And it begins…

It was only a couple months ago that my 2012 drag racing season came to a close. Yesterday, it cranked back up with the first test and tune of the year, held at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. Unfortunately, the turnout was weak, but it worked out well for my friend Josh, who made numerous passes in his turbo Maverick. The questionable weather, and the big race in Valdosta put a damper on the turnout, but it was a great chance to get out for the first time in a while. Check out my full gallery of pictures here: http://byrdphoto.smugmug.com/Cars/Brainerd/Brainerd-Opening-Day-2013

Best of 2012: Drag Racing

Alright, I’m running behind on this stuff, but here we go! My favorite drag racing photos of 2012!

Small block, stock suspension car doing its thing. Shot at the Bounty Race at I-40 Dragway.

Where I’ve Been

As if I don’t have anything better to do, I’m going to list off the places I’ve been in 2012, as a reminder of this super crazy year. Get ready…this is gonna take a while.

My kind of Black Friday!

Don’t worry, this post isn’t about shopping. It’s about my favorite color to shoot–black! I’ve heard a lot of photographers complain about black cars, but I thoroughly enjoy shooting them, especially when the conditions are right. Lighting has to be precise to get the right look, but when you nail it….good stuff happens.

Ernie Lankford’s ’55 Chevy sets the standard for the black-on-black-on-black look. FYI, it’s a big block, four-speed car.

Cool Videos

In addition to photography, I like to have video footage from many of the drag racing events I attend, so I’ve accumulated quite a collection over the past few years. My wife generally handles the video camera, but I’ve been toying with the video stuff on my Nikon D7000 camera, so I’ll occasionally get a good one and post it up. We have a YouTube channel with more than 430 videos, so there is enough stuff to keep you busy for a few minutes. Anyway, just figured I’d post up a couple of my favorite videos and drop a link to our YouTube Channel…check it out!

Taking a Break from Vacation

The past few months have been wall-to-wall action for me, including a very special weekend that should have been used as an anniversary trip. Instead, I worked all weekend at LS Fest, covering the event for Super Chevy magazine. Have I mentioned how much car stuff my wife puts up with? Anyway, she went to Bowling Green with me but it was by no means an anniversary trip. So, we decided to take the next available weekend and turn it into our little vacation. Somehow, I managed to squeeze a drag racing event into that vacation, too!

Robert Killian brought out his 2,000hp Model A (Uncle Jed) and made a few 7 second quarter mile passes.

Corvette Transformation

My entire childhood featured a revolving door of awesome cars. My dad bought, sold and traded a lot, so he always had a yard full of cars. And with his bodywork and paint skills, he started bringing in full on restorations and street rod builds. The Corvette I’m posting pictures of today is one of the most impressive transformations I’ve seen him perform.

The starting point–a completely butchered ’65 Corvette roadster.

Paradise Show and Go Fall 2012

I’m still trying to get caught up on all of my event coverages, and it didn’t help that I had a double headers a couple of weekends ago. My dad and I planned to take our ’67 Camaro drag car down there to test it, and see if we could possibly sell it. Unfortunately, those plans fell through, but we still made the trip down to Calhoun, Georgia to have a good time. It’s always fun, and the Paradise Show and Go event always offers lots of excitement thanks to a wide variety of cars.

Now this is what I like to see…two flat black ’55 Chevys racing on a drag strip that was built in 1961. Which one do you think won this race?

A September to Remember

Or maybe forget…I don’t know how it’s gonna turn out because it ain’t over yet. It’s another one of those months that I’m on the go 24/7 with events every weekend and plenty of stuff to do in between. I obviously haven’t had a chance to do much blogging, but I’ve certainly seen a lot of cool stuff in the past few weeks. Want a recap? Sure you do…

Despite all of the work-related stuff, I did get to enjoy some time behind the wheel of my car, which is always a good thing!

Cool Picture of the Week

I’m sure this is yet another series of blogs that I won’t keep up with but just thumbed through some pictures and found a cool one that I took last fall of the 1955 Buick Motorama concept car. I don’t usually get into stockers, but this one is nice and has the big time rareness going for it. This wound up being the cover car for the 2012 Coker Tire catalog.