A Weekend at Mid-Ohio

Автор: RaymondLilly on пятница, 21 августа 2009 г. / Ярлыки: , , , , ,

From June 19-21, I covered the entire set of events at the Mid-Ohio Race Course and it was an absolute blast. I’ve attended the Rolex Series’ EMCO Gears Challenge since 2006, but this time I did something different. I got together with some friends and we stayed in an RV that was parked on the course! You would fall asleep to the silent, calming sound of an empty, peaceful track and wake up to the sound of racers taking the course at 200 MPH. It was relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. For someone as into racing as I am, the entire experience was a glimpse of heaven. View the full released gallery and read more after the jump.

Throughout the weekend, I spent time with the drivers and teams in the pits, walked the entire track in the evening (literally on the pavement that Daytona Prototypes were racing on just 30 mins earlier), met every single driver including Patrick Dempsey, cooked burgers and hot dogs right next to the track (they were really good), watched some idiots try to steal banners off of the course and get caught, twittered about all of the action and took way too many photos. But the most enjoyable part of the entire experience was simply being in the midst of racing 24 hours a day, for three solid days.

The first day of action consisted of mostly cloudy skies and GT / GS car qualifying. There were a couple qualifying races with Daytona Prototypes, but nothing too prominent. I visited the paddock and pits for free this day, which planted the idea that Mid-Ohio is generally relaxed on all “smaller” event days. I actually helped the Pirelli Race Team pack up their tents. Many great photos were taken, I took an awesome walk around the track (that’s when I really realized that Mid-Ohio was relaxed) and the A/C crapped out on our RV (For $600 a night, you would think they could do better, haha).

Day two was the big day. It started off with very early qualifying (I love waking up to the sound of GS cars hauling ass around turns) and then moved on to a Tuner Race, the Mustang Challenge, a two and a half hour GS / GT Race (which was extremely entertaining…seriously, look at the history on my twitter account) and then came the big kahuna! The Rolex Series’ EMCO Gears Challenge was on at 5:00 PM and it was intense. SPEED Channel covered the entire race, which was a little over two and three quarters of an hour long. Within the first lap, I witnessed a car spin out, the top three Prototypes dice it out and a bunch of GT cars get passed. This was two races in one, so it was hard to keep track, but I did my best and really had a blast. They sent someone out to fix the A/C too, so everyone was happy.

Day three consisted of two races and two qualifying sessions (Tuner and Jetta). In the morning, everything was changed as the CEO of VW decided that he wanted to do some hot laps. So, the tuner qualifying ended up coming first and at a delayed time (around 8:30). Next came the Jettas and then both races. I left a bit early and got home in time to load all the photos for the gallery, finish a book on the experience and get everything ready for the web. The entire time, I could not stop thinking about what a wonderful time I had. I literally will never forget it. Make sure that you check out the full gallery and consider purchasing the book which consists of all 52 released photos and several (beautiful) unreleased photos, all in the highest resolution that they will ever be experienced in. Also, make sure that you head out to Mid-Ohio when ever you can. I promise you won’t regret it.

Photography by Austin Knight.



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