Turkey Night Grand Prix Midget Race 2022 – Ventura, CA
I had been to the races at the venerable 1/4-mile oval at the Ventura Fairgrounds (literally a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean) many times in the past 25 years, but had never been to the big show – the Turkey Night Grand Prix. The Turkey Night race is actually the third oldest race in the country that still goes on today, behind only the Indy 500 and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Originally it was run at the Gilmore Stadium in the heart of Los Angeles during the initial Midget racing boom of the 1930s. After the war is was held at Gardena Stadium, then the legendary Ascot Park, then Suagus, Bakersfield, Irwindale, and Perris, before landing at the Ventura Fairgrounds, and on the Saturday afterwards instead of Thanksgiving night.
I went and got a media pit pass to take pictures of Wilwood brakes as installed on Midget and Sprint cars racing. Of course, we know who is using our stuff, but we seldom have a photographer with a good camera to get in close and get images of it in use. Since these images are mostly just for background, and few of them will be seen, I figured I’d put a whole gallery up here.
I shot with my trusty Pentax K1000, which I have had since 1990, on 100 speed color and 1600 speed B&W film. Unfortunately, I think the camera may need service because the high speed film was really washed out looking.
I also shot with my Olympus Micro 4/3rds mirrorless DSLR. Those images obviously came out great, but I did not have a powerful enough flash once the sun went down.
Here are the color 35mm images I took. I love shooting with an old camera on full manual because it makes you slow down and really look at what you are taking a picture of. Unfortunately, my eyes are not what they used to and sometimes the focus is just a bit off.
As I’ve said, I’ve had this Pentax since high school back in the early 1990s. It went to Woodstock in 1994 and survived, then traveled cross country with me on a motorcycle. Pretty sure it has a light leak or the shutter speed is a bit off because of how these came out. I was only shooting 1600 speed film because my equally Vintage Vivitar 283 stopped working finally. When shooting low speed film (the color film above) a light leak isn’t very obvious.
