Photos from the evening practice session on Thursday. The session started around 7:20PM and the light went straight to hell. This was some hard shootin!

Enjoy!

 

great pics man, hey when did they start the rule with the 3 side lights?

{I pray that doesn't become cool for street cars}

 

All cars have 3 lights. Each of the 4 groups have a different color. Your position dictates how many lights are turned on. 1st=1 light, 2nd 2=lights, 3=3rd place. It's great to be able to keep up with so many cars. For the practice session, I don't think they were functioning.

 

Here's my wright-up from the GA forum:

=========

They were scheduled to start practice at 7:00PM and there was enough light to shoot but it was barely enough. I would have had to shoot at 1600 ISO and 30th second and I knew it would be a stretch to think I'd get anything at all. They finally started around 7:20ish which just about made it impossible to shoot. Out of 470+ images, I think I have about 30 that I will even show. The rest are trash. This was the toughest shoot I've ever tried to do. If you know anything about shooting in low light situations, you will understand the problems especially when you add a car going 90mph to the equation.

The sound of those cars stay with you. I was still hearing them when I went to sleep... with a smile on my face. I loved the sound of the Ferrari. When they would shift gears going under the bridge, it sounded like some kind of controlled explosion. The Acura PT2's were pretty high pitched and crisp. The Mazda was not impressive and just another sound that did not stand out (unusual). TA said because it was turbo'd. The Audi's and Peugeot were whisper quiet and fast as hell with the Peugeot having the fastest lap time. The Porsche PT2 was very similar to the Acura. Once the two Porsche's came by together for a great sounding stereo effect... sweet! Corvette's and Aston Martin were their same old noisy ground pounders.

Impressive was the braking power of the Acura in turn 10A. I can't believe how long they kept their foot in the gas, letting up at the last set of markers and gearing down, I think 4 gears, to make the turn. The Audi's and Peugeot were so dang quiet and deceiving in their speed. What elegant, screaming, wicked fast machines.

 

Someone on the NASA forum asked what I shot with, so here's my set-up:

Nikon D-200
Nikor Telephoto 70-300 (VR turned off)
Monopod
Manual Settings for exposure and focus
Speeds 1/30 - 1/60
f-stop - 9
ISO 1250 - 1600
No flash

 

Damn Don--you are really getting Good at this. Great shots man.
now where are the nudies!
olddragger

 

You missed em OD. Should have been there my friend.

 

great shots don.. is that the new mazda p2 tub? looks nice!
beers

 

Yep! That's the new closed cockpit Lola Coupe, turbo, 4 banger.

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?t...nnel=340485641

Wish they's put a 4 rotor in it.

 

i dont know, i think a 3 rotor. have you heard a 4 rotor.. i was at road atlanta in the early 80s. and damn the 4 rotors were silly crazy hi pitched loud.. not in a good way.. now the silk cut jags with the v 12s, the noise was good sex!

i miss the imsa gtp class!

beers

 

Here's a great interview with the Mazda group from Speed and shot at Road Atlanta.

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?t...nnel=340485641

Couple laps:
140 in turn T1
160 before T5
160 around T12

 

wow awsome video don..

you should put that up in the mm forum.. the under the bridge thing is still scary!

beers

 

Oh my bejesus ! Daymmmnnn!
1st of all--- some duct tape on that friggin cable flying around would help!
can you imagine 2 hrs in the cockpit at that intensity?
160 around turn 12? Hell 160 period!!!
i am babbling like a little idiot done here.
olddragger

 

[QUOTE=olddragger;2668704]Oh my bejesus ! Daymmmnnn!
1st of all--- some duct tape on that friggin cable flying around would help!
can you imagine 2 hrs in the cockpit at that intensity?
160 around turn 12? Hell 160 period!!!
i am babbling like a little idiot done here.
olddragger[/QUOTE

yea,

that video was wack. that cord had to be out of the line of sight from inside the helmet!! but crazy annoying on the video..

beers

 

Especially when he hit the rumble strips at turn 5.

 

that cable is certainly a prime suspect if they have radio trouble.