Now, I love all types of motorsports, but I must be out of my freakin' mind to want to stay outside for 2 days in these conditions.
It's not like shooting a football game where you get to go inside at halftime, out here, you get to stay out in the elements from the first green flag until the last checkered flag. No extended breaks between races, no quarter changes, just one race after another.
Now, it did warm up to a balmy 29 degrees on Saturday, and it felt like a heat wave coming through on Sunday when the temperature reached 34 degrees......BUT IT WAS STILL COLD!!!!!!!!!
I know that parts of our country have been snowed and iced in for the last few days, and I think that may have something to do with the low turn out of cars for this years Ice Bowl. I only saw a couple of cars from the Carolinas and one car from Missouri. The remainder of the cars came from Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. Local cars made up the majority of the field. Like I said, it was hard to tell if the low turn out was caused by the nasty weather or the nasty economy.
Despite the cold temperatures, the racing was still really good. It always is at Talladega Short Track.
This is where I developed my passion for photography. And motorsports was my focus(get it? develope....focus?). I shot several projects here when I was in photography school at The Art Institute of Atlanta. I even wow'ed one of my instructors with images from here and was even offered a photojournalism job from those same images, so I like to get back here every now and then.
Just wish it were'nt so danged cold.
As I was looking around for a different angle to shoot the days action from, I found this angle you don't usually see.
Everybody was bundled up tightly. It takes a real race fan to sit out here all day in this weather.
This is another new angle you don't see everyday. With the limited amount of equipment I took to the track, the amount of 'keepers' from this angle was low. But I still like it. Next time I'll go better prepared.
I think this little guy was pulling for car K9.......
I also found this little guy entertaining himself with his little yellow race car....or maybe he was replaying the last few laps?
These safety workers are looking for something that just buzzed by.
Yeah.......maybe that is what buzzed by. A barstool on a shortened racing go-cart frame. The driver told me it would run about 30 mph. I've gotta get me one of these.
The track workers have to water down the track to make the dirt tacky. Those big ol tires on the cars stick really good to a tacky track. Too bad the track was so cold the water didn't sink in.
And the winner is......Randall Walker from Pell City, Alabama.
One driver I missed seeing this weekend was the Legend himself, Red Farmer.
Red had someone else drive his car this weekend while he recouperates from double pnuemonia.
As I was talking to one of the magazine editors I sometimes shoot for, this driver pulled up beside us in his car. His race car had a flat tire, and the body was a little wrinkled. We could tell by his colorful language(directed at us), that he wasn't a happy camper.
Just then, another car was driving by and our new friend tried to flag him down.
Just as the other car was driving by, our friend made a few hand gestures and was saying something about his momma, and tried to kick the back quarterpanel of the car.
Yep......busted his ass.
He didn't think it was nearly as funny as we did.
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