I attend a race. Most of the photographers who are in it for the money would balk at doing something like this but I consider it an essential part of the racing experience. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
This shot is of Shannon Babb taken at the Gopher 50 back in 2001 when it was still being held at Owatonna. The Late Models lined up in the infield for their qualifying runs and the drivers got of their cars and was a pretty casual setting. I struck up a conversation with Babb and when it came time for him to get in his car I asked if I could take a pic. Needless to say this kind of experience is one of the things I will always treasure about having been involved in the sport. You don't get this kind of interaction with the competitors when you're sitting up in the stands. I have been a Shannon Babb fan ever since this day and this type of experience has happened many times over during the past 14 seasons.
So here are my plans for my website and what you can expect to see on there going into the 2013 season. I think the first thing you're going to notice is that I'll be a happier more relaxed person and I think that I'll enjoy the races more and you'll notice it in my posts. I don't handle obligations and expectations during my days off very well and truth be told I came to resent all the work these past few years. Give me a summer full of fun nights at the track with a little beer drinking and travel to some new places and I expect that I'll get some of the passion back. Give me a summer full of obligations and "Stan could you do this and Stan could you do that" freebee volunteer demands and I think most people would agree that isn't a fun way to spend their weekends. I won't bill my 2013 racing season as a "tour" because I think that's presumptuous but I expect to have a fun time doing what I enjoy at my own pace. Which shows I attend is going to depend on photo access now that I don't represent any publications (with the exception of Flat Out but more on that later). So far I've got the following shows and events on my schedule: WoO Elko (tentative), CLS WoO, final night of the USA Nationals, the Triple and the Jerry Richert Sr. Memorial. SCVR the Kouba Memorial and their IRA race and the Back to the 50's car show. I'm not much of a bleacher creature, I'd lose interest if I had to spend all my time in the stands so I have to do something to document what I'm seeing. I have said many times that I don't do this to draw attention to myself or as a reason for boasting. I'm a hobbyist with a variety of interests. I created my website as an outlet for my creativity and the racing just kind of caught on and took off back in the late 90's. I'm not good enough at any of this stuff to make much of a living at it but it would be a waste of time doing any of these hobbies if I kept them in my closet and nobody ever saw this stuff. Some of you will like it, some of you won't but regardless of what you think I can't help myself. I have to put it out there.
I mentioned photo access and that is going to be a big deal. Some tracks don't seem to care and pretty much anybody who shells out money for a pit pass can bring a camera down to the infield and take some shots. As illustrated by the 15 car CLS night shot posted above I could still do a decent job documenting races from the stands if necessary. The single car shot of the #59 was also taken from the stands at Elko which offers some nice angles for a brief time before sundown. If a person has the right lenses, a stout flash, and knows what they're doing they can get magazine quality photos from the stands at just about any track. I know my angles pretty good so I wouldn't have a problem getting shots from different angles. Actually I really enjoy taking these "think outside the box" type of shots. It challenges my imagination and skills more than standing down in the middle of the track banging side shots all night.
Since we're on the subject of the gotomn.com site I'll give you some stats and a little background on what I'd like to accomplish with it. As mentioned, I'll post photo galleries and do some writing in this blog. In it's heyday the site got around 30,000 hits per month during the season but on account of my lack of promotion in recent years and sites like Facebook and Twitter pulling web traffic that number is now more like 12,000 per month. In spite of the drop in hits the amount of traffic visting my site still brings up an interesting point. I have never gotten a media pass based on my website but I never could think of a good reason why I shouldn't. The advantage of my site is name recognition, people have had gotomn.com bookmarked since 1999 and name recognition is something that's hard for new sites to capture. What promoter wouldn't salivate at the prospect of 12,000 people in the stands? To take it a step further, I'll bet that the 12,000 people checking out my site is probably more than the circulation of some of the publications I have contributed to. I once heard some numbers floated around in the 5,000 to 6,000 range for one of the papers. In other words, the tracks allowed me a pass based on my contributions to papers that have a circulation less than the 30,000 people visiting my website. I'm not lobbying for media passes, just saying that today's electronic media is capable of reaching a larger world wide following than any localized print publication. Anyways, I won't chase media passes anymore but if a track ever offered to let me in on the basis of my website I'd be a fool to turn them down but that won't ever happen. It would be nice to find a way to up my number of races from 6 to 12 or even 18 but I draw the line at taking on a part time job nights and weekends to fund my racing interests.
So what can I offer to you on this blog? Well, I think it's already apparent that I can take a decent photo. There are a few other things that I can add to the blog in addition to photos when the mood hits me. For example I can do graphic designs when I put my mind to it. I never chased the Hero Card business but I think my graphics are adequate considering what I have to work with.
The thing that would take my graphics to the next level is unfortunately prevented by the same obstacle that has tied my hands behind my back in just about everything I have ever done. A lack of money to purchase the necessary resources to make my work easier and better. Let me make this clear, I have no desire to chase graphics business but every now and then I get the bug to design something. The above example is something I put together a couple years ago. What I mean by money elevating my graphics is that the guys (and gals) who do the cards purchase graphics CDs with skins, flames, fonts, etc., made specifically for that purpose. I can't afford the CD's, the cost around $300 and the CDs are specialized so that one might have flames, another backgrounds, etc., so that a person might has to buy three or four of them. When I do the designs I'm kind of like someone who cooks a simple meal from scratch, first I have to design the flames before I can even begin to use them on a graphic. Doing graphics from scratch is time consuming and graphics sales are all about putting a large amount of work out as fast as possible. Another thing they use is the industry standard Adobe Photoshop but that program retails for over $1,000 so I use low priced substitutes because that's all I can afford. I like doing graphics for fun so one of the things I might occasionally do is computer wallpaper that incorporate my photos and graphics.
I enjoy car shows and that will be something else I'll feature on this blog. On a typical weekend a person could attend several car shows, many of them close to home and free of charge. I plan on taking advantage of that opportunity more often.
As a former catapult crewman on the USS Franklin D Roosevelt 1972 Med
cruise I enjoy aviation and have a keen interest in Navy jets from the
Vietnam era. I would like to shoot some air shows with my 500mm lens so
that's on my list as well.
Most of you probably don't realize this but I enjoy cartooning but don't have the time to devote to it. I've got a Wacom tablet connected to my computer and created this icon with it. That's something I haven't had time to pursue on account of being so busy with racing. Maybe we'll do something with that as well.
My daughter Jennifer inherited my eye for drawing which I in turn got from my grandpa on my dad's side. Here's an example one of Jen's pencil drawings that she did back in the early 90's. Jen and I need to plan some time to make some photo trips so that we can compare notes on our artwork. Jen is a blogger and you if you visit her blog her design, writing and photography skills jump out at you. Her blog can be found at: http://www.zimmerscope.com/
Here's a sample of a flower pic I took. I love taking flower shots with a fast lens so I can get the blur in the background and the subject tack sharp. Jen and I need to get out on some photo trips where we drive around looking for neat subjects to photograph. A trip to the Como Park Conservatory would be fun.
Another thing I'm interested in pursuing more is video. Not as a business but I've got a video camera that shoots in HD and would make for some nice clips to post on this blog. Follow this link to see an example of the resolution, sound and color balance that my camera is capable of: http://youtu.be/1125peRFc9k
One more interest I should mention before we move onto talking a little more about racing is music. I played electric guitar in a garage band in the late 60's then switched to acoustic for about forty years and a couple years ago got back into the electric. I was way behind the curve on lead guitar and timing but am finally starting to get up-to-speed on lead guitar. It's a work in progress but certainly something I'd like to pursue more now that I've got a little more time on my hands. Here's something I put together yesterday. I played all of the parts on the bass, rhythm and lead guitars. The drum track is the only instrument I didn't play, that was taken from the drum machine in my multi effects pedal. http://www.gotomn.com/misc-temp/Sack%20the%20Pack%20SF%202013.mp3
Don't laugh at my tunes. It's harder than you think. After practicing the electric for a couple of years I have a lot more respect for musicians. I've got my eye on a new guitar which should improve my playing. Right now I'm playing used cheapo guitars so I want to upgrade this spring. That's one of the things I had been putting on the back burner so I could chase races but now it's time to upgrade.
So to wrap up this post I'll recap my plans for the season. Take photos, take some video clips, write about the events I attend in this blog. Do a little work with my website including the links and the history section. Have fun. I should probably make it clear that I have not burned any bridges with the Midwest Racing Connection or Flat Out magazine. You might still see an occasional photo of mine in MRC and who knows, in a few years I might be getting down on my knees begging to get my writing gig back. I have floated a few ideas for articles to Flat Out so who knows, I might still be doing an occasional story for them. At this point I'd say that anything I do will probably be more in the history category than current racing.
Finally I want to present an idea that I have been entertaining for several years. This idea could specifically benefit racing teams who want to obtain content for sponsors and websites. As we have discussed already my skill set includes photography, writing, video, graphics, and podcasting. You might recall that I did interviews for Dirtcast and my own site that was called Midwest Racing Talk. Specifically I was doing the UMSS show for the 2010 season so that's why I mentioned podcasting. My idea is to combine these skills to produce media content for racing teams. Basically how it would work is that I would attend a night of racing and follow your racing team kind of like an "imbedded reporter". In other words I would concentrate my efforts on taking action photos and video clips of your car, package it up with whatever type of story or captions you want and you could use it as you see fit on your team's website and Facebook page. It's a long racing season so that might be a way for me to add a few races and come in closer to a dozen. There are plenty of photographers, writers and video guys out there but they focus on all of the competitors whereas I would concentrate specifically on your racing team. Imagine getting a CD of every photo and video I took of your car including pit shots and on track action along with a writeup and interview clips to use as you please. It seems like a neat idea and I will be free to do something like that so I'm going to keep thinking about it and see what I can come up with.
See you at the races!
