Andrew Wheeler, AutoMotoPhoto and MotoGP. Part4 Catching Up.

5037 "likes" as of March 10, 2012

It's been a few weeks since we passed this little milestone of 5000 "Likers". As I'm catching up with everything MotoGP related before the season kicks off in a few weeks and especially how it relates to what I do as a photographer, I wanted to also add a huge THANK YOU to all who like and interact on my Facebook page at Andrew Wheeler - AutoMotoPhoto .  It's always a pleasure to be able to interact with like minded people, and even more of a pleasure to meet people out "on the road" when at a race track. 

I hope to meet more people who are part of this movement and who help make the friendships that exist with @automotophoto on Twitter, Andrew Wheeler - AutoMotoPhoto and now on Instagram a tangible reality starting with RD1 at Qatar and then onto Jerez and Estoril,  and on through the rest of 2012.

Emily and VR46 OFC t-shirt. You go girl!

As I'm having a "personal update" I'd also like to share some good-ish news with regards to my wife Emily  who is dealing with Stage4 colon cancer.  After a rather unexpected brief sojourn into hospital for a little side effect that got a little out of hand, in part due to the fact that the chemotherapy drugs were actually doing their work and attacking/inflaming the tumor in her colon and creating the issue, following the tests they undertook during her short stay it transpired that in the words of her oncologist, that it looks like "we're hopefully turning a corner".  Now if you know anything about Doctors who work in this world you'll know they're not the purveyors of false hope.  The goal being to have the tumor reduces significantly to have it removed sometime later this year and apparently we're on track.  This is by no means easy on Emily and at times I feel terribly helpless because she has been in an awful lot of pain especially during the "side effect" weekend.  But, as of today it does appear that things are normalising again.  With that I'd like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all who have sent us emails, messages through FB or simply posted words of encouragement and support.  It means so much to us. Thank you.

Andrew Wheeler, AutoMotoPhoto and MotoGP. Part1 Catching Up.

My beautiful friend - Emily

I wouldn't normally share this sort of stuff on here, however, it's important to me, and without Emily I wouldn't be doing this in the first place so I feel a short post, and update might be in order.  It's been a few hectic and busy weeks...albeit at home.  As some of you may or may not know my wife Emily was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer during the week between Christmas and New Years. 

We have shared the experiences on my personal Facebook page and also on her Facebook page.  Right now she is well, the symptoms that have plagued her for the past 8-10 months or so appear to be subsiding (it was thought to have been IBS and simply didn't appear to be what it turned out to be until it had come to a head - nothing like living a healthy lifestyle doing everything right then this cropping up huh?) thus the comfort level is going up with each salvo of chemotherapy.  She will be having her third salvo the week after next...and right now it's open ended because of where the tumor and it's "friends" have placed themselves, but the outlook is good, and surgery is the goal.  The downside of all of this is simply financial.  But regardless, we're fortunate to live where we live here on the West Coast of California close to two of the best cancer research and surgery locations in the world.

I just wanted to add a little note to my blog to that effect.  I love her dearly, and as I said without her encouragement, love and selflessness I wouldn't be doing what I do now.  I felt it was right to share here as it's as she is my life.  Many of whom in the industry know Emily because she has been with me through the AMA days, the World Superbike days and now the MotoGP days and we have received and continue to receive words of encouragement, love and gifts from all over the world. 

I would like to take this moment to publicly thank everyone for the support.  It means so much to us.  The world of motorcycling, and racing has the coolest, most caring people I have ever met.

Playing Catch Up #1 - Broody Barber

Yes it was. I don't care what anyone says. For some reason it feels like when one works in an office and rumours start circulating that the "company" is downsizing...nothing concrete or written but it's there - it's unsettling. I have been laid off from 11 jobs since I left school at 16, I've become somewhat of a psychic in these matters (even if I do say so myself - hence why I'm working for myself these days). Let's just say, and this is my opinion of course, that there was (and is) nothing wrong with the bikes or the racing... What the AMA needed was something along the lines of what IRTA does for MotoGP , just as the AMA Superbike Series is garnering more visitors WORLDWIDE. I was personally hoping that the series would streamline, take on FIM rules and be an equivalent to say the British Superbike Series. This really isn't rocket science. I just feel somewhat odd because I'm a global person and had this quaint thought that the AMA series would fully become the American equivalent to the BSB. We'll see, I'm a "there's no such thing as a glass" person so I go with whatever.

On a brighter note. Emily, my wife, joined me this race weekend to spend her birthday amongst the paddock.

Barber Motorsports Park is a wonderful facility. The folks that manage the track, Zoom Motorsports, do a wonderful job, the track workers are exceptionally helpful, security is polite and super friendly, in all, making our jobs easier and joyfull. Thank you to all for the wonderful job you do.

Oh, and sorry for the time it took to update. With Barber on one weekend, followed by Fontana the next,(a post - and images to my site - will be added in due course) there just isn't enough hours in the day to do it all.

Thanks for listening.

18 Years (Yesterday)

I'll have some images from testing at Laguna and Infineon to share in due course. In the meantime I just wanted to share (if anyone is really that interested of course) that without this woman my life wouldn't be what it is today. On April 3, 18 years ago Emily and I were married at the Love Chapel in Nevada..so we celebrated the fact by having Thor neutered (well not really celebrated - it was just that his appointment was the same day...) Poor guy looks like a walking lampshade...More to come.

20 Years Ago Today...

...I met my future wife to be Emily. It was quite by chance really. I was coerced into going to a small nightclub in Bath called Moles by a couple of friends, Nick and Soraya. I really didn't want to go and just wanted to go home, so I thought I'd humour them and go for a little bit then walk home after about 30 minutes or so. Well, I ended up chatting with "Emily" at the bar (she thought I looked like a criminal) and I gave her my home phone number on a small piece of paper and that was it. Emily, who was over in the UK on an educational trip from San Jose State University for a semester and was dared by a school chum to call me when this piece of paper inadvertently fell out of her wallet.

She called, and quite by chance I walked into my home and at that moment picked up the phone. At that time I couldn't for the life of me remember who was "Emily" because I think I had been enjoying the evening way to much when I handed out my phone number. Anyways, we arranged to meet at the Hatchetts (a small pub in the centre of town). Side note: Emily will tell you I was 45 minutes late for our date...(oops).To cut a long story short, 6 weeks later we flew to Paris, where I asked her to marry me.

We flew back and forth between the UK and USA for two years, wrote letters everyday (there wasn't any email or anything "E" at that time) and would phone once a week on Sundays (as it was cheap to call on Sundays). We ended up getting married on April 3rd at the Love Chapel in Lake Tahoe (no longer there) and we have been married for 18 years this coming April. I love you buddy!

Off to Mid Ohio again

Peeps..

Sorry for the tardy responses but I have been so busy.

I have just added images from the Red Bull USGP (MotoGP) to my site. I returned from Mid Ohio on Monday last after covering the Vintage Motorcycle races and so everything has been somewhat of a rush.

Anyways, I'm off to bed, needless to say I will have some stuff from the AMA Superbike races at Mid Ohio to share in due course.

Meanwhile, check out my site for the latest and greatest.

Bye for now - Andrew

It's not always about the bikes..

Okay, so I'm a little inside my monthly update, but I wanted to mention whilst I'm deciding on how to cook salmon before I head off to Road America tomorrow, and wanted to share this missive with those peeps lucky enough to spend some time on my site and reading this verbiage. Please indulge me.

I love my wife. Deeply. Emily is truly the most wonderful person in my universe and sometimes I wonder what I did to be in the same time continuum as someone so switched on, so smart and so alive. Well, I guess that's something for the stars.

One thing I have observed being around these bike racer types, and chats with Rachel (Hacking) and Aaron Yates wife Heather, we all have one thing in common. We believe in the end goal. It's a team thing, like a marriage should be. No one person "owns" another, nothing "belongs' to one person, it's about the unit, and working together, love and trust.

And before I descend into the deep philosophical depths I just want to say, that having Emily be alongside me whilst working, (she even took some photos AND they were sharp, and in context) was equivalent to having training wheels taken off of your Raleigh, or learning to walk, falling in love (oh wait I do that each day - to this day my tummy flips when I meet her for lunch or see her face at the airport when i come home - and we've been married over 17 years).

I love you, I'll be home on Monday and I promise I'll send you some wallpapers buddy.

Thank you for being in my life Emily. I love you.



I should add, that a soupcon of motorcycle racing photography from the AMA Superbike races at Infineon are now online, I hope you like them..

Andrew :)