I can’t believe I haven’t looked at my own blog in over a year, and haven’t posted for over 2 years, so best I post something and get this thing up to date!
What have I been doing the last few years? Taking a shit-load of photos mostly, and most of them of cars going round in circles at various oval tracks in the UK. My son Damian now competes in the 2.0Litre Hot Rod formula. This is him and his car at a recent race at our local track:
I’ve become an accredited photographer for the ORCi (Oval Racing Council), oval motorsport’s governing body in the UK. Here’s me on the in-field at Lochgelly, a track in Scotland that this year hosted the 2.0 Hot Rod European Championship in which Damian, unsuccessfully, competed:
So far I’ve done several events, some of them as lone photographer, which was quite daunting. We’ve had a long weekend in Scotland, and attended the premier event of the year at Ipswich, Spedeweekend, for which I had the honour of being on the in-field for some of the races, though not many as there is fierce competition for spots amongst a host of photographers. This year Spedeweekend hosted the 2.0 Hot Rod World Championship, with drivers from all over the UK plus Holland and, I think, Germany. Here’s the grid for the Final, Damian in 3rd (inside 2nd row), a great qualifying position:
Unfortunately a puncture on turn 1 lap 1 put paid to Damian’s race, and it was won by the defending champion, Irishman Jordan Rochford (the red car on the right, front row).
I’ll do a separate post on my adventures so far as an accredited photographer, but suffice to say those slow shutter panning shots still feature heavily in my output. Here’s one that got a particularly good reaction on social media:
This is a ‘Ninja Kart’, custom built micro-stock cars for kids aged 8 upwards. These little lads and ladies really go for it, they’re the future of oval motorsport.