New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Club Racing

The grandstand at New Hampshire Motor Spedway in Loudon, NH

This past Sunday I was invited to shoot a father-daughter racing team in Loundon, NH at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Fisher Racing Team is part of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and competes in the Spec Miata (SM) and Showroom Spec Miata (SSM) classes. These classes are your typical stock car classes, minimal modifications allowed, and all the cars should run fairly equal leaving it up to driving skill and nerves to take the checkered flag.

Jody Fisher hangs tight in turn 1 during the SSM class qualifiers

Unfortunately the day went by too quickly and I didn't get to spend as much time with Doug & Jody off the track as I would have liked, but they were great people to be working with. The day reminded me a lot of being back in North Carolina, everyone had a smile on their face and a wave or a handshake for you. I love Massachusetts, but you don't see this type of friendly, laid back persona as often in the Greater Boston area.

Father Dougles Fisher & daughter Jody both race in their Spec Class Miata. Jody straps in and prepares to race

Douglas Fisher prepares to head back to the garage after a successful inspection

When it came down to racing, the competitors here may not be household names, but they were all there to win. We found a few great spots around the track and came up with some pretty good images for a 1st time shooting motorsports. I also learned a lot, like the fact that I need a good ND filter to get nice panning shots in bright sunlight, 1/4000 makes the cars look like they're parked in a parking lot. Oh well, lesson learned and I'll be ready next time. Thanks to Diane for setting this up for me and for the Fishers for having us out as part of their team.

A view of the SCCA racing garage

(Left) Spec Class Miatas lined up waiting for the racing to start

(Right) Fellow photographers Chris Wraight, Diane Hanlon, & Tom Lucia (back)

Jody Fisher drafts an opponent while waiting for the opportune moment to strike

Revisiting the Classics at Nicholas

Driving by Nicholas restaurant in Natick last Sunday I saw a line up of American Classics: A Thunderbird, Bel Air, Mustang, Corvette Sting Ray... Well, you get the picture, as did I. I stopped in and got permission to take a few quick photos from the owners who were sitting on lawn chairs in the parking lot. Nicholas' has a sister restaurant called Nick's in Ashland which has a classic car night every week during the summer and I'm sure these guys are regulars.

Not much to say here, the backgrounds were a problem so I got low, but there was just too much going on. I gave out a few business cards and should get a chance to re-shoot a few of these in better suroundings. Images were then processed in either Photomatix or ColorFX Pro and finished in Photoshop CS4.