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Pro Extreme Photography

“Extreme” is one of the defining characteristics of the American Drag Racing League (ADRL), with four of its five professional classes actually including the word in their names. And it’s hard to argue that doorslammer passes in the 3.7-second range at well above 200 mph over just 660 feet from a standing start are anything but extreme, but it seems now that designator has extended even to the press corps covering the events.

Or at least to one member of the press corps, one Gary Rowe of Raceworks.com, who took it upon himself Sep. 12, during the ADRL’s Dragstock VI to climb hand-over-hand, foot-over-foot, nearly to the top of a 199-foot-tall communications tower off to the side of Rockingham Dragway’s shutdown lanes.

Rowe had been telling fellow photographers all day that he had something “special” in store for that race, “something no one’s ever seen at Rockingham before,” he promised, but no one would have predicted the foolhardy stunt he actually pulled off.

During round two of Extreme Pro Stock eliminations, Rowe reached his precarious perch, armed only with a Nikon and belief in himself to hold on. Once settled, he snapped off a series of 52 images up there, while people on the ground tried to figure out who would be crazy enough to make the climb just for a better vantage point.

Inevitably, the local authorities took notice, too, and fire marshals were waiting at the tower’s base when Rowe made his descent with the sun slipping below the horizon behind him. He was hand delivered to Rockingham Dragway officials, who declined to press charges, and Rowe remarkably escaped the experience with no more than a stern rebuke and one heck of a story to tell. (ADRL/Tocher file photos, above)