Originally posted on my web site on: January 29, 2010
I was at this race last December with the Evil Genius Racing (EGR) team to capture this race and their efforts on video. It was a fun weekend for me, and from talking to people throughout the paddock, for them too, regardless of whether they won, lost, got evicted, or their car got demolished. This, after all, is Lemons. Or rather, the 24 Hours of Lemons. Unlike a race series where careers could be made or ruined in one day, this series really is all about the fun of racing. I hope I caught a little of that spirit on video, even though my primary goal was to get in-car video from the EGR cars, and while this is all for the fun of it, the EGR teams really did want to win. EGR was there supporting two cars, the famous V8olvo, owned by Dave Schaible, is a 1984 Volvo 242 DL sporting a 5.0L motor from a similar vintage Mustang. It had recently won the Buttonwillow race and was back at Thunderhill to try to bag another win.
The second car was the "Members Only" 1984 Porsche 928 (owner Brian Doty), recently purchased for $26 and prepared for this, its first race. But apparently entering a red Porsche was just too plain boring, so John and Clint and the guys at EGR turned it into an "Estate", more or less. Other than that, and stripping and lowering it, that's what they would be racing, and the guys got it ready just in time to make the race. They never got to test it.
Now, I've done many hours of in-car video. You know the kind, camera in the car, drive round and round, then go home expecting to admire your skill and daring, but instead seeing all of your mistakes in full NTSC glory and Dolby stereo. But actually I've put a bit of work into this to improve both sound and audio quality (audio is tougher) and recently I've been doing more in editing. For example, when I instruct at track events I try to get my student on video and then I edit up nice versions for them, with titles, graphics, commentary, etc., and send them the DVD. So I have gradually moved from the home-video type projects to something made for other people to see. But so far that somebody has always been a driver, someone who, watching the car go round and round, will actually enjoy, study, get something out of it.
Well that's what I was bringing with me to this event, the idea that I wanted to make driver's videos, something they, and the team would enjoy, not necessarily something the A.D.D. generation viewing videos on YouTube would want to see, but rather something a motor sports-type would like.
I had brought several cameras, plus bullet cams, plus mics and all sorts of wiring and connectors and duct tape and zip ties and clamps, and stuff, and I was able to mount a camera and mics in the Porsche. The sound checked out and the video, as far as I could tell using that little LCD screen, looked great. The camera, a Sony HDR-HC9, is a great little high-def camcorder that records to DV tape, but being tape I'd only be able to record the first hour of each 2-hour driver's stint. I wouldn't be able to record everything, but an hour per driver should be plenty.
When the camera was not in the car I was taking it around the track and through the paddock grabbing great clips of spins and other drama, and talking to people. That talking to people part turned out to be a lot of fun and I definitely plan to do a lot more of that at future events.
I also learned an awful lot at this event, most of it by viewing the awful part of my videos. One lesson, remember to turn off the damned autofocus on the in-car camera. Another, shut the hell up after you ask someone a question and they start telling you their story. It's not a conversation!
Most of the videos can be viewed on my channel Track Days Vimeo channel, but I'll embed one here anyway. This one is my recap of the event. What I did was just turn on my camera and leave it in our area in the paddock while everyone else went down for the awards ceremony, which I think is the best part of these events, better even than the "People's Curse" destruction of the most unpopular car. So, I got the audio, with that nice PA system reverb, and for the video I inserted clips from the weekend, including in-car and track-side clips. When a winner was announced, I show that car, in color, while everything else is in black and white. You know, like memories, or dreams. They're rarely in color, right?
Anyway, here it is:
I'll be doing this again soon, at the upcoming "Sears Pointless" race at Infineon in March. Check back then for more on these fantastic crap-can races.
Meanwhile, you can find the other videos from this event, plus track days, other races, and other motor sports stuff, on my Track Video channel on Vimeo.
By the way, all of the videos from this event are available on DVD (2-disk, $30) and BluRay ($40). Yes, they are the same ones you can see for free on Vimeo, but they look so much nicer on a big screen. Let me know if you want one, or two.
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