This track was my third Indycar night venue and is located close to where I grew up. My first two night races were at Texas Motorspeedway (also displayed on this site) where I was fortunate to have access to the pits during both races making easier to photograph. At Gateway the track was not fully developed until years after I had moved so I had no idea of good locations to photograph from or what the light conditions would be like. It was a full day event starting with some practice and qualifying for the nights event. I looked up the track on Wikipedia and here is what they say for your reference. "World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (formerly Gateway International Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park) is a motorsport race track in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, close to the Gateway Arch. It features a 1.25-mile (2 kilometer) oval used by the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and IndyCar Series, a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) infield road course used by SCCA, Porsche Club of America and various car clubs, and quarter-mile drag strip that hosts an annual National Hot Rod Association event. The 1.25-mile (2.01 km) oval is a favorite of many of the drivers who race there due to the unique shape and different degrees of banking in each corner. Turns 1 & 2 have characteristics similar to New Hampshire Motor Speedway while Turns 3 & 4 are similar to Phoenix International Raceway and the track's egg shape mimics the legendary Darlington Raceway. In October 2016 it was announced that the Verizon IndyCar Series was returning to Gateway on August 26, 2017 for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500" and I was there, hope you enjoy the pictures.
Now comes the hard part and photographing this night race from as close as I've ever shot cars at 200 mph. Trying to find a good vantage point to photograph, I got to a section on this fence where I could shoot above the videos cameras they had installed along the track. These were small cut outs in the fence at the end of turn 4. Quite the experience when your only several yards from the cars. As I stated above my experience at this race was limited and I soon found out that my equipment was also lacking. I soon discovered while taking photographs of these cars at extremely close range and at such high speeds my camera needed to be much faster. I did manage so decent images.
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It was after this race that I purchased my D7 giving me a higher frame rate per sec, faster more precise focusing and faster shutter speed along with a Canon 2.8 200mm lens, both built for sports and wildlife. My Canon D6 wasn't cutting it.
It was a great race and I enjoyed visiting. Hoped you enjoyed the pictures and I plan on doing it again.