Photow00t, part II

I'm excited.

Next week begins the run-up to the 2010 edition of the Honda Indy Toronto, a weekend racing event on the grounds of Exhibition Place. I went last year, for the first time since 1990, and had a blast wandering around on a general admission ticket, taking lots of photos as you might expect. This year, I would have been tempted to do the same, especially since Friday admission is now free.

But - I won't have to. Because this year I am an official member of the Volunteer Photo Corps, meaning full access all three days, as a photographer credentialed by the event's promoter. Fantastic! Paddock access, trackside, media centre - you name it.

Now, all of this comes with expectations, of course - I will not be free to roam. There are location assignments. There is a shot list that needs to be filled.

It'll be very different from my usual "shoot five hundred photos that I like and sort out the good ones later" approach. There will be latitude to be creative, to be sure, but this will be more like photo-journalism - get the required shots, get them fast, compose them in the camera as close as possible to how they're going to finally look, because there won't be time for editing, and get photos that tell the story. A whole new kind of challenge, and it will be fun.

Now, all I have to do before next Friday is make sure I have the shot list, a spotter's guide, a fully charged camera battery and a pocket full of empty memory cards and earplugs, and I'm all set. A new camera wouldn't hurt either, but that just ain't gonna happen unfortunately.

Watch the race on TV - you might even see me. 12:30 PM Eastern, Sunday the 18th, on ABC.

12 hours on Saturday

Question: Is it possible, being a member of a family of four, each with busy schedules, as well as being piled under a variety of different work assignments, to watch or otherwise pay attention to almost all of a 12-hour car race on television on a weekend?

A: Apparently yes, but it requires the use of multiple technologies.

And so the 57th running of the American Le Mans Series Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is over, having occupied most of Saturday's daylight hours and a good chunk of the night as well. And yes, by employing a complicated dance involving running up and down the stairs, laptop in hand for the live scoring and timing updates, and switching to internet radio feed when necessary (like, for example, when Speed TV inexplicably saw fit to go away from coverage for a couple of hours of NASCAR qualifying in the middle), I actually managed to stay in touch with almost all of the race.

Which, as it turned out, was epic. The new LMP1 class Acura prototypes were fast, but had a number of reliability issues resulting in them falling out of contention, whereas one class down in LMP2, last year's Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b was reliable, steady and fast, finishing first in its class and beating the pants off a couple of also-unreliable Mazda/Lola coupes fielded by Dyson Racing, who have switched from the Porsches they ran last year.

But the real drama was up in LMP1, a battle royal between the new Audi R15 and updated Peugeot 908 turbo-diesel monsters, with the veteran Audi crew of Dindo Capello, Allan McNish and "Mr. Le Mans" Tom Kristensen eventually prevailing.

And, as in previous years, down in the GT2 class there was another battle shaping up, with the slightly updated red Ferrari F430 eventually walking away from the Porsche teams, and the five-year-old Panoz Esperante fending off a late Porsche challenge to grab third in class.

It's the first time I've watched this race around what is essentially part of an airport in Florida, and it was hugely entertaining - very high cornering speeds, horrendously bumpy track, and most importantly, a good, solidly-contested event with no dirty business at all (although one of the Flying Lizard Porsches might disagree, having been slightly punted by the Panoz with an hour or so left to race). Congratulations also to the Robertson Racing Ford GT in its attractive new red-and-gray livery, which qualified a very respectable fifth in GT2, finally finishing in seventh after being collected in a collision partway through the race. A much better result than last year at Mosport, where the car unfortunately spent most of the time relaxing with its feet up.

And so, where does this leave me? Well, I did manage to get some work done on the laptop during all of this, and didn't totally abandon my family. Now Sunday's here, I've still got lots to do, the weather's a bit chilly for yard work, and because I wasn't in Florida yesterday I don't have a raftload of photos from the race to edit, like I did from the race in late August last year.

Next up: St. Petersburg, on April the fourth. I'm already planning my viewing strategy.

Vroooooom!

The race winner.

What a great day. Very tired now and should have been in bed a long time ago.

More pictures to follow, believe me. Have a look in the ALMS Mosport 2008 set, if you like.