Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else. —Ayrton Senna
Recently I re-watched Ford vs. Ferrari—also known as LeMans ’66 in Europe and the UK. The movie tells the story of how the Ford Motor Company with Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles designed and built the original Ford GT 40 to go head-to -head with Ferrari at the 24 Hours of LeMans. I think it may just be the best movie about motor racing ever made, even better that Grand Prix, my former number one favorite racing film but it has the advantage of being mostly (I think) true. I haven’t seen Steve McQueen’s LeMans in a while but want to pick up a copy to compare. The one thing I know about that film is that there’s no CGI in it. For a long time, I thought that Paul Newman’s Winning was an underrated but excellent racing film. What’s your favorite?
On The Track
The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series that was based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint race that was created in the spirit of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2014, the series merged with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series to form the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
How I made this photograph: When it was still called ALMS, I was able to attend two races in the series at Laguna Seca in California. This image was made at the second race I attended as a guest of Audi, who was, at the time sponsored by Canon. The image shows a racing Corvette C6.R at the top of the famous Cork Screw turn at Mazda Speedway at WeatherTech Raceway as it closes in on a Ferrari. Want to learn more about competition Corvettes? Please read my review of David Kimball’s outstanding book “Corvette Racing.”
I photographed this Chevrolet Corvette chasing a Ferrari at Laguna Seca during a previous American LeMans Series race using a Canon EOS 10D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens. I don’t remember if this camera was my free EOS 10D or the one I paid for. The Tv exposure wass 1/500 sec at f/18 and ISO 200.