Now that Issue 7 has come out I feel it is one of my favorites we have produced to date. While it is already special to everyone that has worked on Wrecked Magazine since it marks our one year anniversary issue. After some long late night talks and debates with friends and Industry people the Top 10 Wrecks in Formula D history was a very nice touch to Issue 7. Justin Pawlak’s piece was amazing and I learned a good bit about him in his interview including why his National Wave sponsorship is a passionate sponsor to him and his family. When you have a few minutes make sure you open up this issue and check it out.

Read Issue 7 of Wrecked Magazine: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue7/issue7.html

In the new issue of Wrecked Magazine we launched right before SEMA we added an awesome looking advertisement from AEM. They used my photograph from Formula D Road Atlanta for the background of this ad. Our design team and the guys at AEM came together to make an awesome interactive ad. The parts on the bottom right all will take you to different sections of the AEM website which is very cool. If you haven’t read the new issue make sure you go ahead and check it out.

Read Issue 7: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue7/issue7.html

After this accident at HIN Nightshift Phoenix I have been in some debates on forums about the safety of media at events and I must say that some people’s replies have really blown me away. After watching this incident happen at HIN and witnessed other accidents in similar environments I think we need to grow up as a motor sports community already.

As someone who owns a company in the media business and does a ton of work around the automotive industry I just see something lacking in a major way. Don’t misunderstand me for a minute either, we have been to these same HIN demo’s and our crew has filmed them in the same fashion as the people above in this accident video. The link below is a video we made for NOS Energy Drink at Hot Import Nights: Nightshift New York. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/HIN-Nightshift-New-York_167950.htm

Now the shot you see from the Drifting demo seems very harmless because no accident had happened but that was filmed by a friend in film of ours who isn’t exactly an automotive media expert. If something were to of happened, he probably had no idea the danger he could of been in around that area. The other thing is anyone with a general credential can walk right up to that wall at HIN or into a hot zone of Formula D. Especially on the Formula D side I think they need to move into a teered system of media.

There is no reason many of the people cluttering the media pits at these events should be inside the area they are in and it just makes it generally more difficult for people who know what they are doing and have a purpose to get their job done. I have witnessed (especially this season at Formula D) some people just doing very dumb things on a hot track even though Formula D takes many great precautions for the media’s safety. Sadly Formula D cannot babysit everyone in the media section constantly observe them to assure they are not doing irrational things but they have to take the liability. Look at this perfect example from Formula D Long Beach. This kid during qualifying hopped on the k-rail and took photos for several runs until security ran and took him down.

This is the major issue I really see that is going on. When you receive a media pass at HIN, NOPI, BOTI, Formula D, Pro Am or any other organization no one delineates you from a official media partner, 5 year shooting professional, blogger, kid on Flickr, local forum or anything. This is where I think a teer system can help everyone’s headache and safety. I think bloggers and local forums/sites are a key and should never have to pay to enter an event but do they really need to be allowed inside the hot media area? Perhaps we need an approval/vouch system to get into the hot area or you have to attend an event first under a cold pass to understand more of what is going on?

Another main reason that got me motivated to right this post is the events that I witnessed at Irwindale Speedway this year. So Friday I woke up wayy early to attend a mandatory media meeting which was no problem. I was upset but swallowed my pride and rolled into this meeting even though I had to bolt out to LAX right after and then head right back to the track. Well after being told for a good amount of time the basics we left and were told we had to come to the meeting tomorrow. I show up to the next meeting on Saturday which wasn’t as early but seemed as brutal time wise. The basics were like don’t run out on the track, don’t be an idiot, stand here, don’t stand here. Well during the main event what does someone do? They jump right across the k-rail while track is hot. The course worker spots them and they did get yelled at immediately. It’s like really though? What if something happened to the guy? Was he really someone worth having the liability of being in a hot zone of the race track? Hopefully he will not be allowed to return after a brash action like that took place. With all of this being said, I want to hop off my soapbox by saying that most of these concerns I am bringing here because I hope we can get this stuff solved before a fatality is caused in the sport. That I feel would be tragic for all of us in the community. If anyone would wish to contact me I am open to help with any way to improve safety at venues from grassroots to the professional series. Just drop a line through the contact form and I will get back to you.

Watch the video that sparked this whole post from HIN Nightshift Phoenix: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/s13-flips-at-hot-import-nights-nightshift-pho

If you will be at Formula D Irwindale this weekend then please tag your twitter posts with #formulad (without a space). If you use this tag it will be picked up by our live feed and you can contribute to all the action we will be going over for the people who cannot make it around the world. If you cannot make it to Irwindale, you can watch the live updates from the Wrecked Magazine staff and fans by hitting the chat page.

Check out live updates all weekend at Irwindale on Wrecked here: http://wreckedmagazine.com/twitter/formulad08/

After some re focus of Wrecked Magazine in recent months and the new 2.0 launch we have been looking for ways to help optimize our videos and our clients work that is featured up on our website. We are now optimized and searchable in Google video. Our whole library currently can be found and searchable within the Google video software which should provide huge traffic to our website. Each video even has a link straight to www.wreckedmagazine.com under the player that fans can click to drive direct traffic. It looks like Google reads our sitemap about once a day to add new photos into this program. We are very excited about this marketing implementation we did this week and will update soon on the success of this program. Thanks to the team for all the hard work we have put in to make this happen over the past few weeks.

So we picked up a new advertiser in Disc Brakes Australia for Issue 6 of Wrecked Magazine and Yoni called on me to shoot the photography for the spread featuring their sponsored driver Tony Angelo from the Drift Alliance. We actually shot the photo in the pre grid section of Evergreen Speedway right before qualifying at the Formula D Seattle event. The photo was created with my Canon 30D hand held with a Speedlite 580EX remotely fired on a stand next to me. The sky and some other elements really helped this piece come together. You can also click on the images below to open up a higher resolution version

Yoni then took that photograph along with a shot of Tony Angelo ripping it off the bank at Seattle and put some great design behind the ad to make it flow very well! If you want to see the ad in the magazine click here.

Rhys Millen and Ross Petty do battle at the Old Wall Speedway

Not to long ago Wall Speedway was home of Drifting in the the northeast and I have to admit I miss this track dearly. While going through some archived footage we dug up this awesome tandem battle with Ross Petty and Rhys Millen from the 2007 Formula D first round of Top 16. Ross Petty spent the WHOLE time before the run revving and doing burnouts at Rhys. They rolled off the bank and Ross Petty smashed right into him resulting in a zero score for him. Rhys came back and responded with some aggressive tandem right back at him. What a great race these two guys had at the Old Wall Speedway.

After finally arriving at the track we enjoyed a few practice sessions with the Drifters at the racetrack.

Forest Wang and Tony Angelo ripped up during practice at Autodromo Monterrey.

Justin Pawlak was driving so hard he just shattered his bumper square in the middle of the track coming into the infield.

After we got back it was raining in downtown Monterrey. Here is a view from our hotel window.

A look at night outside our hotel room over Montterey, Mexico.

So we landed a day after all the Formula D staff on Friday early morning around 9am. With everyone at the track we decided to brave a taxi cab ride for the 41 miles it took to get to the track. A 41 mile (1 hour) taxi cab ride cost roughly $27.50 American. It was safe to say our taxi driver had been taking “mind altering substances” before driving us through Monterrey. His old Dodge Neon 4 door had a grinding 2nd gear and he took off from a stop by revving his car to redline (around 7k) and slipping the clutch all the way till the car returned back to redline. I don’t have as many pics of this adventure because I didn’t bring my point/shoot in order to keep my travel gear low. I just brought a book bag for the whole weekend in Mexico. Anyways, on the the way to the track here are some places we drove past while traveling through Monterrey. Our cabbie also had to ask for directions over four times to find the race track.

Sleepless in Seattle was definitly now the team’s case over this past weekend. All it did was RAIN RAIN RAIN but don’t worry, our waitress assured us that the local Seattle area gets about 60 days of sunshine a year. Not only did it rain virtually all night it rained during the Formula D main event as well.

It was however a busy weekend at the track for PM Lifestyle. We produced an internal video for Mobil 1 that talked to the teams that trust Mobil 1 with their motors ever week. We shot the new cover for Issue 6 at the event on Saturday morning and also took the photography to produce a new advertisement for Disc Brakes Australia.

To make Seattle more exciting the 405 was closed over the weekend! For you local northwesterns you know that is a recipe for disaster. So other than some late night airport runs and Denny’s we didn’t get ourselves into to much trouble. Just sat back and watched the Olympics at the good ol Hilton in Bellevue. So I deceided to showcase some of my favorite snaps from the Seattle weekend that I took.

Myself and Jayke are gearing up currently for Formula D Mexico which we depart in like 10 days for, so be ready for Mexican Sombrero Hostel Parties!