One of the cool things about shooting a race off assignment is that you can play around and try things that you would never try if you were shooting for a publication and had to capture that sharp, well lit image. Shooting night races at some of the dark dens of speed the AMA Grand Nationals visits is one of the most challenging situations that a motorsports photographer can face. I’ll freely admit that I’m far from mastering shooting tracks like the one here I-96, or Lima, or the Indy Mile or any of a number of tracks that have what might have passed for good lighting in the 1960s. This photo of Chris Carr from I-96 Speedway in 2006, was shot at the super-slow shutter speed of 1/8^th of a second using rear curtain flash. The result is a blur of color, light and movement. You think you’re a good photographer? Put yourself to the ultimate test and try shooting a Grand National night race sometime. I’ve seen some good shooters humbled in those conditions.

Chris Carr is captured in a blur of speed as he races in the I-96 Speedway National in Lake Odessa, Michigan, in July of 2006. This photo was taken with a Nikon D2H using an old screw-type focus Nikon 80-200mm lens (which means it used a physical screw mechanism between the camera body and the lens to focus, but in motorsports terms meant that most of the time you were screwed trying to capture a sharp photo with one of these late 1980s lenses). The exposure time was 1/8th of a second at f/ 2.8 using rear curtain flash from a Nikon SB-28. (Larry Lawrence photo)