World of Outlaws - Kings Royal

[DC Fan]

From the Eldora Speedway on July 13, the rain-delayed US $50,000-to-win sprint car show won by Daryn Pittman:

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008b0199.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008a0614.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008b0094.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07-13-2008b-0794a.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008a0684.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008b0211.jpg

[mongoosed]

couple look a bit over sharpened... but they look god... gettin pretty close man.. closer than i'd want too... haha

[Brandon Anderson Photos]

i hear its kinda hard to shoot there because of the 6ft fence all the way arround the inside on the track... Ive never shot standing ontop of a ladder b4 but i think I would lose my ballance and fall off.... but none the less great shots

[DC Fan]

i hear its kinda hard to shoot there because of the 6ft fence all the way arround the inside on the track... Ive never shot standing ontop of a ladder b4 but i think I would lose my ballance and fall off.... but none the less great shots

The Eldora inside fence was six feet high. Now it's more like ten feet tall.
http://www.fansview.com/racing/07-13-2008a-0412.jpg
There are a few areas where the fence has been left at the old six foot height, and that's where the experienced guys bring their stepladders so they can get a clear view. Then there are the two holes, about four feet wide, where there's no fencing - like the one in this image. I managed to use them during the King's Royal.

Using those holes gets intense. It's simple to spot the cars at the top of the turns where most everybody runs, but the full width of the track is in play and a few guys run the bottom. It took a few minutes to develop the timing needed to get a 130-mph sprint car in frame when it's a few feet away and you get less than a second to pan with the car. The image of Craig Dollansky at full speed in the black #2 was taken with the XTi's lens at 18mm. Shutter speed was 1/2000: there was no other way to get a recognizable image of the car in frame at that distance. You feel the cars as much as you see them when they blast by

The distances and speeds - the Outlaws run full throttle all the way around Eldora's high banks without lifting - made for some interesting lens choices. Typically, motorsports means a telephoto lens, but the 70-300mm was useful only for qualifying, where you could be certain everyone would run in the top groove. For the feature, I switched to the 50mm f/1.8, useful when the light faded during the main event.

[Jamie Holladay]

Nice color and motion.

[nwagirl]

Very nice!

[DC Fan]

Nice color and motion.

Color comes from having the XTi's saturation turned all the way up. Motion...can't avoid that when you have a big 130-mph race car running a few feet away. :)

[Whitley]

Wow great captures of ACTION! Nice work

[10range]

That picture of Dollansky is from an angle that you don't often see of a car in motion. I really like the perspective. I am assuming that you were on or close to the wall? How far was his car from you when you took this?

[sydney350d]

Great pics DC fan. do you have an shots of Kerry "the mad man" madson?

[DC Fan]

That picture of Dollansky is from an angle that you don't often see of a car in motion. I really like the perspective. I am assuming that you were on or close to the wall? How far was his car from you when you took this?

Around five or ten feet away.

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008b0232.jpg

This image of Joey Saldana, working the bottom of the track, gives an idea of the distances involved. You can see how it was possible to peek, cautiously, outside of the fence and post. Clearly, Dollansky was closer than Saldana.

You could look at the approach to the turn, see which cars were going to run the inside line and time your shutter finger to get a car in frame, but you had to get used to the speeds to get your timing down. On that level, time passes in quarter instants, not instants. :)

[DC Fan]

Great pics DC fan. do you have an shots of Kerry "the mad man" madson?

http://www.fansview.com/racing/07132008a0220.jpg

Kerry Madsen qualified 20th, finished fourth in his heat and eighth in the feature. He was one the few guys on Goodyears at Eldora: even Steve Kinser ran Hoosiers.