Category Archives: Photography

24 Hours of Nurburgring 2015

The legendary Nürburgring – a massive motorsports complex within which exist entire towns. In it’s combined Nordschleife and Grand Prix course configuration, drivers face over 25 km (15.5 miles) of asphalt and over 1,000 feet of elevation change each lap.

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Every year since 1970 (with only a few exceptions), the 24 Hours Nürburgring race has turned this track into a giant motorsports party. Numerous races are held on the track in the week preceding the flagship event, and thousands fans show up early to construct makeshift housing to live in for the week. With so many miles of track, there are plenty of places to set up camp and have a few of the action all day (and all night). The fans build structures that go far beyond basic campsites, including observation towers, beer huts, gardens, and dance halls.

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When the Nürburgring isn’t being used for races, the public can drive it for a fee. While there are some speed limited sections, it’s still quite fast and dangerous, but motorists have to follow the normal German driving laws — such as only passing on the left. On public days, it isn’t just sports cars that show up, but everything else from delivery trucks to mopeds and tour buses.

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For many visitors, the first sign of the track isn’t the catch fences, the red and white curbing, or the graffiti-covered tarmac — it’s the sound of uncorked race engines roaring through the forest. From public roads, there are very few places from which you can get a visual indication of the track, but the roads come close enough that you can easily make out the distinct sounds of the cars.

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For the race start, we hiked out to the Nordkehre turn and arrived just as the green flag dropped. The race start is one of the only chances you have to see lots of cars bunched up. With a 15+ mile track, there’s a lot of room to spread out as the race goes on.

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Unfortunately, fans were packed around the fence in this location and I couldn’t get close enough to a hole in the wall to fit my lens through, so we had to hike on to another spot.

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We hiked a few kilometers past Nordkehre to Hatzenbach and Hocheichen. Equally mesmerising were the passing race cars and the massive fan-built encampments lining the track. Some of these were quite elaborate, with temporary grandstands, cranes hoisting up chairs, and playground slides.

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And of course there were the thousands of beer bottles and cans built up into every sculpture imaginable. The Germans never run out of clever ways to use their empty beverage containers!

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As we hiked past turn after turn of this immense track, we began to notice the track darkening and reflecting more of the bright lights of the GT3 cars. I checked the time and it was still many hours before sunset. Moisture was condensing onto the track, and soon it began to rain.

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As the rain fell, we hiked our way back toward the Grand Prix circuit to find some good German bratwurst to warm up with and see some of the exhibitions in the visitors center.

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In the week preceding the 24 Hours race, the track is constantly in use for supporting races, VIP ride-alongs, and time-trials style events. Even while the main race is running, side events are happening throughout the facility, such as this drift demonstration sponsored by Falken. We found it by following the smell and taste of tiresmoke in the air. For all I know, these guys have been drifting for spectators every day for the past week. I wonder how much rubber they’ve gone though?

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After picking up some souvenirs in the visitor center we moved on to the Grand Prix circuit, which connects to the Nordschleife to form the full course used in the 24 Hours race. It’s interesting to see the stark contrast between the concrete and gravel traps Grand Prix circuit and the green, hilly, country-road-turned-race-track Nordschleife.

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As the sky darkened, you could begin to make out the subtler lighting on the cars, such as the red-hot brake rotors coming into the braking zone for Dunlop-Kehre.

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The lights on the faster cars were stunning at night — the yellow-tinted lamps make it clear to slower drivers that faster cars are approaching in their mirrors, and the top qualifiers have the addition of bright blue strobes in the corner of the windshield to further facilitate easy passing of outclassed cars.

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After a dinner break, we returned to the track with full stomachs and full darkness.

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Some small professional fireworks gave life to the outskirts of the track in some areas, but as midnight passed you could tell that most people were hunkering down and getting some sleep before morning.

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Except in the dance club tents of course. Yes, there were tents with DJs at turntables blasting beats through the night for those that refused to sleep in the presence of such a grand race.

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On day 2, we hiked to the Karussel. Access to much of the track by car requires driving on dirt roads and logging trails, which are off limits to travel by the general public during the race, except on foot. It was a beautiful walk through the forest, with the sounds of race cars in the distance.

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When we reached the Karussell we found out we couldn’t actually get a view of it without a media pass, because there was no catch fence on the outside of the track.

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Unfortunately, there is no high ground on the outside of the Karussel beyond the restricted zone,  so the best we could do was watch cars exiting the turn.

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If we wanted to see the concrete slabs of the Karussell itself we’d have to hike 45 minutes back to the car and then drive an hour through traffic to park on another trail, where we’d have to hike a few miles to get to the inside of the turn.

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Instead of heading back, we hiked further up the trail running parallel the track, and found some tree stumps to stand on and get a better view. Standing on a stump by the left kink after the Karussell, we were incredibly close to incredibly fast cars without a fence blocking our view. Awesome!

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As last hour of the race was winding down, we decided it was time to hike back to the car so we could miss the huge crowds on the way out.

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Our last walk through the beautiful Green Hell took us past our final view of Nurburg Castle, which has overlooked the region for nearly 900 years.

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For years I’ve dreamed of driving on the Nürburgring and attending the 24-hour endurance race. This year, I finally had the opportunity to watch the event during a 3-week trip to Europe. I had only a limited amount of time at the Nurburgring itself, so I wasn’t able to stay long enough before or after the race to be able to make it on track during a public day, but I know I’ll be back someday.

NASA Buttonwillow Enduro April 2014

I visited California’s Buttonwillow Raceway on April 5, 2014 for the NASA / WERC 3-hour endurance race to capture some photos. Endurance races are fantastic photo opportunities due to the variety of cars and lighting conditions (they nearly always run through sunrise or sunset) .  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

(c) Copyright 2014, Steven T. Snyder, All Rights Reserved.

2014 Porterfield RallyCross Season Opener

On March 16th 2014, a field of 83 drivers slid their cars around Glen Helen Raceway’s dirt course for the 2014 Porterfield Glen Helen RallyCross #1, the first event of the year.

The massive turnout brought an incredible variety of vehicles out to the race including Mazda Miatas, BMWs, VWs, a Dodge Neon, and others, with 50% of the grid consisting solely of Subarus.

Danny Downey (1992 Dodge Stealth #711) started the season with a Stock 2WD class win, leading by 13 seconds over John Black (2012 Ford #34) ), with Matt Price (2013 Ford Focus #39) close behind. With with Downey’s previous rival Bill Martin — the 2013 Championship winner for Stock 2WD — having moved to Stock AWD class this year in a new car, Downey doesn’t yet have a close rival in this year’s championship.

Stock AWD class saw a very close finish between rivals James Veatch (1997 Subaru Impreza #155) and Mathew Mendoza (2004 Subaru WRX #420) with only 0.416 seconds separating the two but Veatch coming out ahead — that’s a mere 0.1% difference in total times! Bill Martin finished 6 seconds behind the win, but expect to see him remain a contender for the rest of the season.

Prepared 2WD saw a grid of 3 drivers, with Sarkis Mazmanian (1993 Honda Civic #777) and Vahan Yessayan (1988 Toyota Corolla FX #160) in a close battle for the lead. Mazmanian finished 0.541 seconds ahead of Yessayan — another surprisingly close race that mimicked what happened in Stock AWD. It’s looking to be a good year!

Brent Smith took the Prepared AWD class lead in his 2009 Subaru STI  (#433) with the fastest total time of the day and 7.3 seconds over Daryl Fike’s 2005 Subaru STI #16.

Modified 2WD saw the largest grid of cars with a total of 20 entries. Eric Martin took the lead in his 1982 VW Rabbit (#4) with a 5.41 second lead over Michael Cadwell’s 1994 BMW 325is (#854). David Moss (2010 Ford Focus #22) finished in 3rd, 4.93 seconds behind Cadwell’s BMW.

The flagship Modified AWD class saw 18 total entries and some close finishes. Cameron Meng (2006 Subaru WRX #511) took the class lead, followed by Mark Ackenback’s 2004 Subaru STI (#733) and Thomas Bloess’ 2008 Subaru WRX (#31).

And  now.. on to the pictures!

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

(c) Copyright 2014, Steven T. Snyder, All Rights Reserved.

A Mean Blue S2000 at Speed Ventures February 15, 2014

To get warmed up for this year’s season of NASA track days, I signed up for a Speed Ventures autocross at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Speed Ventures hosts the autocross event on one of the infield parking lots at the same time as a track day event on the Roval course, a demanding circuit with a mix of high-speed banked sections on the NASCAR oval mixed with a more technical infield course.

In between my autocross run groups I took the opportunity for an impromptu photo shoot – including some on track action – with Chris’ Wiita’s awesome 2007 Honda S2000 AP2.

Chris Wiita was there for the Speed Ventures track day with his Laguna Blue Pearl S2000, which he’s been modifying and tuning since purchasing it in 2010, when it was bone stock. Chris started by dialing in the car for autocross and moved on to track days in 2013, where he’s been setting highly respectable lap times at various California road courses, including a 1:58 on the Roval with street tires. You can see a video of that run here.

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Laguna Blue Pearl is probably the best color this car was ever available with, if not the best Honda color ever!
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Sparco Rev seats and blue Schroth harnesses adorn the interior. A Hard Dog Fabrication roll bar anchors the harnesses, provides rollover protection, and a place to mount a GoPro!
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As clean and sharp looking as this car is, the mods are pretty much all business.
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The APR-250 wing is supported by custom aluminum uprights that Chris designed and built. The uprights are skeletonized to reduce weight but the holes are covered with composite panels to reduce drag.
Chris set a 1:58 lap time on 255/40/17 Hankook RS3s
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Hawk HP+ pads slow this AP2 down lap after lap without fade, but once this car gets an upgrade in the power department, a big brake kit will probably make an appearance. Knowing Chris it will be something we haven’t seen before on an S2k.
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The custom water-jet cut and machined aluminum wing risers attach to steel brackets connected directly to the frame to transfer maximum downforce to the rear tires.
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Stack oil temperature and pressure gauges give Chris a clear indication of how the engine is dealing with being pushed hard on the track.
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Chris’ S2000 currently sits on Enkei PF01s wrapped in 255-40-17 Hankook RS3s, but he tells me that big upgrades in the wheel and tire department are on the way.
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The massive APR GT-250 wing really dominates the appearance of this S2000 on the track. It looks wider than the car!
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Chris records all of his laps on multiple GoPro cameras to review and share at te end of the day.
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The carbon fiber wingstand brace and plastic airfoil really show Chris’ attention to detail. This Honda S2000 has a lot of interesting modifications that aren’t seen anywhere else.