7/1-7/4: Hot Rodding into Anchorage; the Journey Continues at Full Speed!

For those of you just starting to follow this blog: Welcome! It has been a journey that has brought me to some of the most beautiful and remote corners of Alaska, and now the journey continues… This time, my wife Heather, and my two cats Gnocchi and Orzo will join me on a new adventure here in Anchorage, Alaska. We are moving and most likely will call Anchorage home for many years. At the moment I am serving as the scout, laying the foundation for a successful navigation to a “country” that is changing rapidly. The mission: to make friends, find a home, and in the professional arena: hire, train, and inspire a team of photographers as we approach our fall portrait season at Lifetouch.

A Rare True Bungalow in Merry Oaks

Meanwhile, Heather is leading the charge on the home front to sell our cute bungalow on Longfellow St. in Charlotte. If you know anyone that likes the idea of being near the queen city, yet feeling like they’re in the country, send them our way. It is a unique 1920 bungalow on a large double lot with a large workshop. Huge willow oaks, and red oaks are joined by their fecund pecan, apple, fig, peach, and plum trees neighbors to give the homestead added character. Our street dead ends into the back of Merry Oaks Elementary School and has only 9 houses on the block. Friendly neighbors abound on this block and we help each other out. We will dearly miss our house, neighbors, and many friends, but look forward to a bright new chapter of our lives in Alaska!

I’ve been in Anchorage for ten days and already I’ve seen things from interesting perspectives. After settling into the office for a couple days I had a long July 4^th weekend to play and see more of the area. I decided to contact Mark Turner, the very first person to greet and welcome me to Anchorage last Fall when I came up to cover bush photography schedules serving the Kotzebue and Upper Peninsula communities. The adventure: Hot Rod Racing! Mark one of the official photographers at nearly all of the Palmer International Hot Rod Association Track.

Mark Turner, Hot Rod Photographer!

The track sits on a heroic piece of land with Pioneer Peak, the largest peak in the Matanuska Valley as a backdrop. Anything with an internal combustion engine is raced on this frontier drag strip: snowmobiles, motorcycles, H20 cooled vw beetles, jet engine propelled cars, nitrous supercharged vehicles, every stock car you can imagine busting out with a supped-up engines, dragracer supercharged vehicles, and their pint-sized versions for the sons and daughters of the big daddies. Mark introduced me to a whole sub-culture that revolved around the quest for speed and style.

This member of the "Old Geezers' Motorcycle Club" enjoys a Coke on this rainy race day.

Tatum Sidewinder Ruiz waits his turn to burn rubber on the shorter 1/8 mi. run for kids. His supped-up "go-cart" will max out around 70mph!

The Nevada Rattler Crew Waits out the rain

Rickie Ruiz packs one of the Nevada Rattler's two parachutes. He checks the car inch by inch from front bumper to parachutes for any imperfections.

The Nevada Rattler's Engine

I was introduced to the crew of the Nevada Rattler and the Alaskan Grizzly Bear, the marquee contenders who were paid to bring the crowd to their knees with the ear-deafening rumble their engines produced as these dragsters reached top speeds of over 200mph during their ¼ mile run! As Mark observed: “Everything in your body tells you to run”, when one of the big daddy racers comes barreling down the track. Another turn of phrase he used: “They make you want to pee your pants and run for your mommy”, I’m paraphrasing here, since many of these aphorisms were peppered with colorful words. A few points while photographing the races the rumble of the cars actually caused Mark’s camera drive to malfunction and not actuate the shutter!

Tatum Sidewinder Ruiz's car stalled and needed a mechanical jump start

Pre-race inspection on 7/3 at the Alaskan Raceway sees overalls to sunday dresses

The races started tame enough. We donned our orange-colored vests as our badges of courage and “safety”. Mostly we just looked cool in the pit wearing these vests and slinging several thousands of dollars worth of camera gear. I was Mark’s shadow in the beginning learning where to be and where not to be. I told him point blank that if he every saw me doing something bone-headed to get my attention by waving like a madman. Which was not to hard for him since he had lots of practice doing this sort of thing the weekend before to “ruin” the shots of another photographer who he was seeking revenge on, for breaking the code of race photography by getting in his shots. I wasn’t sufficiently hydrated to mark my territory on every guard-rail, speaker post, or cement square.

A Full Burn-out leaves no trace of the crowd of people, cars, and R.V.s here at the Alaskan Raceway

Chris Ruiz visualizes his run

The testosterone was thick and the smoke from the burn-outs choked me at first, but I got some great shots at wide-angles and close to the cars as they burned rubber in the water box. I observed Mark’s style and saw the artist shine through as he practically did pirouettes dancing a fast-paced tango with the cars as he thrust forward with confidence to get a low-angle shot his partner, the smokin’ car, thrust forward repelling his advance with rippling slick tires and over a ton of energized steel, chrome, and rumbling tailpipes. I used some of his dance steps and made up my own dance and reveled in the noxious yet intoxicating eau de nitrous my partner sprayed before she began her dance. I captured wheelies, cars enveloped in a vulcanized veil of smoke, long burn-outs by the big daddy dragsters, the people, the breakdowns, and the larger environmental shots. I was in the pit just a few feet from cars that took-off with such torque that their rear drive tires rippled and warped testing the bolts that held the tires to the rims! My favorites included “The Grim Reaper”: great burn-outs and edgy starts with wheelies; the maude 40’s-style roadster that popped a wheelie and shimmied sideways making straight for me at the rail as I sidled away from the strip, the Doo-Rah Racing mobile that I captured in its full-motion glory, and of course the Classic ’55 Chevy. I can see why this photography is such an attraction to Mark. As the day of racing draws to a close I leave a little early to make it to a July 4^th celebration at Campbell Lake in Anchorage.