WNYOA Rd. 10 - Thunder Ridge

OK ...

So some of you know that I come from the cycling world - as in road cycling.  ( bicycles )  Every couple of years we as mere mortals get to see Olympic athletes who are at the peak of their respective sports perform on the boob tube.  One of those summer sports is obviously cycling.  I'm sure many of you have seen cycling on the velodrome - most likely on TV - but some of you may have actually seen actual velodrome cycling in person too as there is a world class facility in Trexlertown, Pa.  I've ridden that velodrome myself - never competed or raced there - but I have ridden it.  Where, you might ask am I going with this?  Bear with me if you will...

Steiner and Scutt grabbed the 1st, and hopefully last, unknown start style holeshot  |  Click the photo to view it larger

One of the velodrome events that they have is called "The Unknown Distance Race".  Ummm - yep - it means exactly what it says.  The race might be 10 laps, or it could be 100.  The race officials, via sponsorship, throw in prize laps (primes as they are called) to spice up the race - ie: a bell rings and an announcement is made - "The winner of the next lap pockets $50.00 cash... !!!".  This keeps things interesting and makes for some strategy as obviously the winner of the overall event takes home the biggest prize.  But not knowing when the race ends ...  do you kill yourself for the $50.00 and hope they don't ring the bell (white flag) now that you're toast?  See - makes it interesting.  :)

Thunder Ridge decided to invent the "Unknown Start" today for the big bikes.  Yeah - that definitely added some spice to many a spectator up at the top of the hill, and from what I heard even several of the racers and sweepers.  We're all hanging out, just talking and shootin' the breeze when all of a sudden ( BRAAAAAP!!!! ) here comes the frickin' AA line ripping up the hill at, like, a kabillion mph!!  Holy crap!!  Everyone is bailin' and backing off and trying to get outta the way ...    yikes!!

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Umm -- promoters for events 11-15 - please don't do that again.  We, as spectators and shooters - we're boring - we'd just assume know exactly when the race is going to start, thank you very much.

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Maryott fought hard for this one and it was evident that he was stoked about it at the end as he was pumping his fists celebrating his win as he came through scoring taking the checkered flag  |  Click the photo to view it larger

So -- seen above,  Marcus Scutt and Jim Steiner Jr., these two grabbed a couple of good hands full of throttle and fed the rest of the AA line their roosts!  Scutt ran out of gas (literally) and didn't have quite the finish he was hoping for.  I'm not sure how Steiner made out.  There was a heck of a race happening between the two big dogs that were present today though with Bouwens and Maryott going at it.  Bouwens had the early lead, only to lose it to Maryott who established a pretty good gap for a while.  "The Bat" fought hard and closed the gap and was knocking right on his targets tailpipe through the closing lap.  Maryott demonstrated why he is running the #1 plate for the series at present as he successfully held of the hard charging Bouwens for the win.

Ben "Batman" Bouwens could only look on as he came home in 2nd  |  Click the photo to view it larger

The Big Quads - oh boy!!  They are - well - they're the Big Quads.  The start for them was (fortunately) very well telegraphed by the starters and race staff - no surprises in that department.  The racers themselves ... c'mon.  Those of you who attend these races already know - they create their own brand of excitement and this start was not to disappoint!  There was some wild and crazy goings on and a couple of "interesting" line choices made.  A couple of crashes but fortunately no serious injuries (that I'm aware of).

The Big Quads start - yep - it was a wild one at times!!  :)  Whoo hoo!!  |  Click the photo to view it larger

There will be many pics from the event getting posted up to the galleries and facebook over the next couple of days - standby!!

-=- jd -=-

A Couple of Grabs From The Thater Crit

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I had to go into the Binghamton for something anyway - drop off a dead phone that needs to go in for replacement, and pick up a couple of Monster drinks that I had accidently left in the fridge from earlier in the week.  That was, of course, the most important reason for going there ....  <grin>

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The Chris Thater bike races were also happening downtown.  I used to race bikes in a former incarnation of myself - a skinnier me.  I stopped doing that though quite a few years ago - it's very hard and I'm very lazy.  I was lazy back then too, but I had pain in the ass teammates who would drag me out and "make me" go riding / training.  I'm glad I did though - they were all a bunch of good guys.  So anyway - I knew the races were happening so I grabbed a camera and a couple of lenses and decided to take them with me.

The weather sucked.  This made me even more happy that I was no longer riding...  I used to hate racing in the rain.  I spent the better part of an afternoon at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital up in Oneonta, N.Y. one time as a result of racing in the rain.  I only stuck around for a little while as, again, the weather was not all that great, and I wanted to get back home to get my gear ready for my current favorite sport - the WNYOA Harescrambles races up near Norwich tomorrow at Thunder Ridge.

So -- here are a couple of grabs from the race action that I did stick around to see, and there is a small gallery of 40-some-odd keepers there too - the link to those is here.

This chick is supposed to be some kind of badass from what my friend Mike told me.  I guess she did the womens version of the Tour De France earlier this year and has won a boatload of big races.  The race always calls up all of the top contenders and introduces them to the crowd. | Click the photo to view it larger

The Pro Womens field about to start | Click to photo to view it larger

So thats what you use black & white for

<grin>  When all else fails and a bad pic just can't really be made into anything half decent what does one do?  Convert it to b&w and give it a "reportage look", or make it look like something from a newspaper story.

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Readers digest - we had our little quarterly meeting today at the Binghamton Corporate office.  A number of us went out to lunch at a little bar / diner that is within walking distance from the office and I, naturally, had a camera with me.

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If I didn't shoot sports as much as I do, I'm almost thinking that I'd ditch my big ole' Nikons in favor of this wonderful little Fuji that I recently picked up.  The thing is so small and light in weight by comparison to the Nikons that it isn't funny.  The lenses are crazy nice and the sensor in the thing, while only being a crop sensor, is pretty damned amazing.  The camera definitely has it's quirks, and definitely has some short comings when compared to the far more mature Nikons - but for the most part I really dig it.

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All of the images here are hand held, the color one in particular being a 1/2 second exposure, iso 250 @f/2.8 with the fuji 14mm lens.  All were with that lens.  All of the b&w's were 1/5th of a second at iso 4000 (!) @f/8

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It's a fun little camera.  :)

NASCAR at Watkins Glen Weekend

This was my "the shot" for the weekend.  Marcos Ambrose won the Zippo 200 Nationwide Series race on Saturday. |  Click on the photo to view it larger.

... so we (wife & I) "did a NASCAR thing" this past weekend.

Sort of.

We went out on Saturday mid-day'ish ...  not really knowing what to expect and sort of just on a recon type thing.  Back track just a bit.  I'm not necessarily a "NASCAR fan".  I enjoy watching it for the entertainment value that it can sometimes provide - but a fan?  'Eh ...  that'd be a stretch.  Formula 1 on the other hand.  A Fan.  Definitely a fan.

Coming into town Saturday Kyle Busch's team had a car parked in front of a local grocery store.  ( wife had to get something...  )  Obviously good publicity for the team and the event.  Assumption is that this was likely a testing / backup car in the event that the actual race car got smashed up. | Click on the photo to view it larger.

So anyway ...  not being a hard core type fan of the sport per se we didn't really know what exactly to expect.  Again - just sort of feeling it out and seeing what the tickets and passes that we had were going to offer us.  The access that we had was actually very nice - and come Sunday we could do a "Fan Walk".  Now I didn't know what a "Fan Walk" was but we could do it on Sunday.  Turns out that the fan walk is where you can walk right out onto the race course and wander around down in pit lane prior to the race.  This allowed for up close viewing of the racers pit crews and, eventually, the cars as they were brought out and parked prior to "Racers Start Your Engines!".  The fan walk was kind of cool - definitely a nice plus.

As captured from Sunday mornings "Fan Walk".  Spare tires are at the ready in Jeff Gordon's pit box.  I had to specifically get his tires for my wife.  She "loves Jeffy".  <grin>  I asked her if she wanted to touch his tires.  "These are the actual tires that he might use during the race.... " I told her.  She gave me the 'you're such a dork' look.  :) | Click on the photo to view it larger.

I once again very quickly, and frustratingly, was reminded how much I dislike being a "regular person" getting banished off to the far edges of periphery.  Translation:  I used to be a U.S. Navy Photographers Mate back in the middle 1980's.  My ID card, and the fact that I worked in the photo lab was synonymous with being "Press".  We, those of us from the photo lab, could go damn near *anywhere* at any event on any U.S. military base.  That - as a photographer - is the cats ass.  I miss those days.  I really, seriously need to get credentials so that I can get to the good spots for shooting events.  {sigh}  It is what it is though - I was fortunate enough to be offered a nice pair of tickets to the event (twist my arm you know ...) and had an opportunity to go to one of the bigger sporting events in the state.  So we did.

The fire rescue folks actually had some of the better seats in the house for viewing.  I felt kind of bad for some of them though - must have been hotter then hell sitting in that truck wearing what appears to be full gear.  I wanted to get on top of the truck and snipe off of it.  <grin>  No - I didn't inquire.  |  Click on the photo to view it larger.

Back to Saturday:  We arrived right as qualifying was coming to a close for "the main event" on Sunday.  I just missed getting a shot of Jeff Gordon on his qualifying lap that landed him in the #1 position.  I did grab a shot of Jimmy Johnson though and then ... that was it.  Wife & I kind of looked at one another and were like - "... guess we were a little late for qualifying.  Yeah - but Jeffy is on pole!" ( she said - she's a Jeffy fan ...  )  We scored some chow and hung out until the Saturday race started - the "Nationwide Series'.  It's like the under card fight prior to the main event on Sunday - but sometimes the main event guys race in it too.  Not really sure how else to describe it.  So the race starts.

Jimmy Johnson right at the closing seconds of Saturday's qualifying for Sunday's main event.  Jeff Gordon had just gone by seconds earlier securing the pole position.  We had literally just gotten there and, naturally, I missed that shot.  {sigh} | Click on the photo to view it larger.

*** LOUD ***  Mind you this was not unexpected but these things are *ridiculously* loud.  This is where I was quickly frustrated with the 'quality' of photo's I was going to be able to grab.  (NOT)  See comments above re: not being able to get into good positions.  I started shooting the race trying to find clean views, any clean views, that I could find and quickly figured that there basically weren't any (that I had access to) and that the one singular spot where I was able to kinda-sorta get shots became tiresome very quickly.  I lasted about 10 laps and was bored out of my skull.

Sunday - the place was a zoo.  It was crazy crowded and just tiresome even trying to simply move.  We could not (quite literally) get out of there fast enough.  | Click on the photo to view it larger 

We left and came home.  I mowed the lawn and played with the dogs.  We were on the fence re: going back up on Sunday, but ultimately decided that we would.  I / we knew that Sunday's main event "Sprint Cup" series race was going to be a zoo.  That's an understatement.  There must have been at least twice as many people than there were on Saturday.  The event, like greedy ass airlines, oversold access to the hospitality tents, the race was closing off previously accessible walking routes to and from the viewing area's and forcing hordes of people to walk long distances to get back to their seats.  It was just ...  irksome.  And slow. (masses of bodies all trying to move from point a to point b)  And hot.  By the time that we finally got back to the tented area where we planned on grabbing some lunch and watching the race we were done.  Again - the hospitality area that we had access to appeared to be overwhelmed with the sheer number of bodies that had invaded it.  There was literally no place to sit and eat.  There was no way in hell that I was going to be able to get anywhere near the one little spot that I had discovered yesterday to kinda-sorta get actual race pics.  This was still about an hour or so before the race was to get started.  We bagged it and decided to call it a day.

This was kind of a fun one from the Sunday "Fan Walk" thing.  I told this pit crew guy that he had basically just committed his driver to winning.  I think he crashed out.  | Click on the photo to view it larger

I guess I'm kinda ok with having gone - it wasn't all "bad".  I have a small gallery of photo's that I grabbed from both days up - check them out here.   Feel free to grab any if you're a fan of any of the racers that I may have grabbed.

Gallery is here if the linked text doesn't work for some reason -- http://galleries.jdanvers.com/nascarwg14

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I should have gone to Unadilla though for the MX Nationals.

Yep ....  that woulda been cool.

-=- jd -=-

WNYOA / Round #9

AA / Pro class speedster Nick Davis won the premier event of the day on the bikes.  Ben Bouwens grabbed the holeshot but could not hold off the #87.

...  been a while since I've updated my blog.  My bad - I need to be better and more pro-active about it but, frankly, I spend more time in social media - namely facebook - posting there.  I get damn near real-time feedback from there.  This is easier though when cross posting to multiple groups - I only have to upload the article and pictures once and then reference the link back to here.  I gotta get back into that practice.

+++ ANYWAY +++ 

There was a race today!!  Round #9 was held today out at the Tall Pines ATV Park way (way) out in God's Country in the hills above Andover, N.Y..  I had decided the night before that I probably wasn't going to make it out there for the early morning youth races - I would have had to get up at the crack of dawn in order to make it on time.  Based on the weather conditions - kinda glad I didn't.  The place was socked in with fog and an on and off again drizzle ..  that only got worse as the day wore on.

Race promoter Scottie Rich was all over the place today.  He gets around pretty good for being (as he told me when asked "How you doing?") ".. all broken up."  Also when asked ".. you gonna be back for the winter series?" he looked at me with a "Damned straight... " kinda look and answer.  Winter series racers - you've been warned.  ;)

Now this was different, and pretty darned cool too.  Brian Robarge laid down a little "Hendrix'ish" action playing the National Anthem prior to the start of the Big Bikes!  How cool was that?!  :)

Big Bikes - you guys win today!!  Last week, due to having to work I was only able to shoot the Big Quads.  This week, due to being a wuss, I only stuck around for the Big Bikes.  I went back to my car shortly after the bikes race was over for some chow, change batteries, dry gear off, etc ...  while eating the steady rain that had been falling all day long got "steadier" - and harder.  It didn't take a lot of convincing myself that I'd had enough.  I'd had fun mind you, and (I think) I got some decent grabs on the day - but I was NOT going to go back out  there to shoot the lunatics, 'er I mean, Quads.  Nahh .. sorry guys and gals.  Not today.  To wet, to sloppy, to much electronics on me.

While "The Bat" Ben Bouwens, grabbed the holeshot, it was the 87 lurking just to the left in the orange and blue of Nick Davis who took the win.  Bouwens would hang on for 2nd on the day.

Here are a couple to get us started - there will in all likelihood be pics getting to the WNYOA pages on facebook in the coming days too.