Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

The short answer..............................No...

Opinions may vary...

No thanks, been there and done that for fifteen years and already have that gig. You're leaving out a few details so I'll give a little rundown on how my typical weekend goes.

First go out and spend a few thousand bucks on camera equipment (take a class if you don't know how to use it) and tell your significant other that you're checking out for the summer. Thursday nights after work charge batteries, pack and organize, make sure you have racing clothes, shoes, hat, jacket, sunglasses, etc. Run up and gas up the car and make sure it's ready. Friday morning 5am, get up and drive to the transit center, go to work, arrive back at transit center 5pm. Fight the traffic all the way to the race track, arrive at 6:30 just in time to grab a burger and haul your stuff down to the infield before hotlaps. Take photos all night, walk the pits, take portraits, notes, hang around to the end to get victory lane photos. Hang around the pits and visit after the races while the traffic clears out.

Drive home, arrive in the driveway hopefully not too long after midnight. Bring all the gear in the house, remove batteries from camera and flash put them on the chargers, transfer photos from CF card and backup to CD, cull out shots, write captions and send victory lane and action shots to distribution list of track, publications, and sanctioning body. Make a few race notes for column, shower and hit the hay.

Saturday roll out about 8am and make sure all the batteries are charging properly. Put fully charged battery in camera, grab some coffee, go out on the deck and take a few shots of the sky and check on computer screen for dust spots. Clean sensor if there are dust spots as needed, go over camera and lenses with mini vacuum and lens solution. Sort photos for posting on website, clean and organize equipment. Have a couple more cups, go outside and check car. Fire up the lawn mower and spend a three hours mowing the lawn and trimming. Go back in, pack up and organize camera gear, shower, say goodbye to the wife, head to my Saturday track. Come home after midnight and repeat the same process as the previous night and get to bed around 3 or 4am.

Sunday roll out around 8 or 9 (hopefully no grandkids spending the night to wake me at 6am). Spend until noon working on photos and writing rough draft for column or finishing column if it's deadline week. Go out and hose down the car, watch the NASCAR race and take breaks to do laundry and clean the house (my penance for neglecting the family). Usually about this time kids and grandkids show up or we have to go visit somewhere. Later Sunday evening finish column if necessary, send column and photos to local racing paper. Do a little photo editing if there's any energy left. Get stuff ready for work and spend the next couple of nights finishing photo editing, filling additional photo requests from publications, tracks and series.

So there you have it, I'm not kidding, that is my typical weekend. It sounds like the same deal as you're offering, a pit pass, a little bit of fame at the local dirt track and sometimes if I'm really lucky a thank you. More often than not though somebody will pull me aside and chew me out for not mentioning them or getting some detail wrong in the column.

Anybody wanna' sign up?

You know what though? I wouldn't trade the opportunity to do this for anything. I have made some great life long friends and loved every minute of it...well, almost every minute.

Stan Meissner

Stan, add another "Thank You"

Besides mowing the lawn, washing the car, and the grand kids thing, what else do you do with all your free time?

LuvRacinRog - Is there some sort of "divorce benefit" offered for this position?

Member of this message board since 1997

Bravo on that lil passage. You photographers and journalists are the heartbeat of our fringe sport. Keep up the good work its appreciated.

Cheers!

Sometimes when we get into the later part of the summer I secretly hope for rain outs so I can catch a night off.

That's another reason I've been outspoken about media passes in the past. It's not me they're turning away, it's my publisher's representative. We're alright close to home, they all know who we are, but it's not unusual to run into snags when traveling, even when we set it up ahead of time. I've never figured out how they can make advance arrangements for me, even faxing something, tell me I'm good to go, drive a few hours and when I get there my name is nowhere to be found. When that happens in essence I just lost the only perk I get for doing all of this. It probably only averages out to a buck an hour over the course of a week but it still causes me to take pause and question why I do this.

The competition among photographers for sales up in my area got to the point where I can't count on any sales so with the exception of hospitality it's all on my own dime. As I get older the whole thing is losing some of it's luster. A younger person who eats, breaths, and sleeps racing and has never done it would probably get a thrill at first like I did but over time that subsides. I'm hoping that first race of the season gets me pumped up for the season.

I cut way back on the number of races, partially due to age (burnout?), part gas prices and part family responsibilities as the grandkids get older. Five and a half to retirement, if I still have the energy and desire I should be able to pickup the pace again when that time comes.

Stan Meissner

I know people who do the same ritual that you describe above, (only more extreme) only they own or drive or work on race cars...and they have to PAY to get in. I'm wondering if a few of the bad apples in your profession haven't ruined it for the legitimate group of journalists. Also, if I worked for a Company that required travel and expenses, they reimburse me. If I am just volunteering, then I know the financial and time sacrifice beforehand.

Stan;

Don't know if it's the same with you but, if you have been to some particular tracks before, you can usually figure out where you are going to have a credential list snafu. At some tracks, it happens every time I go there and, as Stan said, you call ahead and do whatever they tell you to do and it's still screwed up. Anymore, I just print out the e-mail from the track that says you will be on their list and present that at the sign in booth when told they can't find you on their list.

I have cut back on the nights out, too, anymore, as it seems at a lot of tracks anymore you can spend hours watching classes race that you really have no interest in and then the classes you like to see take up a real short time then it's back to the other crap. Last Summer there were Saturday nights I decided to just stay home rather than watch some of that crap, not to mention the cost to drive there and back....................

www.ba-photos.com

After reading all of this, I definately DO NOT want to be a race reporter...

Opinions may vary...

Life on the road isn't for everyone. I love it, but it is a grind!!

RBN The RacinBoys Broadcasting Network
http://www.racinboys.com/
 




 

did 42 shows last year and toward the end i was getting burnt. so add all the stuff as stated above, think i just changed my mind about the gig...

antioch next for the KWS 410 opener. go tk...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

Don't use the camera deal and never have the going on fourteen years been doing it.

I, personally, type everything out. Drivers name and sometimes car number and hometown in the results portion. Story is the story. There are times when I will be up until 4 or 5 am and then hit the road later that afternoon Saturday.

I have no program to use to make things quicker (never have) and own no lap top. I hate motels so unless I have to, it is not far fetched for me to drive from Nebraska or nothern Kansas back home to OKC after the races.

Stan you hit everything on the nail and I too can relate. It is a thankless job. Then when you are up until 6 am you then have those who will complain about it or complain on a message board instead of contacting you directly if you happened to miss something.

But, that is why we do it. The love of the sport.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

Hey, thank's for the feedback everyone and by no means was my intent to discourage anyone for helping Rog out. He's been around for quite a few years and I gather that he loves the sport and has a good reputation.

The point about all the hours spent working on race cars is well taken but I look at sports like the NFL, NHL and MLB or even something such as music concerts. The entertainers don't pay to get into those events and neither do the press or photographers. Short track racing on the other hand established this business model or precedent or whatever you want to call it of competitors paying their own way a century ago and it has never changed. The subject is kind of like politics, half the people thank us for what we do and the other half would just as soon run us out of town than look at us.

Like I said on that issue, my deal is between me and the publication. I write and shoot for them, meet their deadlines, carry papers around with me to distribute and fill my end of the bargain. Whatever happens at the gate is between the track and the publications, I'm just their representative. If things don't work out I thank them and tell them to have a good day, turn around and head home hopefully in time to do something else. Usually this doesn't happen locally, there are very few places left nearby that aren't familiar with us. As mentioned above, I know the places that have hassled me (even when bringing copies of emails) and I avoid those places now.

Also the point about sitting through a bunch of classes, I'm not real fond about that either. Up in our area most places have at least four or five, some seven or eight to sit through just to see a dozen and a half Sprints. I like the Late Models and the Modifieds put on a good show as well so I try to double up with at least two of those classes. I do a little reporting on all of them and they're all good people who love racing at whatever level they're competing in so I'm not dissing them. On the other hand personally I'm not always up to seeing all those classes.

Bottom line is if a person enjoys racing they'll have fun doing the racing gig and will be able to overlook the inconveniences.

Stan Meissner

The one thing I might add, you just never know, it might lead to a "real" job writing for a living. After the automotive plant that I worked at closed, I thought it might be cool to become a printer. I applied for a job and thought it might help get a job if I put in my application that I had written a racing column for Marc Times Racing News. To my surprise, the guy interviewing me asked why I wanted to be a pressman when there was an opening for a sports writer. I've been one for almost 20 years now.

.

A race reporter? Does that mean I get to question Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? That might be fun.

I did the race car crew thing for many years and to stay close enough to satisfy me I bought the gear to take some very nice photos. I work a crazy shift and have a great wife who I love spending time with and she tells me to go to the races many times through the year but time is limited. I know many officials, crew and talk with many of the track photographers on a regular basis at the track. I have been fortunate to get printed on some occasion and that puts a smile on my face. For the guys who eat drink and sleep this end of racing, I applaud the work they do and read about every printed article and look for every shot taken at as many tracks as possible. Most of the people are really good to hang out with in a dusty corner waiting for the great shot, and that to me is a satisfying part of the sport.