Friday Night Open Wheels Through my Lens
Heat race 1, lap 1, turn 1 wasn’t quite what we were expecting.
June 19, 2026 - Friday night at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, MI, brought in a wheel-well-free show with the Great Lakes Lighting Sprints and the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprints in town alongside the local modified class. As the track photographer at I-96 Speedway, I look forward to every race night at the dirt track, but when there’s an outside series in town putting on a show, I get pretty stoked. On this night, we had two.
When it comes to open-wheel racing, sprint cars are a unique class. We’re all familiar with the big boys, winged 410 sprints that we see throwing dirt at Eldora, Chili Bowl Nationals, World of Outlaws, I-96, and many more temples of speed. Then we dive into lighting sprints. These are a scaled-down version of the 410 with a 1000-1200cc motorcycle engine, giving them power to their winged chassis. I could go on, but these were our two sprint classes for Friday night.
For me, it’s been a summer of sprint car racing as they have joined us a few times at I-96, I reported a race on pavement at Owosso Speedway for Michigan Area Racing Connection News, and I’ve photographed for Great Lakes Sprints Series outside of those two venues since the start of the season.
It’s interesting to think about the photographic roles that I have had with sprints this season: track photographer, series photographer, & journalistic photographer.
We had pristine evening weather for racing, with a perfect mid-70s, nearly cloudless sky that turned into a warm sunset before nightfall. Everyone seemed lighthearted and excited to be at the track. I chalked it up to a) school being out and b) the weekend leading into Summer, the season. Plus, loud cars.
The evening started fast as soon as the 410s hit the track, but we would quickly learn that wouldn’t be the only excitement this evening. Hot laps and qualifying went well, with cars looking really slick on track and the crowd filling the stands. After some quick individual laps and our opening ceremonies, it was time for some 410 heat races.
Heat race 1, lap 1, turn 1 wasn’t quite what we were expecting. From my perspective, two cars bumped as they entered the corner, causing one to flip and tumble front-over-back 2-3 times through the cushion, finally landing in turn 2. Immediate red flags prompted the medics and an ambulance, taking the driver to the local emergency facilities. Updates throughout the weekend from social media told us the driver sustained a back injury but did not need surgery and was home with family, thankfully.
As we went back to racing, the sun set, providing me with some amazing bright, warm light to work with. I got some great, detailed shots of the open sprint cars, silhouettes of the stands and fans, and really great skies full of dusk colors.
We had some fast racing the rest of the night, with a few casual yellows breaking the pace. There’s something about race cars doing 4-wide parade laps that really gets you going. I suppose that’s why they do them!
The local modifieds are also putting on a show, with the winner carving up the field from 10th to 1st by halfway through the race. Last week’s winner was in the race, too, and put in a big effort until the effort cup overflowed, causing a 3-car sandwich that sent him to the back and severely reduced his repeat chances.
A fun little highlight nugget for me was Floracing broadcasting the evening of racing on their streaming platform. I was able to meet and catch up with their infield reporter and even help her with some background info on our local drivers and the modified winner, which ended up in her post-race interview.
At this event, I also tried a fun experiment where I took my Leica D-Lux 7 (a point-and-shoot) with me and used it pre-race. This camera is a neat little mirrorless experience that provides some really rich images once you get it dialed in. The buttons and dials are smaller and just about the opposite of my Canon R6 workhorse, but luckily, my hands got around it quickly, and the pre-race scenes tend not to move as fast as on-track. These images are really cool and provide a different look to the pre-race experience. I think I’m going to keep up with this strategy.
Overall, the open-wheel evening went well, resulting in some really great images and progress in a few areas I’m currently working to develop in my motorsport photography. You’ve made it this far, so you might as well check out the gallery from the night, too! I appreciate you!
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