Olympus Rally Photo Contes Winners Announced

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
FIRST PLACE

Michael McCracken, from Fall city, WA, takes first place in the Olympus Rally photo contest with his superb photograph of Tanner Foust going all out on the famous Brooklyn Stage. Michael was in the right position to capture Mount Rainier looming on the horizon with fans enjoying the day’s action.

This was the first rally Michael attended after his wife surprised him with a weekend get-away. “The only problem is she is expecting more bills to come in from me wanting to upgrade my car!” laughed Michael.

Michael has been an amateur photographer for the last couple years, but this was his first experience with action photography. “I love it! I can’t wait for more rally events!”


SECOND PLACE

A common thread runs through many rally fans with working and dreaming about cars, and Austin Morley, from Edmonds, WA, is no different. At 18 years old, Austin loves working on his VW and has a deep interest with making things go fast. That interest has certainly aided him with knowing what pictures gets the blood pumping for a motorsports fan. His stunning picture of Travis Pastrana powering through a corner takes 2nd place in the Olympus Rally photo contest.

Attending the rally with a few close friends, Austin took the picture on the first stage on Sunday from an elevated position. “I like the crispness of the photo and the trees on the upper right hand corner… it adds ‘position’ to the picture. It just makes you feel like you are there,” explained Austin.


THIRD PLACE

The youngest photo contest finalist to date at 14 years old, Michael Szewczyk from Calgary, Alberta, is also our first foreign finalist! Michael’s father, Zbigniew Szewczyk, drove in the Olympus Rally and the family followed to help support his efforts and Michael helped by being part of his service crew.

“Dad broke a ball joint on the first stage of the day and his rally was over, so we went to the spectator areas to watch,” said Michael. On Sunday’s Brooklyn Stage, Michael snapped a photo of local driver, Mark Mager, going nose first into an embankment and received 3rd place in the Olympus Rally photo contest.

“Mark went too wide into the corner, hit some gravel and then the outside embankment. This pushed into the inside embankment,” said Michael. “His wheel broke and he got some front end damage.” Like Michael’s father Mark was unable to continue.

“I took a whole series of photos but I couldn’t fit the sequence into one large picture. This was the best one of the bunch.”