The text accompanying the image reads as follows:

October 12 2008
17th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion
Auto Club Famoso Raceway , Bakersfield

My dad got me into racing. Now I’m here in the Californian desert with a friend of his, dragster legend Bob Muravez, aka Floyd Lippencott Jr. Night has fallen and the temperature has dropped to single figures. There are dozens of drag cars lining up along the length of the Auto Club Famoso Raceway. White hydrogen flames are jetting out of exhaust headers. The air is thick with the acrid scent of nitro, and the noise is insane. This is the cacklefest.

Racing is racing, but the cacklefest is the heartbeat of the Hot Rod Reunion. There’s a whole bunch of memories getting stirred up by the sights and sounds and smells. A lot of the guys watching were there the first time around. For them, these cars are like old friends, and not all the tears shed can be blamed on the nitro fumes.

For the rest of us, experiencing it all for the first time, it’s no less visceral. Your senses are blasted, and that sensation lingers long after the last car falls silent. You don’t forget the cacklefest in a hurry. They did it for love, so they say, and that’s plain to see.

NHRA
Auto Club Famoso Raceway
Mensfile

The image above, together with an accompanying piece of prose about drag racing will be appearing in the forthcoming edition of the only men’s style magazine to be seen dead with, otherwise known as Mensfile.  This is particularly heartening news, as I am rather proud of the imagery from that trip and it’s nice to see it appearing in print finally.

Without going into too much detail, the shots were taken at the 17th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion, which took place in October 2008 at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway , Bakersfield.

I was on the track for most of the weekend, and the racing was an order of magnitude more awesome than any other form of motorsport that I’ve been close too. “Fucking A”, is the expression I think…

I shot on film which seemed to amuse the other photographers present, but I’d like to see their shots next to the ones I had hand printed on fibre-based Ilford paper.

I’ll stick the colour ones up soon…