2007 was a little different for me – while I didn’t have the opportunity to visit any fly-away race destinations I did have the opportunity to visit two tracks I’d never been to before. Due to our schedule in ‘07 we were only able to attend three races– but each of them was memorable in their own right.

My first race of the season was at Mont Tremblant in Quebec. It’s a track I’ve always wanted to visit, but until 2007 there’d never been a real nagging reason to go - Thank you Champ Car! Switching venues from Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal to beautiful Mont Tremblant was a huge selling feature for me. While I’ve always like the Montreal race, I’d been there a few times and was ready for a change of scenery – and what a change!

If you’ve never been to the Laurentian Mountains then you owe it to yourself to make the trip. The track is beautifully laid out with plenty of elevation changes and the mountains surrounding you. The whole area is beautiful and the people in the area are very nice and accommodating.

When I was sifting through my pictures for the Fab Photos, I was surprised how many from Mont Tremblant were my favourites. Much has to do with the track layout – there really is no bad vantage points – and there are so many positions you don’t traditionally get to shoot from. Case in point:

Normally I don’t bother to shoot the rear of the cars because it’s not that interesting. But this shot of the Champ Car race was special. From my position I could see the starting lights, the flag stand and most of the competitors. As I watched the lights go on one-by-one the tension increased around me. The cars’ engines revved for the start and as soon as the lights went out I fired off a couple of shots. I love this picture because the cars haven’t even moved yet but the lights are out and the heat from the engines distorts a lot of the picture.

Here are the five I chose. No Pulitzer winners, but here they are....

The first one is of Dario's final lap pass of Dixon at Chicagoland. I knew that I wanted to get this shot and put myself in position to get it. I didn't think that Dario was going to be able to overtake, but when Dixon went low on fuel, Dario was able to make the pass.

When it first happened, I thought that Dario pulled some extra horsepower out of his rear end like Sam Hornish Jr did on Marco Andretti on the last lap at Indy in 2006. Dario wins the 2007 championship with this pass and it was an exciting conclusion to his great season.

The second pic is Dario in the pits. I think the pit shots can be cool because of the coordination of all of the crew and the efforts of the entire team to give their driver a chance to win. Many times, it is hard to get into a good position to get a good shot in the pits due to pit rules and all of the people in the way. This picture is also from Chicagoland.

My top five from 2007…I only did one event (Sandown GT Classic) with PaddockTalk photography for 2007 to run alongside the journalistic duties I have with the site. But that doesn’t make choosing just five any easier.

But here they are - in reverse order …