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Final Bout Gallery 2019.

416A2155.jpgFinal Bout has been hosting some of the top grassroots events in the nation for the past few years. It’s an incredible event that brings both drivers and spectators together from all across the country to the small town of Shawano Wisconsin for this event. The event is hosted at the well known USA International Raceway/usair. I’m lucky enough to call that track my home track, and seeing the track packed with some of the best drivers and builds in the country is quite the site to see. 416A8652416A7626416A6547416A5431416A3339One of the coolest parts of Final Bout is getting to see builds that you’ve only gotten to drool over pictures of out on the track in front of you shredding. There were drivers/teams from not only all across the country but even from other countries- Japan, Canada, California, New York and so on. RC9C1794416A5601A few drivers were even crazy enough to street drive their cars across the country for the event, like Dom who drove his gorgeous z32 all the way from California and Stewart who drove his S13 2200 miles from Canada. RC9C2227RC9C1441RC9C2742416A9082416A8068416A7152416A6572416A4234416A3564416A4199Style has always been very important in the midwest drift community, and the variety of stunning builds that were out on track at Final Bout certainly followed that suit.RC9C1619RC9C1088RC9C0863416A9193416A9111416A9033416A8678416A8657416A8459416A8042 The Sexy Knights, one of the og groups in the drifting community had 3 cars shipped over from japan to get to drive at the event. This was amazing for a lot of reasons, but getting to see our og’s driving on the doors of the true og’s of the sport sent chills down my spine.416A7955416A8279416A8490RC9C1647416A7626416A7568416A3349416A3532416A2759416A3078416A2085416A1753I’d like to extend an enormous thank you to every single person that had any part in making this event happen, they are the reason the drift culture has grown so big and continues to give us all inspiration for our own builds. Thank you to every driver who put on a show that we will all remember for a lifetime. And thank you to USair for hosting thousands of people at their track so that this event could happen!

My full photo dump of pictures from the event can be found here.

If you are interested in ordering prints of any of my photos, head over to my website here to place orders! Thank you all for your continued support!

The Rolex 24 at Daytona 2019.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona (formerly known as the 24 Hours of Daytona) is a historic race that has been going on annually since 1962. It is a truly incredible race to get to experience up close and personal. You get to witness the teams put their cars and drivers through a full 24 hours of extremely competitive bumper to bumper racing with some of the best drivers in the sport. My dad took me to the race years ago when I had my first dslr and just an 18-55mm kit lense and it was an experience I would never forget. I knew I had to make it back for another event, and this year was the year to do so, so I packed my bags and left the 0 degree temps in Chicago and took off across the country for Florida.416a3785As I made my way towards the pits in the morning, I started to hear the commotion from the teams running all over trying to get the cars prepared for the race and ready for weigh in. Hearing all of the crew members shouting to other crew members over the sound of power tools and roar of the engines starting up really made it set in that I was actually about to get to witness the Rolex 24 race again.416a3770416a3740Once they were all in line for weigh in, it got progressively quieter as they began to prepare themselves mentally to endure the next 24 hours of grueling racing416a4187The checkered flag dropped and the goosebumps rose up on my arms as the cars screamed past me into the first race of the 2019 IMSA season.416a4042416a4210416A3919.jpg416a5091416a6375Daytime quickly turned into night and that is when the real excitement began. This was the part of the race I had been waiting for, this was when the track began to look like a scene straight out of a video game.416a9011416a6754416a8857416a6204416a7861Glowing brakes, bright lights and the roar of the engines brought the track to life as the drivers continued on through the night.416a9020416a8139416a8494416a6821416a7246416a7523416a7851416a8544As the race went on, mother nature was not on their side. About 12 hours in it began to pour rain and throughout the remainder of the race, the track was under a complete downpour. So bad that the race was red flagged twice. By time I woke up to head back out to shoot, the race was under the first red flag so I grabbed breakfast only to come back as soon as the second red flag began. Unfortunately throughout the last few hours the red flag was not lifted and the race ended under a red flag. I was disappointed to lose hours of shooting time but I still had a phenomenal experience and it was without a doubt an excellent way to start the year for my media trips that I have planned to bring you all the best content I can this season. I hope you all enjoyed my photos! If you are interested in viewing my full album from the event, you can find that here. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook for frequent updates!

 

Super D Cup – Midwest Trial 2018.

416A2657Super D is a new but very rapidly growing series that hosts grassroots competition events. They have hosted an event at Grange Motor Circuit and Meihan Sportsland this year and this past weekend they came out to host an event at my “local” track- USAIR (aka The Rollercoaster of Love) in Shawano Wisconsin. Its very cool to see so many drivers I usually see just driving for the fun of it face each other head to head in a tandem competition. Being on the grassroots level means you get to see everything from a stock engine BRZ to a 500hp tt G35 sedan lined up to compete. 416A2667416A2675416A2685A quick walk through the pits had me very excited for the track to go hot, the pits were stacked with so many proper cars.416A2846416A2969The layout selected for competition started with a long straight into turn 1 which allowed for plenty of huge entries all weekend long.416A3456416A4168416A4445416A4490416A4499There were multiple teams that traveled fairly far to attend- one of which was Top Garage and a few of their cars included a KA-T S15 and an LS R32. 416A4608Adam LZ made the trip out from Florida only to have his brand new turbo fail 3 laps in, but luckily he was able to rent a friends KA-T S13 out for the weekend.416A4642416A4939416A5159416A5244416A5343416A5605416A5918416A6238416A6317Its very obvious that the crowd that this event draws brings out their A-game when it comes to driving and style, which is always nice to see so much of at one event.416A6337416A6342416A6475416A6667416A6759416A6776416A6792As Saturday came to an end, it brought some fantastic lighting out and I was able to snap some rad shots as the sun went down.416A6829416A6940416A6957416A7080Just a couple rad rotary powered Mazda’s. 416A7113…annnnd an LS powered Mazda.416A7494416A7527416A7982416A9274Seeing how hard all the drivers were driving was a truly incredible experience, everyone gave it their all to put on a great show for the spectators and have a good time.416A9730416A9769416A9891416A9971At the end of the weekend, Adam LZ managed to get 1st place, and it was well deserved with his very consistent runs and aggressive driving. Super D did an incredible job bringing so many fantastic drivers together to partake in one of the best drift events stateside this year. I cant thank the hosts enough for making this happen, I cant wait for next year. To view the full album of my photos from this album click here. If you enjoyed my coverage, check out my storefront and grab some merch here!

Gridlife South 2018.

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Let me just start by saying Gridlife South 2018 was one of the best automotive events I have ever attended. For those who don’t know, Gridlife is an event that brings Time Attack, Drifting, Car Shows and Music Festivals all together to one place. It brings car enthusiasts from all over to be around what they love the most, no matter what kind of automotive activities they are into, there is something there for everyone. I have been to a few Gridlife Midwest events and they are also fantastic events, but something about Road Atlanta just made this event so much more memorable.

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Since I’m from the midwest, Road Atlanta is quite a drive… roughly 15 hours. Because of that, I haven’t had the chance to make a trip out to this track till now, I’ve only ever seen pictures and driven on it in Forza. Let me tell you, seeing that track in person is absolutely mind blowing. Even with a golf cart I didn’t manage to get to explore the whole track, but that may have been because I was so distracted with the beautiful scenery along the way between different areas of the track. I got the chance to go out on track with my buddy Blake and being out on track not only shows the non-stop drastic elevation changes throughout the track but also how fast of a track it really is.

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Unfortunately there are very few good spots to shoot from in the spectator area of the track once the crowds flooded the spectator areas and I didn’t get media credentials, but I still made do with what I had and did my best to capture the overall vibe of the track and cars out on track. Its always refreshing to see such a wide variety of cars out on the track, everything from full blown race prepped 458 Italia’s to Honda Odyssey’s.

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On the topic of variety, one of my favorite things to see at Gridlife is professional drivers and cars driving side by side with grassroots drivers and cars. There were plenty of professional drivers who attended, some brought out their FD cars and some brought out their practice cars, but they were all out side by side with whichever drivers lined up with them.

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Every drift session was filled with train after train, the drivers were on each others door every lap putting on an outstanding show for the crowd. The drifting was certainly a crowd favorite, every time the announcer would mention a drift session starting soon there would be floods of people rushing towards the track to see the festivities.

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With all of the trains running through the horseshoe section of the track, it got very smokey and made for some very difficult but rewarding photo opportunities.

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RADwood hosted a 80’s and 90’s themed show that brought out some very well kept and well built iconic cars from that era.

There was no shortage of unique swaps, such as an sr20 Cressida, 2jz Ford Fairmont Wagon, 2jz R34 Skyline, 2jz Saturn Sky… there was a common theme of 2jz everything.

I just couldn’t get enough of shooting so many rad cars on such a scenic track.

Despite being mostly about the cars, the festivities don’t end when the sun goes down, they just get more rowdy. They always bring out plenty of artists to put on a great show for everyone.

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Everyone involved in making gridlife happen did a superb job of making it a truly unforgettable event, I will without a doubt be making the trip across the country again next year and hopefully I will have media credentials next year to get you all even better coverage. If you’d like to see my full photo dump from this event, you can check it out here. Feel free to follow me on instagram here to see what events I will be attending to shoot as well as see photos from past and future events.

 

 

IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship at Road America.

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Let me start off by saying that I am by no means a writer, I’m a photographer. But I want to give you all something more than just a bunch of photos dumped into an album. My goal is to bring you all a bit closer to the adventures I go through to shoot these events rather than just give you the usual bland overview and final standings of an event. So without further ado, here is my first attempt at bringing you all behind the scenes with me.

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Its been somewhere between 5-6 years since I’ve made a trip out to Road America, I’ve spent most of my free time at various drift events shooting photos and driving some last year and the year before. I heard about the IMSA series coming to Road America in a few weeks and figured that would be an excellent event for my first time back in so long. 4am came around and I headed out to pick up a buddy to head up there. We were greeted with a huge variety of sports cars, muscle cars and just about anything under the sea in the spectator parking lots as we made our way towards the pits. As we were walking up to the tunnel to enter the pits, we were blessed with the angelic exhaust note of the Lamborghini Trofeo series cars blasting past the start line above us. Now let me tell you, I’m use to noisy straight piped ka s13’s and such… but full blown race cars like these put out an exhaust note that sends vibrations through your insides.

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You never really realize how massive road courses are until you want to shoot at multiple locations during one race, driving between locations gets quite hectic fighting through the crowds of people who don’t understand that there are walking paths for a reason. We started off the day shooting at the carousel, which was outstanding for panning shots- its a nice wide sweeper that you can access the inside of the corner quite easily, so some 1/30th pans were in store. I haven’t shot any road racing in at least 5 years and man was I rusty, but as the day went on I was starting to figure things out a bit.

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I may be biased, but some of my favorite cars to see ripping up the track would be the Acura NSX’s and Ford GT’s, something about seeing cars with such an iconic racing history being back on track with new designs and a whole lot more technology was satisfying.

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While out exploring the track, we managed to find a spot to shoot through some breaks in the trees that were just big enough to see the cars through… and the results were definitely worth crawling through weeds and trees to get the shots.

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Working on relearning panning with road racing on cars that were blasting by at speeds well over 100mph certainly brought some light to the fact that I have a lot to learn, but I couldn’t be more excited to apply some things I’ve learned since this event at the next road racing event I make it out to.

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As the IMSA race came down to the last 5 minutes, chaos broke out lap after lap as all the drivers put forth everything they could to secure the position they were chasing, It was such a mind-blowing site to see drivers drafting other drivers so close that you couldn’t even see light between the bumpers of the two cars.

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I had an outstanding time shooting this event, and I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to make it out. I hope to travel to some other tracks for more road racing this season, I will be at Gridlife South though so that’s a start! If you would like to see the final standings from the IMSA Race, check them out here. I have my full set from this event uploaded here, if you are interested in purchasing any of the photos, feel free to contact me at anagy@tracer-media.com. Thank you for sticking around to the end, let me know if you like the idea of these posts and would like to see more for future events.