Spotlight: Terre Haute Action Track, Indiana Sprint Week, July 2005

View this photo at Flickr

The main grandstand at the Terre Haute Action Track awaits the start of USAC Sprint Car heat races on the final night of Indiana Sprint Week 2005. Levi Jones would win the feature that night, while Cory Kruseman took home the Indiana Sprint Week Championship.

All of the talk about the “Action Track” recently has reminded me of this photo. There had been a torrential downpour earlier in the day that left an awful lot of standing water around the track. So much so that at both ends of the track, there appeared to be a moat between the track and the infield! Even more strange was that despite all of that water, the track surface became quite dusty and dry, to the point that fans in the stands were pleading for the water truck to come out (and thankfully it did).

As much as I like photos of race cars doing their thing, I also really like grandstand photos. I love the way the lights on top are reflected in the water, giving everything an extra sparkle. Indiana is blessed with many fine examples of classic American short tracks, and this is certainly one of them. I shot this handheld at ISO 1600, so it’s a little fuzzy/grainy but that’s okay, it lends a little “vintage” feel to it.

Sprint cars at the Action Track on a hot and steamy summer night… that’s right up there with the best that “Indiana Racing” has to offer.

Photo by Paul Woods, July 22, 2005.