2022 IMSA at Watkins Glen International (June 22 to 23)

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This is the first of a series of retrospective blogs on some of the sport cars races I covered last year. The Sahlen’s Six Hour’s of the Glen was held at Watkins Glen International (WGI) at the end of June. Here’s a blog on the first two days of this event. Hope you like the photos.

Wednesday

Left Boston on Wednesday morning for the seven hour drive to WGI.

To get my bearings, walked around the paddock to get some shots of the teams setting up. For these “photo walks” like to use the 35 mm lens since it’s a great lens to capture photos for telling a story. The technical inspection area was already getting busy with the Porsche Carrera Cup cars.

The colorful livery on the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche 922 really caught my eye.

Also took a walk around the garages and saw some Mazda MX-5 Cup cars being worked on. Think its cool how the Mazda MX-5 Cup cars start as MX-5 road cars, then are modified to produce a race car, that anyone can order for a cost of about $60K.

Thursday

For the morning sessions went to the inside of Turn 9.

First on track at 9.05 am were the the Mazda MX-5 Cup cars for their Practice session 1. The #80 Hixon Motor Sports Mazda MX-5.

At 9.50 am the Practice session 1 for the Porsche Carrera Cup cars started. The #6 MDK Motorsports Porsche 992.

As the session continued, the sun came out to illuminate the track and the cars speeding by. From top to bottom, the #9 JDX Racing, #55 Goldcrest Motorsports, #43 MDK Motosports and #13 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992.

Moved to my left for some different perspectives of the Porsche Carrera Cup cars coming up the Turn 9 Hill and along the left-hander, with the catch fencing in the background adding to the impression of speed in the photo. The #18 ACI Motorsports (top) and #55 Goldcrest Motorsports (bottom) Porsche 992.

At 10:45 am, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo cars hit the track for their practice session 1. The #23 Dream Racing Motorsport Lamborghini Trofeo Evo2. After this session finished, went back to the media center to offload photos and have an early lunch.
For the Porsche Carrera Cup practice session 2 at 1.45 pm, went over to the inside of the Inner Loop, also known as the “Bus Stop”. What’s great about this location is that you can get photos of the cars as they enter, go through and exit the Inner Loop. From top to bottom, the #84 Mark Motors Racing, #18 ACI Motorsports, #13 Wright Motorsports and #24 Premier Racing Porsche 992.
Even though it was the second practice session, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo cars started off very close together. The #4 MCR racing / NSD nation safe drivers / Lamborghini Miami.
At 3.30 pm, Practice 1 for the Michelin Pilot Challenge cars started. The #15 Belgard & Techniseal Racing Audi RS3 LMS DSG.
The #09 Automatic Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4.
The #26 TWOth Autosport Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
The #71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R.
Towards the end of the session, experimented with some slow shutter speed panning. So went back to the start of the Bus Stop and shot the cars as they went through this complex. The #47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS (top), #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (middle) and the #15 Belgard & Techniseal Racing Audi RS3 LMS DSG (bottom). Many thanks for spending your time to read this photo blog. Their will be more retrospective blogs to follow.

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