On My Mind Lately....

Ontario (Aug 2010) I have had a few things on my mind lately about the world of drag racing and rather than dedicate an entire article to one subject, I will do my best to address multiple topics here and get it all over with in one pass so to speak.

We lost another racer during the western swing on the NHRA side not long ago and I have to say when is enough, enough? We have lost quite a few racers and I think something should really be done. Not your typical knee jerk reactions here but well thought out solutions to do our best so that these accidents don’t happen or continue to happen over and over again. I think I mentioned this in an earlier column but let’s look at adding some length to the shut down areas of the tracks the tour visits. Yes I understand the costs involved with this but if it saves a life I feel it’s a cost worth every penny. And maybe its time we stopped going to tracks that don’t offer the ample shutdown needed for these cars. I realize this may have the locals up in arms that are a stone’s throw away from Englishtown for instance but again if it saves lives then I’m all for it. Simply going to a track, because it is the 27th annual Spring Nationals, out of tradition should not be the deciding factor… remember change can be a good thing people…and that is in all aspects of this as far as changing the cars and possibly the locations we race at.

I was at the Nitro Jam in Grand Bend a few weeks back and saw a really cool shirt on a spectator and being a bit of a traditionalist I had to agree with the statement. The back of his shirt read, “ Change the cars not the track….Bring the 1320 back”  I’m no fan of the 1000 foot stuff but I feel it’s a quick fix to an issue that needs to be addressed. It would be nice to see the NHRA not push off the responsibilities to the drivers and owners, like mandating more expensive parts. In a tough economy something like converting a race cars braking system may not be the top of the priority list. Hopefully with NHRA’s clout they can help the teams that need to make the switch with some sort of financial help. But I highly doubt that would ever happen. I’m sure NHRA is doing everything they possibly can to ensure that all of their competitor’s race in a safe controlled environment but working together may be the solution. Every one who puts on a fire suit and helmet knows the risks involved but let’s exercise every possible solution to insure we stop burying our racers.

Was it really racing? A question I have asked myself about a thousand times since the Nitro Jam rolled into Grand Bend a few weeks back. Again being a bit of a traditionalist I still think racers need to qualify and then race on Sunday. This tossing of a coin to decide who races who just isn’t what I call racing. Now I know what your thinking that in this article I said change can be good but if you were a racer would you really call yourself a champion if all you did was win a few match races for the year? Let’s face it; IHRA has a roster of who races and where but if my memory is correct the IHRA only brought about 10 or 12 cars with them to the show in Grand Bend. The rest of the event was made up of local talent and race programs that already exist in those markets. So was it really racing? I don’t think so. I want Qualifying, Eliminations and a points system for the entire season. Don’t get me wrong, it was good to see the Canadian Kid Todd Paton win on Sunday, as well as long time IHRA supporter Bruce Litton win at a track that he has never won at before. To me that is raw emotion at its best.

And last but not least something that has me really quite pissed off. Racers are really great people! They spend huge amounts of money on their race cars and teams doing everything they can to be the best at what they do.  Being a photographer isn’t really much different. We spend lots of money on our equipment making sure we have the best to be able to capture the moments that we share with all of you fans. So Brad, you ask …what has you so pissed off? Well you see it’s like this, we photographers do our best to share our pictures with you through the websites we work with, either in articles when we have time to write of course, or in our galleries and we do from time to time sell some of our stuff. It’s not much really, a few dollars here and there if any but we do sell photos when we are allowed to. For most of us this is simply a hobby. We all have our regular nine to fives that we have to return to once the race is over. 

I myself tend to put the money I make from any sales back into my equipment to do my best and stay as up to date with the technology as possible but a lot has come out of my own pocket just to be able to do this.  The events I have been to I have met a ton of great photographers. Some that I have followed for a long time and have admired their work as such, so much so that I think the stuff I shoot couldn’t carry a candle to some of the other guys work. I wish some of the racers would take the time to get to know us and talk about the pictures that are out there. One of the series I attend just had a new photographer join the list and he shoots exclusively for one race team. To me it seems kind of disrespectful when there are plenty of us already shooting every car that makes a pass. I wish the driver of the team would have come to any one of us and said, “Hey you know I could really use some new photos of the car to put into a perspective sponsorship proposal.” and I bet we would all have jumped at the opportunity to help out. Now by having your own team photographer it would seem you will only be getting one perspective and that is from your team’s guy rather than the entire group of us out there. To me it just seems silly to bring in your own guy to do the job when there are 8 to 10 of us already doing the work. My friend Chris over at RPM said to me once that he would gladly have me shoot pictures at any one of his events because if he has one guy taking pictures it’s simply one perspective but if he has 10 different guys shooting pictures its 10 different perspectives. We photographers really are a different breed for sure!  We are standing a couple feet away from the track, hugging the guardrail shooting some really fast, loud cars. And don’t think for one second that our job is done after we leave. For every day of racing a good 3 to 4 hours is spent editing and organizing our pictures.

We all tend to joke around with each other down on the line when we are at an event and should something go wrong on the track its always funny to see the guys check their screens to see if they are the one who got the shot. But the entire group is a great bunch of guys that I enjoy seeing every time I’m at the track. Both Ian and Janis Rae have become good friends and if you thought that trash talk between racers was good you should hear us sometimes debate the whole Canon Camera versus Nikon stuff, it’s worth the price of admission for sure. So take the time and get to know us and don’t be afraid to ask about our pictures. Because remember, and I know this will sound cliché, but a picture is really worth a thousand words... That’s all I got for now…. See you at the track.

Brad Turk
Canadian Drag Racer Magazine