June 12 Recap: The First True Summer Night at I-96 Speedway
June 12, school’s out, and we finally returned to I-96 Speedway after a rained-out previous week. It was the perfect night for dirt track racing, and with a full lineup of local classes, we had a great show ready to go.
Leading up to this night, the track had some bigger shows come to town with the American Late Model Tour and Great Lakes Super Sprints joining us at the track the previous 2 race nights. This led to some pretty high-stakes nights and just a lot of unnecessary pressure to do the same job I always do. Needless to say, having a full lineup of our local drivers was a welcome experience. The venue had a very nostalgic vibe to it, with the weather giving us a cinematic scene for the evening.
The evening sun and sunset provided some fantastic lighting for photography, and the drivers gave me some stunning poses on track. I kept experimenting with some shooting spots I discovered a few weeks prior. This was the week I really saw consistent, intentional results from these locations. I also worked on shooting what I have dubbed "mini-scenes", where I try to challenge myself to capture tiny moments on and off the track.
When it comes to the garages & pits, this is a relatively "easy" challenge as you get going. I guess you could say it's closest to your standard macro car photography, just of the racing variety. Small moments like hands wrenching the engine, a taken-apart engine, a family surrounding a vehicle, tools scattered about; the art of the mundane. On-track it gets trickier. I like getting the visible pipes of the modifieds, hands working the steering wheels in sprint cars, and the frozen, lifted tires while a car is digging through the corner. It's about zooming in & catching that detail. My photographer friend was catching troll dolls zip-tied to a family's two sprint cars on this same evening at a different dirt track.
Given my relative freedom at I-96 to (safely) explore and really push some locations, I've found a few spots that I've been working to develop. One being right next to the flagstand, at the opening to the track itself. This is a very off-limits spot to the crowd and is very exposed. The cars dig around turn 4 and slide directly towards this spot. Depending on the class, they straighten out either 10-20 yards in front of me or sometimes still in a slide at the flag stand. This is a crazy view, and with a wide-angle lens, it really provides a unique perspective.
I got to work not only for the track on this Friday night, but also for driver Jeffrey Reay in the modified class, giving him some special attention on-track and in in-car video footage. He got the benefits of my new spot with a ton of stunning, full-resolution images from there and all around the track. Working one-on-one with a client is a ton of fun. One reason is that I have a car to focus on to try out my experiments (tiny scenes, flagstand spot, etc.), and I know the images are going somewhere. Another reason is that it's a huge boost in confidence not only on this night, but also pushing forward.
The night went smoothly, as far as I could tell, and we ended at an appropriate time. We've had some late race nights at I-96 so far this season, so it was refreshing to leave the property on the same day I arrived. This was my only race for the weekend, which was also refreshing. I'm back at it again this Friday night at I-96 Speedway with a fun Father's Day weekend lined up.
Check out the gallery from Friday night & purchase your favorites with the link below: https://biographyphotography.pixieset.com/i96speedway2026/june122026/
