Went to the San Jose grand prix. Worked on course. Took some pictures.

Dunno if anybody here is a Champ car enthusiast. But, I decided that I would share some of the pics. Overall I took about 250 pictures. Here are some of them. All of them have been reduced in size but are still wallpaper quality. 56K ppl, you have been warned:

The race winner, Bourdais, I noticed that he apexed at a steeper angle than some other cars at this turn.
Formula Atlantic
Champ car lifts front wheel. Happened for a split second, dunno how I managed to photograph it.
Transam cars are cool.
How purple.
This car smoked its tire often, I guess going into the tire wall was only a matter of time.
Many drivers complained about how rough the course was. This picture shows why. The 2 front tires come inches off the ground after they hit the rails.

This event had a variety of venues. Such as drifting and more drifting.
There were historic stock car races. Reminds me of NASCAR in the 80s.
Then there were the really cool looking Trans Am cars.
The Formula Atlantic cars were fast but the main attraction are the CHAMP cars.
The course was extremely rough on the drivers. Many drivers added extra padding to their seats. These Light rail tracks were a problem. This particular 2 seater had its rear wheel come off the ground everytime it went over the rails, causing it to smoke the tires when they land back onto the ground.
Lots of drivers also complained about how tight the course was. Imagine roaring down a straightway several blocks long at over 150mph then braking hard into this tight turn.
Some straightaways made for some very interesting corner entry braking duels. If you look closely, one car is starting to smoke his right rear tire.
This is the best seat in the house, even if I have to stand.
Here are a couple of pics that I am using as wallpaper (2)
Our race champion happen to do a donut in front of me.

Awesome

Tell me you do this for a living. Your pix are teriffic!

Fabulous shots.

I hope I'm not the only one that thinks that track was the worst track raced on in the US in 20yrs+.

No, I took these pix with a cheap little digital camera. All the professional photographers were walking around the track with fancy cameras and huge lenses.

My day job actually sucks.

You're not - I can't believe they agreed to race there.

That had to be the most dangerous thing I've seen in major league open wheel racing in quite a while. The loading on the half-shafts and uprights had to be incredible.

I'm just glad no one broke and made a 90 turn into the wall. Hopefully they won't be back on that track again.

Formula One would have packed up and took their little cars home like the primadonnas they are....

SJ is on the schedule for SURE next year and the foreseeable future....the city is ALREADY looking at changes for next year..... :leaving:

Two of my best pics. No zoom. Great seats. Oh, yeah, I worked the race, so I cheated in positioning Kind of scary when the cars would track out on full throttle right towards you...

That was a rough course indeed! I'm sure if the drivers had any kidney stones they would be dislodged now!

Street courses appear to be the future of Champ Car - and with the crowds they are attracting, I can't blame them.

I miss their screams around Mid-Ohio, but I doubt Mid-O ever got the 100,000+ weekend spectators that SJ had.

Hopefully they will reconfigure the course, and eliminate the moguls.

I don't think there is anything wrong with bumpy courses. It is a challenge and the teams just have to cope with it. It certainly was interesting to heard a backfire of the cars letting off the gas everytime they went over the tracks. I think unusual course elements like that spices it up.

Great shots!