Was looking at a site and saw a post about a photographer at a race event that was allowed to cross a hot track surface to get to a place to get a better shot... My question is to you all... Have you EVER done this? I have been around a lot of tracks and races and have never seen a photographer be allowed to cross a hot track before. They typically jump on a scooter and go to where they need to be or want to be. Even if that is simply across the track on the opposite side they are on at the time... Here's the link and the discussion... http://www.localriders.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14284 Second post is a duzzie to say the least... I was somewhat set back... Comments?
I try to plan my shooting location ahead of time so I don't have to cross the track. Some tracks offer a great variety of shooting options all within a few feet of each other. The carousel at Summit is a good example.
Apparently, not a huge break as the rider saw the photographer in this situation... I know an AMA event, you would never be allowed to do so... When you say rare, how often is rare?
i would think they would cross between races if they wanted to get a shot from the other side. that would make sense to me.
Rare as in maybe once every 20-30 events. And again - only with a huge huge break. For example, at Miller, we were sending the photogs to the infield at pit out as the bikes headed towards T1 on a warm up lap or the start of a practice session. That kid of thing happens but they check in with a person who has a radio who then checks with control. If we ever had a photog choose his own time to cross a hot track they'd never shoot another WERA event.
What am I thinking? That makes sense! I am willing to bet they never checked with control... They obviously didn't wait until between races (whitey making too much sense:up and they certainly didn't wait for a long break... I figured WERA wouldn't send a photograher out during race laps, but rather at the start (warm up lap) or similar... I was worried for a second, though! OK, a milli-second...
If we've only got 4 or 5 bikes on track and they're all together or something like that then yeah, I'd allow someone to cross. Remember we run tracks like Grattan and Roebling that need crossings to get in and out so we're used to crossing people while it's hot if need be or if it's easy and safe to do. It doesn't happen often but it does happen.
