In March of 1987 I was shooting a WERA race at Roebling Road. A few weeks later this photo came in the mail. On the back it read: “Is this you taking Eric’s picture?” It was me taking a photo of provisional novice (still wearing the t-shirt) bike No. 541. I don’t know who the rider is other than his first name is Eric.
Me photographing Bike 541, Eric somebody, at Roebling Road in 1987.
When I saw this photo it inspired me to go to my archives and see if I could find the actual photo I was taking when the other photographer captured me shooting. I found the shot and here it is:
Here's what I was shooting in the above photo of me - Bike 541. A guy named Eric on a EX500.
These photos are funny for a couple of reasons. It shows how relaxed it was shooting club races back then. I could just pull my car up to the side of the track, hop out and start shooting. WERA officials let me pretty much shoot wherever I wanted. I think I’d been around long enough that they trusted I wouldn’t put myself in a dangerous position. The joke among the corner workers back then was let Larry shoot where he wants. If he gets hit we get his camera gear.
Rider Files 
Cool stuff. I notice you are on the INSIDE of the corner hence “WERA let me shoot where ever I wanted”. I would only hope you and WERA didn’t let you in the DANGER ZONE!!! Plus I have never seen a photo credit to “Me shooting with Larry L’s gear”. And with that red jacket and bright white press pass you are off limits to stray racers!!!
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Larry……..I notice your on the inside of the turn,way back when while shooting photos at Riverside International and shooting from the inside of a left hand turn. I had a corner worker tell me how dangerous it was and to move to the outside of the turn.
That would have put me where there was blind rise before the left hand turn.I just moved to another corner.
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John, Gary
I shot plenty on the outside of turns, but I always had something between me and the bikes. There used to be a corner in the back at Grattan where I swear I could reach out and touch the riders as they exited the turn right at me. I crouched behind a guardrail, sat in the woods and shot away. Fortunate I’ve heard they moved that guardrail and trees back years ago. It was great for photography, not so good for riders.
Mosport was the worst ever. It had a downhill sweeping right-hand first turn. A bridge footer and guardrail was right there on the outside of the exit – major impact zone. I shot there some, but it scared the hell out of me. I’d hang in there and just motor drive it and then duck totally behind the guardrail.
Gary, that’s crazy a corner worker told you to move to the outside. I love it when the car corner workers move you back from the inside of the turn. Cars can spin out, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a road race bike crash to the inside of a turn.
I remember some idiot photographer came out to Grattan, got right on the edge of the outside of the track and lay down on his back to get a low angle. Fortunately the corner workers got him out of there pretty quickly.
Inner self-preservation kept me from going too far, but in the old days you could pretty much shoot where you wanted. They even let photographers cross a hot track at Daytona as late as the early 1970s.
Larry
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Larry…….very true,this corner worker was talking like a car guy and I’ve never seen a bike crash and go to the inside.
I liked a spot at Riverside on the outside protected by armco and I would never during a race stand up there but at one(club race) event I was shocked to see a guy standing behind the armco during a race.Watched a racer low side and the bike flipped and just cleared the armco hitting this guy,never did hear how badly he was injured but I never went behind that armco again as I never felt comfortable in the first place.
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Gary
Yeah ducking behind armco doesn’t mean you’re completely safe. I’ve seen bikes hit the wall, go up in the air and land just on the other side. I used to shoot behind this big tree at Grattan on the outside of a turn (they had a row of haybales in front of it, like that was going to do a lot of good). Anyway I though I was safe there until I saw a bike hit a tree once. It didn’t hit square, the back end end and the damn think spun violently around to the backside of the tree. Had someone been behind that tree that would have gotten whacked good. And then they won’t let you shoot on the inside on turn one at Mid-Ohio and Daytona anymore. Makes no sense whatsoever.
Larry
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Hey Larry, that’s a 250 Ninja, not an EX.
I’ve got a shot you took of me coming out of turn 4 at Grattan (clockwise), and you clearly weren’t in a good spot if I pitched it. Probably behind that stack of tires they used to have outside that turn, right before the jump.
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Kevin
Yeah, it was a stack of tires and then armco, so I was safe if someone pitched it, be they were going to be hurting.
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Ah…you’re right, there was some metal ‘airfence’ back there. Come to think of it, I think Dave Barnard wadded up a GSXR on that guardrail.
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Can’t remember if his name was Eric, but I remember that he was local to that area of Michigan. I sold him my GSXR750 race bike at the end of that year, 1987. He and Chuck Mathis teamed up on the Ninja 250 in the one WERA endurance race that year…the national in July?
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