It's been over a year since I posted something new on this blog. In blogging terms, that's a very long time. The problem is not what I've been doing, although my day job has its stresses and strains. No, the problem is what I haven't been doing.
My cameras and I haven't been having fun hanging out in the odd nooks and crannies of American car culture. For instance, in 2012, I barely got to a racetrack at all, let alone any of the many other places that gearheads gather.
This year, I've decided, that's going to change. I'm not getting younger, and life isn't getting longer. Or easier. So, last Saturday, I headed down to Virginia International Raceway [VIR] for the ChumpCar World Series endurance race. And, yes, it was fun.
ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013. (Click on any image to see a larger version.)
ChumpCar isn't the best known racing series in the US, but it sure enough qualifies as one of the odd nooks and crannies of car culture. The point is pretty straightforward: build a car (or truck!) that's fast, safe, and durable enough to compete in races that last anywhere from 5 to 36 hours. And, oh, one more thing. Make sure that the vehicle isn't worth more than 500 bucks (safety equipment and tires are excepted).
The result is a series that requires passion, mechanical skill and creativity (lots), a good sense of humor, and relatively little money. (Truth be told, there's no such thing as relatively little money in racing. But racers go broke slower here than elsewhere.)
Sanford and Son (that's the truck). ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
Sanford and Son, a '60s era GMC pickup truck, is a good example of ChumpCar's virtues. It's a surprisingly well sorted racing machine. Big, heavy, and with a center of gravity higher than the roof of most of the other vehicles on the track, it still managed to record lap times that put it among the front runners. (That is, when it was on the track. It spent a little too much time in the pits.)
USS Enterprise. ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
The same team that put Sanford and Son on the track was racing the USS Enterprise, which started life as a late '60s or early '70s Ford LTD (with a roof, which has mysteriously disappeared).
The idea of running something like this in a sports car endurance race is patently absurd, which is probably why the team wanted to do it. And they did it very well. This damn thing ran the fastest laps of the event. It's a serious race car, despite its looks and its low budget. Alas, like Sanford and Son, it was in the pits way too often.
Bryan Settle takes the USS Enterprise for a spin. ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
If these photos look a little funny to you, you're right, they're wrong. I shot them with my iPhone.
Shooting motorsports with an iPhone is a pretty stupid thing to do, so I figured it was just right for a ChumpCar race.
USS Enterprise headed in the right direction again. ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
Stupid, but also fun. With enough luck and big enough crops, you can make something that looks reasonably like racing photography (or would to a drunken one-eyed sailor).
Of course, the point of iPhone photography isn't to make pictures that look like they came from a Nikon D4. It's to make something that you can post immediately on Twitter and Instagram. And to do something that's blissfully unencumbered by the thought process, as the philosophers Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers would put it.
MR2 Biohazard in front. ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
The best racing action of the day came during the last half hour or so, when MR2 Biohazard (above) and the USS Enterprise put on a heck of a show, slicing and dicing with each other while working their way through heavy traffic. The Enterprise had the advantage in a straight line; Biohazard loved the twisty bits. In the end, Biohazard prevailed. A bunch of folks sitting in the bleachers near the Oak Tree turn were hugely entertained. (I was one of them.)
ChumpCar at VIR, 30 March 2013.
I didn't go to VIR carrying only my iPhone, of course. Fun comes in many varieties, some of which involve very long lenses. More, different, and possibly better pictures are coming later this week.
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Great post. Nice pictures! I could have done with less apologies about your iPhone pictures, though. They fit the occasion ust fine.
Just put it out there in the way that you celebrated it at the track! That's enough. Good reporting!
All best wishes from The Woods
Posted by: Cameron | 03/31/2013 at 10:59 PM