{"id":5777,"date":"2012-10-23T13:57:29","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T21:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=5777"},"modified":"2024-01-08T20:13:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T04:13:29","slug":"petit-le-mans-the-alms-finals-with-falken-tire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/petit-le-mans-the-alms-finals-with-falken-tire\/","title":{"rendered":"Petit Le Mans – The ALMS Finals with Falken Tire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What an awesome year spent with Falken Tire.
\nThe 2012 American Le Mans season was a blast! I was very lucky to be able to cover half of it for Falken Tire – in addition to many other projects that they brought me in for throughout the year. By far my favorite was ALMS, though. There is an incredible team of people out at Walker Racing that I was lucky to be welcomed in to. Through many events and long days\/nights of work I also had the chance to work closely and get to know much more of the Falken Tire team, too.<\/p>\n

The season wrapped up in Atlanta, at Petit Le Mans. Another endurance race but this time only ten hours instead of twelve like in Sebring. Haha! Even one of the managers at Falken, when he asked me the next race I’d be at and I told him “Petit”, laughed and just said “We send you to all the long ones, don’t we?”<\/p>\n

Since it was my last race of the season I brought a bunch of gear out Road Atlanta with me. Instead of a 300mm like I had at Sebring, I brought a 400mm since this was a large track. And since there was a lot less access than at Sebring it’s a good thing that I did. I also carried a brand new Canon 1D-X with me – I was definitely excited to see how the sensor and tracking system performs over my 1D-3 that I’ve been using for years for sports.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to go on and on about my weekend. I’ll keep it short and say that it has been a blast being part of Falken’s season and part of their team. With a bit of luck I’ll be doing some more work with them next year, but I won’t know that for sure for quite some time.
\nUntil next race season starts up it’s going to be back to model photography and smaller projects for me! So keep checking back for updates on those – one of my next shoots is for April O’Neil and my ongoing Ninja Turtles project.<\/p>\n

And to comment briefly on my opening image up top… I felt this was definitely a great closing image to contrast my opening image at Sebring for the season…
\nHere’s a comparison:<\/p>\n

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Nice, right?<\/p>\n

Anyway.. click past the break for over 150 images of Team Falken, and several other teams\/cars at Road Atlanta this past weekend.<\/p>\n

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Getting started on Friday we were making our way around the track with our golf cart. Qazi yelled “Quick John! Get that DX going, they’re starting!!” Haha, this was the best I could do while riding in the back seat while we were driving. LOL<\/p>\n

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We checked out several spots trying to find something interesting..<\/p>\n

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We settled on just starting at Turn 1… seeing how that looked<\/p>\n

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..time to check out the new focusing system on this camera combined with the 400 f\/2.8<\/p>\n

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Images from the DX were incredibly sharp. I was immediately impressed with the detail. This is a 50% crop from an image I shot with the 400mm.<\/p>\n

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At this point I was picking a random car in a group, locking on, and seeing how Servo mode reacted<\/p>\n

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There she is! Number 17!<\/p>\n

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Qazi, getting various B-roll video clips<\/p>\n

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At the top of Turn 2 I started messing with panning. Lighting was harsh that afternoon<\/p>\n

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I love a good motion shot. But I did a LOT of that at Road America in Wisconsin, so I tried to limit myself this trip<\/p>\n

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I noticed a lot of cars were catching air entering the chicane… I kept watching to see how agressive Martin Ragginger was taking the turn hoping I’d catch him on two wheels<\/p>\n

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That’s a good four inches off the ground!<\/p>\n

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Agh! So close! I was doing pans right before this and had too slow a shutter as Raggi hit his last lap in practice at a much higher speed!<\/p>\n

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Brittney came in a day early to meet fans and hang out! She was our stunning Georgia native that was part of the Falken Girls team this year<\/p>\n

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Vendor Village was quiet during practice<\/p>\n

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But there were still a few fans that were coming out to get posters and say hello<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile at the tire rig the guys were hard at work preparing wheels with fresh rubber for tomorrow<\/p>\n

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Rain tires were prepped just in case the weather decided to change last minute<\/p>\n

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Team manger Derek Walker gets interviewed on this thoughts and plan for the upcoming race the next day.<\/p>\n

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After the practice sessions the guys clean up the car before taking it apart and checking everything<\/p>\n

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Raggi and Wolf chat as they wait for the meet-n-greet session to start up<\/p>\n

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Brittney and PR manager Kelly… Brittney towers over Kelly with her boots on!<\/p>\n

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Autograph session is getting started!<\/p>\n

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Had to get a photo with Brittney!<\/p>\n

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And of course my twitter-homie Kelly!<\/p>\n

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This is exactly why the team thinks we don’t do anything… the only times they see us we’re on our break. The rest of the time we’re hiking the track doing our job. Next time I’m taking photos of us doing that to prove it. Ha!<\/p>\n

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This incredible artwork was up for auction over the weekend. For charity of course<\/p>\n

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Raggi<\/p>\n

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Wolf was still all smiles despite being on strict medical restriction that weekend. He was recovering from strep and kept from practice that day to not stress his body before the race the next day.<\/p>\n

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Bryan Sellers, about to be interviewed by Team Falken<\/p>\n

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Robert, getting some video at Turn 10<\/p>\n

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Practice is now complete for the day… Time to check EVERYTHING<\/p>\n

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I’m always scared when there’s a white shirt meeting going on in the rig… it’s almost always important and I almost always feel in the way. haha<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the crew laughs and talks as they go through their checks<\/p>\n

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I’m pretty sure that Brad and the rest of the guys could do all this with their eyes closed<\/p>\n

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This was something new though…<\/p>\n

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The guys were taking off the fenders. Uncommon from the normal routine that I remember<\/p>\n

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Then a different guy showed up with this machine<\/p>\n

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Turns out they were re-aligning the lights! I would have never guessed. I actually asked to be sure<\/p>\n

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The drivers were having a bit of trouble seeing during the evening practice the night before and wanted the lights lowered a bit before tomorrow’s race day.<\/p>\n

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Martin Ragginger’s name has been added alongside Bryan and Wolf – haven’t seen that since the 12 Hours of Sebring<\/p>\n

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And that wrapped up Day 1 for me..<\/p>\n

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The next day was race day… and it was going to be loooong. I headed out to the track where everyone was starting to make their way out to see the cars close up in person<\/p>\n

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Melanie spotted me shooting from and yelled and waved! See, I’m lucky enough to gets waves personally from our girls when they see me! haha<\/p>\n

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It took maybe five minutes before the place was PACKED with fans<\/p>\n

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But I still had to push my way to the front to get photos our team<\/p>\n

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Brittney Glaze<\/p>\n

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Melanie Tillbrook<\/p>\n

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Look at all those cameras! and that crowd! haha<\/p>\n

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Spotted Bryan on the wall watching the crowd. Jumped up and took a photo with him<\/p>\n

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Bakari chatting with Wolf and Joyce<\/p>\n

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Nick and Derek were busy talking as the crowds were admiring the car and meeting the girls<\/p>\n

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Bryan blended in with his Falken North Face jacket. Easy to miss if you didn’t have a sharp eye while walking by<\/p>\n

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Wolf explaining to friends of his how he’s just recovering from strep<\/p>\n

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Me and the stunning Joyce Lex!<\/p>\n

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Bakari and I towering above all the short people! LOL<\/p>\n

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The girls!<\/p>\n

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Qazi and Robert<\/p>\n

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Raggi chatting with friends on the other teams<\/p>\n

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Had to get a photo with the girls! We took like 8 trying to get a good one. The girls kept wanting to redo it! Haha. Love them, I’m going to miss races with these ladies<\/p>\n

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One last snap with Melanie before we’re all kicked off the grid<\/p>\n

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Thumbs up! Everything is good!<\/p>\n

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All the cars lined up as the race starts!<\/p>\n

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That Porsche is too quick sometimes… or maybe I’m too slow? Nah. Definitely the first…<\/p>\n

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Don’t listen to what they tell you… size DOES matter<\/p>\n

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Got to love red flags mostly because it means everyone regroups<\/p>\n

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Several laps later Falken pits for new tires and fuel<\/p>\n

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Being chased by the Deltawing<\/p>\n

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Our fans are amazing!<\/p>\n

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If you ever wondered how many tires Falken brings… the answer is – a lot.<\/p>\n

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After snagging this shot I was determined to not move until I got a shot of our Porsche doing the same thing<\/p>\n

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Airrrrr!!!
\nIt actually only took me about four laps or so before our team caught some air while cornering into the chicane. This is the same corner I got the rear shot the night before that was blurred.<\/p>\n

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“I’LL TAKE A SHORTCUT!”
\nThe photographer next to me at this moment started laughing and yelled “Hey! This isn’t Forza! (the video game) NO SHORTCUTS!!”<\/p>\n

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Qazi and I switched out with the 400 so he could get some tighter video shots<\/p>\n

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Shooting at Turn 7.
\nOur golf cart had actually died at this part of the afternoon and we had 45-60 minutes to kill. That’s MUCH longer than we would spend at any corner and seriously ate into our shooting time that afternoon while we made phone calls and eventually had to wait for Robert to get picked up and then return with a new cart<\/p>\n

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Cue the Jaws music<\/p>\n

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As the sun sets shadows grow longer coming down Turn 12<\/p>\n

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With no pit stop coming up the team takes a moment to tidy up the area<\/p>\n

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Over half the track is in the shade now and those headlights are much more obvious<\/p>\n

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I want my Honda to shoot fire!<\/p>\n

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If you ever wanted to grow up, be Batman, and drive the Batmobile… this guy already beat you to it<\/p>\n

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With most of the track in darkness all you see are headlights and the glowing Number 17<\/p>\n

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Only eight laps remain in the 394 lap race… Bryan (upper right) is hunched over watching the screen as teammate Wolf finishes out the race<\/p>\n

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The race is complete and Team Falken finished in 6th place. We only need mayyyybe another half a lap to take 5th place.<\/p>\n

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The team is busy preparing the car to go home as the pits empty out and people go home for the night<\/p>\n

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Thanks for a great season everyone!<\/p>\n

It’s been amazing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What an awesome year spent with Falken Tire. The 2012 American Le Mans season was a blast! I was very lucky to be able to cover half of it for Falken Tire – in addition to many other projects that they brought me in for throughout the year. By far my favorite was ALMS, though. There is an incredible team of people out at Walker Racing that I was lucky to be welcomed in to. Through many events and long days\/nights of work I also had the chance to work closely and get to know much more of the Falken Tire team, too. The season wrapped up in Atlanta, at Petit Le Mans. Another endurance race but this time only ten hours instead of twelve like in Sebring. Haha! Even one of the managers at Falken, when he asked me the next race I’d be at and I told him “Petit”, laughed and just said “We send you to all the long ones, don’t we?”… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[978],"tags":[979,1086,953,988,948,971,1087,1084,1089,957,1085,1083,1356,1088,989],"class_list":["post-5777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alms","tag-alms-2","tag-atlanta","tag-brittney-leigh","tag-bryan-sellers","tag-falken","tag-falken-tire","tag-georgia","tag-le-mans","tag-martin-ragginger","tag-melanie-tillbrook","tag-petit","tag-petit-le-mans","tag-racing","tag-road-atlanta","tag-wolf-henzler","is-cat-link-border-bottom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5777"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17598,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5777\/revisions\/17598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}