Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Petit LeMans - Road Atlanta 2008


I finally did it! For years I've been saying I'm going to see the Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta. Tim Clark and I went up both Friday and Saturday for several races and a lot of qualifying. Together we shot about 7,000 photos. Both of us were equipped with recently purchased 40Ds. I had the Sigma 70-200 2.8 and a new 16GB Extreme IV. Shooting in JPG I never saw the shots left counter dip below 999. Of course I did delete many on the fly but there were over 2500 shots on the card with that reading.


Easy access to the paddock areas for shots and driver meet and greets:


Winners of one of the many support races.








Anyway, it was a great deal of fun. It was a different world than what you see at a NASCAR race. For starters, these guys actually get to turn right and go up and down hills...LOL. I just HAD to get that jab in there. While I saw a lot of beer being consumed I never saw any "show us your b**bs" signs, anyone without a shirt, anyone wasted, anyone peeing between cars or behind the grandstand (or off of it for that matter). There were no long lines for porta-potties and they were actually clean. I didn't even see a drunk guy fall down a hill while taking a leak behind the restroom as I did the last time I worked at Talladega.


A little playing with the zoom here:

What I did see was a vast array of cars of all kinds both on and off the track. I saw lots of great racing action as cars fought for the lead through the curves. I walked right up to the tents in the paddock area and go great shots of drivers and mechanics. It was a blast. I may not go every year but I will return and I will camp there sometime.
We saw lots of spins in curves 10A and 10B:Pretty much all of my shots were with the Sigma 2.8. A few were with the Canon 75-300 IS. Al were with a 40D on a monopod.