It’s the spring of 2020, and I’m at the old Hi-Fi bar in downtown Tucson with my friends, having a good old-fashioned brunch day with the crew. Being 20-something college kids, you already know that “brunch” entailed next to no food, instead opting to use what little money we have to our name on ~$30 on bottomless mimosas that I’m sure I could find the bottom of. It was either that or they’d drag me away in cuffs, no in-between.

I was sitting there pounding my 13th glass of the fizzy fruity silly sipper, feeling good in my preppy neon green collared shirt with some fly Air Force 1s that had a matching color way when the most important thing of my adult life happened to me: I saw the Daytona 500 on TV blaring behind the collective of drunken, boisterous students, and I locked the hell in.

Watching the 500 that day scratched a long-dormant itch for me that I forgot existed, and I’m so happy that it did. I grew up going to races in Arizona with my dad and the other men in my family, but fell off those trips as I got older. Seeing the race in that bar started an obsessive downward spiral that reminded me who I am and culminated in me binging this new show called Drive to Survive. Much like the bottomless mimosas, I was trying to get to the bottom of that rabbit hole, and that dive into the abyss brought me to this last weekend, where I was photographing the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

I thought moving to Los Angeles would be the nail in the coffin for motorsports, both because of the shuttering of venues like Fontana Motor Speedway and what I assumed would be cultural clashes between the state and the environmental impact of something like racing, but I’m so glad I was wrong. Fifty-one years in, this race has proven to be the closest thing the United States has to the Monaco Grand Prix, and honestly, I think it’s just as photogenic when talented photographers are given access to show it off to the world.

While I think I’m closer to the “talentless” side of the spectrum than I am the “talented,” I’m still choosing to spend my time showing y’all my images from the weekend with some occasional thoughts about them along the way.

Lighting

This is easily the hardest shot for me and probably several others to get. It’s a long straight that drivers get close to their top speed of ~180 mph, and you’re playing super heavily with extreme contrast from the bright midday sun and blackness underneath the pedestrian bridges. It takes a lot of attempts to land a shot here, but I always find it extremely rewarding when it hits. Here’s another from the same spot:

Another picture that plays with lighting a bit is this one of a Mustang GT3 coming out of turn six, which is a hilly section that quickly drops to the back straight, pictured in the two above. By exposing for the background environment, you get light that accentuates the curves and aerodynamics of the Mustang as it passes under the spectator crossover bridge.

Stadium Super Trucks

Stadium Super Trucks is easily the best spectator sport available to mankind. Racing is already a sensory overload that brings mass joy when you see, hear, and feel a car go buy at nearly 200 miles per, but when you have suped up trucks approaching 150 and hitting jumps placed in the middle of the track and balancing on three wheels as they navigate a 90 degree left hander, you realize just how crazy some of these racers are. Thank you for creating such a fun series, Robby Gordon.

Pits and People

Just Some More IndyCars in Action

Other Stuff I Can’t Think of a Title For!

I took plenty of other photos, but I also walked 30 miles in three days with a bunch of photo gear on me, so I think I’m gonna leave y’all with just this and catch some Zs in the meantime. Until next time, with love,

– Your Estranged Nephew, Griffin.

Top graphic image: Griffin Riley