The older we get, the younger people seem to be as we read the obituaries. Perhaps you’ve noticed that as well. I distinctly remember the first time I read a death announcement and found myself fixated on the age—68—and found myself saying, that’s so young! And technically, it is—at least to me! “Old” is a subjective assessment. The more birthdays we celebrate, the more our perspective changes on what constitutes “old.”
Somewhere in a box in my mother’s attic are oodles of photographs from years gone by of our family trips to race tracks. My earliest memory of a race track is Sycamore Speedway in Illinois. Frank Claeyssen was my favorite driver. His orange car stood out to me. I was five and so was his car number. It’s the simple things with kids, isn’t it? I don’t recall if we ever went into the pits and I had my picture taken with him or not. I guess I’ll have to comb through the boxes of photos at my mother’s house to see if there’s one in there.
In this digital age it is SO MUCH easier to archive photos, and my brother-in-law, Bruce is doing a phenomenal job of documenting today’s well-known racers; especially with his children. If you’re friends with or follow him on social media, you’ve likely seen various photos of superlate model racers posing with the beaming faces of the young Nuttlemans. I suspect by the time I hit that “old” stage, his kids will be reminiscing about meeting some of these drivers when they were little.
Those kids are immersed in racing through their family; uncle Kevin is a 10-time track champion at La Crosse Speedway, uncle Brian (aka Toby) is a notable fabricator & crew chief, and their dad—Bruce is a talented artist with digital media.
Yes, Bruce is an artist, but not a tortured one like so many other talented ones. He actually does the torturing to others. I’m kidding—sort of. Bruce can drive you nuts sometimes, but it’s mostly because he knows what he wants and doesn’t have a whole lot of patience if you can’t keep up with him—mentally or physically. 
His kids are becoming more adept at keeping pace with him—and it’s paying off with incredible experiences for themselves. His oldest son, Ryan has had the unique opportunity to see races through a perspective that most kids would never get. Ryan’s 10, and has been traveling with his dad to many events, working behind a camera to help. He’s quite the budding photographer and given his young age will quickly become very proficient, which will probably help the family business, as Bruce has been dappling more in video.
Surely you’ve seen some of his video productions. They’re pretty amazing, especially if you’re able to appreciate the amount of time that is required to make them. I’m talking a crazy amount of hours for just one video, editing numerous clips from multiple cameras—handheld and GoPros mounted in cars, laying the audio from the track announcers and scanner audio from the drivers, spotters, and crews over the appropriate video clips to help tell the story of a particular race. The videos are phenomenal to watch—better than any recap you could read, because you’re literally seeing and hearing the entire race unfold with ALL of the drama—things that you probably didn’t realize were happening behind the scenes during the race, because the scanner audio provides amazing insight to the story.
He’s a digital raconteur… storyteller. And these videos are stories that will be watched over and over for many years to come. You can check out his photos at https://www.ultimatelapphoto.com and his fantastic video productions on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ultimatelapphoto/.
So while my brother-in-law drives me nuts sometimes, I definitely appreciate his talent and tenaciousness to put that kind of time in for one video production. I’m astounded how he gets it done while working a regular fulltime job, but then I remember that he’s a first-class multi-tasker. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been talking to me on the phone while he’s ordering McDonald’s at a drive-thru, and editing photos all at the same time. Because, who DOESN’T edit photos behind the wheel of a car?!
Originally published in the Midwest Racing Connection
