Mid Ohio Gallery Reader's Choice

Mid Ohio marked the first natural terrain roadcourse gallery of the season and as many voters noted, the images were among the best we had all season. Now there's a reason not to race too much on ovals...

16 of 29 images got votes, again showing that we had a nice mix of photos for everyone's taste. The action photos were the most popolar as usual - more than 50% of the vote chose either the start melee or the tire lock of Fittipaldi. No chance for artsy photos and unique angles when there are photos with 11 cars going three wide...

Personally, I think the "Global Warming" shot and the "Duct-taped and flyin' Low" are on top of my own ranking, with many others real close. The Action stuff just doesn't cut it for my technical standards ;-) (the start is an ugly angle and ugly light, the lockup is not in perfect focus...)

Here the vote ranking for the Mid Ohio Gallery:

Filename                      Thumbnail Caption           votes  percent
gil_turn_right.jpg            Gil Blows the Start           18   31.03%
fashion_model_lockup.jpg      Fashionable Lockup            12   20.69%
duct_tape_rookie.jpg          Duct-taped and flyin' low      5    8.62%
andretti_in_the_sky.jpg       Andretti in the Sky            4    6.90%
i_cant_take_it_anymore.jpg    I can't take it anymore        4    6.90%
the_heat_is_on.jpg            Global Warming                 2    3.45%
alex_in_a_red_car.jpg         I want the Cup, Tshimmy        2    3.45%
darth_vader_alumaxed.jpg      Darth Vader meets Alumax       2    3.45%
herta_hillcrest.jpg           Hillclimb Herta                2    3.45%
air_driver_adrian.jpg         Air Driver Adrian              1    1.72%
alex_has_a_fan.jpg            Alex has a Fan                 1    1.72%
speed_stick_vasser.jpg        Speed Stick Vasser             1    1.72%
running_the_valley.jpg        A nice morning in the vally    1    1.72%
chip_i_bent_the_car.jpg       Sorry Chip, I bent the car     1    1.72%
max_dressed_for_work.jpg      How does my outfit look?       1    1.72%
mad_the_max_papis.jpg         The kid is a natural           1    1.72%
                                                            58  100.00%

The winning image above was not what I had planned on Raceday for the start. I was all set up to shoot that start from right in front of where Gil went off the track, but safety people rulled that area as unsafe (yeah - 1/2 mile off track and on a earth pile behind a huge gravel trap - call it a knee-jerk reaction after Toronto). So i did the alternat thing, crossed the track just before the start and shot the first laps from the top of the Esses. Without Gil going off, it would have been a waste of film...