My daughters Samantha and Hannah along with their cousin Geoffrey and myself were at the San Francisco HO Racing Association Facility playing on the late Greg Katz's fabulous Katz Spa Ring International Raceway. We were buzzing around the track using SRT Ford GT's when I had the idea to try and see if the Euro edition Tomy AFX Headlight / Taillight cars I had would mount up. The
headlight / taillight cars were given to me when Greg passed by Nate Katz, Greg's brother . Sure enough they worked, but the chasis were rough and not much better than the original Tomy AFX chasis. (Must have been the pounding they took as the SFHORA boys, kids and I thrashed them IROCing one day after a KSR t-jet race)
I later found that the BSRT G Jet chasis also mounted straight up and was clearly superior and much easier to drive. But hey the SRT's did work and when I turned off the race shops' lights a new KSR experience was born. The bright white and reds lights traveling the elevation changes and outrageous lap distance in the dark was amazing.
This is when I knew a time lapse photo was a must.
I returned a week later on a mission, to capture the essence of this for all to see.
The Katz Spa Ring at Night is a 4 minute time lapse exposure using a Nikon n65 SLR and Fuji 400 speed film. The chasis used were the BSRT G Jets under Euro Edition Tomy AFK Lighted bodies.
I only have two of these lighted bodies, so each car ran a lane for 2 minutes then as moved to another lane for the other 2 minutes. Ron Coaxum drove lanes one and two, while Curtis Adams worked lanes three and four. Eric Eberman worked the shop lights on and off, and on and off again, while I fussed with the tripod mounted camera.
When I got the print pack I was pleased but not thrilled. The image was a bit grey and grainy. Not the rich black I was looking for. Thank goodness for computers. I scanned the photo, then added some contrast and voila!! Now I was thrilled. I sent a copy to Nate and a few BayHOGG locals for their reaction. It was overwhelming. I had created the image I was hoping to.
I can almost here Greg say "that's so cool, its awesome, what's on the lunch agenda?"
I hope you all enjoy the image as much as I did creating it. Pass to anyone you wish.
Ken "oversteer" Stephens
