Cal Club Pacific Coast Road Racing Championships - Buttonwillow Raceway 10-26-2013

This was a really cool event to see, not as fun as driving though, that is for sure.... We went up to watch a friend of ours race his classic MGB and enjoyed the nice day at the track. The event had less cars than expected because of other events, but there were still plenty of cars to see.



I decided to put this Tamron 70-300mm Di VC USD lens to the test and work on my panning technique. I had recently looked at some photos where the photographer did panning shots with the camera angled, so of course I had to try this.. The lens's vibration control was able to auto detect and handle the panning motion even when at an angle, pretty fancy...



I took a majority of my shots at 1/60 so a low percentage of my shots came out to my liking.. but the ones that did really made it worth it. Honestly, I really over did the angled panning.. so there is not much variety. A few more mistakes I made were shooting into the sun when I could have just shot elsewhere, and over exposing many of the images. These were not much of a problem though, I was able to clean most of it up with the View NX 2 software that came with my camera.





I am starting to learn to take a better look at "mistakes" as they can turn out to be quite interesting photos, like the one directly above. The front of the car was cut off, but by cropping the image, it really turned out quite interesting. Or like the black & white image above it, just by being lazy and removing color.. it solves a lot of lighting, color, and exposure problems after a few simple adjustments.



Shooting into the sun was quite difficult, but really I was impressed with how many of the photos came out. I am not exactly sure if it is the glass in this lens, the longer lens hood, personal improvement, or a combination of all three, but back in March at the Sonoma LeMons race, no shots I took into the sun were worth a damn..







Most importantly for me.. was that I had a great day with my girl, and a few friends, watching race cars do their thing while taking pictures to my heart's content.

The rest of the photos from the event that I uploaded can be found Here Enjoy!

San Diego SCCA Solos @ Qualcomm - 10/20/2013

So here is the deal, I went down to Qualcomm Stadium for a few hours on Sunday and watched the SCCA Solos. Sadly I have to admit it is not very exciting from a spectator point of view, but really, that is not the point. SCCA Solos are all about taking what ever car you have and pushing it and yourself to the limit. It really is that simple, but there is beauty to be found in this simplicity.



These are normal everyday people, bank tellers, grocery clerks, small business owners, engineers, mothers, fathers, husbands & wives, hell.. I am sure there is even a dentist in the mix. One thing they all have in common is the joy of driving.. but not just your every day trip to the store, really driving. I could hear them talking about each corner, discussing how to improve, how it felt, and all with a smile. These people, at least the ones I listened to, do it for themselves. Not to be cool or to compete.. just to enjoy that one minute alone with their car and improve.



The variety of vehicles driven at these events is quiet stellar. So if you just strait like cars, there are some interesting vehicles to see. You can also get a good idea of how they handle by asking the owner. Some of them will even offer you a chance to ride along with them, though I hear chances of getting a ride along are better on practice days.







Understandably, the most common car found at these events is the Mazda Miata. Relatively low cost, quick, and great handling. There are much "faster" higher cost vehicles out there that can't touch a properly driven Miata on a track, or in this case, a parking lot.





I personally did enjoy watching people drive their muscle cars around. Never driven trailer cars bug me to no end. Who cares if your ride is pristine, or has a motor built that put out 650HP readings on the dyno, if you don't drive it, it is just a pretty hunk of metal. This lot shows what cars are made for...



Wheel to wheel track racing is definitely more my thing and I can't see giving it up for solos, but I am for sure interested in bringing the Spitwad down to the Solos next year to have some fun. That is, if we don't destroy the hooptie first.



So if you have a car, no matter what it is, and always wanted to see what you could do with it, look into the SCCA solos. It is for sure a great place to get started really driving...

Barona Speedway - Season Ender 10/12/2013 (Tamron 70-300 USD VC)

Once again we grabbed the cooler, some beers, a couple sandwiches, the camera, and headed up to Barona Speedway for the last race of the season. A few more friends and my dad accompanied us, a great odd bunch we were. It was a bit cooler but man was the track tacky. All that grip lead to lots of exciting side-by-side, and often three-wide, door-to-door battles!



This time around, we went straight to the top of the main bleachers and found some seats with a great view for the night. I brought along with me my new Tamron 70-300 USD VC lens and figured it would be a good night to just get used to handling it. Physically larger and much heavier, I was not sure how my pictures would come out. Turns out I made a good purchase with this lens. The vibration control (Tamron's version of image stabilization) worked great hand held at 300mm while detecting, and graciously smoothing out, my spotty at best panning motion. The images are sharp with good contrast and in my not at all expert opinion, the focus is pretty damn fast, really an awesome lens for the price.





Gotta love this photo above of the #9 breast cancer research supporting team - I caught a second after the car's tire went flat..





Once again, it was really enjoyable watching the dwarf cars battle it out on this track. Man they look like fun! My pops even started talking to me about dropping out of LeMons and picking one of these up. The tracks are closer (this one only 35 mins away) we could run more races, and the cost is quite similar. I really love LeMons racing.. but I am giving it some serious thought.... maybe just maybe...



My new lens is nothing professional though.. so once it got dark.. things got difficult again. Still, I did manage to get a few good shots..



Was a great night, and I am bummed the season is over. There was one pretty bad wreck, thankfully again the driver was fine. Dirt track racing (verse other forms of auto racing) is really pretty safe.



In a few weeks we are heading up to Buttonwillow Raceway not to race but, to go see our friend Paul and many others race all sorts of road race cars. From classics to modern machines, it should be spectacular. I just hope we don't run into much traffic on the way up...

Here is a link to all the photos I uploaded from the night.. Enjoy!
Barona Speedway Photos 10-12-2013