The Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen is an IMSA endurance sportscar race for the WeatherTech Championship series, which is held annually at Watkins Glen International (WGI). In addition to this race, is the The Esses 120 At Watkins Glen for the Michelin Pilot Challenge; as well as the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche Carrera Cup and Mustang Challenge. With five major race series, it would be a very exciting four days at WGI. This photo story is about my first day at this event. Hope you like the photos.

On the Wednesday before the event, left Boston mid-morning for the several hours drive to upstate New York, near the beautiful Finger Lakes District. Stayed at a hotel in Painted Post, which is about 20 to 30 minutes south of WGI, since the hotels in and near Watkins Glen sell out also immediately after the race date is announced. WGI is one of the most famous road race tracks in the USA, and since its establishment in 1956, has held multiple race car series; including the F1 USGP in the 1960’s to 1980’s, NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA Sportscar and Trans-AM series. This series of photo blogs will be a little different from previous ones, in that I’ll show you a photo of the location that I’ll be photographing, which will give you a perspective of what I was experiencing and how you can get many types of photos from each location.

Left the hotel in Painted Post around 8.00 am Thursday morning, and on the way stopped at a fast food chain to pick-up some breakfast and coffee, to get my day started. Arrived at WGI around 8.30 am, and with an Infield Parking Pass was able to use my car to get around the track and park at the several designated parking locations. If you plan to see a lot of the track, highly recommend an Infield Parking Pass. With the on-track activities not starting for a couple of hours, drove around the track to get my bearings and look for vantage spots to take photos.

(iPhone)

For the Mustang Challenge practice 1 session (10.30 to 11.00 am), went to the outside to Turn 9. Here’s a photo of this location, and shows how you can get photos of the cars exiting The Boot, then entering the straight to Turn 10.

The Mustang Challenge is a new IMSA-sanctioned event that features two practice sessions, a qualifying session and two sprint races. This series is the home of the Mustang Dark Horse R, which is a turnkey race car from Ford Performance. The event is split into two classes, Dark Horse and Dark Horse Legends, the latter being an optional classification eligible to bronze-level drivers 45 years old and over. This is the first time I’d seen the Mustang Dark Horse R in person, and really liked the aggressive style and sound of the 500-hp 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 engine, coupled with a  Tremec six-speed manual transmission. Should be noted that the cars are available for ordering, and start at $145,000. Started off with a 500mm lens so could get photos of the cars going around this corner, and to isolate them from the busy background. The #58 Nick Smither Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R.

The #5 KOHR MOTORPORTS (top) and #8 MDK Motorsports LLC (bottom) Ford Mustang Dark Horse R’s.

Switched to a 70-200mm lens for side panning photos. The #58 Nick Smither Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R.

Walked to my left so had a direct view of the cars coming out of The Boot into Turn 9 for the first practice session of the Porsche Carrera Cup at 11:15 to 11:45 am. The #56 Topp Racing Performance Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Used the 500mm lens to isolate the cars, and tried to time when I pushed the shutter button with the front of the car being perpendicular to me. The #9 JDX Racing (top) and #98 Kelly Moss (bottom) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

Then started to pan the cars as they went around Turn 9. The #55 Topp Racing Performance (top), #45 Ruckus Racing (middle) and #5 MOMENTOP FMS Motorsport x RGB Racing (bottom) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

Switched to a 70-200 lens for a wider perspective view of the cars and to incorporate the “iconic” WGI blue guard railing into the photo, which would be a common theme in many of the upcoming photos from this event. The #19 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Towards the end of the session went back to the 500mm lens, for low shutter speed photos of the cars speeding down the Turn 9 to 10 straight, The #99 Kelly Moss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

At this location always have a couple of photos in my mind, one is the photo above, of the car speeding along the guard rail into the Inner Loop. For this photo, used a 70-200mm lens, shutter speed of about 1/25 sec, multiple frames per second  and tracked the cars before they entered the Inner Loop. This is a low percentage photo, but once you get it, it makes you feel really happy. A couple of frames of the #9 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo 2.