re: Fun With Sony _____
These are from the American LeMans series race at Laguna Seca May 22. Taken with the Minolta 80-200 f/2.8 APO or Minolta 500 f/8 reflex. Some were cropped heavily, e.g. the last one in this first post. Full FOV with this lens at this shooting position can be seen in the first pic in the second post.
The whole shebang
Picks
I culled the obvious duds and bulk-processed the rest after setting up the captions. Over time I'll pick through and get rid of the OOF shots. It's worth noting that at this track most of the best places to shoot from just have a small window in the fence to shoot through, plus you're not allowed closer than about 10 feet from these openings, so combined with the crowding around these areas(including official photographers) these factors made it just about impossible to get good panning shots for motion blur. You can see an example in the second photo below; track photog blocking half the window with a crowd of people behind, on the other side of a low wall or fence. I tried to compromise by freezing the action with a bit of blur on the wheels -- with varying degrees of success.
I hope you enjoy them.
Click the pics for larger versions and EXIF details.
First, here are the record-breakers:
Car #16, Lola B09 86 Mazda(LMP), Dyson/Smith/Meyrick, 15th Overall(Mechanical, 220 Laps) 3rd in Class, Qualifying Time 1:12.338(New Qual. Lap Record), Best Race Lap 1:14.262(New Race Lap Record)
Car #52, Oreca FLM09(LMPC), Mowlem/Papadopoulos/Lewis, 32nd Overall(Accident, 107 Laps) 5th in Class, Qualifying Time 1:17.800(New Qual. Lap Record), Best Race Lap 1:20.563
Car #54, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup(GTC), Pappas/J.Bleekemolen/S.Bleekemol, 17th Overall(219 Laps) 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:26.934(New Qual. Lap Record), Best Race Lap 1:27.279(New Race Lap Record)
Car #55, Oreca FLM09(LMPC), Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins, 3rd Overall(229 Laps) 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:18.212, Best Race Lap 1:19.343(New Race Lap Record)
Now the class winners:
Car #1, HPD ARX-01c(LMP), Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti, 1st Overall(237 Laps), 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:13.09, Best Race Lap 1:14.441
Car #55, Oreca FLM09(LMPC), Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins, 3rd Overall(229 Laps) 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:18.212, Best Race Lap 1:19.343(New Race Lap Record)
Car #54, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup(GTC), Pappas/J.Bleekemolen/S.Bleekemol, 17th Overall(219 Laps) 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:26.934(New Qual. Lap Record), Best Race Lap 1:27.279(New Race Lap Record)
Car #45, Porsche 911 RSR(GT2), Bergmeister/Long, 5th Overall(227 Laps) 1st in Class, Qualifying Time 1:23.484, Best Race Lap 1:23.959
And some other photos from the day(Click picture for larger version and stats: