Lucas Oil Off Road Series Racing — Chasing the light and the action

Some of the tracks on the LOORS (Lucas Oil Off Road Series) schedule produce better images than others because of the backgrounds and the time of day the race is held. Unfortunately these two aspects, backgrounds and time of race are out of your control and you must work with whatever challenges are presented to you for a given race. The fun of any assignment is overcoming the challenges of creating great images under difficult lighting conditions, so when the lighting and backgrounds come together in one moment or for a short period of time most photographers, including myself get absolutely giddy with excitement and ferociously creating images in outstanding light.

CHANDLER, AZ – MAR 31: Robby Woods (99) in Pro 2 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series Round 1 racing on March 31, 2012 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Click the continue reading link below to more hot Lucas Oil Off Road action.

2012 Lucas Oil Off Road Series Racing Round 1 – Friday practice and qualifying

Lately all my posts have been very random, out of event sequence and somewhat disconnected, so in keeping with the randomness of things I thought I would put up a quick peek at some of the 2012 Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing trucks.

The 2012 Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing season kicked off with some new trucks, some new drivers and some new sponsors, but all the dirt slinging fun remains the same. Here are a few images from the round 1 Friday practice and qualifying session. I’m sure you won’t want to miss the upcoming posts with more coverage from the round 1 and 2 racing action.

CHANDLER, AZ – MAR 30: Carl Renezeder (1) at speed in Pro 4 Unlimited Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing qualifying on March 30, 2012 at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, AZ.

Carl Renezeder has partnered with Nissan once again and his new truck looks really fast.

To see the rest of the LOORS Fri. practice session images click on the “continue reading” link below.

2011 NHRA Arizona Nationals from Firebird International Raceway – Top Fuel

Top Fuel dragster’s are the loudest, scariest, fastest somewhat controlled mayhem on four wheels you could imagine. Capturing the ‘feel’ of a top fuel launch is difficult at best and near impossible unless you have been in the car and experienced this first-hand. I would say that even from the stands you don’t get the same sensation that the photographers on the starting line feel.

I wanted to try to bring you a little closer to the action for the top fuel cars so I went for the super-tight shots hoping you feel like you are seeing something you hadn’t seen before. I hope you enjoy.

October 16, 2011: Tony Schumacher during 3rd round eliminations for the Full Throttle Series – NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler AZ.

Being able to see the slicks sidewall twist, the throttle blades wide open and that front tire just skimming off the track surface lets you know that although the image isn’t moving the moment frozen in time is one of all-out mayhem.

To see more great NHRA Top Fuel Drag Racing action, click on the more link below:

2011 Lucas Oil Off Road Series Round 15 from Firebird Raceway in Chandler Arizona

The Lucas Oil Off Road Series (LOORS) crew made their final stop for the 2011 season at Firebird International Raceway and I was lucky enough to cover the weekend of dirt and mud-slinging racing action. For this race I told myself I would do my best to put a human face on the racing and try to get as many driver portraits and pit shots as I could during the three days of action.

Ford Motorsports Metal Mulisha driver Brian “the general” Deegan always gives good “face” when he is on the podium at these events, and you can bet at some point he will be on the podium.

To see more of the fantastic action from the LOORS round 15 click on the more link below.

2011 NHRA Arizona Nationals from Firebird International Raceway – Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle

You just gotta love the intensity of NHRA Drag Racing, the smell of the tire-smoke, all the brightly colored cars, and that earth-shaking sound!

It’s true that the pro stock cars don’t make as much noise as the funny cars or top fuel, but the excitement and speed of those cars makes them a fan favorite.

Everyone said Jason Line was the one to watch at the 2011 Arizona Nationals so I made sure to grab some nice frames of his car making a qualifying pass.

See more Pro Stock action by clicking on the more link below.

2011 NHRA Arizona Nationals from Firebird International Raceway – The Funny Cars

I love photographing NHRA Drag Racing, it’s like all the action and excitement of a two-hour Motorsports event compressed down into a little 4 second burst.

The action starts on Fri. with first round qualifying and as the sun dips below the horizon and the sunlight fades enough to really see the header flames you can make some intense images. In this shot from Friday’s qualifying session, Mike Neff makes a pass in his Ford Mustang.

To see the rest of the exciting NHRA action, click on the more link below.

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series – April 15-17, 2011 Speedworld Off Road Park, Surprise Arizona

Holly cow, that’s a long title. I’ve got a bunch of Motorsports posts and a few different events to catch my viewers up on so let me start with some Lucas Oil Off Road racing from Surprise Arizona. Speedworld Off Road Park in Surprise Arizona hosted rounds 3 and 4 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Series (LOORS) and this was the first time covering an event at this track. A great facility with an interesting and exciting track as well a lots of great shooting positions. I spent the weekend trying out different shooting positions and angles for the best light, cleanest backgrounds and best shots. I’m still working the bugs out of shooting at this track but here is a sampling of the images I captured during Friday’s practice and Saturday’s round 3 action.

Friday’s mid-morning practice session had me shooting through the fence and in harsh-bright-sunlight so I tried some cross-processing on this shot of Brian Deegan (38) putting the power down.

See more dirt-slinging action photos by clicking on the more link below.

Lucas Oil Off-Road Series Round 15 and Challenge Cup practice and qualifying on Dec. 10th, 2010 at Firebird

I don’t know if I mentioned it in my last post, but this was the first time I have shot off-road racing. There are a couple of other photographers in the area that shoot off-road stuff and I have looked at their work for inspiration, but no matter how hard I try my stuff still sort of just looks like “my” stuff. I guess over the years I have developed a “style” without really knowing just what “my style” is exactly.

I keep trying to capture good sellable images and maybe my images are more feature related or more journalistic in their approach or maybe I’m just winging it based on images I found interesting in the past.

Whatever the reasons, here are some more from the Motorsports mud-fest filled weekend.

I’ll post these at their big size because I think they have more impact that way. I call this one “flat-out sideways.”

See more muddy images after the jump.

Lucas Oil Off-Road Series Challenge Cup Dec. 11th and 12th, 2010 at Firebird International Raceway

Shooting off-road racing is all new to me. I’ve never done it before. It’s exciting and fun, but rough on your gear because of the constant dirt and dust and unlike shooting other Motorsports almost everything is covered in some amount of dirt, and by that I mean there isn’t a square inch of clean anything to put down your gear that is not covered in either a layer of fine dust or outright dirt and mud.

Shooting the cars on track, or I should say trucks and buggys’ requires a little bit of a different skill set as well, it is interesting and exciting so I was up for the challenge of trying to capture some images of this new-to-me Motorsports. Let me just throw some truck racing images at you.

The afternoon lighting looked nice and warm as the trucks entered turn one.

See more after the jump . . .

I feel the need . . . the need for speed!

I wanted to go back and revisit some Motorsports rather than the “stick-and-ball” sports that I have been shooting/posting as of late.

I’m thinking some NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by full throttle energy drink action . . .

< Ashley Force Hood

Remember to click the “more” link to see the rest of the images.