Great sports photographers will put themselves in harm's way to get the perfect shot, but this amateur shooter at a Polish drift event over the weekend literally and figuratively steps over the line. Let us explain why he's the biggest idiot we've seen behind a camera.
The event is the DMP Touge Drift Karpacz event, the fourth round in this year's Polish Drift Championship. The course goes up public roads. Spectators line the track, inches away from the cars. Last year, one driver explained that the cars exceeded 80 miles an hour, and that was the first time any of them had been on the course. Everyone agreed that the event was dangerous then and it doesn't look any safer now.
When a car spins off in a normal drift event, it hits a wall. In this event, cars spin off right into the path of spectators, sometimes protected by concrete barriers, sometimes not.
So this photographer, crouching directly in the apex of a corner, is an idiot. Watch this onboard run up the hill and you can get a sense of how difficult it would be to dodge this guy.
Here is a better view of this shooter. One Facebook commenter claims he stood next to him, and that he was drunk, making gestures and challenging other spectators.
Come on, man I was far away, now I have a picture worth $500 and can sell them for moto.pl.
Truth be told, the accredited photographers weren't much safer.
These weren't the only moronic photographers. There are videos with videographers showing off their sense of danger with videos titled "SO CLOSE – DMP Karpacz."
Drifting is getting extremely popular in Central Europe, especially at public roads events like this with dangerous reputations. The events are attracting a new crowd that's unaccustomed to high speed cars and are just looking for a good time.
It isn't all as crazy as the wild and lethal days of Group B rallying, but it's only a matter of time before another spectator like this gets crushed.
Photo Credit: Pawel Trela