The crowds came out in droves for Round 7 of the CMRC Monster Energy Motocross Nationals at Riverglade, in Moncton, NB, this weekend.  This is a beautiful track with the lush forests New Brunswick is known for as its backdrop.  I was really looking forward to photographing this race and it did not disappoint.

I flew in Friday morning with Mark, Gauldy, and Frankie.  It was a decent flight but I was disappointed to find that my Think Tank Photo Airport International did not fit in the overhead or under the seat in front of me. The “international” part of its name means it conforms to all domestic and international carry-on restrictions.  This is the bag that all my photo gear must fit in for me to travel safely with it.  Everything required for me to do my job has to go in this bag.  Theft, insurance, lost luggage and damage to my equipment makes it so that checking any gear, other than soft goods, is not an option.  If I land and my cloths are lost, I buy some.  That’s not really an option with my camera gear.   Here’s a ‘what’s in the bag’ from Riverglade.

Friday night Gauldy invited me to a Monster Energy party at the iRock bar  in Moncton.  I had just finished a nice lobster dinner and was ready for bed but, c’mon, it’s a Monster party!  I headed out, camera in hand, and got there just after 11:00 PM.  Monster had a killer VIP suite upstairs and everyone was already having a blast.

Everyone got a slow start on Saturday and when I opened the curtains in my hotel, looked outside and saw the rain, I knew I wasn’t taking any pics that day.  I normally like to get lifestyle photos on Saturday but it would have been a big production for little return.  Sunday’s forecast was calling for bluebird so rainy lifestyle shots were not really telling the story of the weekend.  I got caught up on some editing and emails I am behind on.  Later in the afternoon Charles suggested we go to a movie and I was all over it.  We saw Cowboys and Aliens – stupid name, decent flick.  We had another killer seafood fiesta dinner followed by a pretty mellow evening, 5:00 AM was going to come pretty early.

Sunday morning I woke to amazing light and couldn’t wait to get to the track and capture it.  I rolled in with Stally, King and Gauldy to ensure I got there in plenty of time to get what I was after.  These guys are dialed.  The track in Moncton is very picturesque with nice red earth and lush green backdrops.  As the day went on, the race grounds filled with cheering fans and  I made incorporating them into my images the focus of the day.  While other events are well attended, this is one of the best to date.  The racing action was amazing and the season long battles continued.  The track soaked up the water from the previous night’s rain and even became quite dusty by the afternoon.  I managed to cover most of the track except for one area.  It was pretty muddy and I  had visions of sinking in the mud like in Morden.  Gauldy had his shoe absorbed like The Borg there so I steered clear.  Here are a few images from game day.

Time to clean the mud off  my gear.  See you all at Sand Del Lee next weekend.