The 1450 Superbowl, The MDR Night Race.

The California 200 aka the MDR Night Race is considered to be the superbowl of 1450. The race took place August 15th 2009, In Lucerene Valley, California. It was a windy weekend with temps in the mid 90's and mid 80's. Many competetors came out to do battle against a huge field of 1450 trucks. We arrived on friday afternoon around 3pm. The gear I brought

-Nikon D80 (70-300mm) lens, SB-600 Flash

-Cannon Rebel (28-90mm) lens, Cannon Aux Flash


This race was going to be interesting from the get go; I only had a long zoom lens (70-300) for my nikon, my primary camera because of a mix up with nikon. So I brought my back-up Cannon Rebel which I used part time, but was rendered usless at night on the track..

First I took my quad for a prerun lap to scout out the course for possible shooting spots.

Here is a 1450 truck speeding through a straight away




Another 1450 Truck flies by



After Prerunning a lap around the 50 mile course I decided my places to shoot for the race. I wanted to say away from the rock pile (major spectating area) because there are many photographers that shoot there and I like to be different or in places that nobody else would be..

After that I went back to camp, I was camping with the Team Arizona 1400/1450 race teams, and I got this shot after I seen the flag up, they shined the spot lights on it so everybody knew where we were.

Az flag lit up by spot light, I hit it with the flash too..





The morning after, saturday morning I woke up early , after a night of festivities, at dawn to shoot some pics of the Arizona Race Trucks..





Kevin Mcmurry 1418







Brad Hemphill 1477





Scott Bicknell 1478





Later I cruised over to the lake bed to find some truck having a jump contest.



A ford ranger gets some air of a roller





Another truck takes off



The landing





Shortly after I headed to Tech/Contingency to snap some pictures of the trucks, and buggies.



Dan Vance's Toyota a local favorite in Califonia







A line of trucks means a long wait at tech





1471 waits to be tech'd


A Class 1 parked in the pits


A truck comes back from a test drive


Then I head To my first shooting spot a silt corner where I be for the first lap and a half. This is where I decided to to pack up the cannon rebel, because it is older digital technology I couldnt get the camera adjusted to the setting I want to shoot at night and pull off shot; So I just put the flash on the nikon and made due, wasnt going to stop shooting because of it....


The sun was setting so I snapped this shot, before the trucks came


First I started shooting from the inside of the corner but as more people drove out the background bacame clutered and I decided to move to the outside of the corner.

A buggy charges around the turn and goes up on three wheels



Probably my favorite shot of the day, a tundra get a little sideways in the turn


Another buggy charges through the turn


A toyota with a very colorful paint scheme powers through the silt


A close up of a ranger racing to a turn to catch another truck



This older ford has no problem charging the turn



The silt gets soo bad sometimes its almost impossible to see 3 feet in front of you



A vw bug holds its own and races through



Brad Hemphill beats a truck through the turn



An Arizona truck piloted by Scott Bicknell speeds by


1465 runs hard through the turn




A back shot a 1499 going out of the turn and on to the checkpoint



When it was dark enough I went back to the inside and got a few shots


181 an unlimited truck blazes through the turn


Then I moved to my next shooting spot, it was a g-out (very large dip in the course) where some truck were speeding through and pogo'd around. Here is where the problems began, I couldnt get far enough away from the track to fit the race car sometimes, because my flash was powerful enough to shoot across the race course...


1459 stuffs the front end after hiting the g-out


I was really hoping for this shot to come out better, but sometimes it happens.


1411 smashes the front end hard after not slowing for the obstacle


Sometimes in the desert other photographers equipment can cause unique shot Durka Durka Photos, stobe went of at the same time I snapped the shot, causing the huge ball of light.



1400 winner Kevin Mcmurry cruises through the obstacle



1495 moves carefully through the section to avoid any damage

After I got done shooting here that ended the race and my night. All in all it was a great race and a decent weekend of shooting on my behalf. Stay tunned for the snowflake race in two weeks, it is considerd the seconded biggest offroad race in Arizona. Thank you all for reading.