2009 WHRA Champion 'Damian Cownden Racing' presents our 2010 promo video!
Rider: Damian Cownden
Crew Chief: Rob Janssen
Other featured riders include:
Andy Beauchemin, Ron Houniet, Phil Schmidt, Mike Pelrine, Jack Romine, Mike Romine, Steve Dorn, Doug Horne, Doug Vancil (we missed you this year!), Griz Robinson (RIP), Tak Shigematsu, and Chicago Joe!
Principal photography/cinematography: Jason Dempsey
Additional media provided by:
Larry Pfister, Bob Johnson, Claude McKee, and Russell Janssen.
Music: Nine Inch Nails - Wish
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for Damian Cownden Racing please contact us at damiancownden@shaw.ca!
Thank you, we look forward to seeing you at the track in 2010!
Top Fuel Bikes at Sweden Internationals 2011. Tierp Arena
Top Fuel Bikes and a couple of Super Twin Top Fuel bikes from Tierp Arena at the Sweden Interanationals 2011. Fast short clips from starline area at the newly build Dragracing track in Sweden Tierp Arena.
Nitro methane Mustang runs 6.14
Mission 2009, I just couldn't help myself.... I abandoned Tim and Sharon at the pits and ran to catch this 'stang during this exhibition run. It was the second time it ran and my nose and eyes were crying both times... sorry 'bout the shake... the track guys told me the tripod had to go "in case something bad happens...." "I love the smell of nitro at the track in the afternoon..."
NHRA Drag Racing Pro Mods & Doorslammers - Mission, BC - June 27/09 part 1 of 4
CanadaMotorSports - Drag racing at Mission Raceway Park, Mission BC, part 1 of 4. June 27, 2009. Check out parts 2, 3 and 4 for more amazing drag racing including top end 200+ mph passes! Pure Sound! No music, just cars!
NHRA Drag Racing, featuring 8 second door-slammers, pro-mods, pro streets. Look for Rick DiStefano's beautiful Pro-mod 1953 Chevrolet Corvette.
copyright 2010 AVS Inc
Drag Racing 2010 - Nightshow Top Fuel Funny Car - NitrOlympX Hockenheim
"Flash Gordon" Smith and John Spuffard opened the Nightshow of the 25th NitrOlympX in Hockenheim in a very decent manner.
Spuffard going strong on the Rico Anthes Quartermile with a 5.12 (another new track record for AA/FC), Smith 5.54.
Well, that was an Opener for nice Nightshow to come.
Join me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RMAs-Amateur-Footage/189618134401951
Roel Koedam Top Fuel Bike Explosion - Slow Motion at Santa Pod
Slow Motion Footage of Roel Koedams Top Fuel Bike Explosion at Santa Pod Raceways Easter Thunderball 2010. Thanks to Ian Blackett for providing us with this footage, please check out Ians work at www.blackettphotography.com Slow motion clips of many other racers from various Santa Pod events are available.
24V71 Detroit
This is our 24 cylinder Detroit that we are putting in a custom 359 Peterbilt. It will use an Allison Transmission, and the engine will be in the front of the truck. We are starting off with 40 foot 4" X 14" rectangle rails, not sure how long it will end up being.
Eyewitness-1971 Jet Car Crash Dallas International Motor Speedway
For full version of story go to my blog at:
http://tvnewsphotogoneeyeclosed.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-jet-car-crash.html
My memories of the day: There had been showers that morning and the sky was still a dull gray when I arrived at the Dallas International Motor Speedway. I was working part time for KTVT Channel 11 in Ft. Worth and had been assigned to shoot Art Arfons' 280-mph jet-powered dragster as he tried to better the world quarter mile land speed record. His new two seat "Super Cyclops" was scheduled to make 3 runs, the first, with a WFAA-TV news man.
As the car approached the line I pressed the shutter release. The ground was shaking and the sound was painful but even after hearing the incredible roar from the roll up I wasn't prepared when the Super Cyclops blasted into that quarter mile run. It parted my hair! The first thought in my mind was, there's no way I'd get in that car... My God, it could go straight up as easily as forward. I stayed with the shot, following the jet down the asphalt for the 6.01 seconds it took to reach the finish line and then beyond. The jet shut down and immediately there was the blue smoke of skidding rubber and wreckage flying. Then, farther down the strip, a column of smoke. I jumped through a break in the guardrail, and ran toward the crash.
As I got nearer I rolled film on a man who was crying and I asked if he was OK? He couldn't speak but gestured to a pile of debris down the track. As I ran closer I began to see it was a human torso scattered among several other body parts. After reaching a little over 183 MPH the dragster had blown a tire, spun 180 degrees and slammed through the guardrail on Thomas' side, striking a track worker with such force that it propelled him into another worker killing him as well. The carnage was overwhelming but I shot the scene as best as I could playing down the grim details I knew would never air anyway. I had shot all 100 feet of film but had another tin in my pocket as I and a young still photographer started to run the several hundred feet farther down the track to the burning jet car wreckage.
As we ran a car pulled in front of us, blocking our way, and several large security guys jumped out and backed us into a retaining wall. One of the men demanded we give him our cameras and to my surprise the young still photographer complied. The man immediately opened the back, pulled out the film and exposed it to the light. Although I was out of film I had pretended to shoot the man as soon as he got out of the car and was still doing so when he turned to me. The Bell and Howell's handy leather strap made it a pretty good club as I backed against the wall and raised the camera above my head. "I'm dropping the first guy that touches me", I warned. I wasn't the biggest guy in that group but I sure wasn't the littlest either. I was going to be a lot more trouble than that young guy with the still camera. They didn't come any closer and I agreed to stop taking pictures of them as more people arrived on the scene to see what was going on. A truce of sorts was worked out when the security man contacted the control tower about the situation. He talked in front of me on the radio to a supervisor who told them not to touch me or the camera and politely asked me to return to the tower with them. I agreed.
In the office I was met by Mike Landess who was working part time at WFAA and freelancing as PR for the track. There were several other people in the room who seemed to be speedway officials. They didn't demand the film but wanted to talk to my boss at Channel 11 and I gave them the number. I heard the conversation as they threatened to sue the station if we showed anything inappropriate. After several minutes they handed the phone to me and I was told to get shots of the wrecked car and then get back to the station with the film as quick as possible. The security people took me back to the crash site and I got my final shots. The story aired that night and the station never was sued.
Not long after the crash I was filming an interview with Harry Reasoner, then of ABC, at the Dallas Press Club when I ran into Travis Lynn, the news director at WFAA-TV. I'd been making the rounds of all the TV stations that summer trying to move up the news ladder, so Travis knew who I was. He complimented my work on the jet car crash and offered me a job at channel 8. This after telling me just a few weeks earlier that I needed more experience. I worked there for three years often with Mike Landess who I met at the track office and later worked with at KBTV. He's now an anchorman at KMGH in Denver.
So that's how it happened, my first TV news job in a major market. Although I took his picture, I never met, Ch 8's, Gene Thomas but his career ended the day mine really began. Life and death... My, how we blunder along. In the news business you're confronted with that over and over. After awhile you begin to see it's just part of the story.
4 Jet Car Drag Race
Under the definition of "awesome" should be a picture of 4-jet cars racing! NMRA/NMCA All Star Nationals at ZMax Dragway in Charlotte, NC ended the night by lighting up ZMax's 4 drag lanes with the fire and the thunder of 4 jet turbine drag cars creating an estimated 24,000 HP on one track! The Embry Riddle dragster takes off and runs a 5-second quarter.
