NITRO - NEWS Delving deeper into the world of -N-I-T-R-O- image

I can't believe how fast 10 years can go by. 10 years ago, some of us were more worried than others about Y2K. Through my work at the time, I was involved with the local authorities (Fire, Police, Emergency Services) to ensure that there were buildings, schools in my case, that would be able to be alternately heated and powered should the gas and electrical supply be interrupted. You know, as a result of a computer somewhere on whichever grid unable to tell its the year 2000. I can recall watching the t.v. closely and somewhat nervously as Australia rang in the New Year hours before us here in North America and, miraculously the lights stayed on down under - go figure. Y2K was the biggest non-event in a lot of history before it and amazingly, we never heard another peep about it afterwards.

Soon after the intro to 2000, I responded to an ad posted by the S.D.R.A. on the S.I.R. website looking for someone with a camera to assume the duties of photographer at S.I.R. after their real photographer retired. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking at the time as I was no more a real photographer than Mozart was a painter, a complete amateur would have been better qualified than me. I did possess a Minolta X-700 manual focus film SLR camera (remember film??) and a couple of lenses and honestly I really didn't have a clue about how to use them (I'm still learning). But I loved drag racing and would be at the track anyway so I thought if I could fake it just enough, I could hang out along the guardrail for a while at least, until the club realized I was a phony and that I signed up only to get in for free. "Can you start this weekend" was the question from the club spokesperson when I called, "Um, yeah, I guess, don't you want to know if I can even use a camera?" I replied, "You did say you had a camera... right?" she said, "yeah, but how do you know I can use it?" I said, "As long as you have a camera you'll be great, see you then" click. Fast forward 10 years and the rest is history! Little did I know that responding to that little ad would take me on such a long and fulfilling journey. I have loved every second of every minute of it and hope I can continue for some time to come!

The March 2010 issue of Drag Racer Magazine (hitting the news stands now) has a terrific feature on the 2009 Pepsi Nightfire Nationals that I attended in Boise Idaho last August.

I'm pretty pumped to tell you that my shot of Sean Dale piloting the Revell-ution nostalgia nitro funny car from that event made the cover of the mag!! Although I have had my work published in numerous mediums over the years, and have even been on some other 'covers', this is by far my very first main stream-big time drag racing magazine cover, WOW, I'm blown away! Thanks to Editor Randy Fish and Art Director Jerry Bassett for choosing my shot to grace the March cover of  their terrific publication! And special thanks to Scott New, Director of Racing Operations at Firebird Raceway for choosing mine and local Boise shooter David Fudge's work for the 7 page feature article inside. What a way to start the New Year!