Images/Courtesy Diane Kubicke, David Smith, Auto Imagery

NHRA Northeast Division 1 Photographer Diane Kubicke didn’t start out planning on spending her weekends on the starting line during race season, but things have a funny way of working out.

The New Jersey native, known for her ubiquitous cowboy hat that she wears, grew up watching drag racing and going to local races, but it didn’t take long after marrying her husband Al, that the wheels really started turning.

“I was always artsy and loved drawing,” she said. When I was 17, my mom bought me a Nikon camera and the bug set in. Sitting in the stands at NHRA events with my husband, I would see the photographers on the starting line with their media vests and wished I could be out there with them on the wall shooting wheelstands!

“In 2010, we went with some friends Four Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, NC,” she adds. “I had moved up to digital cameras and had my camera with me while I was walking in the pits. I noticed a guy with a bunch of cameras and lenses and of course I had lens envy and we started talking about photography. His name was Stefan Bowman and he was from Sweden and was covering fellow Swede racer, Jimmy Alund at zMAX. Alund was driving a Summit Pro Stock car for Greg Anderson who was sitting out the race due to recent heart surgery.

“I mentioned I lived near Englishtown and Stefan said he couldn’t make the NHRA race in Englishtown and if he could get me credentialed, would I be interested in covering for him. I’m thinking ‘Here’s a total stranger I just met and he is offering me my dream job!’

“Picking up my credentials and vest, which I still remember was #18, was like a dream. Going out to the starting line was like walking out to the field at the Super Bowl.

Diane first time credentialed at an NHRA event

“At that event I met Richard Shute from Auto Imagery, Bruce Biegler, all the D1 photographers including Phil Hutchison who was the NHRA photographer for the Northeast Division,” she continued. “I shot the entire event. At the end of the race, turning in my media vest, I cried. This was my dream and this was something I wanted to do so bad for so long and this might have been my one time.

Luckily for Diane this was the start and not the end to a beautiful relationship.

Three “Generations” of D1 Photographers. Phil Hutchison, Diane, and David Bishop

“Richard Shute gave me his contact info and asked if I would be interested in helping him out at the Maple Grove event that September. I started working for Richard and the same time Phil Hutchison started inviting me to the divisional events as a second camera. He would take me around the pits and introduce me to all the racers and I wondered ‘How does he know all these people?’ After about three years with him, I took over as the Northeast Division photographer when Phil decided to move on and retire from shooting the Divisionals.

“After shooting the Division for as long as I have, I realize how it all works and how Phil knew all the names and the cars. It’s like family. When I’m not at the races, I really miss my ‘second’ family.”

While earning her chops shooting the “big” cars at the drags, she also has roots in Junior Dragsters with her family firmly involved in the class.

“Al and I were at a race at Englishtown Raceway after we got married and we heard this commotion down on the eighth-mile track and we checked it out.” she says. “They were running the junior dragsters. At the time our daughters Heather and Ashley were involved in soccer and we both asked the girls if they would want to race and they said yes with no hesitation.

“Once we started racing juniors,” she added, “we met Fred and Vicky Craw of Craw’s Racing at a junior dragster Halloween race at E-Town. We needed a fuel filter and the Craw’s had a table set up in the pits selling parts. We struck up a relationship that has lasted for more than 25 years. I’ve always said our friendship started with a $3.00 fuel filter. My husband Al was so impressed with Craw’s operation he started helping out at the shop and later worked full-time for Fred.

“After the girls aged out of the juniors, my sons Wyatt and Wade started racing Jr. Dragsters and now both of them work for Fred.  My grandkids race juniors too. It’s a family affair.”

NHRA champ Kent Hanley commented, “I met Diane at the races when my son Blair was driving his junior dragster. She was just starting out taking photos at the events, but I noticed that in addition to shooting track photos, she was capturing the behind the scenes images that made her work unique. Family, pit, staging lanes, all of the parts of the total picture of what is involved in racing.

“Diane brings more than just her talent behind the camera, she connects with the racers,” Hanley added. “This past year I won the Super Comp class at Cecil County in the fall and during the winner’s circle, Diane presented my Wally trophy as if she was presenting an Academy Award. No one at a divisional event ever did that before.”

Long-time NHRA racer, Carolyn Melendy, adds, “I met Diane when my grandson was racing juniors and we hit it off immediately. We had so much in common. It’s like we are sisters. When she decided to purchase a motor home to travel to the races, my husband and I went with her to look at them to make sure she got what she needed. Now I try to travel with her whenever I can.”

Diane dubbed the new C-Class motorhome her “She Shed” and it has quickly become her oasis on a hot weekend at the races. Diane has gone so far as to put a She Shed vanity tag on her RV along with having commemorative T-shirts made.

While Diane is renowned for her cowboy hat, it serves a dual purpose as a shield against the effects of the sun. She is very aware of the effects of the sun as far as cancer and is also a proud supporter of Breast Cancer awareness.

“Each October, racers would feature pink paint schemes on their cars commemorating Breast Cancer month and every year I wear a pink bandana and adorn it with someone’s name that passed away from cancer or is battling the disease,” she says. “It gives life to that person even if they are no longer with us. At the end the event I give the bandana to the family or person that is represented on my hat. I always try to pay it forward to make a difference in someone’s life.

“This will be my eleventh year doing drag racing photography. I’m on my fifth cowboy hat and I keep them on my office wall. It reminds me where I came from and keeps me grounded.

“A few years ago photographer, David Smith started helping me take photos at the early qualifying rounds at divisional races, so we would have all cars represented.  I asked David to be my photo partner two years ago and he accepted. He is an amazing asset and more important a great friend. I cannot thank him enough for all he does. He is indispensable for me.”

Diane and David 

Finally, Diane said, “If I left the sport, I would miss the people. It’s not just the cars going down the track; it’s the people behind the scene that I would miss the most.  Their stories, knowing the families and watching their kids grow up over the years.  Not everybody wins, but it’s his or her perseverance that makes it for me. In the beginning I thought it was all about the cars going down the track, but after a while I realized there is an incredible world behind the scenes.”

Diane with fellow New Jersey native and her #1 favorite racer, Antron Brown