Sonoma GoPro Grand Prix Pics - August '13

HKYStormFront

it's been a crazy (in a good way) month at work but thankfully, i was able to get a few days off of work to go with the World Challenge team to Race Sonoma and it was a dramatic one for sure. i arrived late thursday evening so there were only two track sessions before the race for me to shoot, a practice which was cut short by an AE Performance mustang literally blowing his engine apart and a very brief qualifying session. i liked Sonoma as a track but it was difficult to take pictures at. there were only really a few good spots and they seemed to be miles apart from each other so i really didn't get to take that many track pictures this time. i tried to focus on taking better pit shots this time, trying to be more creative with my topics and framing. i also rented a sigma 35 f/1.4, which turned out to be awesome, and used mostly it and my 135 f/2 in the pits as oppposed to just keeping my 28-70 f/2/.8 on all the time. anyway, on to the pics...

album:

PWC Sonoma Grand Prix - August '13 - JPMcG Photography

fav's:

1. i'm in love with f/1.4...


2. up over turn 3A, one of my favorites i've ever taken of Brian's car


3. after the first practice, Brian (L) and Steve (R) look at their data. Steve was last year's winner of the Playstation GT Academy


4. Nissan also put GT Academy driver Bryan Heitkotter in the Hawk Performance GTR for the race but it suffered a suspension failure after just a few laps of the race


5. Dorherty's car at f/1.4


6. lined up on the grid with our lovely, and awesome, flag girl, Melissa Dacher


7. during the start of the race Brian was able to move up quite a few positions due to the chaos of the standing start


8. unfortunately Brian's coolsuit tank came loose about 10 laps into the race and started spilling ice water all over the inside of the car which ended up on the rear tires


Brian ended up having to pit to drain the water and forfeit what looked to be a possible top 5 finish in GTS class. steve's car would not start after driving to the grid due to a dead battery and he was unable to jump it off to start the race. the team's last race of the season is Houston the first weekend of october.

as usual, i've kept all the pics here to the team i was shooting for but there's plenty more shots of the other contenders in the album so be sure to check them out! thanks for looking!

__________________
Patrick // 06 Frontier 6spd Nismosis // Mods: Uprev Tuned @ Z1 Motorsports: 257whp & 292 ft lbs
09 Pontiac G8 GXP // M6 // Sunroof // Tint... For now