Behind the Lens at Glen Helen’s Freedom Cup

The Heat, Endurance, and Perspective of Off-Road Racing

When planning for an event that, as a photographer, you’re capturing and covering for the off-road media, the entire process can take only days prior to the event. But for me, it is something completely different. I started planning, prepping, and reaching out to brands months in advance to secure a spot with them and began organizing the drivers, teams, and companies that I will represent behind the camera lens.

My main subject of this race was Slowride. Some may ask who they are, so let me give you a brief rundown on Slowride. They are a rad brand out of Hesperia, California, that idolizes making clothing for the informed and the driven. They are a brand behind the original Slowride Garage and Class 11 Racing Team, and boy are they a heavy presence at this race! Almost every Class 11 car in the field was repping Slowride and showing their support for such a great brand!

Another client I signed onboard was the 1450 Champion himself, Corey Pratt, and his badass Jeep XJ repping the DFS MOB off-road lifestyle brand and showing his support for the boys! Throughout this entire event I will continue to sign on multiple teams and drivers as networking in the pits at an event is just as important as capturing the event on the track. Without networking and bringing your work to light and giving others a chance to see themselves behind the lens, you can celebrate when hearing ‘yes,’ but know how to deal with hearing ‘no’! Regardless, let’s jump into the action of CHASING this event.

Starting off the morning, it’s an early start at the track. Getting there at 7 a.m. and talking with your teams and seeing if they have a preference in certain ways they want to be captured or if they like fast-paced photos versus slow-paced corner photos ripping the sand berms and kicking up dust. My personal recommendation is to look for a portion of track where you can find both, and when racing at the famous Glen Helen location, you can always bet the track team and event organizers are going to create a course that will give you the best possible content for your clients and your personal portfolio. 7:30 a.m. Class 1500 starts qualifying and gets everyone amped for the racing day ahead. I wasn’t booked for anyone in that class, so I chose to skip it and focus on the next class—the party class—Class 11.

In this class, you have a few drivers to look out for. I always keep my eyes on Mr. Donny Donovan, Brian O’Dor, Blake Wilkey, Ryan Rodriguez, Brandon Akulian, Aubree Wardrip, and a few others! These are just a few of the big names this race weekend that are known for putting on a show at every given moment around the track! Whether they are the fastest or slowest, they are always having a blast behind the wheel.

Watching these Class 11 cars bang gears and rip the track is the most fun I could imagine. Low-horsepower shredding is some of the most entertaining types of racing, and Class 11 is a very fast and growing class in the off-road world that continues to dish out the best results possible. Now while we love our Class 11, qualifying comes to an end, and we jump through a few different classes before we reach one of my favorites—Class 1450. This group is traditionally your prerunners, your freestyle desert guys who love to send it, and the professionals who have purpose-built trucks for this class’ limits. In this class, I’m looking for Ernest Harris, Corey Pratt, Noah Quantrell, and Cole Andrews. These guys are jumping the highest and going the hardest every second on the course. I got some crazy shots of these guys in the corners and Noah doing his thing, flying through the air and putting on a show for the media people. BUT, with all these fast trucks, I have to mention Cole Andrews in his blue Ford Ranger. In my opinion, it’s one of the funniest trucks in the class. It’s underbuilt but was also probably the most fun to watch out of all the drivers. Cole was also putting on a show for the media guys when he was hitting the whoops and slamming the gas and brakes, causing the truck to do slap wheelies, which I had never seen done before in off-road racing. Every media guy and track official had a good laugh about it afterwards, and it became the talk of the class.

After 1450, we slowed down to some of the smaller classes, like side-by-side with Can-Ams and Polaris short course cars ripping it up. During this time, I took a small break because it was extremely hot out, and I went up and down the hills on this track, walking miles around the edges to capture the best moments. I sat back, watched some action for a bit, and enjoyed some cold water while other media personnel were on track hammering out their clients’ photos and videos. I will admit, when you do take these breaks during the action, you risk missing clients and maybe even capturing a crazy moment that may make or break someone’s race that no one else was able to capture. Those are the type of moments that sell pretty well even though it’s unfortunate, as most racers know; if they wreck, they at least hope for someone to capture every moment and be able to show them for it. Every race comes with a scar, whether it’s done on or off the track. Broken parts, injured drivers, no pit crew, and other factors heavily play into the success of a team on track, and when I’m taking photos I love capturing those raw moments of the team in action taking off parts, putting new ones on, and truly showing the teamwork that falls into this. It’s easy to see how diehard the pit crew and team members are for their driver and the car or truck itself.

The end of the day came, but the Freedom Cup saved the best for last with the Unlimited trophy trucks, 6100 trucks, and Class 1 buggies that push the hardest and have the biggest suspension, tires, and horsepower to truly put on a show. If you’re a media outlet or photographer, this is 100% the class you want to be watching at all times because these guys push the absolute limits in these rigs, and it can create some of the craziest moments that can definitely make a good highlight reel.

The race starts, and United Rentals’ Kyle Murray and its 6100 Class trophy truck dart out front with a commanding lead. Shortly after him you have Zach Conner and Brent Veenstra in their Unlimited trophy trucks competing at the highest level possible. It was a close battle at the top between Cantina Racing, Ducky Racing, and Veenstra Motorsports battling back and forth continuously the entire time, seconds from one another and staying consistent in their pace the entire time. At the end of the day, Veenstra pulled out on top with a 1st place finish, with Zach Conner with Ducky Racing in a close second place and Cantina Racing in a mere 3rd place right behind Zach Conner. Nonetheless, it’s always good seeing Zach out on the track, as he is only 16 years old! This kid rips and is going to be a legend in this sport in no time. Riding shotgun with Zach is Jaden, giving him all the notes and track info to keep Zach pushing as hard as he can. My favorite portion of the track was watching all these trucks in the far back corner, where they would blast a sand berm into a small straightaway that would create the perfect sunset photos, giving me the results I was wanting all weekend long.

Finally comes the nighttime when cold drinks are cracked, smack is talked, and enemies on the track become friends off the track. The family of racing comes together the strongest during these hours. It’s also a time for a media guy like myself to take a chance to relax and talk with friends and clients. Sometimes I’ll even whip up a couple quick edits to show them their day and see their reaction to it. As a media guy, there are a lot of great compliments, but a client being shocked by your quick work and it becoming the talk of their camp is another feeling. Until next year, Freedom Cup and Glen Helen. I will be chasing you once again and capturing the moments that all should be able to see.