08/09/2026
Today's post has a little history. This was mid-2011, I had been to 408MX maybe only one or two times prior to this. I had heard of they were hosting called the "IMS Sprint Race". I didn't know much about what it was but I did know the county fair was happening the same weekend next door.
To my surprise, there were some big names that came out: Jimmy Albertson, Kyle Partridge, Preston Mull, and Tommy Weeck. I was understandably excited to shoot some real life pros for the first time. Tommy Weeck was fresh off an incredible P6 moto 1 finish at the Washougal National only a week before, which I remember watching on TV in awe at this unknown privateer battling in the top 5 with the likes of Dean Wilson and Justin Barcia.
Not only did I get some of my all time favorite photos (including probably my all-time favorite which is my current cover photo), but it was insane to watch the Sprint races from inside the track.
Unfortunately, this shoot was also the source of one of my biggest regrets from the early days: I shot the whole day in .JPEG. At the time, I didn't have any options because I didn't have a big enough memory card to shoot 1000+ RAW images at once.
Looking back, I'm still upset with myself that some of my favorite photos of all time were limited by the image format. Thankfully, I just look at the photos and those regrets go away pretty quickly.
Rider: Tommy Weeck
