So, the racing thing.

Now, I’m not much of a motorsports shooter. I think I’ve done it three times; once at Daytona (this past January), once at Mosport Park in Ontario, Canada, and once at a little 1/8 mile dragstrip outside of San Diego.

It’s fun. It’s loud. You get sunburned. You drink a beer. It’s all good.

My last outing, though, to Daytona, really got me jazzed about doing it. It’s kind of like this infectious little bug that you don’t know you have until the opportunity presents itself again. You don’t really think about it and then WHAM!, there you are, makin’ plans.

That’s what’s happening this week as I prepare to head north, about an hour’s drive, to Long Beach, California.

This year marks the 36^th running of the Long Beach grand Prix. It differs from races like Daytona and Mosport in that there’s no actual “racetrack”. Fans line Shoreline Drive and Ocean Boulevard to watch Indy cars screaming at ridiculous speeds through the city streets; kinda’ like you do as you try to get home in time to watch the latest episode of “Ghost Advnetures”. You know you do it.

So I’m heading up on Friday, and will hole-up in my swanky hotel suite until o’dark thirty Saturday morning, when I head over to the course to pick up my pass. The actual Grand Prix isn’t until early Sunday afternoon, but practice and lesser races will be help until then, so I hope to get some ample shooting in before the hordes show up Sunday morning. Of course, there’s nothing like shooting on race day, so I’ll get that done, as well, but Saturday should offer up some decent shooting opportunities without the crowds.

Now, when I shot at Daytona, I was quickly made aware that my Sigma 50-500mm lens was just too big and unwieldy to use without, at least, a monopod. I ended up using my 70-200mm, but I found that I was wanting just a bit more reach. So, to that end, I’ll be using the 70-200mm along with a 2X teleconverter, effectively giving me 140-400mm. This set-up will be faster at 400mm than the Bigma is, so that should help me out. I don’t really know what to expect, but I’m all to happy to wing it.

And, as if this isn’t enough, it looks like I may head to Mosport in Ontario, Canada to do some shooting in July. A friend of mine is a flagman for the F2000 Series, so he gets me some pretty good access there.

I’m expecting to go through more than a few memory cards this weekend, so hopefully I’ll get something posted this weekend.

Stay tuned…