Spectating STPR with a camera.

I've been itching to shoot a motorsports event and suddenly realized I made back to back plans within one weekend.  Lets start with Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR)

Due to work, I couldn't make the entire first day of STPR, but I did catch some fun in service and the Super Special at the end of the day.

Anyone remember my friend Matt Peterson that I co-drove for last year at the New England Forester Rally (NEFR)?  Well, his K20 powered EG Civic is back up and running!  Co-driving this time, Ian Kessler from New York.

Anyone catch that "Behind the Scenes" video that FY Racing put up on YouTube?  Do yourself a favor and have a laugh. Behind the Scene at STPR.  Chris Duplessis even gets in front of the camera for a bit!  

Any rally truck fans?  Here we have Gary De Masi in his 5L V8 Rally Ranger.  Just under 400hp of RWD awesome.

Of the years I've been to the Tioga Fairgrounds in PA, I don't think I've ever seen it THIS dusty before!  But despite drivers getting caught in each other's, and even their own dust!  It didn't stop these EGs from going full out for the fans!

I can't share rally photos without throwing Brakim Racing in there!  Of the teams running out there, these guys really seem to be big fans of MY work!  If any of you out there were able to get yours hands on their last poster, of their purple digi cam Beemer, it was a shot of mine from LSPR.  These guys are always entertaining and their car development is constantly moving forward.

Some of the bigger names couldn't make it to STPR this year, that being Antoine L'Estage, Travis Pastrana and Ken Block This left the playing field much more open for teams like Fy Racing to close up any gaps they can for the series so far.  

 Sometimes people don't realize simple differences between "Factory Sponsored" and "Grassroots rally teams".  Obviously the cars are at a pretty different level.  But most people don't realize the difference in crew and gear.  Here you have David Higgins' car with a man on every corner and a couple others floating about, fancy hard cases of tools, etc.

Here at the grassroots end of the spectrum, we have one flood light and only a few guys on two cars, maybe three.  No big tents, scattered tools... it's pretty limited in comparison, but these smaller teams are still out here making it happen!

There's nothing better than staying at a friend's place for a rally, who's crewing for a friend who's competing.  Let me tell you all about the most expensive, but awesome alarm clock!

Into the town of Wellsboro, PA we find all our competitors lined up for parc expose.  Did you know that in 1900, 2,945 people lived in this town?  Now there's about 3,291... Do you think rally had anything to do with this? I hope so!

Speaking of the Wellsboro population... Here we have Reaper Motorsports' 2.5RS driven by local, Jeremy Keck.  Running in open light, Jeremy might have a bit of home town advantage.  After all, he did grow up enjoying these roads/stages.

One of my favorite things about STPR, is just the fact that the town's folk here all seem to be 100% welcoming to everyone involved in the rally.  Parc expose is usually held at "The Green" in Wellsboro, which is a small park right in the heart of the town.  The "Start" of the day's rally, to the first stage, is right on Main Street.  It's always a beautiful display of the town and it's people along with rally teams and fans all together to cheer on their favorite teams.

Well this is bit of a switch... It looks as if the V8 Rally Ranger's co-driver, Matthew James, caught me on camera with his phone!  I'm shooting! Get back to your transit notes!

Unfortunately I was only able to make it to Stage 9, Lebo 1, due to friends becoming separated from their crew and other friends competing having offs.  I ended up taking the time to stay with friends in service while waiting to get word on those who were on their way to the hospital.  Onto Stage 9.

I was fortunate enough to not get lost this year, on my way to a stage!  I was actually able to find a spot just in time to see Higgins come blasting through this R4.  As figured, by most, without Pastrana or Block there to fight for first place, Higgins stays consistent for a relatively easy victory.

Nick Roberts Rally coming through in his 21 day built Super Production STI.  It was unfortunately to see he lost his last car in a fire at 100 Acre Wood, but glad to know that he and his co-driver, Rhianon Gelsomino were able to get out without too serious injuries.  Keeping the car from catching fire this time around means we'll see Roberts on the podium for 3rd.

Speaking of Super Production, did you know that Mark Piatkowski, of MAP Rally Team sold his open light RS last year to built this '04 STI Super Production car?!  Same color scheme as before, but what a whole new world of competitive speeds!  I had a chance to chat with co-driver Robert Maciejski about the new car and from the sounds of it, as much as it will take some getting used to, it sure is fast and they seem to be loving it.  Taking 5th place in their first event with a totally different beast of a car?  Not too shabby.

Let's not forget my friends Matt Peterson and Ian Kessler in the green EG!  up to Stage 9 and still running strong!  It's a shame to find out later that either stage 10 or 11, I forget for sure, they had an off into a ditch putting the car on it's passenger side.  Luckily some small trees stopped the car from completely flipping and only suffered minor cosmetic damage.  They ended up DNF-ing because they motor wouldn't start.  

Here is easily my favorite story of this year's STPR.  Driver Charli Tameris and co-driver Tony Zanni, in their Porsche 944 had blown their head gasket on day 1.  They were able to find a shop with new gaskets about 2 hours away into New York!!!  Stayed up all night to rebuild and made it back for day 2!  Not only did they make it back, they completed the rally!

Flying Frog Rally keeping it consistent after an off earlier in the stages.  Brian and Amber had a good lead in their class before spinning out and just missing a tree before putting the rear end into a ditch and starring up at the sky.  Unfortunately they lost their lead since they couldn't drive out of the ditch.  Luckily, once towed out, they did find that there was just about no damage to their car.

Another unfortunate rally car casualty of this year's STPR, the Belmont Motoring bugeye WRX.  I had talked to co-driver Alice Von Denes and she informed me that they were completely fine, just a bit shaken up after hitting a tree, which has totaled their car.  No worries though!  There are already plans for a new car to get them back on stage!

And so ends STPR for me.  Time to gather my friends and our gear, get some photos uploaded and edited, pack my gear, sleep for 3-4 hours and head home only to head right back out!

Drive to STPR after work on Friday night and Saturday, back to New York for a total of 3 hours, then out to New Jersey Motorsport Park with 240 240 240's Pat Lapp for an open track day in his Nissan 240 S13 race car.  Stay tuned...

As always be sure to "Like" and share my Facebook page, Facebook.com/MCampbellPhoto

And don't forget to visit some of the links below and check out the work of friends who inspire me.

BerryFaveThings.blogspot.com
CarrsAreLife.blogspot.com/
Facebook.com/Emotive-Image
LifeBlasters.com

Trade my camera for a set of stage notes? I'm in, NEFR here we come.

We're at the tail end of July 2013 and it's finally time for the New England Forest Rally (NEFR).  This time around I put down the camera, grab my helmet and stage notes and yup you guessed it, this photographer is co-driving!

So lets fast forward the beginning... We start with what feels like a billion hour drive from Michigan, through Canada over to New Hampshire.  Side note, if you're ever in Canada do yourself a favor and get some Rolo Chocolate Milk.  It's simple amazing and not sold in the U.S.  Once state side again, we head straight to Team O'Neil Rally School for testing.  Unfortunately for me my driver couldn't make it to testing SO... it was a good time for me to stretch my legs and get some shooting in.

Other than shooting pretty much the only corner we could get to, if you find yourself roaming around the O'Neil Rally grounds, you will find that there's probably more wheels than cars around...

Just to show off a few... There where still many MANY more...

Anywho... after testing at O'Neil's we head back to get all our stage notes in order, my driver, Matt Peterson, arrives in NH, then to the cabin where the crew is taking care of all the final prep for 3 cars, Noble Star Rally's black GC8, Flying Frog Rallying's green GC8 and Peterson's Honda Civic. 

Next day, recce day.  It was a shaky start for Peterson and myself.  This is both Peterson's and my first ever rally.  Not to mention I have NEVER done a TSD rally either and have no clue how to read tulip notes.  We got so turned around trying to recce the first stage, but luckily Derrick Rudisel, Noble Star's co-driver was able to help me out over the phone!  Giving his driver Amanda Skelly AND ME directions at the same time!!!  Once we had our heads on straight it was smooth sailing the rest of the day.  We even caught up to the rest of the teams!

MCampbell iPhone photo

About 12 hours of recce and it's a success!  My Forester was a great recce car and Peterson and myself are really starting to mesh pretty well (did I mention we've only met ONCE before this event?).  Before long it's dark out and time to help button up a few things on the car and try to get some sleep before our first big day.

Photo credit: Bill Sawyer

My office for the next couple days, Peterson's '94 Honda Civic.  Now don't be fooled, this light weight hatchback is no ordinary Civic.  This green machine houses a built K20 along with it's 6 speed transmission and LSD counter parts.

Nerves are starting to get to me the morning of race day one... Shake it off, tighten your harness and focus, it's go time.

Photo credit: Eric Delaney

We head out to stage one of NEFR.  Stage: Concord Pond.  Arrive at start, time card checked, notes ready, on the start line... 5...4...3...2...1 GO!  It's all such a blur.  The sound of the K20 revving through gears, the dirt, peddles and rocks bashing the skid plates and hearing myself shouting notes over the comms.  I remember at one point getting off the notes because I really wasn't ready for the speeds Peterson was going to be driving our first time out.  I even remember getting a little frantic and cursing a couple times before hearing Peterson calmly say "Relax... I've got it, just find your place!" at which point my brain FINALLY caught up and got in tune with Peterson and the car.  Turn after turn we're just flowing through when suddenly... I remember calling "100 Tarmac Over Crest..." and BANG!!!  that was a hard transition to tarmac but the car feels good so Peterson is still hammer down through finish.

Next thing you know someone runs up to us at the finish and says "You're leaking something!  Pull over PAST the finish and check it out before you continue!  Peterson gets out and checks the driver side to find some oil... then checks the passenger side... "CUT IT OFF! WE'RE DONE!!!".  As it turns out, that harsh transition to tarmac was SO harsh, it flexed our skid plate right into our oil pan and cracked in pretty bad leaving us with next to no oil.  And so ends day one for us.  We are unable to continue BUT... we can't give up that easily.

MCampbell iPhone photo

After making plenty of phone calls to local junk yards, with the help of a couple volunteers.  A couple guys from our crew show up with the truck and trailer as well as some good news.  As it turns out, back in service, someone found out there's a local welder who might be able to help us out with the oil pan.  The only catch is... he's pretty far away and we've got limited time before he closes up shop.  We get the car back to the cabin, but with a really steep, narrow driveway there's no way to tow the car all the way up to the garage AND have time to pull the oil pan off... So... we get the car off the trailer and drop the oil pan out in the road.

Oh and did I mention?  We were having some kind of electrical issue as well.  We were hoping it was an old battery so we swapped batteries with my Forester.  Right before starting stage one we had shut off the car and it had trouble starting back up.  We need a new alternator now too... for a K20! Apparently one of the guys found a local NAPA Auto Parts store that could get us a new one first thing in the morning.  Thankfully they also said they'll show up and open almost an hour early so we can get it in time for Expose... MAN do we like cutting these things close?!

Thankfully, I still brought my camera so while I had some down time I was able to catch all the other teams taking care of their issues.  Rally can be very cruel and NEFR is one of the few events that like to really remind the teams to always be on their toes.

MAP Rally Team

Tag Rally Sport

Nameless Performance

Flying Frog Rally

Tingwu Song

NEFR Day Two.  Guess who's ready for park expose with a newly welded oil pan, modified skid plate and new alternator (NIB yet to be installed).  You guessed it "The Matts" (as referred to by the rest of the crew) are back! Let's do this!... Oh wait... we need to take our newly recharged battery and hope to have enough power to get us to expose, swap alternators then have enough juice to fire it up and get that alternator charging. It's always nice to start your morning bright and early and under a rally car in the dirt.  LOVE RALLY!

 

 

Photo credit: Josh Pembleton

No issues with transit this time and more than a single good stage!  I only managed to get lost in the notes a couple more times which barely slowed down Peterson if at all.  We dodged a LARGE rock that Peterson knew I spotted when he heard "Left 3 100 into oh sh*t right 3..."  accidentally worked it right into the notes.  We even drove a small straight half way in a ditch before Peterson was able to pull the car out and right into the next turn!  Peterson's got plenty of skill behind the wheel.

First mishap of the day, Peterson mentions being worried about the alternator again.  He points out that the gauges keep going nuts then finally just stop working, then again a stage later.  Next thing you know we're in transit and he can feel the car losing power.  We pull off the road into a dirt lot where some locals are fishing.  In case of needing to push start the car I instruct him to park with enough running room and just as he does... the car shuts off.  We both pop out of the car to assess the situation, Peterson gets under the hood and I check the battery under the hatch as well as open up our tool kit.  As it turns out, a harness was no longer secure, got sucked into a radiator fan and was ripped apart.  Some duct tape, a couple zip ties and a push start later, with some help pushing from some sweep drivers, the car is BACK and running strong!  We get to the next stage and if I remember correctly we're only seconds late.

Photo credit: Bill Sawyer

We're getting through our day when, in transit, we discover Amanda Skelly and Derrick Rudisel (of Noble Star Rally) are on the side of the road and Rudisel is under their car.  No communication needed, Peterson starts pulling over and I'm already unbuckling my harness.  We run up to find that their exhaust had broke and is dangling off the car and they need to secure it or they might risk further damage.  Rudisel has some wire and Peterson helps him get the exhaust in position while I grab the cutters out of our tool bag so they can secure it in a couple areas to make sure there's NO chance of it coming down.  Now their exhaust is in place and off we go! Next stage!

Next thing you know, we're back on stage 8 and we're really cooking now.  Communication between Peterson and myself is on point, the car is feeling strong and we're all working together as one complete machine.  Now I remember looking up and seeing 2 or 3 other cars off on the side of the road on this stage and the most faint scent of fuel.  I think to myself, "that's gotta be one of those other cars."  At that exact moment I feel our car begin to slow down, look up and we're just getting onto a straight.  Before I can even start to ask "What's wrong?"  Peterson says "There's something wrong, we need to stop!".  When the car finally comes to a halt, that faint fuel smell rushes up to the front of the car and it's very obvious it's US!  Peterson and I are both running out triangles right before the next rally car comes through and we wave them on with thumbs up. 

After waiting for the last few rally cars to come through and for sweep to make it's way to the other cars that broke before us, Peterson informs me that even though I saw 2-3 cars down before we were... there was 5 and we were now number 6!

Then we finally had a chance to assess our more recent damage.  From inside the car it appears we busted a fuel line, no big deal.  But once we're able to jack up the car and get a better look... Peterson suddenly goes "Oh... our rear skid plate is gone... and so are the straps for the fuel tank... we've been DRAGGING our tank by the fuel lines!"  He then proceeds to pull the tank out from under the car and well... it's doing it's best to become a pancake.

MCampbell iPhone photo

Thus our rally adventure comes to an end for the New England Forest Rally.  From here we spent the next few hours sitting in the shade in racing suits going through all of our snacks and water telling our tail to passing spectators while waiting for our ride. 

All in all we had a great time and learned a LOT from this event.  Matt Peterson has since made some adjustments and upgrades on his Honda and is currently gearing up for Sno Drift 2014.  As for me, I've got a few plans/ideas for myself as far as co-driving and hope to continue co-driving for Matt.  Running this event and having the same passion and drive for the sport has really helped us work together very well.  Will "The Matts" rally story continue?!  I sure hope so! 

From here on out my story will continue back in New York for a while.  I've got two dreams and it's time to get focused and make them both realities.    I'll have two main budgets, Photography and Rally.  Till the next blog post, thanks for following.

As always be sure to "Like" and share my Facebook page at Facebook.com/MCampbellPhoto as well my Smugmug page, MCampbellPhoto.smugmug.com

And don't forget to visit some of the links below and check out the work of friends who inspire me.

BerryFaveThings.blogspot.com
CarrsAreLife.blogspot.com/
Facebook.com/Emotive-Image
LifeBlasters.com
Facebook.com/NobleStarRally

Have I told you about my other family, Noble Star Rally?

So I'll back up for those of you who don't know, since I never blogged about it...  I am a photographer on a rally team called Noble Star Rally.  The story of how this came to be (somehow this is the "Long story short" version) is that I met Amanda Skelly briefly at the world record attempt for the largest parade of Subarus, in honor of rally driver Matt Noble Marker, back in September of 2012.  Fast forward to December and I met her again, along with co-driver/fiance Derrick Rudisel and team photographer Eric Delaney at a local rallycross that I entered. 

Subaru Parade, Elk Rapids, MI
Photo credit: unknown

SCCA Rallycross, Thistle Hill, MI
Photo credit: Eric Delaney

During the rallycross we all ended up working corner two together.  So we got to chatting and got to know each other the entire day.  Needless to say we hit it off like most rally heads do.  Rally = Insta-family!  A week later we were still chatting and they found out about my love for photography AND that it was my birthday so they took me out for dinner and invited me to join the team!  First event, Sno-Drift 2013, only a month away!  Fast forward to the end of January 2013!

Amanda Skelly's Impreza 2.2RS (yes, 2.2)

Due to work at the time I couldn't spend the entire week with the team so I drove up race day 1 to meet up with everyone before park expose.  Another thing I didn't know till day of, I was going to be shooting with Andrew Bohan and Eric Delaney of Life Blasters and Alex Wong of Emotive Image.  I also need to be sure to throw out a special thanks to Alex for hooking me up with the proper forms and having me shoot with him as an "Emotive Image Photographer".  This is how I was able to get my official media pass.  Without that I wouldn't have been able to stand in some of the best/dangerous spots!  Too awesome!

My first corner ever shot with an official Media pass!

Only a couple days spent with the entire team and I'd like to think that I meshed in pretty well.  Definitely one of the best and most diverse groups of people I have ever come across and glad to have become one of the NSR family.

This is my new rally family.
Photo Credit: Andrew Bohan

Event two, Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR), May 2013.  Lets trade that cold breeze and snow for high heat and dust.  This time around I made the entire event and even lent Amanda and Derrick my Forester for recce! Even my car gets to participate in stage rally!

If only this sticker wasn't paper.  It would have lasted longer.

Shot plenty of service photos the first few days and come race day two, Eric and I were able to hike out to a stage for some fun shots.  Unfortunately this time around I wasn't able to get a media pass, but there was still some pretty good spectator areas to check out.  We also introduced new teammates, driver Brian McNamara and co-driver Amber Stacy.

Two rallies shooting for Noble Star Rally and it's been great!  I love what I do with the team.  I live nearby and get to help work on the rally car from time to time, travel with a great crew, meet and make new friends on other teams from other areas.  The list of awesome goes on and my rally family continues to grow.

After rally hike at the PA, Grand Cayon.
Photo credit: Eric Delaney

Up next is the New England Forest Rally (NEFR), July 2013. This time I put the camera back in it's bag, suit up, get the stage notes ready and harness in.  Time to ride shotgun with a fresh new title of "Co-Driver".



To be continued...

Photo credit: Joshua Pembleton

As always be sure to check out my Facebook page at Facebook.com/MCampbellPhoto for more of my photos.  And don't forget to check out some of the links below and check out the work of those who inspire me.

Facebook.com/NobleStarRally
BerryFaveThings.blogspot.com
CarrsAreLife.blogspot.com/
Facebook.com/Emotive-Image
LifeBlasters.com