Shooting motorcycles at VIR in March - need suggestions

TristanP

My brother will be racing on the North course in the WERA events March 10-11 and I'll be renting a 400/5.6. I'll also have my 70-300 and maybe a Tamron 17-50 for pit shots. Never having been there before, does anyone have suggestions for good places to shoot from considering the lenses I'll have with me? My other brother has been there with his vidcam and will be a help, but I'm looking for photographer's input. Thanks in advance!

oldtime

TristanP wrote:

My brother will be racing on the North course in the WERA events March 10-11 and I'll be renting a 400/5.6. I'll also have my 70-300 and maybe a Tamron 17-50 for pit shots. Never having been there before, does anyone have suggestions for good places to shoot from considering the lenses I'll have with me? My other brother has been there with his vidcam and will be a help, but I'm looking for photographer's input. Thanks in advance!

I will most likely be there, unless you have a pass to get inside the fence, the best places I have found are turns 3 4,5 and six--- The snake heading towards bridge , corner at top of roller coaster as they start down , sometimes you can get on the bacony overlooking front staight and get some good ones from there

This was shot turn 4 300mm outside fence


front staight off of balcony

top corner heading into roller coaster


Hope this helps
Mark

HarveyMushman

FYI:


Based on my experience from the wrong side of the fence:

In the morning you’ll want to be on the west side of the track, which is also the highest section, at the top of the “Roller Coaster” . . .






From the top of the Roller Coaster you can walk down the hill along the track . . .






Or you can walk the other way, against the direction of the track. With a long lens you may be able to get some neat shots of the bikes as they work through turns 9 – 12 . . .




Keep walking to the exit of Turn 7, which is a good spot, although the lighting is rarely ideal . . .






In the afternoon I pretty much restrict myself to turns 3 – 7 . . .

Braking for Turn 4:


Turn 4 Apex:




Same turn, from the fence in the above pic:


Turn 5:



After 5 comes the “Snake,” which is always intriguing, even if I’ve never snapped a pic I’m happy with there:



I hope this helps. If it doesn’t that’s okay—I enjoyed the trip through my smugmug. All the above were captured with my D70 and slow-focusing 75-300 Nikkor.

TristanP

Help immensely - thanks a bunch!

BBones

Nice work Harvey! That type of info is what I was looking for for the Fontana shoot I am doing this weekend.