Well, I have to hand it to Red Bull.. if there’s anything worth doing that you can do better by throwing money at it, they’ll do it.. the event was pretty big.. at least as big as Irwindale, but felt bigger.. more people, more vendors, etc etc.. I’d say the ticket prices were a little steep, but I guess that didnt phase the people who were willing to spend $35 for a 2-day event.

The competition was “eh”. I expected more from the international folks.. I was VERY impressed with the Red Bull FD RX-7 from New Zealand.. it was rockin’ a 4-rotor NA motor that had a very NON-rotary sound to it.. one photographer mentioned that it sounded very “F1-ish”.. at which point a grizzled and seasoned UK photographer (John Brooks, who had photographed F1) said.. “uh, no”.. but secretly, I thought the same thing.. hey, don’t talk smack.. not like I ever been to an F1 race.. ok, how about, the Red Bull FD sounded like an F1 car on my TV? better?

Most of the international guys were ousted after the first round. Too bad really.. I mean, these guys have the most to prove to the US crowd.. the Formula D drivers could care less (aside from the big prize money).. the US cars were, overall, much more polished.. newer/current/relevant model cars.. pretty paint jobs, nice vinyl jobs, etc etc..

The winner was Rhys Millen.. he’s sponsored by Red Bull, by the way.. he is definitely one of the best.. so I wont say it looked rigged.. but to people who dont necessarily follow drifting.. um, it probably looks rigged..

I’ll be uploading pics to Flickr in a bit.. but for now, here’s one thats different from my normal perspective..

[photopress:IMG_9048.jpg,full,centered]
Shot with my Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L, 27mm, 1/125 @ F14

Also, for you So Cal folks, check out JTuned.com’s Second Coming Meet and Thanksgiving Food Drive on Novmber 23rd, 2008 @ Super Autobacs in Stanton, CA!

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Tanner Foust in the AEM Nissan 350Z

Originally uploaded by arics

I’m using the “blog this” function again from Flickr. Its actually quite useful and easy to use. But I wanted to post this photo because I’m still surprised at how well it came out.

This was shot with my Canon EOS 40D and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens. The manual exposure was set at 1/125, f2.8 and ISO1600. I cleaned up the noise using Noiseware Pro. Pureists will say that the pictute has a plastic look to it.. to which I would say STFU

Click on the picture to see my Flickr album of some of my shots from the 2008 Formula Drift Finals at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA.

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Mazdatrix Mazda RX-7 FC3S vs. Sears Saturn Sky

Originally uploaded by arics

Well, I have to admit, I was kind of excited that the 2008 Formula Drift season finally got started. Drifting events (and maybe soon, Time Attack) are the one time where I’ll go out and spend a whole say shooting pictures. I’ll goof around with the camera at home and whatever, but shooting cars at speed going sideways is a different thing altogether. So when you do nail a good shot, its much more rewarding.

Oh, also its a good reason to buy new photo gear too.

When Formula Drift was in Long Beach in 2006, I struggled with a 70-200 being long for most photo spots on the track. I tried a 16-35, but that was generally too wide/short. So prior to the 2007 Long Beach event, I bought a 24-70mm f2.8L. That was pretty much all I used this year. If you’re good, you can probably get by with a 70-200mm, even from the inside of the long sweeper. But there’s no way you’d be able to get two cars drifting in tandem unless they were on top of each other. And even then, you’d probably only get 1.5 cars in the frame. So what did I buy this year? Canon 40D .. but more on that later.

Anyway, you can check out more of my Formula Drift: Streets of Long Beach pictures on my flickr page: 2008.04.12 Formula Drift: Streets of Long Beach

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