For years and years since I've become good at taking motorsports photo's I've been wanting to get back to a long IMSA Endurance race for one reason and its to get nighttime shots. twilight and dawn shots with pretty sky's, for a fews I've almost talked myself into going to Petit LeMans in Atlanta or back to the 12 hours of Sebring(I attended in 2002) or back to this Rolex 24 race.
I made the decision to go to this race based on my NASCAR racing Hero Jeff Gordon signing up to race in the Wayne Taylor Cadillac , knowing how easy access the garages are at IMSA races I thought just maybe I'd finally get the chance to meet Mr. JG. it FINALLY happened.
Another thing I was hoping to happen was to meet James Hinchcliffe and that also happened as well. I turned into a big fan of his after seeing how kickazz awesome he is as a human on Dancing with the stars, and his comeback story from near death after a crash at INDY is a inspiring story as well. look it up if you want to see the story. Yep all around great guy!
At the Race track my inphone app tells me I walked 38 miles the 4 days I was at the track. 38 miles!! its a 2.5 mile oval folks, do the math. I did some laps there haha. My legs and feet were feeling it at the end of each night for sure, But I recovered well each morning, alot has to do with comfortable shoes and socks. never once had a blister or lasting pain the next day.
Rain, lets talk about rain haha it rained over 10 hours of the 24 hour race. two long rain cautions during the night due to way to much rain on the track. the cars keep on circling but there were two long cautions for the rain. all that rain brought the race average at the end to a record low amount of laps completed by the winning Car (Wayne Taylor racing!)
As a landscape photographer and I said before I was hoping to get great twilight shots or sunrise shots but the sky's and clouds really never produced it. I did however get some Nice wet Racing car shots which always produces drama in pictures. That keep me motivated to get out there in the cold of the night and get wet and get the shots at night. I took a couple naps in my car (lot 5 outside turn 4 tunnel) during the night 10-1 and like a hour and half around 4am, rest of time I was up shooting or taking it all in, IMO There's something so peaceful sitting in the grandstands during the wee hours of the night and taking all the sights and sounds in. (freezing a bit) but worth it, I had my winter gear from my preparation for lock and Dam 14 the previous weekend. I was prepared for all the conditions.
Now after photographing this event( I was there in 2001 but without fancy camera gear or knowledge) I'm hooked I soooo hope to get back next year. hopefully where ever I am next year I look to get back to the Rolex 24 of 2018. Hopefully with media credentials so I can get more creative with my photographs!
If nyone reading this and have connections with the IMSA circuit or your Race Team and are inspired by any of my photo's here or in my portfolio? I would LOVE to finally get my first Media credentials! you'll see alot of low shutterspeed(SS) pans here but I know race teams sometime want front to rear of there car in sharpness to show off there sponsors and such, I can do that with increasing SS. its just more of a challenge to drag a slow shutterspeed and get that sensation of speed, thats why I concentrated on that for this race.
ok enough Job pleaing, this is the photo section of Motorsports on POTN
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BL7T8161 by Steve Loop, on Flickr2.
BL7T6819 by Steve Loop, on Flickr3.
BL7T8366 by Steve Loop, on Flickr4.
BL7T7112 by Steve Loop, on Flickr5.
SBL_1537-Pano by Steve Loop, on Flickr6.
BL7T5420 by Steve Loop, on Flickr7.
BL7T5881-Edit by Steve Loop, on Flickr8.
BL7T5655 by Steve Loop, on Flickr
there are more on my flickr page if you want 
