Redbull Superbikes

With yet another stroke of luck, I had another photographic opportunity at my fingertips. During the summer of 2008, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway played host to the Redbull Superbike Challenge. As always, these races have test runs before the day of the official race, so the riders can get a feel for the track and tweak their bikes to get the most out of the race. These practice runs were open and free to the public, and also allowed us to get right up on the track.

This event was a great chance to practice my panning skills (or lack thereof, since I had never had anything previously on which to practice). The benefit of panning allows the subject to have a nice sense of motion because the background is directionally blurred. These were hard for me to get, and even though I was on a tripod, my understanding of the camera had still be only elementary. But I did the best I could, and out of the 500 shots or so that I took (I subscribed to the "spray and pray" technique at the time...), these were some of the best.