PPIHC (S24: Part 8)
Spending a day on Pikes Peak photographing race cars!
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It was good to be home, mostly because it is great to be able to shit in a real toilet, shower in a real shower, and sleep on a comfortable mattress in my own house. Van camping helps me be grateful to have a relaxing and uncomplicated home to come back to.
In the two and a half days that I was home, I needed to do laundry, turn over the van, pack for my edtech conference, and pack the van for our next vancation. I think I can summarize the summer of 2024’s theme as "Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing boys!" (appropriate for this week’s newsletter as well!)
Those two and a half days were quickly over at 1:30 am on a Sunday morning.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) is an annual auto race up Pikes Peak (14,115 ft - 4302 m). It is the second-oldest motorsports race in the United States after the Indianapolis 500. Adam has wanted to see this race ever since we’ve lived here, and we finally decided that 2024 was the time. Adam wasn’t sure that I’d want to go with him, but if you tell me I can take pictures while I’m there, I’m down for almost anything (ALMOST).
Neither of us had been, so we had no idea what to expect. We were told in an email that we should be at the Pikes Peak toll road gate at 2:00 am. Adam was smart. He decided to get some sleep before we left. Me? I used the time to pack for my next two trips and stayed awake until we left. Hindsight tells me that was not a smart decision. Don’t be me.
As we drove on Highway 24 toward the peak, the “time remaining” on our GPS kept getting longer and longer. Up ahead, there was a traffic jam at 2 in the morning, and GPS was not wrong. We were stuck in stop-and-go traffic until we reached our parking lot on the mountain at 4 am. OOF. I stupidly thought we would get to the lot at 2:30, and I could get four hours of sleep.
LOL. I got two hours of sleep.
When I woke up at 6:45, I felt awful. Getting two hours of sleep at 10,000 feet of elevation will do that to you. But I got up and opened the van door to find Adam in the chaos. I heard there were 1,000 people located in our parking area, so there were people and cars EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t find Adam in the sea of people sitting on the side of a mountain, so he had to come and find me. When I sat down with him, and my camera, I was disappointed. It was not a great vantage point for photos, and after photographing the first few cars, I told him I was going to find a new spot.
And I found one. I could see all of the curves as the cars drove up the toll road.
What was my plan of action while taking pictures of race cars for eight hours? If I thought something was interesting, I took a picture. Some images were out of focus, some were blurry, some were meh. But the race was engaging and exciting. Being surrounded by so many people eagerly anticipating the next drive brought an energy around me that made me WANT to capture everything.
I tried to shoot a little bit of everything… artsy and landscape-esque shots, and then some traditional close up car shots.
I had a good time on the mountain, with my husband and 1,000 new friends, taking 700 photos of cars.
While we were sitting on the mountain, we struck up a conversation with two men sitting next to us. They were from Boulder, Colorado (two hours north), and they drove down for the day to see the race. One of them asked if I was a professional photographer (it was the telephoto lens), and I started laughing. He asked if I used Instagram, and I said I still do, but I also send a weekly newsletter that’s better. *gasp* I actually promoted myself to a random stranger. He said he was going to subscribe, so if you are reading this, pop in the comments to say hello!
After a few hours, I could tell my images were getting repetitive. So we went back to the van for some lunch and then found a couple of other locations to shoot at after.
After numerous red flag delays, I’d had enough. I was really tired, “photo-ed out,” and stuck on the mountain until everything was over. I told Adam to enjoy the rest of the race, and I went back to the van for a nap.
I woke up not long before the race ended, so I was eagerly anticipating the drive home. But it still took another two hours! We left at 1:30 am and got back home at 6:00 pm. By 7, I was on I-25 driving to Denver for my three-day conference.
There is no rest for the wicked. However, I had a great time at the conference and learned new information to share with teachers during the upcoming school year. I didn’t take my camera, but I did take some pictures in Denver with my phone.
Cheers.
If you missed a previous newsletter from this summer, links to parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Wonderful series of photo's, I mean I like landscapes and I love (to watch) all kinds of motorsports. Pikes peak is a legendary event 🙂
I think that the romance of the raceway diminished when they paved the road, there was always the possibility of the driver shooting off the road and down the mountain.