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.

Test and Tune Action at Brainerd

As if I already didn’t have enough to do, I decided to go to Brainerd Drag Strip a couple of Fridays ago. I had not yet tested the G8 GT after the new exhaust, so it was a good chance to do so, since the temperatures were cool. I heard a lot of other folks were going to be testing, so I figured I could go shoot a few pictures, test the car and shoot the bull.

Usually, when you see Dodge Vipers at the drag strip, they spin the tires and generally perform poorly. This one, however, hooked pretty good and ran 7’s in the eighth mile.

Fall Bracket Bash at Brainerd

Yep…still trying to get caught up on event coverages! The first weekend of October included two drag racing events in the same day. The second half of my day was spent at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip for the Fall Bracket Bash, which also featured the 4.70 index guys and the new 275 drag radial heads up class. Honestly, I went to this event only because of the 275 class, but was surprised at the great turnout of cars in the bracket classes. A lot of cool stuff that I’d never seen before, so it definitely made for a great event!

The 4.70 index cars are always fun to watch, especially when it involves two ’57 Chevys!

Hot Rod Reunion 2012

June is undoubtedly my busiest time of the year, especially with the Great Race, which is a 13-day affair this year. Last year, the Great Race knocked me out of going to my favorite event, the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, so I wasn’t exactly pleased by that. However, the dates changed for the 2012 Great Race, so it opened up Father’s Day weekend and allowed my dad and I to head up to Bowling Green for a few days.

Practiced my pan shots from my favorite spot on the spectator side fence. Long burnouts are pretty common so it’s a great place to get cool, rolling burnout photos.

Show and Go Spring 2012!

Time sure does fly when you’re on the go 24/7! Seems like it was just a few weeks ago that I went down to Paradise Drag Strip for the Show and Go event, but it’s that time of year again. This year, the Show and Go came the day after the Strawberry Festival Cruise In, so it definitely made for a packed weekend for me.

Gotta love front engine dragsters! This one is super simple and very cool!

Lost and Found

Lost and abandoned drag strips have become a huge part of my life, as I continue to make progress on my new book. I’ve photographed a few abandoned tracks, but I had the opportunity to make a trip to North Carolina this weekend to investigate a couple more tracks. While I was in the Charlotte area, I thought it would only be fitting to visit Charlotte’s abandoned Shuffletown Dragway, as well as one of the newest (and biggest) drag strips in the country, zMax Dragway.

The magnificent zMax Dragway...my first trip to the track! It is unbelievably big!

Killer Corvette…

Last year at the Draggin’ for Toys charity race, held at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, I shot a few cars. One of them was an awesome C6 Z06, which is an all motor car built by the guys at Injected Engineering. Very slick and very fast, the Corvette definitely caught my eye, so I shot it for Vette magazine. It recently ran, so I’m trying a new thing where I post a photo of the article, then a link to the site for the magazine’s online content. Check it out…

This feature turned out great! The light was just right for a black car, so I am very happy with the results.

What A Weekend!

Normally, you’d think that this blog would be about something I did this past weekend. Well, unfortunately, my weekends haven’t been terribly eventful lately, so it’s time to look back a few months and ramble about the 4th of July weekend this year. I had not started my blog yet, but the entire weekend is kinda what made me want to start it. We definitely squeezed every ounce out of a regular weekend, so I wanted to explain our steps so it could truly be appreciated…plus it gives me some good stuff to write about on these slow days. Here’s how it went down…

The G8 with mountains in the background...I live in a great part of the country!

So, I’m sitting at my desk at work, trying to get a scheme going that would allow me to get some serious work done, while also providing a fun weekend for Christina and I. So, after lots of thought and planning on Friday, I decided we’d hop in the car that evening for a trip to Ellijay, Georgia. Sounds simple enough, right? First, we drive home from work (Chattanooga to Dayton, TN), which is backtracking but we had to go home to pack and get my camera gear ready for the weekend. This was truly a spontaneous weekend getaway. So we hop in the G8, and head down the road.

Tuesday Night Street Drags

My friend and former co-worker Will Smith wanted to test out his Thunderbird Super Coupe at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, in an effort to get some seat time before his favorite event of the year, the Super Coupe Shootout. The car makes a bunch of power, thanks to ported heads, a big camshaft, lots of boost and plenty of fuel to go along with it. One big challenge for the car is traction, as it has a five-speed transmission and regular street radials. Anyway, I decided to tag along at watch some of the action at Brainerd’s Tuesday Night Street Drags. Turnout was a bit weak, compared to the other times I’ve attended the Tuesday night deal, but I couldn’t help but take photos because that’s what I do…

The last several times I've been to a Brainerd Test-N-Tune night, this guy has been there in his late-model Challenger. He must buy lots of rear tires.

The Henry J Saga–Part 1

People ask me all the time what my favorite car is…especially people who aren’t really in the car guy realm. When non car people talk to car people it seems like this is their go-to question to break the ice. It’s always hard for me to answer because I like a bunch of different cars for many different reasons. Corvettes are a strong contender, especially those built from 1963 to 1967, but one car that has always stood out as a favorite is the Henry J. Most people have never heard of Henry J, but I learned about them when I was just a kid.

My dad's Henry J gasser...Dr. Feelgood. I love this car.