A race weekend.
All photos in this blog entry: © Tyler A.W. Burke. 2022.
This July I got to help out in the pits for one of my brother’s Spec Miata races. Below is a brief photographic recap of the race weekend.
My race weekend photography kit consisted of the fixed-lens, compact Fujifilm X100V and the X-T3 with the versatile XF 70-300mm lens. The only shots taken with the X-T3 are of Zac on-track; all others were taken with the X100V.
This weekend my brother - Zac Burke - was racing at the Rad Torque Speedway, adjacent to the Edmonton airport. Zac has been racing a Spec Miata for last few years after starting his racing career in open-wheel Formula Continental (where there were far fewer drivers in western Canada) - he also races competitively on iRacing in the off-season. Growing up playing video games against Zac was pretty unfair because he has the fastest reaction time of anyone I know; he was made to go fast. Rounding out the team is our dad Peter (pictured left - in a photo recreating one I took here last year of Zac.). It was a hot weekend as air temperatures hung around the high 20s/low 30s and track temperatures reached well into the 40s.
A typical race weekend unfolds so: Friday we drive out and in the evening claim our space at the track, Saturday morning is practice and qualifying, Saturday afternoon and Sunday is racing. Saturday morning Zac was slower than usual and he realized the car was in serious need of a set-up. Being a comparably lower-budget racing outfit - i.e. unable to set the car up ourselves at the track due to a lack of the expensive equipment required to do so - we started experimenting with tires and tire pressure to try and lessen the impact of some of the car’s shortcomings.
After qualifying in 6th, Zac finished 7th, 6th, and 5th in the first three races. Not being near the front of the pack (as he usually is) ended up being a blessing in disguise as a huge wreck in race 3 took out the cars in 1st and 2nd. Thankfully, everyone walked away unhurt and the racing proceeded.
Zac’s battles in the mid-pack landed him a 5th place finish in the points-awarding 4th race. A blown transmission forced him to retire from the 5th and final race Sunday afternoon. We had a busy race schedule lined up for August but those funds have now been redirected into purchasing the parts needed to get the car on the track again. Racing is a tough sport to compete in when you don’t have loads of expendable income kicking around! The plan now is to get the car back to race-ready in August and finish the season off with races in September.
These race weekends are a great excuse for my brother, dad, and I to hang out - and support Zac’s passion for going fast and competing. The next weekend can’t come fast enough!
An update about this blog: the plan is to write/create at least one new blog entry every month. The subjects will be dependent on what I’ve been up to so there should be a decent range of stories and topics. If you have feedback, by all means drop me a line via my contact form.
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Until next time, take care!
