Baja 1000 Race Day – Chase 4 – our “media” team

Most of the pictures in my posts  have come from Rob (http://www.rwcs-photographics.com/). As you may have figured out, he’s very good … this post comes from him …

 

The day starts with the normal coffee hunt and how to plan for the day, now that Michele and the extra car will allow us to be a lot more mobile than before. Quick check with Brandon &  Brooke that we can split our efforts to cover both the start and the wash entry as good positions,  so  we can ensure that #1503 is in the can....  we are set to get moving for  9.30 for the melee of the START at the staging for the top contenders.

Michelle is quickly set up and  effortlessly acquires MEDIA schmoozing techniques and we hit the crowds in the start area.

Great atmosphere with all the driver being good natured ,  and up for talking and poses before they get down to the serious biz of racing. I get distracted by the pit dollies....  yet again with Michelle just reminding me about its the  cars !!!!!

Time flies and we get down to the wash into position and await the entry .  things all come alive with the crowds as the car fly down the wash, great to be taking action stuff and Michelle is doing just great .. Official Camera No 2 status

We capture a ton of shots with Michelle running out of card space of  20 gb !!!! .....  I shake my head in disbelief ..  position one was 600+ shot for me , but  Michelle breaks the shot record with 1300 shots ...  saying things like it’s not working anymore ... fixit  robin !!!!

1503 hoves into view we get the team shots and then we are off to next slot ...

TRAFFIC this is not good and we are distracted into a roadside stop for local TACOS ....  quick pit stop and then we get to OJOS Negros and get on course to wait for 1503 ..  a few entries pass trough numbers all over the place and it dawns on me that we have not been quick enough , Team Florida is moving faster than we thought so we head to next slot..   

Distance / time real problem and as we get close to the driver swap location we both realise than daylight / time is a now real struggle so “Get to Borregos” is now the mission .. Radio is dead so we can’t raise anyone of  the new plan... We get to the PIT by 4.15 , dock with John & Juan but the sun is dropping out of the sky so just I just start shooting whatever’s moving as they pit in clouds of dust, shouting pit crews and crazy spectators.

Huge part atmosphere .. this looks to be fun and we plan night shoot locations and dawn start ideas ...

chatted to Juan’s new friends from Legato   and thinking on the day.....  when suddenly  Brooke appears to say 1503 has stopped with transmission problems.. We all get packed up asap and then we are off again to get to  the new rendezvous point

Bugger ... we were all doing so well but there you go ...side benefit thing  being we get to sleep in the  apartments back in Ensenada, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Borregos pit party would’ve been much more fun. Anyway our day was done .. we have some good pics for Team Florida, Michelle now officially RWCS Photgraphics No 2.. < watch out John you are about to need a new camera  & lenses >  and another day will dawn tomorrow.