About Ivan & Rose:
Ivan has been shooting drag racing for over 20 years, although the last 7 or 8 years have seen this migrate into ‘serious’ photojournalism throughout Europe and Australia; Rose has also been bitten by the bug and has been working on the European tour for the past 4 years

Magazines or other media they work for:
"principally for Dragster Australia magazine, DragRacingOnline.com and Dragbike.com, but our work has also appeared in many other outlets, including national newspapers, motorsports publications and drag racing magazines throughout Europe and the United States".

Photo equipment they use:
Canon DSLRs are used exclusively with a variety of Canon L series lenses, Rose prefers her 28-300mm L for variety on track whilst Ivan likes the hi-shutter speeds of his 70-200mm L f2.8. The explosive nature of drag racing (especially Top Fuel Dragster) means a big deep breath before the lights go green and then a few seconds of intense concentration ready for any shot that might offer itself on track – a bit like being in the cockpit, but a lot cheaper and a slightly reduced adrenalin rush (although sometimes it gets a little intense when a car gets out of shape or an engine explodes)… Trackside photography means very long days, getting covered in rubber and clutch dust, sore eyes from the nitro fumes, aching legs and (hopefully, if the weather co-operates) sunburn and then many hours of pre-publication processing of the images and cataloguing/archiving, but it is all worth it when we get the right image.

Here are some great photos by Ivan & Rose of team Kågereds cars and their own comments about the shots!

"This shot sums up what Top Fuel racing should be all about, the title contenders racing side-by-side, with both Micke and Smax Smith (far lane) firmly stuck to the track, and heading towards the 330 feet clocks at well over 200 km/h with over three quarters of the track still to go. Photo taken at the European Finals, 2003, Santa Pod Raceway, England."

"The violent launch of a Top Fuel Dragster is very difficult to capture with a still image, but this wheels-up launch from the Bacho Tools Express imparts some of the drama, with the chassis twisting as 7000 hp works it’s way through the expanding slicks catapulting Micke towards another four second clocking. Photo taken at the Main Event, 2005, Santa Pod Raceway, England."

"With Micke’s long history in Methanol Funny Car, this picture of the Sandflex Avenger in front of the packed Mantorp grandstands, bedecked as always in Team Kagered’s sponsors logos and occupied by many of their corporate guests, emphasizes the backdrop of the team’s hometown track. Photo taken at the Veidec Festival, 2006, Mantorp Park, Sweden."

About Remco:
"I was already interested in motorsport and a regular visitor of the races in Zandvoort at the age of 12. In 1985/86 I saw my first dragrace (Dragster Festival) in Zandvoort and from that moment on, dragracing was my number one motorsport. Only one year later I visited Santa Pod for the first time and started to take pictures of the Dutch dragraces for the motorsportmagazine START84. It did not take long before I made complete reports (photo and text) and also covered the European races for START84. My pictures also found their way to drivers, teams and sponsors. In 2001 I got my dragrace webpage on www.autosport.nl, the most professional Dutch motorsport site. All these activities took so much time that July 1, 2002 I decided to quit my job as account manager with ABN AMRO Bank and started as a freelance (photo)journalist.

Nowadays I do all the dragrace reports (photo and text, Holland, Europe and once a year America) for the Dutch magazines START, KR8, Total Tuning and Auto&Tuning. For Total Tuning and Auto&Tuning I also cover the Drift Series and I do photo shoots of streetcars (tuning, styling). And I still take pictures for many European and Dutch dragrace teams. After each race I write press releases (for sponsors, media and internet) for the Dutch Pro teams. I also write press releases for Dutch dragrace clubs. Nothing to do with dragracing but also motorsport, I write press releases and reports for Dutch race teams and complete classes in Dutch motorsport (Formula Ford, Touringcar ) at the tracks in Zandvoort, Assen etc.

It’s great that something that started as a hobby is now my daily job. And I still like motorsport and especially dragracing very much".

Photo equipment Remco uses:
" I use two Nikon D100 cameras and Nikon and Sigma lenses from 17mm to 300mm. I prefer action shots but I also try to catch the emotion in racing. You walk around and suddenly you see something that’s worth to take a picture of. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the right balance between action shots for magazines (slower shutter times) and the commercial pictures for teams. The teams want to see their sponsors sharp on the car or bike (high shutter times)."      

.. and here are the three photos Remco selected to illustrate how he documents team Kågered´s operation on and off the track during a race event!

The human side of dragracing, emotion. No glory but comfort, disappointment after the engine explosion but also happy there were no serious injuries. (Santa Pod, England may-06)

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