I had no idea if anyone actually made a living photographing race cars or what path there might be to such a career. I just knew I had a camera, a few rolls of film and 3 days of racing ahead of me.

I was totally unfamiliar with motocross racing and watched as the racers flew overt he main jump in the grass right by Daytona's start/finish line. Although I had no idea about motocross style and technique, even my untrained eye could see that the flight of one rider in particular was not going to end well.

I never had the chance to ask about the hand signal and to this day I don't know if it was made in jest, a good natured ribbing of a buddy as he raced past on the racetrack or whether it was made out of some sort of simmering bad blood among teammate rivals.