� BELDEN
board. From building something as impactful as its own Winter Series to covering the biggest names, all the way down to the local racer at their home track, it goes above and beyond. It gives a voice to every level of the sport, not just the top.
RICK BELDEN
Staff Photographer
� How and when did you join DI?
I got involved with Drag IllustrateD back in the summer of 2015 as I was photographing Lizzy Musi to update her new hero cards. She liked these photos so much they were submitted to Drag IllustrateD for“ The Hottest Issue,” now called the“ Women of Power” Issue. We had several photos published and she introduced me to Mike Carpenter, who asked me if I could do some driver portraits of the same quality of the shots she had submitted. Soon after, I did my first official photo assignment for DI shooting Lizzy at Rockingham Dragway.
� Do you have a favorite or most memorable issue?
This is incredibly hard for me to come up with an exact issue because of course I am going to think of a cover I shot... and to be honest, I really love all of them! To that point, it is impossible for me to give just one, so I will painstakingly narrow it down to my top 3 all time. These are in chronological order and the reason why they mean so much to me.
“ I AM SO PROUD OF HOW THE ENTIRE DI TEAM SINCERELY CARES ABOUT RAISING AWARENESS TO THIS FORM OF MOTORSPORT. IT IS A PASSION YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FAKE!”
First, the Megan Meyer cover shot in an unusually cold early morning at the Gatornationals. I had shot Megan a few times prior, but never for a cover, and this shoot was very technically challenging, though the final results were amazing. That shoot cemented my friendship with both her and DI, which endure to this day.
Second, the Tony Stewart and Leah Pruett cover. This was without a doubt the hardest photoshoot I have ever scheduled for DI. Because of their very limited schedules and overall availability, it took a while to get this coordinated, and we even had to switch the location of the shoot( from their pits to the top of the tower) last-minute due to the number of people that were following us around. That brought us all sorts of technical lighting issues, which I had to solve on the spot, and even had to kick a Netflix film crew off the tower to get the final shots. It was stressful, but oh, so worth it!
Finally, the Maddi Gordon cover. I had first photographed Maddi( and her family) when she was crewing for her dad’ s Top Alcohol Funny Car several years ago. This is a family you cannot help but just adore … overall just great folks. We had so much fun on her shoot in my studio, and it allowed me to showcase some of my studio portraiture. That it was a very memorable experience for all of us.
� What’ s your favorite memory of working at DI?
Again, too hard to choose just one, so I will have to give three separate ones again. First, my first NHRA assignment for DI. Shooting
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