I spent Sunday afternoon at Eastside Speedway, covering the Southern Outlaw Top Sportsman race for East Coast Drag News. (My photos will appear online within a couple days and in the next issue of the magazine. Update: The story is now online, here.) After three days of sensory overload at Look 3, the Festival of the Photograph, it was something of a relief to be making images, rather than thinking and talking about them and looking at, I'm guessing, literally thousands.
Eastside is more or less my home track, and it was great to be back. Besides the Top Sportsman race, the track was running its regular series, so I caught up with a lot of friends. When I wasn't photographing the Top Sportsman racers, I was hanging out with the bikers. Some of the results are below.
Click directly on any of these photos to see larger versions.
That's a burnout. It's performed to clean and heat the rear tire. The cleaner and hotter the tire, the better it grips the track surface and the quicker the motorcycle accelerates.
That's Kim Dunham leaving the starting line.
Karen Childress in the near lane.
Kim Dunham having reached nearly 100 mph in about 4 seconds. And she's still about 100 yards from the finish line. It's a thrill. Every racer I know will tell you that it's addictive.
There is something totally addictive to riding a motorcycle. It's such an awesome sport that gives you a certain sense of freedom.
Posted by: Ajlouny | 18 August 2009 at 10:02 PM