Pocono Speedway

More stuff from the early days. This was a rainy race weekend at Pocono. I can't remember much about the racing, it was supposed to be Indy Cars, but they couldn't get enough teams to come out and play, so they (CART?) tried to fill the field with local talent in dirt cars. Really bizarre.

We had Sandy's Honda Accord, Bill's Mazda, and Ralph's tent.

You can't really tell in this photo, but the back of the field is mostly dirt cars.

Formula I don't know.

Lime Rock Park, 1981

This is another little trip down memory lane. Sandy and I spent a fair amount of time taking in the racing scene in the Northeast in the late 70's and early 80's. Lime Rock Park was an easy track to get to, and had decent viewing areas. This was an IMSA RS event.

These are crap photos but the cars are nice, and the weather was great...

This Camaro had a V6 with twin 2 barrel carbs. Never seen it before or since.

Chevy Monza.

I'm not sure what class this is, now I'd have to call it the lousy domestic car class.

On the road...

Sometimes a car just want's it's picture taken.

This 240Z was at Electric City a couple years ago. I remember reading about the 240Z sometime after it came out, that it was Datsun's answer to the Jaguar XKE, or something like that. It's an easy comparison, rear wheel drive sports/GT powered by an inline 6 cylinder mounted up front under a long hood, but I don't know that Datsun had the XKE in mind for competition. It's a cool car, too bad the chassis rusted out by the time the vinyl started to crack on the seats.

On the other hand...

I was probably a little harsh on the track photographers in my previous post. It's easy to overlook the fact that they see their job as being able to provide an action photo of everyone that races on a given day. The more photo's they take, the better their chances of selling some. It can be a daunting task, with lot's of variables, and I can see why some of 'em become a little detached and mercenary about it. Hmmm, that sounded harsh too.

But then when someone comes along that has the skills, and is clearly fascinated by the whole dirttrack racing scene, and isn't in it for the money, you get a much different view.

This is the work of Joan Cuenco, a friend and colleague of Scott's who lives in the city. I don't know the whole back story about how she found out about Oakland Valley, but she came out for a race, and was obviously struck by what she saw. I'll let the photo's speak for themselves. This is all done on film, by the way, not digital.

These are just some of the photos that I picked out, mostly from self interest because it's me and my family, but she has lot's more on her blog.
Go to http://joancuenco.com/flat-track-moto to check out more of her work.
Joan very kindly gave me permission to use these, and I would hope that anybody who visit's her blog would respect her work and contact her before reproducing anything.

Me, racing

I find it very difficult to take pictures of myself while I'm racing. This is an old problem, shared by many racers. Often, family members can help, but sometimes not.
So in these situations it's nice to have a track/event photographer around. Some are better than others, and I've never felt particularly compelled to support the ones that can't seem to frame a photo, or pay attention to the background, or who lack imagination and simply click away at a thousandth of a sec. and lay out their "product" for sale at the next race. To quote a recent TV ad that cracks me up with the grammar while being very succinct, "buy 'em or don't".

Well with that intro, here are a few pictures that I did in fact choose to buy. The selection was somewhat limited this year, since I only attended a few races, but at least there's some variety.

This was at the Stateline Harescramble. It looks like I have a mustache, it's a dirt mustache. Gross.

A different vantage point at the same Harescramble. Good thing the photographer was ready, 'cause I was really flying through this section. (Sarcasm). The #39 is on because I raced this bike in Supermoto in Maine earlier this summer. The Harescramble requires their own numbering system, which is why I have a hand written 4861 number on the front of the bike. That number is assigned to a transponder on my chest protector, and when I complete a lap and ride through the control station, I can see my progress (how far behind I am) on a digital display above the exit gate.

This is at Lebanon Valley Speedway. One of two times this season when I was ahead of Nick Wiemer for at least part of a lap. Inconsequential, since he was ahead when the checkered flag dropped, but still....

And finally, here I am at Electric City Riders, once again going so fast that the other guy doesn't get himself into the picture, just his front wheel and number plate. I'm going to look into a chest mount for my GoPro, so I don't look like a Teletubbie racing around.

Footnote in the FWIW category, my final official result in the Stateline Harescramble was 5th in class, not 7th as reported earlier.