Photos Of The Year 2009>> A Year Of Jet Lag: Rod’s Shots Pt4

How's everyone doing? Enjoying the holiday time? Hiding away from the festive season? Taking time to recharge your batteries?

Personally speaking, I've had one foot on the brake pedal for the past few days as I attempt to get some much needed rest. 2010 will be kicking off with a bang next week so I'm aggressively doing as little as possible for the next few days…. So why am I working on a Speedhunters article then! Ridiculaaas… Oh well…

Let's take one last look back at my 2009 photos together:

Bonneville Speed Week, Wendover, Utah, USA:  Watching the Dandy Tanaka team try to break 250mph at Bonneville Speed Week was one of the highlights of the year for me. It was a totally unplanned collaboration, but was definitely one of the most interesting stories that I worked on in 2009.

Mooneyes Xmas Party, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: Linhbergh was hoping for rain at the Mooneyes Xmas Party, simply because of the photographic ambience that was going to be on offer. He couldn't have been more right.

Redline Time Attack/Just Drift, Willow Springs, California, USA: A perfect illustration of the automotive lifestyle.

Lamborghini Museum, Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy: Shooting the Lamborghini Reventon was a bit of a religious experience. This stealth machine makes most other new cars look weak and unimaginative!

NHRA Museum, Pomona, California, USA: I recently visited the NHRA Museum with Ron Bergenholtz, to have a look at his and Ed's old drag racing CRX. While the story won't be published until the new year, I thought I'd thrown in a shot of this groundbreaking machine into the mix here.

Pagani Factory, San Cesario sul Panaro, Italy: I'm sure several decades from now; I'll look back on 2009 as one of the marker years of my life. Sitting in the cockpit of a Pagani Zonda F was certainly one of many high points of the year.

Bonneville Speed Week, Wendover, Utah, USA: The sun rises over the Salt Flats of Bonneville and a Studebaker land speed car emerges from the darkness. If you're ever looking to find the soul of speed you'll find it out here in the Salt.

Dennison International, Tacoma, Washington State, USA: It was a humbling moment to be privy to one of the most expensive cars in the world.

ALMS Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia, USA: The Peugeot mechanics hold station over their oil burning racer minutes before the start of the 2009 Petit Le Mans.

 Formula D, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: Robbie Nishida's fancy new haircut.

 Mooneyes Xmas Party, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: Here's a shot from another unpublished story… Sorry guys, a bit burnt out here!

ALMS Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia, USA: The Need for Speed liveried BMW M3 GT2.

SEMA, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA: This dropped truck was one of my fav machines from SEMA 2009. The lowriding pickup is practically leaping out of the screen with its vibrant yellow paint.

 Formula D, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: Daigo Saito checks out the scene at Irwindale Speedway… will we see him again stateside in 2010?

Formula D, Long Beach, California, USA: Your options for camera angles are a bit limited at FD Long Beach as there are far too many photographers jostling for position in the limited number of fence holes. Fed up with trying to shoot over people's shoulders I took a different tact and shot from the judging stand instead. It was a good spot to capture Ryan Tuerck's attacking style which took him to victory that day.

Rosenberg, Texas, USA: There's slammed and then there's slammed….

 Formula D, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: the true essence of street drift style.

Mooneyes Xmas Party, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: I don't normally make a point of shooting girls while at car events. It's not really my thing… but still, I'm pretty happy with how this photo turned out.

WTCC, Imola, Italy: I snuck inside the BMW Team UK trailer to photograph Andy Priaulx talking to his race engineer. This shot is a good example of the type of access BMW gave us to their various operations during BMW month, this past September.

 Bonneville Speed Week, Wendover, Utah, USA: Check out the Speedhunters logo on the Royal Purple Streamliner.

 Redline Time Attack/Just Drift, Willow Springs, California, USA: I like the unneveness of the black paint on the side of this tough looking hatchi.

Pagani Factory, San Cesario sul Panaro, Italy: I'm lucky to have gone to Italy twice in 2009… This photo captured my first encounter with the Zonda R development mule..

 Formula D, Wall Speedway, New Jersey, USA: Robbie Nishida lights 'em up!

Redline Time Attack/Just Drift, Willow Springs, California, USA: The Rat-Rolla FTMFW!

 Formula D, Irwindale Speedway, California, USA: Ahhh there's nothing like drifting at Irwindale Speedway! I think this image captures the ambience of the grid area rather well.

 Drift Mania West, Western Speedway, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: A cool moment in time as two young female drift fans snap some photos of Kurtis Goat's Onevia.

 

Redline Time Attack/Just Drift, Willow Springs, California, USA: Burt is a member of Chris Rado's World Racing Team in case you were wondering.

BMW Museum, Munich, Germany: If you love cars and architecture then the BMW Museum in Munich is a must-see destination. The building itself is just as interesting as the cars it houses!

Formula D, Long Beach, California, USA: Ed and Ron Bergenholtz are two very serious team principles who'll always go the extra mile to take their racing programs to the next level. Here Ed operates his own radar gun to get as detailed dossiers as possible on the relative speeds of the competition.

 Bonneville Speed Week, Wendover, Utah, USA: A look into the eyes of a man about to go 400 mph…

 Ok that's it for my photos of the year… thanks for watching.

:R

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1

Rod, you're living my dream!

2

Great shots Rod, I would give literally anything to do what you get to do!!

3

Yo Rod,I think ot would be cool to get some more coverage on the Canadian drift scene with all the cool JDM cars available....I got my eye on a 4dr R32,I think I can get one easily down into Wash.



Cool pics BTW

4

Amazing shots, it must be nice!

5

Its "Hachi" short for Hachi Roku which is 86 in japanese.

6

The black m3 is coming out of a driveway. False advertisement

7

Cool pics! Rdmndrifter is right, you get to do some cool stuff! I just noticed the wild magnum in the background of the Hemi pic. That Billet grill with the split gives it a totally different look! Also, the headers on the afformentioned Hemi remind me of bendy straws.

8

Zonda R naked, best IMO :)

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