Postcard from Sonoma

This photo was taken in the garage area at the Sonoma Raceway. I was there for the annual three day Indy Car event. As I mentioned in my blog of September 2, one can pay extra and wander around the garage area and meet the drivers, pit crews, and see the cars close-up. Not many sports allow you to get this close to the participants.

Here you see the cars lined up in their starting order. Shortly after this shot was taken, the cars were driven from here to the track and placed on the starting grid and the race got underway.

These cars are not the regular Indy cars, but rather the Pro Mazda series cars. There are actually four classes of Indy cars…first, of course, are the Indy cars themselves, followed by the Indy Light cars, then the Pro Mazda cars, and finally the USFS 2000 cars.

The cars become bigger and more powerful as you move up the ladder. Most drivers of the big Indy cars started in the smaller cars and worked their way up the ladder. Each class has their own races throughout the race year with the points winner at the end of the year automatically qualifying for the next level up. There are no hard and fast rules about drivers moving up the ladder. All it takes is a racing team willing to take a driver on.

Car sponsors are a huge deal. It takes millions of dollars to race these cars. There is the car itself, the driver, the pit crew, the equipment and more, even for the smaller cars. The sponsors have their names plastered all over the cars…quite normal for all kinds of auto racing, as you may have noticed.

All I know is that I had fun for two days at this race and went crazy with my camera. I loved this shot of the cars all lined up, ready to race. I also got lucky with a great mix of colors…especially the front car whose colors just jump out at you. More car photos in the future.  

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page.