Albuquerque Dragway

A couple of weeks ago I decided to explore the Albuquerque Dragway.  I'm looking for photo stories to keep the skills sharp and maybe shoot stuff outside my comfort zone.  The dragway has been on my radar for awhile but its hours of operation (weekends) always seems to conflict with other missions.  I have always enjoyed watching and looking at pictures of funny cars and dragsters as far back as I can remember.  It was like they were piloting a missile.  There was also something even more inherently dangerous about a vehicle that required a chute to slow itself down than Formula One (Nascar has never had a huge draw over me).

For someone like me who does not have a vested interest in any one team or individual, I was afraid I'd find myself bored.  I mean, how many times can you watch two cars speed down a straight away at the speed of light...  Well, for me, a lot.  I could not believe how freaking fast these guys were going. 

The smell of burned rubber and gasoline was constant.  And so was the deep bass rumble of idling engines.  A couple of times I checked to see what the hell was dancing around in my camera bag (worried my camera was off on some auto-focus adventure in the dark) only to realize it was just the machines' engines.

I enjoyed myself and the venture yielded a handful of good imagery, but I'm still looking for my story.  I need a human aspect to balance out the beastly machines.  Something that helps bond this idea of human speed through mechanical assistance.