Before and After at Sonoma – Laying Down Rubber

In looking back through a few shots at Sonoma, I happened upon two different photos of the same car in the same corner (Turn 9).  One was taken on the first lap of practice on Friday and one during the second race on Sunday.

Friday welcomes drivers to a clean track.  Sunday bears the scars of a weekend full of racing with multiple cars across multiple classes and multiple races.

Friday shows very clean yellow and blue curbing but Sunday shows a heavy layer of tire rubber – evidence of many cars bouncing over the curbs in search of the fast route through the quick right-left combination.

The Sonoma Grand Prix weekend hosted IndyCar, Pirelli World Challenge (two classes), and an open wheel support series.

What’s the fastest way around Turn 9?  Apparently, it is to use the curbing liberally.  Our tour guide for this set is Ryan Eversley in the Realtime Acura.  The Acura TLX program was winding down in favor of the brand new and highly anticipated NSX GT3 car for 2017, but Eversely (and team-mate for the weekend Peter Kox) was still hustling.

 

2016 Sonoma PwC Paddock – Wright Racing 959 and 911 Race car

Walking through the paddock can provide interesting visual comparisons if you keep a keen watch for such opportunities.  A black road going Porsche 959 resided with the Wright Racing team for the weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge paddock.

Getting a chance to have a close look at a 959 is always a treat but after the second race on Sunday, the team parked the black 959 against the fence alongside one of the team’s team’s 911 race cars.  The chance to visually line up the 1980s supercar with its modern day racing brother was not to be missed.

Parente and Cindric Battle

K-PAX Racing joined together with Flying Lizard Racing to run three McLarens in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season.  Alvaro Parente in the yellow car, Austin Cindric in the blue car, and Colin Thompson in the orange car make a vibrant easter basket of colorful entries.

In the Sonoma round, Parente and Cindric showed very similar pace and ran closely together.  In the Sunday race, they ran nose-to-tail for most of the event.  This shot is taken at the quick right/left sequence of Turn 9 and also shows damage on the front of Parente’s car.

A 1/500 shutter speed with aperature at f/8 and 420mm was enough to freeze the yellow McLaren.  It was enough to freeze the action, but a touch too fast to produce enough blur of the yellow logos on the tires to show movement.

Colin Thompson’s McLaren

Colin Thompson’s orange and black McLaren provides a sharp contrast against the white retaining wall and red Coca-Cola signage.  Thompson was on the gas and accelerating out of Turn 9 in this shot.  The objective was to get a good panning shot by moving the lens with the car to make the car sharp but everything else slightly blurry to show motion.

The shutter speed of 1/250 was just fast enough to show some blur without freezing the scene completely.  A faster speed would have not shown much blur.  A slower speed may have shown more blur and been more dramatic, but the objective of the shot at the time was to show just enough blur – not so much to throw the background into an indistinguishable splash of color.  Slower shutter speeds can produce more artistic shots, but are more difficult to get and be less useful in conjunction with a story that merely wants to show a good shot of the car rather than a shot that draws attention to the dramatic flair of the photo instead of the car.

Camera Settings – 1/250, f/8, ISO 100, 165mm.

Fong on the Move

The Absolute Racing Bentley of Adderly Fong is a right-hand drive machine, the only such marque in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge field.  A prime spot inside Turn 11 looking back towards pit lane provided a great setting for a panning shot at Fong accelerated out of the turn and headed towards the start/finish line.

While the shutter speed is enough to show motion and blur, the horizontal silver fencing between pit lane and the race track creates an interesting backdrop as the gray Bentley whistles by.

Yes, ideally the shot would have included the entire car but the clarity of the Bentley and the backdrop makes it an interesting photo regardless.

Camera Settings – 1/200, f/8, ISO 100, 280mm.