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.

And more, and more, and more.

It's been a while since my last "post featuring silly numbers of car photos", so here you go. Those bored stiff by this sort of thing, feel free to look away.

I've taken some shots at a couple of recent events - first, the Canadian Motorsports Expo, back on an unseasonably warm day in late January, and then at the annual Canadian International AutoShow in February.

The Motorsports Expo was rather modest in size, and was held at the somewhat grandly named International Centre, out near Toronto airport. The stars of the show were found at a booth celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mosport International Raceway, another of my favourite photographic haunts. First off, a stunning, but never terribly successful, Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S. Unusually for this kind of car, it had a front-mounted engine.



The other real stunner at this show was a Frissbee KR4 Can-Am car. From the last gasp of Can-Am in 1986, long after its glory days were over, this is basically a Lola T400 Formula 1 chassis with full bodywork and a Chevy engine in the back. Up-and-coming driver Paul Tracy would win the last ever SCCA Can-Am race in this car, at Mosport.



At the AutoShow, the usual bombardment of generic-looking new models was in evidence, along with a disappointing lack of exotics. But there were a few, including the astonishing presence of a Ferrari 599XX, the biggest, baddest, craziest front-engined sports racer the Scuderia has ever built. Unfortunately, it was hidden in a back corner behind a concrete post, but here it is anyway.



There was plenty more to look at, but the highlight had to be a tribute to motorsports legend Carroll Shelby, including some cars that are real legends, such as this rather pretty Shelby Cobra Daytona coupe, one of only six ever built.



And, of course, among the selection of stunning Cobras, Mustangs and the like, a few Ford GT40 race cars, including this absolute beauty, memorably crashed by one Mario Andretti at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its sister car won the race, prompting driver Dan Gurney to spray the assembled multitude with champagne, thus starting a new racing tradition.



So there you go... more cars, more photos, more hours on Photoshop. And more Motorsports and AutoShow photos over at Flickr, as usual.