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
