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.
As 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.
Once 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 racing
The 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.
Daytime 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.
Glowing brakes, bright lights and the roar of the engines brought the track to life as the drivers continued on through the night.
As 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 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. 
A quick walk through the pits had me very excited for the track to go hot, the pits were stacked with so many proper cars.
The layout selected for competition started with a long straight into turn 1 which allowed for plenty of huge entries all weekend long.
There 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. 
Adam 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.
Its 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.
Just a couple rad rotary powered Mazda’s. 
…annnnd an LS powered Mazda.
Seeing 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.
At 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 
Tracer Media 