Great night of racing at Manitowoc Expo Speedway last Friday night. I was there to meet with the Wilke’s Racing Sprint Car Team and see some of their action in person. You can’t really appreciate these Sprint Cars until you’ve seen them in person; they are very light but kick out a high level of horse power launching themselves out of corners amazingly fast. In the final run of the night, there was a pile-up in the first corner which I managed to capture with my Canon 7D. The pink framed Sprint car you see tumbling in the background is driven by Erin Winscher of Sheboygen Falls who apparently was not seriously harmed. I captured a lot of great high-resolution photos during the event, and stitched together low resolution versions of the ones related to the incident into a video which you can see here.

I had an opportunity to head up to Manitowoc, Wisconsin last weekend and get some photos at the Expo Speedway where they were running Sprint Cars and other classes. The action was lively, and I was determined to get some shots despite not having the right glass for the job, having to shoot through a chain link fence, and having subjects side-lit (at best) or back-lit (at worst) from the infield lighting system.

Jeff Wilke Sprint Car

Still, it was a hoot and I am still digging dirt out from my ears. Looking forward to getting back up there soon with some better preparation. This is photo of the Wilke Sprint Car, driven by Jeff Wilke and owned by his brother Jim. Great guys! They managed to get to the A-Main despite taking some pretty good boulder-damage to the front wing in earlier heats.

Plenty of nice shots are available in the Manitowoc Speedway Event Gallery, including for 360 Sprints, Late Models, Dirt Grand Nationals, and Hobby Stock classes.