John Edwin Mason: Racing Photography

An iPhone at the Races: Trans Am at VIR

The first time I shot a race with an iPhone, it was a stunt.  I just wanted to show that it can be done (for instance).  Since then, I shoot with an iPhone every time I go to the track.  I like the results.

More often than not, however, the tracks that I go to are dragstrips where you can get very close to the action if you've got media credentials.  Road  courses are different beasts altogether.  Even with credentials, you often can't get particularly close to the cars on the track.

 

Trans Am cars racing through the Roller Coaster down to the Hog Pen.  Virginia International Raceway, 29 September 2013.  [Click on the photo to see a larger version.]

I spent part of the weekend watching the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association races at Virginia International Raceway [VIR].  VIR is one of my favorite tracks, in part because it's beautiful and the people who work their are great.  To be honest, I also like it because you can get reasonably close to the action, even without credentials.  "Reasonably close" doesn't mean dragstrip close, but it doesn't mean far away either.

I like the photo above a lot.  It's from Sunday's Trans Am race that was held in conjunction with the vintage events.  I'm always impressed with what the iPhone can do -- even my obsolete iPhone 4.  (I cropped it and adjusted levels in Photoshop.)

Later this week, I'll post more iPhone images from both the Trans Am and vintage races.

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An iPhone at the Races: The ADRL's Dragstock X, 6-8 September 2013

Woodstock for rednecks.

That's the way that I used to describe Dragstock to anyone who wanted to know.  As long as you understand "redneck" isn't about skin color -- there are plenty of black rednecks at drag strips all over the South and Midwest -- and that "drag" refers to racing, the description fits pretty well.  Dragstock, in its glory days, was a carnival of speed and of the kind of wild and woolly behavior that's generally associated with rock festivals and juke joints.

But Dragstock fell on hard times.  Although the racing was still strong, the feel of the event was one that's generally associated with funeral parlors.  New management had taken over, and it didn't have a clue.

One of the reasons I was so eager to drive down to North Carolina's Rockingham Dragway, last weekend, is that I knew that Kenny Nowling was back the helm of the American Drag Racing League [ADRL].  He had worked a kind of magic once before -- making the ADRL a real presence on the racing scene and creating the Dragstock of yore.  Could he do it again?

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The short answer is "almost."

Kenny, his wife, Jessica, and the ADRL's crew, with a big helping hand from Steve Earwood and the other fine folks at "the Rock," have definitely brought Dragstock back to life.  Especially on Saturday, the event was within shouting distance of its old self.  The crowd was good.  The racing was great.  But the buzz, craziness, and sheer spectacle hadn't quite returned.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.  [Click directly on any photo to see a larger version.]

Now before I go any further, let me say that it was a terrific race -- you can read all about it over on Drag Racing Online and CompetitionPlus -- and I had a lot of fun.  As you know if you've read this blog even once, there are few things that I enjoy more than wandering around a race track with cameras in my hand.  I like the people, the cars, the smells, the smoke, and the noise.  American car culture and people who love it make me happy.  They're also wonderful subjects for photography.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Last weekend, I was working with three different cameras -- a Rollei TLR, my life-long favorite, a Holga Panoramic, and my iPhone.  (It was my first outing with the Holga.  God willing, I'll post some of the photos that I made with it within a few days.)  The Rollei and the Holga are film cameras, of course, so I'll have to wait until I get my negatives back from the lab in order to know what I got.  (No, I'm not going to develop 14 rolls of medium format color film at home.)

The iPhone, on the other hand, is all about immediate gratification, and iPhoneography is what you're looking at here.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Back to the race.

So, I had a good time, and I can affirm that, on Saturday, the fans did, too.  (I missed Friday's action.)  Saturday was devoted to qualifying, which meant that all the cars at the track were running.  The racing was almost continuous, and it was hugely entertaining.  The cars -- Pro Mods -- are absurdly fast, capable of accelerating over 200 miles per hour in less than four seconds.  That's the same amount of time it takes a Ferrari to reach 60 miles per hour.  It's nuts.  And, when you see it in person, it seems to defy the laws of physics.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The cars are grouped in classes according to the size and type of their engines.  Within classes, the competition is stiff.  To top it off, they look like cartoon versions of street cars.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

With all this going for it, why was I saying that Dragstock hadn't quite reclaimed its former glory?

Because a good drag race is as much a circus as it is a motor sport, and Dragstock's ringmaster didn't have quite enough to work with.  (What I'm going to say from here on out is like complaining that you didn't get an A+ when you got an A-.  So take it with a grain of salt.)

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Drag racing's big problem is that the action isn't continuous, especially after qualifying.  There's a lot of unavoidable downtime -- between classes and between rounds, during the scheduled track preparation and inevitable oil-downs, which stop the racing dead until the spills can be cleaned up.  Race promoters and track owners try to fill the holes in the action with things that sustain (or generate) excitement -- beauty queens, give-aways, contests, rock bands, jet cars, wheelstanders... Whatever it takes.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 8 September 2013.

Fans expect it.  In fact, most of them have come out to the track as much for the spectacle as for the racing.

Frankly, nobody cares who wins a drag race.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

Ok, that's probably not 100% accurate.  The drivers care, and so do their families and crews.

But fans don't care.  If they did, they'd show up on Sundays, when the winners are determined, instead of Fridays and Saturdays, when racers merely qualify for the event.  Fans aren't stupid, however.  They know that there's much more action during qualifying than eliminations.

Besides, it's hard to care about winners and losers if you don't know the first thing about the men and women driving the cars.  Brandon Snider was the Pro Extreme (fastest class) winner at Dragstock.  I bet that there weren't a dozen people in the stands who would have recognized him if he sat down next to them.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.  [Remember, you can click on any photo to see a larger version.]

So, Dragstock, like all drag races, depends on more than good on-track action to keep the adrenaline flowing.  It also needs spectacle, the sense that there's always something exciting going on.

In the good old days it had precisely that.  It was a three-ring circus of continuous action that made Dragstock the only place that you wanted to be.  (The sheer size of the crowd and cheap beer also played a role.)

Without pretty girls, jet cars, tee-shirt bazookas, rock bands, product give-aways, and the like, last weekend's Dragstock X was a fine and enjoyable drag race.  But wasn't Woodstock for rednecks.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

I'm not saying anything that Kenny and Co. don't already know.  They understand that a drag racing promoter's role model is P.T. Barnum.

Trouble is, circuses cost money.  And money is tight everywhere.

 

ADRL Dragstock X, Rockingham Dragway, 7 September 2013.

The recession has prompted sponsors to pull back.  It's affected every motor sport, even Nascar.  Drag racing, which has been a niche sport since the 1970s, has been especially hard hit.

It's probably too much to expect Dragstock to return to its glory days.  After all, how many rock festivals have matched Woodstock?

So, yes, I'm disappointed that things weren't as wild and woolly as I'd hoped they'd be.  (Circuses are fun to photograph.)  But I also know that there's nothing wrong with three days of hard, fast, competitive drag racing.  The crowded grandstands at the Rock on Saturday tell me that thousands of fans see things that way, too.

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An iPhone at the Races: The ADRL at Virginia Motorsports Park, 8-9 June 2013

It doesn't take much to make me happy.  Give me some loud, fast cars and a camera to shoot them with, and I won't complain about anything for the rest of the day.

Lately, my favorite cameras have been my Rollei TLR and my iPhone -- the old and the new.  Neither one is the first piece of equipment that most people would choose for shooting motorsports.  And that's exactly why using them is so much fun.

I had both cameras with me when I drove down to Virginia Motorsports Park to spend a day at the ADRL's [American Drag Racing League] U.S. Drags VI.

 

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

You're looking at my iPhone photos, here.  In a few days, I'll be posting some of the photos that I made with the Rollei.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

This isn't a race report, by the way.  It's simply my impressions of a day at the races.  If you want to know who won and who lost, check out one of these excellent websites:  Drag Racing Online or CompetitionPlus.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

I've been photographing ADRL races off and on for the last several years.  It's always a good time.  The cars -- Pro Mods -- are cool and astonishingly fast.  The racers are friendly.  And the ADRL's crew -- headed by Kenny and Jessica Nowling -- always make you feel at home.  That's Kenny on the left in the photo above.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

Yep.  It takes a big crew to race one of these cars.  Old joke...  Q: How do you make a small fortune in auto racing?  A: Start with a large fortune.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

That's racer Isaias Rojas proudly flying the Puerto Rican flag.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013. 

By the way, you can click directly on any of these photos to see larger versions.  This one definitely works better big.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

 

Virginia Motorsports Park, 9 June 2013.

The ADRL's next race -- the Summer Drags IX, at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, in Martin. Michigan -- is coming up in a couple of weeks.  You can find the schedule, here.

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VWs Gone Wild: Bug Out 73 at Virginia Motorsports Park, Part 1

I made a couple of promises to myself last January.  First, I swore to have more fun hanging out at racetracks making pictures.  Second, I was going to blog on a regular basis.  I'm batting .500.

I'm not complaining.  I haven't been blogging, but I've sure enough been hanging.  Hanging out, that is, at race tracks and other car culture gathering spots with cameras in my hands and around my neck.  Makes me happy.

 

Mike Norris and Michelle Laird's super groovy '65 Westy Dormobile.

What you're seeing here are some photos I made at the end of May at Bug Out 73, which, for the first time, was held at Virginia Motorsports Park [VMP].  Bug Outs are one of the largest gatherings of VW fans, racers, restorers, customizers, and collectors on the east coast.  They've been held twice a year for God-knows-how-long, usually at Old Dominion Speedway, in Manassas, Virginia.

But Old Dominion is no more.  Hence the move to VMP.

 

Stewart Sewell's lovingly restored '56 oval window Beetle.

In any case, VW fanatics are a great bunch of people to spend time with, especially if, like me, 8 out of the 12 cars and trucks you've owned have been Volkswagens.   (Four have been Beetles, and I still have have one of them.)

 

Kenneth Fisher's bad to the bone Pro Mod New Beetle.

The idea of drag racing VWs surprises some people, but, after all, this is America, and we'll race anything.

 

A very good looking drag Bug.

VW fans are a diverse group.  The crowd at Bug Out was a grease-stained United Nations.  As far as I could tell, we weren't missing any races or ethnic groups and only a few languages, creeds, and religions.  Nice thing about it, we all get along.

 

Yes, drag racing Karmann Ghias.  Praise the Lord.

I made the photos that you're looking at on my iPhone.  (Click on any image to see a larger version.)  The iPhone is a hoot to use, and it allowed me to post some of the photos immediately to my Instagram account.  I also tweeted a few.  It's a way of saying to your friends, "having fun, wish you were here" -- immediately, in real time.

 

There's a blown Chevy small block in that Beetle.  It's a beast to drive.

The iPhone is a hoot and connects me to the world of social media, but, of course, it has its limits as a camera.  I was also using a couple of medium format film cameras, a Rollei TLR and a Mamiya 6.  I've finished scanning the film.  With a little luck, I'll post those photos very soon.

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Bunny Burkett: The 48th Annual Easter Sunday Funny Car Show, Eastside Speedway, 2013

For the last 48 years, the good folks at Eastside Speedway, in Waynesboro, Virginia, have celebrated Easter Sunday with a carnival of tire smoke and speed.  And for most of those years, Bunny Burkett  -- the legendary Bunny Burkett -- has been the main attraction.

Bunny has been drag racing since the mid-'60s.  She was a true pioneer, competing head-to-head agains the men and, by beating them as often as not, blazing a trail that a surprising number of women have followed.  Besides being one of the earliest great female race car drivers, she was the very first to win a Funny Car world championship (IHRA, 1986).  Within the racing community in this part of the world, she's a true folk hero.  (Or, more properly, folk heroine.  But that doesn't sound right to my ears.)

 

Bunny Burkett and her Funny Car, Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.  [All images copyright John Edwin Mason, 2013.  Click on any photo to see a larger version.]

This year's Easter Sunday show was postponed due to rain, so the actual race took place a week later.  That cut down on the size of the crowds, but Bunny and the other Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds were as loud, fast, and entertaining as always.

 

Bunny Burkett inspects her machine.  Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.

I try to make it over to the Easter Sunday show every year.  (Here's my report and photos from 2011.)  I missed last year's race, so it was especially great to get back last weekend and to reconnect with racing friends after what seemed to be a long, cold, and gloomy off-season. 

 

Bunny's teammate, Lil' Bear (Gary Aaron Pritchett) backs his Funny Car past the grandstands after a burnout.  Eastside Speedway, 7 April 3013.

It was also good to be back at work on my on-going, multi-year, probably never-to-be-completed project documenting the odder ins and outs of American car culture.  I barely got to a single event, in 2012, and, as a result, had a miserable summer.  Don't ask me to explain, but I'm rarely happier than when I'm walking around a racetrack with a camera in my hand.

For 2013, so far, so good.  It's only mid-April, and I've been to two races already (with, God willing, many more, in many places to go).

 

Fans.  Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.

Last Sunday, I didn't exactly have a camera in my hands.  Or, rather, I did, but it was a camera, music player, audio recorder, tweeting, emailing, and internet surfing device, all in one.  My iPhone.

I had a couple of "real" cameras with me, but I wanted to make a few iPhone pics so that I could annoy amuse my friends by posting them in real time on Twitter and Instagram.  Once I got into the flow with the iPhone, however, I never had the urge to put it down.

 

Larry Bowles performs a burnout in his Super Pro car.  Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.

There was more to the racing last Sunday than Bunny, of course.  Several other Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds were on hand, and well over 100 local racers showed up to compete in the Super Pro, Footbrake, Trophy Street, and Motorcycle classes.  They all added to the fun.  That's my friend Larry Bowles above.  Or, at least, that's his car.

 

Graphic on Bunny's Funny Car.  Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.

But for me (and for a bunch of other folks, I'd bet), the day was really all about Bunny.

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