The Weekly Reekie: When Not to Stick a Camera in Tom Bailey’s Face

One time I picked the wrong time to stick a camera in Tom Bailey’s face. It was at Sick Week 2023. Bradenton. Day two. Around 3:12pm.

Racing was winding down for the day and the Sick Seconds 2.0 Camaro was having all kinds of problems. Tom was in the pits getting ready to make a last-ditch lick. He was perched on a tire, putting on a pair of those little race booties that the fast guys wear, and there was trouble on his mind.

Not the ideal time…

Now, retelling this story with the benefit of hindsight, it seems like I was putting my head right into the lion’s mouth by going up to him with a camera and inquiring about his predicament. And I was. But I really thought I could pull it off and capture a dramatic moment for you, the viewer at home. I had the words of the great documentary cameraperson Kirsten Johnson ringing in my ears: “Observing people in the context in which they’re under pressure, we often see their humanity.” Thanks for the encouragement, Kirsten, but evidently I should have observed Tom from a greater distance at the time. His humanity wasn’t so forthcoming.

Obviously it’s my job as a videographer to strive to get good content, but that doesn’t mean being a total vulture. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. To get good content more often requires empathy and compassion, which extends to picking the right moment to approach somebody for a quote. In this case, I effed up. I was wrong place, wrong time with the wrong pickup line. I basically served myself up for Tom to shoot down.

As I crawled away to lick my wounds, I realized I’d not only misjudged the timing of the situation but also the level of trust between us. Because that’s another key part of getting good content – you need to have gained the trust of your subjects. The more they trust you, the more they’ll open up to you, and the better your content will likely be. Hell, I want people to trust me so much they’ll tell me how it feels if their ass is on fire before they even go looking for an extinguisher. As always, I’m asking too much, but it’s important to have goals!

My history of sticking a camera in Tom Bailey’s face dates back to Hot Rod Drag Week 2018. I was on assignment for Street Machine Magazine, making video content alongside my hombre, current Sick editor Luke Nieuwhof. Tom was there to win another Drag Week, racing the Sick Seconds 1.0 Camaro, with Steve Morris as co-pilot.

Tom and Steve had serious game faces on back then. Their body language in the pits screamed: “Don’t even think about coming over here with that camera!” YouTubing has since turned them into real smiley guys by comparison who are better at talking with fans and shaking hands. I was too intimidated to approach them during the event but I interviewed Tom right afterwards and I get a kick out of watching the video now because he’s such a cold fish ( https://youtu.be/Sh61lcOmKI0?si=tx7gwO5RSr-veH5L ). His playful side hadn’t started to come out yet. Or at least not for me it hadn’t.

Fast forward to Hot Rod Drag Week 2019, and pretty much same thing. Me and Luke were there with Team Street Machine. Tom was there to win another Drag Week, this time racing the Sick Seconds 2.0 Camaro, with Steve as co-pilot. Again, those guys had their game faces on, but this time we broke them down gradually over hundreds of miles.

Every day we would follow them and shoot photos and video of 2.0 on the road. We were relentless. We pretty much tailed them all the way from Atco, New Jersey to Maryland International Raceway via a checkpoint in Delaware. When they stopped at a gas station, we stopped at the gas station. Our parties still didn’t really speak. Tom and Steve just had to silently accept they were being stalked by a carload of Aussies. The main communication we had between us was that every time we came up alongside them on the interstate, Tom would flip us the bird. I guess we all thought that was funny for different reasons.

Don’t take offence, this means Tom likes you.

On the final day at Virginia, Tom ran his now famous five-second pass. He was clearly in a good mood after that. I think he may have been a little tipsy when he came up to us and said: “Will you damn Aussies stop following me!” Our team got a photo with Tom with all of us holding up five fingers to signify the first five-second pass in drag-and-drive history – four fingers on one hand while flipping the bird with the other. Tom’s game face was removed, the ice was broken, and his public persona has been on the rise ever since.

Luke Nieuwhof, Matt Reekie, Tom Bailey and Chris Thorogood in 2019, the pre-Sick days!

Not long after that, Tom and Luke joined forces to create Sick The Mag. Luke brought me in as a videographer for events because he knows I’m the right kind of crazy for that job, and here we are. We’ve made some awesome content together and I think there’s even greater things to come.

Here’s a riddle for you: “What can take a lifetime to earn and second to lose?” If you answered trust, go to the top of the class. Trust is crucial to every relationship, but it isn’t just given, it has to be earned, and to earn it takes time.

Having now spent some time in the proverbial trenches together, I think Tom and I have gained a greater appreciation for how we go about our respective jobs. He knows I know my shit and vice-versa.

Of course, I still need to pick the right moments to go sticking a camera in his face. But if we were at Bradenton right now and the car was having problems and he was putting on his little booties and I went up with a camera and inquired about his predicament, I believe I could pull it off without getting shot down. Because he trusts me more now. It only took six years.

• Matt Reekie