STEVE BELL
Since my first trip to a drag strip at age 11 in 1968, I was hooked. In 1970 I bought my first camera and started shooting from the grandstands. When the 1975 season came I was given the opportunity to shoot trackside at Madison Township Raceway Park. Most of my time in the following years was at Englishtown but I ventured out as far as Pomona, Gainesville and o lot of places in between as I followed the NHRA circuit. My photos have appeared in most major racing magazines and periodicals including cover shots in Hot Rod, Superstock & Drag Illustrated, Petersen’s Drag Racing Action and IHRA Review. In 1978 Vince Napp called on me to edit Raceway News and I became the track photographer at Raceway Park. I spent 4 years in that position but wanted to travel to other events and facilities. After Englishtown ceased drag racing operations in 2017 I was welcomed into the Island Dragway family where I work covering their weekly racing program with Jan Gojdycz. I still manage to get to some of the great northeast nostalgia events. In January 2023, I was inducted into Darwin Doll’s Legion of Honor for my extensive work with racers, race tracks and print media over the past 50+ years
JAN GOJDYCZ
I started shooting pohotos back in junior high school. I took an industrial arts class that included photography and black and white photo developing. After thet, I began taking photos whenever and wherever I could. with friends, at family functions and even a few weddings. Once people saw my photos, I was asked to start brining my camera to family weddings and often times some of my shots were better than the photographer that was hired for the job. I shot more weddings but my interests moved elsewhere. I began shooting sporting events and did several football games. At one of those games I me a gentleman who was a sports writer for the Warren Reporter newspaper. I was hired to be their sports photographer. I was assigned to shoot a variety of sporting events. In 2005 I met Kathy from Island Dragway and asked if they had a photographer at the race track. Their photgrapher had just retired so I took the position. In 2020, I asked long time photographer Steve Bell to partner with me and we currently provide photo services at Island Dragway.