Mallory Park – The rest!

Posted on 26th April 2009 by Lewis

The Ma5das had pretty much gatecrashed this BRSCC meeting, having only been invited 4 days before the event (but still managing to have the largest grid), the headline race of the day was the Don Truman trophy for the 500s. I’d never seen 500s before, but I liked them, they are old style cigar shaped single seaters from the ’60s, powered by 500cc period motorbike engines, on skinny tyres and they look like a complete hoot to drive, with drivers leaning right out of the cars to aid weight distribution. Both races were won by Nigel Ashman in car #1.

Nigel Ashman - Don Truman Trophy Winner

Other races were more conventional BRSCC series, the Porsche 924 Championship and the BRS Recovery Ford XR Challenge. The Porches provided some good racing in both of their 2 races, with Matthew Upchurch leading the first race until a few laps from the end before suffering mechanical failures and Kamal Kalsi winning. On their second race Kamal Kalsi continued where he left off and led for most of the race, but had a reliable car so finished at the front too.

Kamal Kalsi - Double race winner in Porsche 924 Championship

The Ferrari brothers (Ferraris driving Porches? Confusing!) had matching cars with a similar paint job to Rob Boston’s MX-5 race car, who inspired who?

Seb Ferrari - Copied Rob Boston?

The remaining series is the XR challenge, which was mainly XR2s, but a few XR3s too, the XR2s did seem a fair bit faster, which surprised me, but cars #68 and #2 (Simon Robinson and Michael Blackburn) had a close battle but the #2 car wasn’t able to overtake Simon Robinson.

Simon Robinson - BRS Recovery XR Challenge winner

Ma5da Racing – Mallory Park

Posted on 26th April 2009 by Lewis

This was all organized a bit last minute, I heard about it on the Wednesday, but it wasn’t until Saturday evening that I was sure I’d be able to make it to Mallory Park. As the practice didn’t start until 12:30 and Mallory Park isn’t too far away I was able to get up at a civilized time, hit the gym and still make it to the track in time. Perfect. Mallory Park is great for photography, you are always fairly near to the track and there are only a few high crash fences. It is also possible to drive most of the way around the track, unless you are parked in the paddock, in which case you are stuck! For the practice session I was at the first corner, a long righthander called Gerard’s. There had been some work at this corner since my last visit to Mallory Park, this gave better access to the end of the start/finish straight, with the side effect of a nice clean watery background.

Serge Smith

Jonathan Blake and Alyn Robson stayed very close to each other through the practice, probably to get slipstreams, which worked well, as both placed high up the grid and it was also entertaining to watch!

Jonathan Blake & Alyn Robson - Qualifying

For the first Ma5da Race I drove round to the John Cooper Esses which give a few head on angles as well as some opportunities for side on panning shots with the cars riding the kerbs. The strangest shot though, was seeing Martin Tolley coming round on his out lap with the bonnet flipped up over the windscreen. Doh!

Martin Tolley - Doh

By the time the drivers got round to the Esses, Jonathan Greensmith had overtaken pole sitter Scott Kirlew, which was the order they finished the race.

Jonathan Greensmith & Scott Kirlew battling for the lead on lap 1

I’d been looking forward to the second race all day, as it was being run with a reverse grid, so lots of overtaking expected! I’d also saved my favorite angle for this race. The hairpin is the only slow corner on the lap, the spectator area is very close to the track and there is no catch fence.

The first few laps the Ma5das were streaming round 4 or 5 abreast as the faster cars made their way to the front.

Hairpin, lap 1 - race 2

Then the race calmed down (but only slightly) Jonathan Greensmith managed to pull away from the rest of the pack (17s on a sub 1m lap), however that was probably due to the 5 way battle for 2nd place which was eventually taken by Matt Robinson, with Carl Powell 0.097s behind him, despite being in front for most of the race.

Race 2 - battle for 2nd

A special mention has to go to Wayne le Montais for the best paint job I’ve ever seen on an MX-5!

Wayne le Montais - Love the paint job!

Cadwell Park shots in Autosport

Posted on 24th April 2009 by Lewis

My #1 aim for 2009 has been achieved! I managed to get two of my images published in Autosport magazine.

The images the chose out of the selection I sent them were a side on pan of Tom Roche, winner of both Ma5da Races taken at Barn (a very similar shot to the one of Scott Kirlew in my post reviewing the race) and a shot of Steve Twist’s Uno leading a gaggle of Fiats through Hall Bends.

Sorry for the rubbish iPhone shot, I will edit the post with a proper shot or a scan later.

Flickr Day of the donut

Posted on 24th April 2009 by Lewis

I’d heard that yesterday was “Flickr day of the donut”, so while buying Autosport (see next blog post) I decided to pick up some tasty looking ring doughnuts (for photographic purposes only of course).

The shot I had in my head, was that the top/front doughnut should have the sprinkles in focus, but that the second doughnut should be blurred. The shot below was my favourite from the brief shoot (and the doughnuts were yummy).

Cadwell Park – The rest!

Posted on 18th April 2009 by Lewis

Unlike at Silverstone, Ma5da Racing were part of the BRSCC programme, as the lead series! The other series there are the Alfa Romeo Championship, Motor Lawyers Fiat Challenge, Mighty Minis, Super Mighty Minis and the Dunlop TVR Challenge.

In the Alfa Championship, Tim Lewis was back with his bright Alfasud, although it was having gearbox trouble during the race.

Tim Lewis - Alfasud

Adie Hawkins won both races in his 33 and even though it isn’t technically perfect I really like this shot taken from the banking of him breaking for the Hairpin.

Adie Hawkins - Alfa 33

This was the first time that I’d seen Minis racing and I was treated to 2 great races. The Mighty Minis were up first, I shot this race from the inside of Hall Bends and managed was able to get some frames with the top 4 cars all in the same frame, Minis are great! The pink car of Chris Morgan won the race.

Mighty Minis

The racing was just as tight in the Super Mighty Minis race, which I shot from the same position as the second Ma5da Race, Nev Fitzpatrick won this race.

Super Mighty Minis

Having the driver’s name on the front grille of the Minis is great, much more fun than just numbers, the Ma5da Speed team have a similar thing going on with numberplates, I think other series/teams should follow, after all it is about having fun at this level of motorsport!

Like Ma5da Racing there were two Fiat races, both were close, with the usual suspects from last season not at the head of the the pack. The first race was won by Steve Twist who managed to pull out a 6s lead on the last few laps.

Steve Twist - Fiat Uno

The second race wasn’t to be for the number 11 Fiat, it was involved in a fairly hefty shunt which caused the race to be red flagged. The restarted race was won by Mark Smith, in another Uno, proving that the newer Puntos, including the HGTs aren’t as good as their older cousins.

Mark Smith - Fiat Uno

Lastly the TVRs, they were meant to have 2 races, but after the first got red flagged twice, they ended up with one, which was won by the bright green Tuscan of Danny Winstanley, it was good to see some of the older “wedge” TVRs racing and as ever the TVRs all sounded great!

Danny Winstanley - TVR Tuscan

Ma5da Racing Rounds 3 & 4 – Cadwell Park

Posted on 18th April 2009 by Lewis

As I have blogged before, Cadwell Park is probably my favourite circuit in the UK from a photography point of view, even if the marshalls seems to think that photographers are trouble makers. Although, this time, I did manage to convince the marshalls at the Hairpin that I don’t attract crashes and they asked me to stay at their post for a bit to ward off crashes!

The Ma5das were out on track first, so I started the day down at Barn and through the session worked my way back towards the Hall Bends. This section of the track is in the woods, providing some different backgrounds to Silverstone last month. Barn is the best in this respect, as it is in an area with no spectators. Dragging the shutter slightly and panning produced this shot of Scott Kirlew, probably my favourite of the season so far:

Scott Kirlew

Also from Barn:

Andrew Clarkson at Barn corner

Kevin Middlton at Barn corner

Moving up to the Hairpin, opens up an angle where you are almost at the same level as the cars, which is hard to replicate anywhere else, even with spectators in the background I like these shots.

Graham Grove at the Hairpin

Jonathan Blake at the Hairpin

At the Hall Bends low viewpoints are also achievable, especially with the cars coming over a slight rise and clipping the apex.

Paul Sheard at Hall Bends

Jonathan Greensmith at Hall Bends

The Ma5das were the first race before the lunch break, I headed down to the marshalls post between the start/finish straight and the bottom of the Mountain. The start was close, with the cars side by side up to the first corner.

Race 1 start

After the start I moved round to focus on the left/right at the Mountain which saw some action, including spins and resulting near misses. I also had chance to experiment with rear shots, I’ve always found front/side shots more dynamic and wanted to get some dynamic rear shots, rather than shots of cars going out of the frame, as you tend to see a lot.

Rear shot

Near miss

For the second Ma5da race of the day I was almost opposite my position from race 1, at the end of the paddock lane, with Mountain going up to my left and the left/right corner infront of me. The second race was much closer, it seemed like the lead 3, Tom Roche, Rob Boston and Jonathan Greensmith, shuffled positions each lap, with all 3 taking the lead at one point. Eventually it was Tom Roche who crossed the line first, it was another great Ma5da race.

Rob Boston leading

Jonathan Greensmith leading

Tom Roche leading

Outside of the top 3 there was plenty of action at Mountain, with more spins and some interesting lines.

Another near miss

Simon McAlpine - interesting line

Tom Roche - Interesting line, note the flying bollard

Braunston Canal

Posted on 13th April 2009 by Lewis

This is the first of my posts featuring shots of canals, I’m not sure what it is about canals, I’ve only ever spent one cold weekend on a narrow boat, but there is something about canals that pulls me to them, the colours of the boats, the people but mostly it is the relaxed vibe that is always there, nothing needs to happen fast, I find that refreshing.

This morning I was travelling light, just one body with the 50mm mounted, no camera bag, no tripod etc, it made a nice change. A few shots were missed due to the lack of a wide angle, but that just means I have an excuse to go back.

Braunston Canal 1

Braunston Canal 2

Braunston Canal 3

Gone fishing

Posted on 12th April 2009 by Lewis

Well, not me, but the other weekend I met my good friend (and very good angler) Dan Webb at Packington Fisheries, between Coventry and Birmingham. It was something that we had been meaning to arrange for quite a while, eventually our schedules matched and luckily it wasn’t raining that day.

Going back about 10 years I used to go fishing with Dan, but got fed up sitting out in the cold not catching any fish, but at least this time I had my camera so even if the fish weren’t biting I could still take photos, much more fun!

Here are a few of my shots:

Dan Webb fishing

Lewis Craik

Monthly Archives: April 2009