5evenspeed Photography, 2790 County Road 16, Cotati, CA (2026)

06/24/2026

“If it wasn’t for that raccoon, I would have never quit my engineering job”.

-me, about 5min ago, inspired by a different nonsensical equestrian quote.

I can trace sitting here in the WGI Photographer’s Room typing this today ahead of the Six Hours weekend back to these photos taken from the cold side of the fence on a $600 body and pair of $250-400 lenses on a cold April morning in 2019.

In the winter of 2018, I read a piece promoting American Endurance Racing -a grassroots series- on Jalopnik. I was intrigued and when I saw that they were coming to my home track of Watkins Glen in a few months, I decided to go down for a day to check it out. At the time, I was still aspiring to become a racer at the club level, so meeting drivers and teams was half my motivation for being there. The other half was to play around with my camera ahead of the pro racing season.

A year later and as a new home owner, the “racer” dream had been put on the shelf, so I shifted my focus to the photographic side of things. I again showed up at AER’s WGI weekend armed with my camera, eager to build on some of the contacts I made the year before. As I was trackside, a certain bright green E46 with a raccoon on the side caught my eye - how could it not?

As covid shut down the world, AER became an outlet for many in the racing community. Over the summer of 2020, the motorsports network that I had started to build over 2018 & 2019 quickly grew. At the same time, the Vandals green E46 grew into a F82 GT4, as did the air about the team which started to lean more towards the professional side of things rather than just grassroots for fun.

I can honestly say that it’s because of the connections I made over the 2020-21 AER seasons that I found myself credentialed in the IMSA paddock for the first time for Petit Le Mans in 2021. This then led to working with a hardcard as a photographer by the second half of the 2022 season, which led to remarkably coincidentally being in the “right place/right time” at the end of the 2023 IMSA season to pick up RVR as a client in 2024. And as they say, the rest is history…

{and slowly being more thoroughly documented without IG character limits}

06/19/2026

“I’ve got a brand new idea, let’s float beneath the veneer.
We’ll fade to nothing, be far beyond the reach.
Pray for the new light, conceive the cold ideal.
The start and ending could almost be the same.
The rules amended, reset the scene, pretend.

Run from gravity and up into the blue sky
Find the distal point and head into the sunlight
We could traverse the clouds, forget about the real lie
Burst and crystallise like diamonds in the night sky.

We could be empty but everything’s okay.
Let’s fade to nothing because sometimes life is fatal.”

-R. Nichols, 2017

The last two weeks were really conflicting. Regardless of my personal ill-will towards both tracks, I actually had a really good reason to not want to be at either; understandable to even the most “normal” of humans. A sorta black and white kinda thing. Yet, my desire to not want to be away from the track was stronger. For better or worse. Because once I’m there, all else fades to nothing.

All I can say about MidO is that I found a really cool fusion restaurant in Mansfield. That was the literal highlight of the weekend. Everything else about it was… “Mid-Ohio”. Road Atlanta taught me a few things or at least helped to build on some haunches I already had, but otherwise, it wasn’t a weekend that I’ll remember once we reach Petit. Neither weekend went relatively well for the team, so that didn’t really help anything either. I sorta just drifted into both tracks, did my thing, then went home. And for once because of it, I’m looking forward to Watkins. I’m looking forward to bringing the color back in at a place I know better than any other. I’m looking forwards to being home again, at the racetrack that is home.

06/04/2026

Are we still doing “Throwback Thursday”??? Cuz I wanna throw it back to some humble beginnings…

Against what I thought at the time was my better judgment, I took a Friday off of work in the middle of October 2019 to drive to Mid-Ohio and shoot a grassroots race . I wasn’t remotely being paid to do this, it was only so I could post my photos into their racing series’ Facebook group in the hopes of getting someone to bite. Turns out, it was probably one of the best, most life-altering, decisions I’ve ever made. The decision to take that risk and put myself waaaayy outside of my comfort zone was the first step in a chain of reactions that found me working with an IMSA GTD team in 2023 and eventually to being back with Random Vandals full time in 2026.

MidO may not be the most glamorous place on the IMSA circuit, but it does hold a special place in my heart. It was the first track I went to (outside of my “two home tracks”, WGI & Lime Rock) when I decided that I needed to be at more than one IMSA race a year. But more significantly, that grassroots race at MidO in 2019 was the first time I shot on the hot side with a photo vest, ever.

I meekly walked into registration with my D5700 and a pair of very low end lenses looking for someone I had never met named “Kelly”. When I found her, squeaked out “uh… I was talking with Rudy [the series photographer]... and, uh… he said I should talk to you about getting a photo vest?”. She squinted at me and thought for a second, and then responded “oh! Right - my friend told me about you. Here you go” and tossed me a vest. It was impossible to know at the time, but this brief interaction would play a key part in the outcome of my career in motorsports. There’s obviously a bit more to this part of the story, but I’ll save that and why I was focusing so much on RVR for a few weeks from now ahead of Watkins. I digress.

Anyways, because I can trace most of my origin story back to that Friday in October of 2019, as much as I’d maybe like to shrug off Mid-Ohio at times, I owe a little bit of why I’m where I am today to it. And for that, I’m excited to get back to Lexington Ohio this weekend…

06/03/2026

I think being on the inside looking out is actually harder than being on the outside looking in.

When you’re looking in from the outside, there’s usually the optimism that you’ll one day be inside. Once you’re in, where do you go from there? Maybe the inside wasn’t what you were expecting and you’re okay with just leaving. But what if the inside is exactly where you wanted to be… yet you still feel lost? Like something’s missing? Then what? Are you able to face the outside world knowing you might not ever get back in?

After the way my 2024 season ended, these were the thoughts racing through my head during the first half of the 2025 season. I was just barely clinging onto the little grasp I had on IMSA, feeling it slip further away with each passing race, and relying on my standing in the SRO as a life preserver.

To bridge a gap I had on my calendar, keep my mind busy, and keep my fingers on a camera, I decided to go to the Detroit GP last year. Aside from holding an IMSA Media hardcard, I really had very little right being there in any other capacity other than as a glorified fan, but I justified it as needing to network and have my presence [or persistence] seen. That still didn’t mute the voice in the back of my head asking “why are you here?!?”. This perhaps shows in how I handled the photos I brought home.

I’ve always said “I prefer the dark”; I love shooting in fading or no light, typically hide out in the background to get my shots, and have a propensity to process my photos on the darker side exploiting contrast. But after I was done with my photos from Detroit, even I said to myself “these are too dark to use”, and they have since sat in my “post these” folder untouched - nearly deleted several times over the last year.

Watching this year’s Detroit GP from home was essentially a reward - I wasn’t in Detroit because I was relaxing between SRO and IMSA weekends with RVR. Things can turn around real quick in the racing world, and that’s probably the legacy that Detroit will have for me. It’s a reminder to never give up. To keep yourself on the inside, no matter how hard it may be. Light always comes out of the dark…

05/25/2026

I’ve spent most of this weekend watching grass grow.

When we bought our house, the neglected yard next to us was an overgrown tanglement of brush. A few years back, I got sick of looking at it, rented a Brush Hog, and cleared as much of it as I could… but the patch closest to the house was still too dense with wild grape vines to get a rotor tiller into. Not being able to turn the soil, this patch didn’t get seeded and remained even after the other 80% became a lush yard of green grass. I attempted to clear the remaining patch again last year, but by time I got to prepping it for turning and seeding, it had already started to grow back.

The combination of beating this brush patch down last year followed by having the first proper Western New York winter in a long time took its toll on the vegetation. In the break between SRO Sonoma & COTA, I was not only able to clear it {by hand}, but also turn it twice. Finally, after returning home from the SRO/IMSA triple-header of COTA/Laguna/Sebring, I was able to turn the soil one last time and then last weekend, sow grass seed.

And so, thanks in part to the unfavorable weather this holiday weekend, I’ve been delighted every time I’ve walked past the window and seen tiny grass seedlings poking up and reaching for the sky.

It’s the same sporadic unfavorable weather that’s kept me inside that has me thinking about holiday weekends of the not-to-distant past.

In my previous job as a structural engineer, Memorial Day commonly marked the shift out of “design season” and into “construction season”, albeit as both overlapped. This made for very long days in the office and the drowning feeling of always being behind no matter what you were able to accomplish and get off your desk. The dead of winter turned into the dying days of summer before you even had a chance to realize it. Memorial Day was that one chance to sleep in and take stock of life with an “Out of Office” notification up.

Nowadays, in this second life centered around motorsports, this holiday I’m inadvertently finding myself taking stock again. Winter still turns to summer too soon, but at least I’m able to watch the grass grow now.

To be continued…

05/15/2026

“You’re closing in behind me
Well I’ve got headlights in my eyes,
Don’t you get too close to me
Can’t you see that we’ll collide,
and end up casualties
there’s just no room

So leave me on my own,
Run me down and race away from here
I’ve got nowhere to go to,
I don’t think I can get back on my feet,

It came right out of nowhere
Eyes wide and terrified,
I can’t put my brakes on,
And I can’t swerve to save your life
cause then I’ll lose control,
and I can’t choose
I’m not driving anymore
I can’t keep up with you

Get me out of harm’s way,
Can’t you see I’m paralyzed,
I wanna fade out gracefully,
but you keep keeping me alive
to face another day,
can’t you see I’m through

I’m unfit for consumption
I don’t know how to play my part,
I swear I’m all alone in this thing,
a blind man driving in my car,
into oblivion
let it come soon.
I’m not driving anymore,
I can’t keep up with you.”

-R. Dougan, 1995

Driven is an excellent racing movie… if you ignore the physics and practicality of all the racing scenes. This is a hill I will die on. Also, yes, I have several of the songs from its soundtrack saved to my “Liked” playlist. Anyways.

I’ve been feeling like mid-movie Jimmy Bly lately. While this is by no means my “rookie season” as a photographer in pro sportscar racing, it is the first time I’ve done a full season of both IMSA & SRO together. More importantly, it’s the first full season since I overhauled my operations after crashing and burning out in 2024.

I wouldn’t trade my role for anything and love every day at the track, but if you’re not prepared for the crash after you leave and the effect that motorsports has on your personal life, it will end you quickly. I will meekly and humbly against my nature admit that I am proud of the way the season is going so far and the way that I’m managing myself. For that, I am so grateful for the mentorship I’ve had over the years and the support of the people I work for. But still, somedays, it feel like I’m not driving anymore…

04/05/2026

“I’m gonna move to California
I’m gonna melt into the sand
Slow dance with Elizabeth Taylor
and Audrey
bum a cigarette from Cary Grant

Now New York you know I love you
because you made me who I am
…which is not that good of a person
I need to feel something again

I can feel it too
So what am I waiting for?
I’m afraid of you
It’s just I’m not that good of a person
But I might be enough for you
and I’ve got enough love for two”

-J. Stevens, 2016

The Gina Lollobrigida quote “We are all born to die - the difference is the intensity in which we choose to live.” fades to black as the sound of wind becomes increasingly noticeable. The video for “Serotonia” leads with Johnny Stevens standing alone on the roof of his building in Brookland during a snow storm. No music, just the howl of wind. Stevens slowly closes his eyes and when he opens them, he’s standing in the California desert; the wind still howling. The video flashes back to Brookland once more before staying in the desert. The faintest expression of contentment washes over Stevens’ face and the music begins playing over the wind.

I think about this often as I find myself alone outside in the depths of winter.

However, while the contrast of climates at my destinations have been stark to when I boarded the plane back home for my travels so far this year, that’s not what reminded me of this song or its video. It’s the second stanza posted above. I’ve spent a non-zero amount of time these first three races questioning if I’m actually the one in the wrong. The actions of others has led me to question my audacity to be on this path more over the last three months than ever before. To doubt the intensity in which I choose to live.

But all that went out the window in California. A part of this world that has been slowly becoming evermore special to me ushered in senses of community found in unexpected places. Places never explored before because I was too consumed with pleasing those who have been causing me grief as of late. And with what I found in California, for the first time this season, I am going into the next race truly feeling like I belong there.

04/03/2026

“Helmet Head”? Never met ‘em. Don’t they work for Red Bull or something?

helmethead

02/05/2026

“In the back, off the side and far away
Is a place, where I hide, where I stay
Tried to say, tried to ask, I needed to
All alone, by myself, where were you?
How could I ever think, it’s funny how
Everything that swore it wouldn’t change is different now
Just like you would always say, we’ll make it through
Then my head fell apart and where were you?”

-T. Reznor, 1999

I’ve been in a weird place since Daytona. I wanted to bring oh so much more home with me… but I really can’t be too upset with what I have. It’s all progress.

The part that has annoyed me the most is that I’m still at a loss of words. Not like in a bad way or anything… just… yeah. I don’t think I’ve even wrapped my head around it yet, let alone the ability to relay it.

I’ll get there though.

In short: a lot of other [more “notable”] photographers have said that this year’s Rolex is on for the ages; one that won’t be forgotten soon. Why? Because of the fog? Otherwise -barring the last hour- it was a relatively uneventful race. So if we’re just focusing on the fog, I actually find that quite ironically amusing considering my current inability to communicate my feelings of it. I digress. I have a feeling that this year’s Rolex will in fact be not forgotten anytime soon for me. Not because of the fog, but because of the self-growth that’s blossoming out of it for me.

I spent the lot of it “in the back, off the side and far away” where I typically hide. Where I typically feel most comfortable. In the process, it ended up being the most connected I’ve felt to myself at a racetrack since probably my first Rolex as a fan that served as the genesis to all of this.

Everything that swore it wouldn’t change is different now. And that’s a good thing, even if I couldn’t see it in the moment… you know, because of the fog and all… *sarcastic smirk*

01/25/2026

Into the night.

5evenspeed Photography

06/24/2026

06/19/2026

06/04/2026

06/03/2026

05/25/2026

05/15/2026

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01/25/2026

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