Motorcycles at Summit Point, WV

TristanP

My first outing shooting motorsports was yesterday at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. After a 2+ hour drive from DE, it started raining as we got to the gate. My brother, racing in the Expert class this year, was there for the whole weekend and had already raced and crashed out on Saturday. He was in the first race on Sunday and had already practiced. We took a quick tour of the paddock area and then had lunch.

I was able to get up to the bridge of the starter stand for the first race and tried some shots up there. I was shot from Turn 10 (leads onto the front straight), and Turns 5 and Turn 6 on the back section of the course.

The first race was the Mini class and the single entrant (11 years old) had the track to himself. What a feeling that must have been.




My brother gridded 7th, ended the first lap in 4th, and made his way up to 2nd before crashing out. The track was still a bit wet after lunch, ruining his day. Here he is charging up the hill after turn 1.




And here he is making his way through Turn 10 on rain tires




As the afternoon progressed, the track dried up, and speeds increased. A pass in Turn 10:




Leading a group through the Chute towards Turn 5:




Hard braking for Turn 6:




Chasing the leader into Turn 6:




The gallery so far - I have ~300 RAW files to wade through, so I'll be uploading for the next couple days. I have quite a ways to go, but this was a great learning experience. All shots with the 70-300 IS. C&C more than welcome.

ridetwistyroads

TristanP wrote:

Hard braking for Turn 6:

Cool shot, to anyone who's ever been on the brakes hard coming into a turn, the feeling is very well communicated.

TristanP

Thanks. He was flying. It's amazing to see how well they brake for a turn. My current favorite, just finished at lunch:

Daddio

I like that last one best too. Thanks for sharing your stuff.

I'm going to try and make it out to Summit Point this summer for a WERA event. That left at the bottom of the hill on the back side is probably a good photo spot since you can get shots from the inside of the turn...that is if they still let you stand on the edge of the hill like they used to.

TristanP

I think you can still see that corner from the bleachers, IIRC.

Another pic for fun. This guy was airlifted out of a race last year after braking lots of bones and went on to win one of his races Sunday.

Jeffro

TristanP wrote:

Thanks. He was flying. It's amazing to see how well they brake for a turn. My current favorite, just finished at lunch:

I LIKE, I LIKE! I have to wait until next month for the road course around here to open up to bikes.....I'm ready!