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.

Hot sun, hot fun, sweat and dust at another weekend of Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing

The Lucas Oil Off Road series racing crew rolled into Surprise Arizona for round 11 and 12 of this fun-filled, hot, dusty action at Speedworld, and I was lucky enough to be there to try to capture the intensity and excitement.

I love covering LOORS (Lucas Oil Off Road Series) racing, although it’s tough on camera equipment, lots of dust and dirt, as well as hot, bright sun and sweaty, sunscreen covered faces pressed into the viewfinder and on the LCD screen.

To see more hot sweaty images from the weekend’s racing, click the more button below.

Lucas Oil Off Road Video

I covered the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series – April 15-17, 2011 Speedworld Off Road Park, Surprise Arizona and talked about shooting some video during the weekend. I am finally able to share that video with you here.

As mentioned in the following post: MORE Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series – April 16, 2011 Speedworld Off Road Park, Surprise Arizona  I split my duties capturing stills and shooting video and learned a great deal about what to do next time I try shooting video.

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 . . .