Round Six Formula Drift at Infineon Raceway

So here we are again. Formula Drift round 6 of 7 happening at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway. The event was initially planned to be in September but pushed forward to coincide with the Indy Racing League event happening the same weekend. No complaints. I get antsy when I don't have things to shoot. Nevertheless, starting shooting practice on Thursday, then top 32 competition on Friday. To be honest, this entire week is pretty much a blur and I don't remember much of what happened. All I know is that I slept in Sunday and it was damn good.

So Thursday competition was open after the IRL finished their practice runs and the Formula Drift drivers could go at it, utilizing turns 4a (starting point) and 7 as the main sections of the track, however there would be no on-track shooting that day. Friday competition was pretty intense. Stuck myself on the shooting island and had 90mph+ runs going by. Hooray for a good breeze or we'd be sitting in a cloud of smoke just like Las Vegas.

Afterwards, hung out with photographer gangsters Steve Demmitt and Allen Chu. They booked a hotel. In the ghettos of Santa Rosa. With a club connected to it. Needless to say they crashed at my place the next night. Right on for Allen not being a bitch and coming out to party. Steve doing stupidness and getting a girl's number but not cocaine. Formula Drift's Ceso for just being sav and staying up for hours on end. Ms. Formula Drift Miki Taka DJ'ing at Horizon and music swap. I loves me some house and trance.

Main competition was Saturday. Unfortunately I was DJ'ing a wedding and did not attend the show. Heard it was a good one. Calvin Wan and Chris Forsberg went at it again. And bashed each other again. The non-qualifying Formula Drift drivers got to do 3 laps of Infineon. Which is pretty damn awesome as every sports network and thousands of fans get to see the madness that is drifting. Ryuji Miki (Apex-i RX7) took third place. Ken the Gush took second which is high five awesome. Extremely damn proud for Stephan Verdier for taking home top honors. This guy has been competing for three years in his STi, balls out every run and takes home his first victory. I would like to pat him on the shoulder. On with the pictures!

Shot with :
Nikon D80 / Nikon D2H (with insaneo sensor dust) (yay corby for cleaning it out)
Sigma 100-300 f4, Tokina 12-24 f4, Nikon 18-70
Camel pack of water which I left in the trunk
Yogurt Soju and korean fried chicken
Demmitt's backpack/laptop contraption

My shooting island for Friday. Again it was 90+ degrees and I forgot my water. I keep doing that. Bunch of Indy Racing photogs were out there mixing it up with us guys.


Kenji Yamanaka
5.6L Titan engine stuffed in an S15
You bet it sounded nutty


Robbie Nishida


Jodin LeJeune
Supercharged 5.6L V8


Ken Gushi


Infineon Raceway of Sonoma California
The 1320 right behind the holding area


Kyle Mohan


Samuel Huuuuuuuubinette


Holding Area
Ross Petty, Calvin Wan, Ryuji Miki, Ryan Tuerck, Rhys Millen and Darren McNamerra


Mike Essa, who needs a bumper?


Rhys Millen


Tony Brakiohapa
Driving instructor at Infineon Raceway


Stephan Verdier


Taka Aono kicks up some dirt


Calvin Wan


Tanner Foust finishing up his run


N1 Concepts J's Racing S2000


Taka Aono and Matt Powers


Battle Scars


JTP


Kyle Mohan


Tanner Foxy Foust


Daijiro My Hair is Cool Yoshihara


Robbie Nishida


DMac


That'll wrap it up for this weekend. Now getting ready for a busy fall season. Oh and DJ'ing at Temple this Thursday (8.27.09) shameless plug I know. Peace.Out.Side.

Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races

Another wonderful weekend at the beautiful Laguna-Seca raceway in Monterey California. This time it's the Rolex and Porsche sponsored Historic Automobile Races of Monterey, basically every petrol-head's sacred event. The thing about the Historic Races out here is that it draws every automotive enthusiast from 9 years old to 90 years old, and every historic car along the way. Laguna-Seca turns into a holy land for 3 days.
Where to start..?
Most car nuts remember a time when their age was only a single digit, and a good number of cars were hammered into our heads with being the fastest, most outrageous, most beautiful, etc. We never actually see these cars in real life, however, and grow into our adult years driven soul-less, passionless crap boxes from point A to point B.
Then one day you find yourself, at Laguna-Seca standing in front of your childhood dream cars. Sure there's a Ferrari Enzo down the ways, and there's a sea of Porsche 911 GT3 RS's, roll cage, Recaro seats and all. But in front of you sits a Mercedes 300 Gullwing. I once met a man who owned a Gullwing, and ended up going bankrupt due to his love of cars. And he told me there were only 3 Mercedes Gullwings in all of California. We truly are standing in rarified air.
On over to the Cannepa racing booth. Race bred Porsche, track tuned Porsche, etc. And at the end of the line up, a simple Porsche 959. I never thought'd I would ever see this car in person. You could walk right by this car and not give it a second look. It looks like a bog standard Porsche turbo, but in the 1980s-1990s, this was one of the fastest production cars out there. With a top speed of over 200mph. My Sentra maxed at 115mph once...
On with the show. I'm not going to mess about, the cars at the Historic Races are older than I am. I recognize the manufacturers but not the cars themselves. And that's what makes these cars special. The breeding, the passion and soul with Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, Bugatti, and Porsche; all these high end manufacturers, started out building race cars. These are the names that began motorsport. They are the reason I love cars. If you've never seen a carbeurated Ferrari V12, its something else. It's crafted, not built. They're not designed to get you from point A to point B. They're not designed to really get you anywhere. These were cars built for the sheer enjoyment of driving. We don't get much of that these days.

As far as the coverage from this weekend? I applied for my media credentials a bit too late, and wasn't given an on-track photo pass. At first I was a bit disappointed and just walked around the paddock to see what I could work with. The overcast skies gave way to deep blue skies and car covers being tossed aside to reveal genuinely priceless works of automotive art.
Being that Porsche sponsored the event, there was a tent that featured some of the greatest history makers in motorsport, including the Gulf Racing Ford GT40. Damn near every Porsche owner from the West Coast was in attendance; a sea of rear-engined bliss.

The cars were from an era before my time. I couldn't afford these cars even if I sold my kidney, liver, left leg, an eye or my dog. No I didn't have my usual on-track photo credentials. And that Ferrari Enzo wasn't even the nicest car there. That's Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races.

Shot with :
Nikon D80 / Nikon D2H
Tokina 12-24 f/4, Sigma 100-300 f/4
Funky post processing for that 'retro' look

Pickathon Music Festival 2009

Well another hot and humid weekend. It seems that every photo assignment requires me to endure blazing hot temperatures. It sucks the creativity out of me and every photo I take. But you live and you learn. Next time, I'm bringing a camelpack water backpack thinger.

This was an interesting one. The 2009 Pickathon Indie Roots Music Festival in Portland Oregon. Covering for The Deli SF online magazine which follows San Francisco based indie music bands all over the country. This weekend, I'd be covering the bands Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and Vetiver. Never been to an indie music festival and was in for quite a culture shock. Here's how it went down.

Shot with :
Nikon D80 / D2H
Tokina 12-24, Nikon 18-70, Sigma 100-300 f4
SB600, Tiffen CP filters
iso 3200 (yeah grainy photos)
iPhone life-saving-get-me-out-of-hick-town-or-we'll-get-shot GPS navigation
Banana Boat all day, sweat resistant sunblock
KFC fried chicken + A&W Rootbeer


Some killer clouds and sun stuff on the way there (well this picture was taken on the way back, but you know, start off with a cool sky/cloud picture)


Mount Shasta on the way up on Hwy 5. Beautiful Scenery driving up, tons of mountains, trees, cool lakes along the way. Apparently Llamas are in quite a high abundance in Oregon. Totally pwns Hwy 5 south towards LA.


So we find ourselves in Portland looking for food. Big ups to the yelp application on my iPhone which listed out a 4 star restaurant named BrunchBox. Let's go look for this place! We stumble on this block in the "financial" district which is basically a whole entire row of taco trucks, shacks, foot carts and stands. Everything from Mexican food, Thai food, Vietnamese, Vegetarian, you name it, they got it. Most of it was closed since it wasn't a business day. Lo and behold, BrunchBox is one of these carts. According to yelp, this place "could turn a vegetarian into a meat lover". Oh hell yes.


Here's BrunchBox's menu. Youcanhascheeseburger, OMG! Burger. Fuck yeah this place is awesome. $1 for a coke and roughly $3-$6 for a burger.


I went an ordered the Redonkadonk ($9 but hey who's counting?) This thing was insanity. Burger patty, sunnyside up egg, two slices of spam, 4 slices of bacon, a slice of ham and cheese stuffed between two Texas toast grilled cheese sammich "buns". Took me two cans of cokes to finish. Didn't feel right afterwards but man, kick ass sandwich.


Now for the concert. Traveled with two former SF State Students, Jane (middle) and Chris (right) met a cool photog from melophobe.com Ian (left). They'd be doing the interview, writing, some photos, etc. and I'd be running around getting festival coverage. Free beer and frozen fruit pops back stage. Yeeaah.


Little bit of an overview of Pickathon. It's an indie roots music festival covering everything from Bluegrass to downsouth Country twang, folk music, a little bit of alternative rock(?) and just a wide random assortment of grassroots music. I'm open to new music but it looked like a Woodstock concert to me. Located at the Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley Oregon, Pickathon featured one large main stage, 3 smaller stages and 2 barns with live bands. Non stop music from morning til night.

And yes, I was the only Asian male there.


Cool T-shirts for sale


No, can't really say I do.


Funny people backstage


Thao Nguyen, lead singer of "Thao with the Get Down Stay Down"




Sanders Trippe, guitars & vocals, Vetiver


Andy Cabic (left) vocal + guitars, Kevin Barker (right) guitars, Vetiver


Andy Cabic rocking out on stage


The crowd was going nuts!


When night fell, the stage and decor just lit up.


Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog on stage


Toby Leaman, Dr. Dog


Scott McMicken, Dr. Dog


Toby Leaman, Dr. Dog


Guess that'll wrap up the photos for this weekend. Big thanks to Andy and Pam McDavid for letting us stay the weekend in their gorgeous house. Check out their photos at : www.frontstreetphotos.com Shout out to Lucky the dog, who is just awesome. Jane and Chris for road tripping up. Big what's up to the meth head who shot up and passed out in the Starbucks bathroom. Check out compoundgallery.com, bought some cool clothes there. And Skinnidip yogurt (owned by Asians yeeeee) If you're ever in Portland and want some bomb yogurt, myspace.com/skinnidipiyogurt

Check back next time!