Detroit Gran Prix, Belle Isle, Detroit, June 1,2 2013
This is our first Gran Prix, and one of our customers, Jim Taggart/Taggart Autosport was racing in the Pirelli World challenge GTS class.
Not only did we have access to the cold pits, but I was able to ride out to the hot pits with the Taggart team, and actually snagged a shot or two. Jim Taggart is a very bold driver. He was avidly trading paint with the rest of the GTS class, which included a number of Mustangs. At the time I remember describing it as competing with a car made of eggshells, against cars made of sledgehammers. As you can see in the photo, Jim collected a souvenir screw from one of the other cars, but unfortunately this triggered the stupid Lotus immobilizer and killed the car right there on the track. That was on the Saturday race. His times were good and he was qualified for the Sunday race where he managed to squirt between crashing cars and finished sixth under a yellow flag.
The rest of the race was very frustrating from a photography standpoint. If you didn’t have a “Photographer” bib, you could not get to the only places to shoot from, and I finally ended up in one of the back stretch bleachers, but still not a very good position. I won’t be enthusiastic to go unless I have photographer’s credentials, or I have one of our sponsored customers on the track.
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- Taggart Autosports getting ready to put the car up on the scale for the final tech check
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- Rolling up on the scal for final tech
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- Finished with tech, ready for the Saturday race
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- Saturday race is a rolling start race, here Jim is ready to get going.
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- Rolling off, ready for the green.
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- This was a short race, so little activity in the pits. This team was battling some Brake/Rear axle issue on their Mustang. It didn’t seem to dampen their spirits much.
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- Jim got a little close in one of the turns after this shot and was unable to restart.
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- Porsche and an Audi coming in to the pits after the final lap.
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- Driver wasn’t a happy camper.
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- There were a lot of Mustangs.
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- Big fenders and all.
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- Something collected from another car.
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- The team of Taggart Motorsports looking over what needs to be done to be ready for Sunday’s race, with Matt Price of Monkeywrenchracing.com
