Tony Stewart and friends indoors

[DC Fan]

For the last few Decembers, stock car driver Tony Stewart has headed to Fort Wayne, Ind. to return to his first love of midget racing, where he got started in 1992. Stewart's in the black No. 2 car that he bought and races once a year in the Rumble Series indoor event, which attracted a group of open-wheel aces to run on the concrete floor of the Fort Wayne Expo Center.

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0279a.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0367a.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0411a.jpg

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0496a.jpg

From a Digital Rebel 300d, bouncing back and forth between a Tamron 18-200mm and a Canon 70-300mm IS. No embedded EXIF because it was stripped away by the Noiseware Community Edition that was used to make the ISO 1600 images presentable.

[DC Fan]

One of Stewart's friends, Lou Cicconi Jr., second-generation driver from Pennsylvania, in No. 75.

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0513a.jpg

Stewart and Cicconi, in Mike Fedorcak-designed "Munchkin" cars, were the class of the midget field in the two-day show at Fort Wayne. Stewart bumped his way past Cicconi (http://www.midgetmadness.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16925) to win the Friday night feature, while Cicconi came back to win the main event on Saturday night. (http://www.midgetmadness.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16928)

Neat Image (http://www.neatimage.com/index.html?D75) cleaned up this ISO 1600 frame from a Digital Rebel 300d.

[motofan]

pics turned out pretty good for being in doors, any wide angle shots showing more of the track?

[DC Fan]

pics turned out pretty good for being in doors, any wide angle shots showing more of the track?

The most boring image of the weekend, from the backstretch photo platform during morning practice.

http://www.fansview.com/2009/12-26-2008b-0173a.jpg

The cars on the track are karts that are about half the size of midgets. The track's around 1/6th mile on concrete that accumulates rubber during the weekend.

Note the hall lights are two different colors, which makes custom white balance necessary. We used 1/125 shutter priority at ISO 1600 so we could catch anything on the track and not have to deal with flash's range and recharge limitations. Noise reduction post-processing was very useful.

[petrolhead]

That looks like fun :)

[motofan]

that's pretty crazy, i just wanted to see if it was just the size of a rink, or how large of an area they were really running in. Exhaust fumes weren't to bad?

[_aravena]

Doesn't seem to draw much of a crowd.....