A Glimpse of Stock Car Racing in America

Blog and Photographs by Emily Lanpher

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For this week’s photograph’s I was in the race shop again. However, this time I was in it alone, and it was following a race in which Reid’s car had gotten wrecked. Therefore, the shop was a mess, with rubber and torn-up pieces of his car everywhere. I thought that these images captured the shop’s insides as a whole, along with some detail in it as well. I’m still really enjoying taking and editing these pictures, but do with that there were more races to take pictures at.

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For this week’s photographs I decided to focus on the stacker. I’ve been trying to get creative due to there not being any more races within the duration of this assignment. This trailer is a stacker trailer, so when it’s loaded, the car(s) go up top, and the pit box and other tools, tires, etc. go down below. These pictures show one of the car’s loaded in the top of the stacker. I thought that it was really neat to edit these pictures and see what could be done with the clarity, colors, and even the sky in some of them. For next week’s pictures I’m going to focus on parts within the race shop, as the hauler is parked outside of the shop.

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For this week’s images I focused in on the three different car’s Reid’s raced in the races so far this season. The first is a K&N car at Bristol Motor Speedway, the second is a PASS Pro Series Pro Stock at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, and the third is a Pro Series Pro Stock raced at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

My experience is still going well, as the more photographs I take and really look at the more I can find within them. I am still having the same time problem, as well as there not being enough races within this project’s time-frame. I had a horse show in New York during Reid’s last race at Beech Ridge so I was unable to be at that race to take any pictures. I think going forward, because there are no more races within the next couple of weeks for Reid, I’m going to focus on car/race shop/hauler pictures.

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For this week, I chose to go into the race shop during “shop night.” There are certain nights before races that the driver, crew chief, and crew members all get together for to work on the car, and typically loading the car and pit box into the trailer, to get everything ready for the upcoming race. With my images I tried to capture the true feel of one of these nights. I came when the boys were taking a break to eat some pizza for dinner. So these photographs encompass the pit box completely torn apart, the car with it’s hood off and parts sticking out, a torn-up door panel from a previous bad race, and the guys all sitting around talking over their pizza. I’m enjoying having my eyes opened to all of the moments like this that racing encompasses, but I’m having a hard time with actually finding time to photograph this.

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For this “series” of photos, I chose to highlight Reid, the driver and my brother, outside of the car while at the track. 

The first photograph shows him in the infield after qualifying, looking at the big-screen at the other drivers’ qualifying times and seeing where he was going to end up.

The next three photographs were taken during the K&N series’ autograph session. The first of the three show’s Reid and my dad. These two have a bond like no other and both Reid and myself wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are without our father. The next picture shows Reid and Austin Theriault, who is another driver that grew up in Maine and now is racing K&N as well. I thought that the “people back home” would really appreciate this picture, as the Maine racing community is so proud of both of them. The third picture show’s Reid handing a young fan an autographed hero-card while the boy’s mother takes a picture and another young fan looks at them.

I tried to show emotions in this series, of the apprehension, pride, love, and excitement that comes along with stock car racing. I like where I went with this and that I chose these photos, and had fun editing them as well! I’m also learning that you can learn and feel a lot by really looking at scenes/photographs.

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I chose these three image to post because the others I had were of the racer or the people involved, so I thought that these represented the racetrack and part of the journey.

I sequenced these photos in the order of what I saw. When we got into the pits at Bristol Motor Speedway, we first went to the hauler. Next, we went and looked at the track. Then, after the race was over, we flew on the airplane pictured home.

When I first saw the hauler, I couldn’t believe that it was all there for my brother. While we have a stacker trailer as our own race trailer here at home, this is an eighteen-wheeler hauling this beautiful trailer that included a “living room” in the front. Then, as we climbed the steps to look out over the track, I honestly think that my mouth dropped open. The track is incredible—it’s a colosseum built down into the ground with insane banking and tight turns.

While I originally just figured I’d take pictures of the racecar, I like that I got creative with the images that I chose to post.

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The Racing “World”

“First Meeting” Post

My first experience back at the track this year was one that I was actually pleasantly surprised with. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to the race because I thought “ugh, drama and politics is all that the racing community is,” but my love and passion for racing greatly overran those feelings as soon as we arrived at the track (Thompson). I’m actually really excited to be using racing as my project because there is so much--emotion, action, etc.--to be captured at the track and even behind-the-scenes at the race shop at home. 

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Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

Reid Lanpher #59

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Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

Thompson, Ct.

Race: PASS Ice Breaker

My first photographs for this project were taken during the PASS race weekend at Thompson. This was the first race of the season for my brother and therefore the first race of the season that I attended. I’d forgotten how much I loved the busy atmosphere of people hustling around, getting parts, going to the track to spot, making an adjustment on the car; how much I’d missed the energy of being at the track, of hearing the cars go around at speeds topping 100 mph; how much I’d missed the pride of seeing my younger brother out there running with the best of the best. Capturing these things was one of those things that just “made me happy.”

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Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to share the sport of stock car racing. I travel all over the United States with my brother whom is a driver, and enjoy documenting our travels and time at the race track. The racing community is a society in it’s own, a completely different world, and one that is very interesting to experience. The passion within this community and the beauty of the places and cars are what I’m hoping to share with you via photographs that I’ve taken.