 The GLX Snocross season came to end with the running of the JBT Enterprises - Championship. It was a great season of nine races. The weather was near perfect, low 30's, cloudy to partly cloudy and no snow to interfere with the photography. For this event, I tried to change things up and brought my Sigma 100-300mm f4 lens. I attempted to obtain head shots while the sleds were racing. I had some minor success, but more failures than successes. It was a fun attempt. I also decided to take more pictures of the fans/competitors families, etc. I was attempting to show the family side to GLX Snocross. At this, I was successful and I will do more of this next season. I ended up with more than 1,200 images from the event. I was really happy with the images that were taken when the sun popped out. The contrast of the blue skies really makes all the colors really pop. Up to this point, every event that I had covered was cloudy with snow. This was a good change. The sled count was down slightly due to the ISOC Nationals U.S. Air Force Snocross event in Fargo, North Dakota. However, Jonathan Schwantz, #191 had a good day winning both Pro Lite races. Next weekend is the final Nationals race of the season at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, Wi., the Nielsens Enterprises Grand Finale. Due to the photography restrictions with the National event, I will not be attending. Now its time to start focusing on the start of auto racing. Click here to see all the images from yesterday's snocross racing. Click here to see the complete set of snocross races we've covered. This afternoon will be a time for watching the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Las Vegas. I am really anxious to see if the changes NASCAR made to the Gen 6 car are actually going to work as advertised. If so, it should be an entertaining race with a lot of drama. Just a few from yesterday's racing. For our complete portfolio of racing action and other photos, please click here.
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 This Saturday, GLX Snocross hosts the JBT Enterprises - Championships. This will be the 9th and final race for GLX Snocross followed by their awards banquet on Sunday. The hot laps begin at 9:00 a.m. followed by the racing's first green flag at 10:00 a.m. For me that means an 0-dark early rise and drive to the Golf Farm. Also this weekend, is a National event in Fargo, N.D., the U.S. Air Force Snocross. Next weekend the National event will be in Lake Geneva, Wi. at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa, the Nielsen's Grand Finale. Below are the riders from GLX who qualified for next week's event. Good luck to everyone at the Nationals. 
Here are a few images from some of this year's events:  This was a fantastic weekend for racing. The Nascar season opened on Friday night with Kyle Busch taking the Camping World Truck Series win followed by Regan Smith winning the Nationwide race on Saturday. On Sunday, the Sprint Cup race started under ominous skies and after 38 laps had to be stopped for rain. Over six hours later, they re-started the race and unless you are living under a rock, you know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. took his second win the Great American Race. The funny part was during the rain delay, they replayed last year's race and some folks thought it was live and Jimmie Johnson won! One of the Fox affiliates was even fooled and announced the win. Before the restart Jimmie was having fun with that one. Next up is Phoenix. Out in Arizona, the NHRA was running their National event at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park with Antron Brown winning Top Fuel, Alexis Dejoria winning Funny Car and Allen Johnson, Pro Stock winner. It was Alexis' first Funny Car career win. For those who don't follow drag racing regularly the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park is the old Firebird International Raceway. After the old owner bowed out of renewing his lease with the Gila River Indian Community, NHRA successfully negotiated to keep the track on the circuit with the new name. In three weeks, they will be in Gainesville, Fl., for the Gatornationals. On a sadder note, at the Amsoil Snocross Championship National event in Mt. Pleasant, Mi., GLX rider Tyler Adams had a bad crash and was severely injured. Tyler remains in the hospital in Mt. Pleasant in the ICU. The last reports I had was that he will recover, but his season is over. Our prayers and best wishes go out to Tyler, his family and friends. Tyler won the last Pro Lite 1 event at GLX Snocross at the Golf Farm in Wauconda. Closer to home on Saturday, I attended the Race and Performance Expo at the Pheasant Run Mega Center in St. Charles. I hooked up with some friends and had an outstanding time. To see our complete portfolio please click here. If you see any images you would like to purchase just click on the Ordering tab above. Thanks for looking.  Saturday started out as a bright, partly cloudy day. As I drove to the track, I was thinking, "This will be great lighting for photography!" As I got closer to the track, the clouds got thicker and when I arrived it was cloudy. My next thought was, "That's okay the lighting will be consistent. I can still get some nice shots." The racing started with two heats of 16 races each which included an Alumni Race. The racing was hot and heavy. After the second heat there was a longer break to present the awards from the previous week's Ameri Temp Challenge. Near the end of the second heat racing, it started to snow. The snow got progressively heavier. During the Finals it was really snowing hard. While it was interesting racing in the snow, the photography was really impaired. In the Pro 1 final, Tyler Adams #705 was the winner. The racing was great and all in attendance seemed to have a great time. I was not pleased with photographs with the heavy snow, so I decided not to process or post them. I have them and if anyone is interested in seeing them, you can email me. Next week there is a national event in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, so GLX Snocross will be taking the weekend off returning March 1st with the Don Jackson's - Amsoil Race Day. I hope to see everyone there. To see all the action from Saturday's racing click here. To see all this season's racing (that I have covered) click here. To see our complete portfolio click here. To order any images just click the Ordering button at the top of the page and thanks for looking. Check back on a regular basis for any updates. 
 On Saturday, GLX Snocross presented the Ameri Temp Challenge. The weather for photography wasn't the best. Before I left for the track, the weather report read that there would be an intense cell of snow tapering off and moving out of the area by 3-4:00 p.m. WRONG! It snowed almost the entire event with short respites. The sled count was down slightly due to some of the GLX Snocross members racing at the National event in Salamanca, New York. Several classes were combined, but there were two heats of fourteen races each followed by the finals of fourteen races and a Mechanics Race. In the finals there was one scary crash involving Jonathan Schwantz. He was attended to by medical staff and by the end of the night was doing well with no serious injuries. Besides the new starting time, it was decided to have an awards ceremony after the second heat races before the finals. I think it worked well, however from a photography perspective it was difficult to climatize my camera from the cold to the warm inside of the Bar and Grill. I think next time I will bring a third camera that I will keep wrapped in a camera bag so I won't have an issue with fogging. As this is my first year photographing Snocross , I am learning the best way to cover these events. For you photo buffs out there, just a quick note on how I'm shooting these events. I have chosen to use the TAv mode. I try to keep the shutter speed (T) at 1/500 sec. and the Aperture (Av) at 5.6 or above. I let the camera choose the ISO. Depending on the light, I will make slight adjustments to those settings, however whenever I drop below 1/500 shutter speed, I tend to get blur. I next will adjust my aperture down to 2.8. That will shorten my depth of field, but it can't be helped if I want to keep the ISO in a reasonable noise range. I am using a two camera rig with a 28-70mm f2.8 mounted on one and a 70-200mm f2.8 mounted on the other. As I previously noted, my intention is to bring a third camera just for in the inside awards ceremony. Next Saturday will be the American Industrial Co. Challenge, which is at the new start time of 2:00 p.m. By clicking on the links, you can visit the GLX Snocross and the race sponsoring companies websites. Click here for the images from this weeks action. Click here for all the Snocross action I have covered this year. Click here for the complete portfolio.   This Saturday, GLX Snocross will have the Ameritemp Challenge at the Golf Farm on Rt 12 in Wauconda starting at 2:00 p.m. Note the time change from 3 to 2:00 p.m. The weatherman is calling for a 60% chance of snowshowers and 17 degrees. So what is new! Come on out and see if Nick Lorenz can duplicate his performance from last week with the three finals wins. For more information on GLX Snocross click here for their website. For images from races 2, 3 and 5 click here. To see our complete portfolio click here. To order pictures click on the above Ordering link. 
 I have just posted the images from all the action at GLX Snocrosss' Rapid Waterjet Design Winter Blast. For about half the event there was a persistent snowfall. After recovering from a nasty spill, Nick Lorenz went on to win three final events, including Pro Lite 1. Click here to see all the photos of the action. Click here to see the action from the three events that I have covered so far this year. Click here for our complete portfolio.   This Saturday, I (Terry) will be at the GLX Snocross at the Golf Farm on Rt. 12 in Wauconda. GLX Snocross will be hosting the Rapid Water Jet Blast. Hot laps begin at 2:00 p.m. and the racing starts at 3:00 p.m. They are calling for temperatures in the 20's dropping to 4 degrees with a 60 % chance of snow. From a photography standpoint, the cool/cold temperatures aren't an issue, however the snow is problematic. It can cause some focusing issues, wet down the equipment and because of light reflection, reduces the ability to use flash. It is a similar issue to the flying mud at Team Demolition Derby. The Winter X Games were just completed and Brett Moist, a friend and one of the GLX Snocross photographers, was there to cover all the snowmobile action. Click here to see all the action that Brett recorded. If you haven't experienced snocross racing, I would highly recommend you come out Saturday to see the action. Its the best of winter sports and motorsports racing. Click here to see the action from races #2 and #3.   Yesterday, Saturday, I attended GLX Snocross' Chicago Communications Shootout. While the on-track activity was hot, the weather posed a problem for the photographers. Bruce Palla , Austin Calderone and myself fought the falling snow for around half the event. During the second half the wind died down completely. This sounds like a good thing, however with the sleds running on the track, the snow just hung in the air like a fog. The shooting conditions were tough all day. With my gloves on, I accidentally hit my lens release button on the 70-200 lensed camera. The camera went flying into the snow. Fortunately, it hit LCD screen down and only a couple of small snowflakes hit the mirror. I was able to get it dry with no damage. Bruce caught his plastic bag camera cover on his lens which temporarily locked up his auto-focus. As I said, it was a tough photography day! On the track, however, the action was hot and heavy. On at least five occasions, there were incidents and riders were dislodged from their sleds. Fortunately there were no significant injuries. In the Pro Lite #1 final, two riders crashed going for the green, leaving only three competitive sleds. Tyler Adams won the final by over two seconds. Congratulations to all the heat and finals winners. Next Saturday, GLX Snocross will be in Plymouth, Wisconsin, home of the Great Northern Series for Round two of the Great Northern Showdown Shootout. Unfortunately, due to my still healing knee, I will not be able to travel to Plymouth. Good luck to the Great Lakes Series next week. To see photos of Saturday's action and purchase photos, click here. For our complete portfolio please click here.   Today I added the GLX Snocross Gallery Page to the website. This Saturday, January 18th @ 3:00 pm, GLX hosts the Chicago Communications Shootout. The event will be at the Golf Farm on Rt. 12 in Wauconda. Come out and enjoy the fun. If you can't make it out, check back after the event for photos of all the action. I hope to see everybody there.
For photos of last weeks events, click here. For Terry and Janet's complete portfolio, click here. |
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