Lucas Oil Offroad Racing Series (Season Opener)
This was my first shoot with the Lucas Production team, and was the very first event of the Lucas Oil Off Road Series, held at the Motorsports Complex track (at the state line, behind Buffalo Bills) in Primm, Nev. – so I didn’t know exactly what to expect!
What no one expected was the wind that came on Friday. It was strong enough to shut down our production for the day, and meant no practice for the racers. But there were still people there in the grandstands, bundled up with jackets, hoods and blankets. If they were there on that windy Friday, you just knew there would be lots of people there the rest of the weekend.
One other thing that jumped out at me was that everyone – racers, teams, crew members – were really thankful to be racing and grateful that Lucas Oil got the series moving. That was the theme of the day, on and off the camera.
I spent the first half of Saturday meeting racers and doing some features, and had a great time talking with former motocross and Indycar star Jeff Ward, Rodrigo Ampudia (whose father is one of the nicest people in the series), and Carl Renezeder. I am working stricting for Versus, and it was great to be able to introduce the viewers to some of the veterans, and some of the new faces.
I was close to the track again, and spent most of Saturday getting covered by rocks and dirt. I have to laugh when people who don’t know about television production tell me it must be fun to work in such a glamorous job – because it really isn’t glamorous when it is hot and windy and it feels like someone has just jumped a bucket of dirt on your hair and clothes. It’s still really fun, though!
Another thing that I noticed was that the crowd was different than I expected. There were a lot of pretty girls there, tons of families, and lots of kids. LOORS has attracted quite a family crowd. The crowd on Sunday was up a bit from Saturday, but both days had great sized crowds. A neat thing about Sunday was following up with Jeff Ward. He didn’t have a great race on Saturday, so he and his crew had some serious game faces on Sunday. I saw them studying portions of the course, and it obviously paid off as he had a very good race on Sunday.
This was my first production with the Lucas Oil Production staff, and it was very impressive to see how the whole team works together. Everyone clearly wants to see the series succeed and I’m thrilled that I am along for the ride!
View fun pics from the two day event
The next LOORS event is May 2-3 at the Speedworld Off Road Park in Surprise, Arizona.
I hope to see all of you there!
