Winternationals 2012

Sorry it's taken so long to upload these, but these are all from the Fuchs Lubricants Winternationals 2012. I only stayed for qualifying and only had my17-40mm lens with me, So this year I focused on lurking through the pits. I did manage to get my face right in the nitro fumes down in the top fuel pits. God damn that filthy yellow stuff clears the nasal passages better than snorting wasabi.

Above: I found this and thought it might be of interest.
Below: Just some of the parts that come out of a Top Fuel engine when things don't go right. Left is bent and burned valves, centre is mutilated connecting rod caps and right is melted bore sleeves.

Above: Right after a test fire up. The great part about being in the pits is that you can get almost as close as you like to these monsters, unlike many other motorsports.

the two above and one below: Off track entertainment is awesome.

 Above: In the the years of spectating Drag Racing, I have never seen the track cleaning tractors race during downtime.
Below: this one might be pretty grainy, using a 17-40mm with limited light is not ideal, but this was an amazing run by Andrew Cowin.

Below: I caught these guys at 1am finally test firing after a massive rebuild effort to make it for race day. If you camp nearby the track, you often get the #$% scared out of you in the middle of the night when one of these fire up and stabs the throttle. But that's ok, because it sounds so good.

Below: Testing the clutch, reverser and warming the diff gears.

 Above and below: Let's not forget the bikes. Below is a Top Fuel Motorcycle. These also run on nitromethane, and also hit well over 200mph in under 7 seconds. The people who ride these must be insane.

Again, sorry about being 2 months late on these, but I hope you enjoy them.