Category Archives: Motorsport

As a petrolhead I enjoy going to motorsport events, often taking my camera, this is where I blog about them.

Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages 2024

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After going to the Dukeries Rally with Owen earlier in the year, I was keen to get to a “proper” forest rally – and the next one scheduled was the Rally Nuts Severn Valley Stages, in Mid Wales – a round of the British Rally Championship. Even better, it was just after I had bought my Fuji X-H2S, so it would be a perfect opportunity to put it through its paces. My dad was also keen to watch a rally, so a plan was hatched.

As an early start was needed to catch the cars on the first loop of stages, I stayed at my parent’s house for the night so we could make a quick getaway. Usually I would relish an early morning blast across to Wales, but due to logistics we ended up going in the van. It was still a decent drive though, and we stopped for bacon sandwiches as a second breakfast, shortly after crossing the Welsh border. First we went to Sweet Lamb, as it seemed that it would be the easiest stage to get to and park at. It felt strange being somewhere that I have seen so much on television, it always looked like a cold place on television, and the reality matched that. As we waited in the spectator area low clouds drifted over, occasionally clearing. We would hear the cars coming before we saw them coming down the hill, round a corner, through the water splash, over a jump, then round a couple of hairpins and across the finish line. Whilst it was great watching the cars, we were stating to get cold as the last classes of cars were coming through. So we decided that we would watch the afternoon loop from the Myherin stage – via a third breakfast at the cafe in Devil’s Bridge.

By the time we arrived to Myherin, and had parked up on the side of the fireroad, and walked up to the viewing area, the sun had come out. I am not sure if it was the weather, or the better location, in the forest, but spectating at Myherin was one of my favourite motorsport experiences. Seeing the cars drifting through the back-to-back right angled, right hand corners and hearing them continue down the stage was exactly what I imagined rally spectating to be. The classic Escorts were mostly sideways (predictably), but it was also impressive seeing the top drivers in their modern four wheel drive machinery being millimetre perfect on the apex of the corner. There was also a Mitsubishi Evo VI who just brushed the large rock on the apex of the first corner, to gasps from the crowd – caught perfectly with the 20FPS of the X-H2S. However, my favourite car of the day was the classic 911 driven by Seb Perez (photo at the top of the post), it was good to see the mix of classic and more modern machinery on the rally. Also of note was that Jos Verstappen, ex-F1 driver, and father of current F1 world champion Max Verstappen, was taking part in his first gravel rally.

It was a good first test for the X-H2S, paired with my Fuji XF 50-140mm lens, the autofocus locked onto the cars, with the car subject detect mode activated. And the 20FPS shutter ensured that I could select the prime frame in Lightroom when I got home. I felt like a came home with way more keepers that I would have done had I been shooting with my old Fuji X-T2.

Spectating at a gravel rally in a Welsh forest really lived up to the hype, it was defiantly worth the early start, the long day in the van and spending the morning on a cold Welsh hillside. Seeing the cars sideways on the gravel, especially at close quarters was such a great experience. It was also nice to spend the whole day just with my dad, something that we do not manage to do enough.

Dukeries Rally With Owen

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One of my goals for 2024 was to photograph a rally, ideally one in a forest. The Dukeries Rally, was not in a forest, it was a single venue tarmac rally at Donington Park, but it was a good opportunity to get some practice in. It was also an ideal rally to take Owen to, as it is fairly local and at a venue with good facilities, rather than in the middle of a muddy Welsh forest. I was not sure if he would want to join me, but was pleased with his excitement when I suggested it to him. As such the day was more about Owen’s first rally experience, rather than a pure photography mission, but we both managed to get some shots we were happy with.

We had a later start than normal, which was a good move, as it meant that we avoided the morning rain, and timed it perfectly to arrive at the Craner Curves viewing area just as stage three (of six) was starting. During the stage with worked our was up from the Craner Curves to the end of the start/finish straight stopping at various points to photograph the cars. As the last few cars were completing the stage, we went back under the track, and got an ice cream whilst waiting for the crossing to Redgate to open (the cars were entering the track next to the hospitality units at Redgate), as Owen had spotted the grandstand and wanted to watch from there. Which worked for me, as I wanted to see the part of the stage on the large asphalt area behind Redgate.

As stage four started, we watched the first few cars on the coned area behind Redgate, but with high fences it was not really ideal for photography, although it was good to be close to the cars as they accelerated away from a slow corner. From there we climbed up into the grandstand, which gave us a good view of most of the circuit, so we watched most of the stage from there. I spotted a gap in the fence which would give a nice view down the Craner Curves, so we went there next. I think it would be a good angle on a busier race weekend, as you would be able to see cars all the way from Hollywood corner almost all of the way to MacLeans. We did not have the cars for that shot, but the light played nicely, highlighting the cars that were there.

As the stage layout was being reconfigured for the fifth and sixth stages, there was going to be a long gap before any more cars came out, so we decided to call it a day after two stages. Owen really enjoyed himself, but struggled a bit with the shutter lag on the camera he was using, my old Canon S90 compact camera. Worryingly I think it might be time to have (another!) camera upgrade, as he is really enjoying photography at the moment, and has already outgrown my old camera.

La Vie En Bleu

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La Vie En Bleu hillclimb at Prescott (Lewis Craik/Lewis Craik Photography)

 

Last month Jen and I met my parents at Prescott Hillclimb in Gloucestershire for the “La Vie En Bleu” French themed hillclimb event. As Prescott is owned by the Bugatti Owners Club, I was expecting a mixture of Bugattis and French hot hatches, but there was a good mix of cars, from Morgan 3 wheelers to Aston Martins. Of course there were plenty of Renault 5s too!

However my favourite cars of the day were the Lorraine Dietrich and the Darracq pictured above. The Darracq particularly caught my attention as it had a 25l engine and no body work, not even a floor – the flywheel was spinning inches from the drivers foot. I later discovered that this particular car held the land speed record in 1905! It also set the second fastest time in class and sounded awesome. I’m glad that this 110 year old car is still being driven as intended and not locked away in a museum somewhere.

Autosport International 2014

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Autosport Show Pistonheads Sunday ServiceAutosport International at the NEC in Birmingham is traditionally the first event on the British motorsport calendar, a chance to get up close to the upcoming seasons cars and generally break up the boring off season. For 2014 there was the added bonus of a Pistonheads Sunday Service event before the doors to the show opened, and free indoor parking!

As always, the standard of cars at the Sunday Service was high, with everything from my MR2 to a Porsche GT2. Some people had even braved the freezing temperatures to arrive in Caterham 7s. However, my star of the PHSS was the yellow Nissan 350Z GT4 special edition, shown in the picture above – now a serious contender for my next car.

After a bacon and egg roll at the cafe the NEC had opened just for the Pistonheads event, it was time to go through to the show. The layout was pretty much the same as it has been since the ’90s when I went as a child, but the Performance Car Show part of it seems to have got bigger, with a lot of manufacturer presence. Tucked away in the corner between the Performance Car Show and the motorsport stands was an iterating display of cars and bikes raced by John Surtees. The F1 cars of the late ’60s are to me the most exciting despite their simplicity – I would have loved to see them racing in their day. Nearby the 2013 field of F1 cars were on display, I found it interesting to look at the details of the Red Bull F1 car, especially the rear, somehow it all looked a lot neater than the other cars, neat must equal quick (although I still prefer the earlier cars).

I felt that the Live Action Arena had too much talking and not enough live action, but once again I was impressed by the Autograss racers, as I didn’t already have a new years resolution I have made it my resolution to go to some of their meetings this year and picked up their calendar.

I had an interesting chat with an engineer from Caterham about the digital dash screens they are developing for their cars, this is of particular interest to me as infotainment screens in cars is my day day job and Caterham are one of the last companies I would expect to be developing screens. The car which grabbed my attention the most was the Zenos E10, a small track day car, built by a company based over the road from Lotus. The attention to detail on the E10 was really impressive, the car seems to have been designed by petrol heads, for petrol heads without too much interference from marketing or money men – a refreshing change and I wish them good luck.

Rally of the Midlands 2012: Escort mk1

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Merevale Hall stage of Rally of the Midlands 2012 (Lewis Craik/Lewis Craik Photography)

Finally, on the third year of meaning to go, I managed to keep the weekend free and made it to the Rally of the Midlands. Having grown up in the McRae/Burns era rallying is probably my favourite form of motorsport, so it’s a bit rubbish that I haven’t been to many rallies. I’d decided to go to the Merevale Hall stage, as the only other Saturday stage open to the public was at Mallory Park and I’ve shot there before, upon arriving at the stage the first thing that struck me, as someone who has spent a lot of time at race circuits, was the lack of barriers, although there were some in the main spectator areas, most of the time the only thing between spectators and cars was common sense! The stage was run twice, once in each direction, my favourite angle was from the afternoon run, where a hay bale chicane had been placed infront of the main door to the hall, the gravelly surface allowed the cars break traction and the cars were running towards me, perfect!

Cholmondeley Pageant of Power: Works Mini

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Ex works Mini Cooper at Cholmondley Pageant of Power (Lewis Craik/Lewis Craik Photography)

For Father’s Day I took my Dad to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power in Cheshire which is a similar event to the Festival of Speed, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. In amongst the modern supercars and aero engined racecars from the 1930s (42 litre V24 engines!!!) my favourite car of the event was this little Mini Cooper which was driven by Paddy Hopkirk in the mid 1960s. Unlike a lot of the other historic vehicles there which looked like they had come straight out of a museum, with spotless engine bays, this Mini looked like it had been driven hard, the engine bay was suitable oily and the block painted in the original British Leyland green.

Other highlights were Bentley demonstrating the smoothness of their engine, by balancing coins on the rocker cover and the drive there and back with my Dad, we were in his Porsche Boxster with the roof down, managed to avoid motorways for both journeys and stopped for an Olympic Breakfast at the Little Chef on the way there, all ingredients for a good road trip!

Wide Angle Pan – From the archives

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I was discussing panning motorsport shots with a colleague, which reminded me of this photo which I took at Snetterton a few years ago, before they changed the layout. The Esses is one of the few corners on UK tracks where you are allowed to be positioned quite close to the apex, close enough to be using a wide angle lens anyway. I’d previously shown an image taken slightly tighter, on the blog post for the Ma5da Racing meeting at Snetterton, but I’ve always liked this one more. It breaks a few rules for instance the car has got more space behind than in front, but rules are merely guidelines and I think it works.

The full Ma5da Racing Snetterton 2010 gallery is available in my archive.

British Formula 3 – From the archives

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Jazeman Jaafar (Malaysia) driving for Carlin in Britsh Forumla 3 at Silverstone 14th August 2010 (Lewis Craik)

I was looking through my email the other day and found that I’d sent this image to someone – I didn’t even remember taking it! As soon as I saw it I knew why I’d emailed it, the brightly coloured cars with the gloomy light (it looks like it was raining) and the, rare for Silverstone, clean background.

I was covering Ma5da Racing, which was one of the supporting  series at the British Formula 3/British GT meeting at Silverstone in August 2010, so other than this and the Ma5da Racing images (available in my archive) I hadn’t processed any extra shots. The driver is Jazeman Jaafar (Malaysia) driving for Carlin.

Ma5da Racing: Snetterton

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The qualifying sessions for the second round of the Ma5da Racing 2010 season (and first round of the 2010 MX5 Cup), which had been delayed from the previous day were held under grey, but dry, Norfolk skies, on what had been touted as the warmest day of the year so far. The two sessions for the Ma5da Racing Championship went first and passed without any major incident, at least from where I was standing at The Esses. This corner gave me the chance to get out my wide angle lens, which I rarely get to use for motorsports, but usually gives some great images.

I stayed at The Esses for the MX5 Cup practice session which was my first chance to see multiple mk3 MX5 race cars on the track at the same time, again the session went without too much trouble, until Kevin Dengate had a moment on the second of the esses and left a lot of dirt on the track. Paul Sheard eneded the session fastest, so took the MX5 pole for both races.

On my way back from The Esses, the heavens opened, luckily I was able to duck into the Rob Boston Racing awning to avoid the worst of te downpour, but for the drivers in the first Ma5da Race of the day the damage had been done, the track was very wet and with all of the drivers having qualified in the dry the first corner was somewhat chaotic. Rob Boston managed to get a good start and left all the chaos behind him allowing him to pull out a big lead (4s) which he kept until the chequered flag.

Next up was the MX5 Cup race, the first race for the mk3 MX-5 race cars, the track had dried off a bit for this race, although the skies were still grey. The mk3 part of the race was won by Paul Sheard, again by about 4s. As there were only 5 mk3 cars the numbers were made up with a few mk1s, and it was good to see Nick Gilfillan winning the mk1 part of the race.

I stayed Russell Chicane for the next of the Ma5da Racing Championship races, which was a close battle between Tom Roche and newcomer Phil House (although he was in one of the Rob Boston Racing cars), Phil did lead most of the race, but Tom managed to overtake near the end of the race. Seeing as I’ve posted images of Tom Roche leading races, here’s my favourite shot from the race, with Phil leading.

By the time the second MX-5 Cup race came round the sun had come out (Yay!!!), I headed back to The Esses for the race as that was where all the action had been for the previous race. The race went much the same as the first, with Paul Sheard leading, although Kevin Middleton was a lot closer this time around.

Paul won the race, however Nick Gilfillan wasn’t quite so lucky, after having pulled out a fairly decent lead, he had a big moment right in front of me at The Esses and gifted the lead to Mark Pierpoint.

As per the first meeting at Brands Hatch the race of the day, featuring both Tom Roche and Rob Boston had been saved for the last race of the day and the race did not disappoint. Not only were Rob and Tom swapping places ate the front, the battle for 3rd was also very closely contested between Jonathan Greensmith, Phil House and Chris Dawkins (finishing in that order) and there was close racing all the way down the field.