No Negatives In Job Of Top Speedway, Indy Racing Photographer
By Dick Mittman
indy500.com
Monday, November 4, 2002

Ron McQueeney can gaze out of his office window on the second floor of the Hall of Fame Museum inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grounds and "picture" the first Indianapolis 500 he saw in 1956.

He was 11, and his father brought him out to the track and parked close to the fence in Turn 1. They sat in front of the car and watched Paul Russo crash in the Novi while leading and Pat Flaherty, wearing a helmet adorned with a shamrock, race to victory in the John Zink Spl. It was the start of a love affair with the Speedway and auto racing that McQueeney has maintained for nearly 50 years.

And "picturing" became his vehicle to become an insider in the sport.

McQueeney is the director of photography for both the Speedway and the Indy Racing League. He is the man behind the lens patrolling the pits, snapping from the turns and focusing from atop the grandstands from Indy to Miami to Fontana and all points in between during the racing season.

It was 30 years ago, in 1972, that he was hired as a Speedway staff photographer on May weekends. Two years later, he became a full-timer during May, and in 1977 was named to his current position. This past May, he celebrated his 25th anniversary as the chief photographer at Indy. Added to his Indianapolis 500 chores in recent years, of course, have been the Brickyard 400 for NASCAR stock cars and the SAP United States Grand Prix for sophisticated Formula One racing machines.

When the IRL was born, photographing the series was added to McQueeney's tasks. He and his cameras have been fixtures at all 71 races since the inaugural event at Walt Disney World Speedway in January 1996, and at every Open Test. He's snapped pictures of every driver, every car and virtually anybody or anything else involved with the league, and many of his shots have been viewed around the world on the league's Web site, www.indyracing.com.

The same goes for the Speedway races.

"It's been an enjoyable 30 some years in the business, and I'm hoping I can do another 15 or 20," said McQueeney, who will turn 58 next April 8.

When McQueeney started, photography was a "negative" thing because most photographers used 35-millimeter cameras. But now his primary cameras are digital, as electronic progress has changed his business just as it has many others. The first Canon digital camera he used cost $20,000, but now the refined model he used this summer had a price tag around $7,000. Constant improvements usually make a camera outdated within a year.

"We take close to a thousand (pictures) during an event weekend, like an IRL event," he said. "During the Indianapolis 500, I personally take probably 3,000 or 4,000 during the month, plus testing."

The arrival of the digital camera also forced McQueeney to learn how to use a laptop computer to download and send his images to the league and Speedway's Web staff.

On a typical day at an IRL race, McQueeney arrives at the track between 6:30 and 7 a.m. He spends the first few hours hooking up his computer, shooting in the garage area and then the first half of the first practice. Then he must head for the media center, where he downloads and transmits his first batch of pictures. He continues this routine - including the Infiniti Pro Series sessions added in 2002 - throughout the day.

"It's constant working in the trenches shooting the photography and coming to the media center and downloading into the computer the stuff that has to go to the Web site," he said.

His day doesn't end when the track closes. After a quick dinner, he's back in his hotel room loading images from the day's shooting to a disc for a permanent record.

At Indy, he operates from the photo center on the bottom floor of the media center. He has a staff of very competent photographers under him, some of whom also travel the IRL circuit.

The travel squad has consisted of Jim Haines, who has been with the Speedway since 1972; Roger Bedwell, a 10-year veteran; Jerry Lawrence, who acts as an unofficial office manager and keeps many statistics, Steve Snoddy, whom McQueeney first met when they jointly photographed Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis Racers basketball and hockey games in the 1970s, and Dana Garrett, a former Speedway Safety Patrol member. McQueeney's Indy staff includes Bill Watson, who has been taking pictures at the Speedway since 1964, Dr. Harlan Hunter, an orthopedic surgeon from Bedford, Ind., Hunter's son Todd and son-in-law Tim Holle, and McQueeney's ex-wife, Linda, who worked the CART circuit for a number of years.

McQueeney's wife, Marsha, helps him in picture setups during the month of May.

Another of McQueeney's jobs is overseeing all photographers who receive credentials for Speedway or IRL races. Safety is foremost in his decisions on where they can and cannot shoot.

"Part of my job is not very popular," he said. "If I tell them don't do it, I expect them to follow the rules. We want everybody to get their shots, but we also want them to be able to walk out of here and come back and do their job another day."

McQueeney was born in Denver where his father, Cliff, who was in the Army Air Corps, was transferred for temporary duty. Later, his father returned to Las Vegas, and then when he was discharged, the family, including mother, Gladys, returned to Indianapolis. His father started a truck garage a couple miles east of the Speedway, and some prominent drivers would bring equipment in for welding. Tony Bettenhausen, Rodger Ward and Russo were a few.

Cliff McQueeney actually took his son to the Speedway for the first time in 1947 when Ron was 2, but until 1956 it always was to practice because Cliff McQueeney didn't want to fight the race morning traffic. The family moved to Plainfield, Ind., southwest of Indianapolis, and young McQueeney grew up there. While in high school, he always skipped school a day in May to watch practice. As a senior, his counselor found out about it and called him into the office.

"He pointed a finger at me and said, 'Now, Ron, that track is never going to make you a living so you'd better buckle down on your studies,'" McQueeney said. "So a few years later, I ran into this counselor. I gave him my business card. He got a big kick out of it but did say that most people aren't that lucky."

In 1965, McQueeney was drafted into the Army and wound up as an MP on the island of Okinawa. One day he saw a notice on the bulletin board about signing up for a four-member motorcycle brigade and added his name to the list of 125 applicants. He had never been aboard a motorcycle in his life.

Somehow he made the cut to 25, spent two weeks in bike maintenance training and advanced to the final 10, who were taken to a deserted airstrip for the riding tryout. He was third out and, sitting upright, rode down the strip and back without mishap. He qualified for the select squad.

Months later after he and the NCO in charge had become friends, McQueeney asked why he was chosen.

"He said, 'Well, you looked like a cop, you acted like a cop on the bike, you sat up straight,'" McQueeney said. "Yeah, I set up straight. I was petrified."

During his time with the squad, he rode the island freely. He also purchased a bike and rode in his off time, too. In his saddlebags, he carried a camera, and he'd stop and snap a picture when he saw something that attracted him.

McQueeney continues riding motorcycles up to this day. He owns two. But a motorcycle almost was his undoing.

On the Saturday after the 1978 Indianapolis 500, his second as chief photographer, he was riding south on Interstate 65 to meet a friend for a trip to southern Indiana. As he motored along near Methodist Hospital on the near-north side of Indy, a speeding car suddenly swerved sharply into him and he was sent sprawling onto the pavement.

The car never stopped. Fortunately, one heading north on the other side did. The driver rushed to McQueeney's aid. McQueeney was conscious although his lower left leg was badly broken.

The man who stopped to help McQueeney was Terry Trammell, who was in his final year of residency at Methodist. He followed the ambulance to the hospital and convinced the doctors not to amputate McQueeney's leg. The operation became the first for Trammell, who became famous for repair of severely damaged legs of race drivers like four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears.

"I was his first customer," McQueeney said. "In fact, when he took care of Danny Ongais in '81 when Danny had his bad accident, they took my X-rays and put them next to Danny's and did to Danny's what they did to mine, and it helped save his legs like Terry had saved mine."

McQueeney underwent a number of surgeries over the years but still did his job, often loaded with 80 pounds of camera equipment, in pain. Finally, he had the ankle fused and worked this past season relatively pain-free.

When McQueeney returned from his service stint, he went into business with his father. This provided free time for him to attend races. He snapped pictures from the stands and later worked his way inside. He showed his pictures around and was told to show them to the Speedway. That led to his initial hiring.

When Charlene Ellis departed as manager of the photo studio following the 1976 race, McQueeney was one of eight applicants to be interviewed by Tony Hulman and Clarence Cagle and was selected to fill the position in January 1977. He said he spent the first couple years learning the business, but after his leg healed sufficiently, he began doing outside assignments such as running the photo operations for Formula One races at Detroit, Dallas, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

"I've taken anything that has a motor," he said. "I've taken motorcycles. I've shot unlimited hydroplanes. I haven't shot air races yet. I'd like to go to the Reno Air Races, but I've always been busy when those are going on."

McQueeney said the toughest job is to snap the finish of one of the IRL's incredibly close finishes. He said the cars are traveling so fast it isn't wise to try to use a motor-driven camera, because it is so hard to get the cars framed. It is best, he noted, to aim the camera from an angle facing the start-finish line and get that one shot.

"You're probably not going to get it right on the line each time, but it's going to be very close," he said. "If you concentrate and practice and get the rhythm you can get it real close to the line or on the line. You're talking about a millisecond. The older I get, the less luck I have at nailing them right at the line."

There's always that favorite shot. McQueeney is sheepish to admit his favorite because it wasn't snapped at the Speedway. It's a shot of Rick Mears in his red-and-white car at Road America in which McQueeney somehow framed in a wreath of blurred green. The photo hangs next to his office desk.

McQueeney, who also is curator of the extensive IMS photo library, is preparing for another even busier season, including the debut IRL race in Japan, with the same enthusiasm and dedication of his younger days. There are new faces, new cars, new racetracks to snap; maybe an even closer finish. It never gets old.

"There're still some things I do that I shouldn't, like stay on (my ankle) all day, 14 hours a day, walking up and down grandstands," he said. "As long as I can still do it, I still enjoy it."

Ron McQueeney finds nothing "negative" about his job.


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