In 2022 I shot a huge variety of events, everything from drifting, modern GTs, classic sportscars, karting, RC drifting, and a rally or two. Lets kick off with the first event of the year.
MGJ Brands Hatch Stages
A winter rally on the circuit and access roads around Brands Hatch, a great way to get a bit of practice in and keep sharp in the ever shorter off season.
Oh and a car you wouldn’t expect to see on a rally was this Ferrari 308 GTB!
TAC Rally
So I set off for Germany on the Friday evening, the car full of mates that are crazy enough to do the sort of trip that means driving through the night to the Nurburgring, shooting the racing all day and then driving home. This time was a bit different though as once we had crossed the channel we found out the Nurburgring race was cancelled due to snowfall around the circuit.
A quick rethink and scouring the internet we found out that there was the second round of the Belgian Rally Championship taking place on the same weekend. It wasnt much of a detour from our route and it was much shorter than the intended trip, arriving at Tielt in the early hours and grabbing what sleep we could.
We awoke to find out that what we thought was a quiet road to park the car was actually part of the Rally Service Park!
It took a couple of hours to look around the cars and grabbing breakfast in the town centre, awesome food and cars, not a bad alternative event!
Picking up a copy of the event program was essential to finding out where the stages were located, a quick check of the maps and we found we could watch two stages later that afternoon. The access for spectators was so unrestricted it verged on reckless, the respect of the fans being the only thing stopping anyone from standing anywhere dangerous.
For the first run through of the stage we watched from a 90 degree left turn followed by a fast sweeping left-right. A few different angles were possible here assited by how open the landscape was.
There was a couple of hours before the cars came back through the stage so we headed off into the local village for a beer and a packet of crisps before heading back out to a different part of the same stage. This time the sunlight was fading over a tight left hander with a considerable ditch on the inside for the cars to drop their wheels into.
British Endurance Championship / Britcar Trophy
This year the Britcar Championship became the British Endurance Championship for GT3, GT4 and TCR cars, the trophy category runs on the same weekends for all of the slower but qually as entertaining car classes. I mainly spent this events capture video footage for teams alongside Lewis Thomas Media but I found time at a few of the rounds to photograph the event.
British GT, Brands Hatch
Part way through the year I was offered a Canon 500mm f4.5L for a price that I couldn’t refuse, my first trip with it was to the British GT event at Brands Hatch to put it through its paces. It’s a 30+ year old lens so it has its quirks but for the price it excels when I need the extra reach.
P9 Challenge, Red Bull Ring
One event I never planned to attend but I jumped at the opportunity was the P9 Challenge at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. I filled the car with everything I needed, added two friends and hit the road for a 20 hour drive each way! I loved the whole trip, from the driving through 4 countries, staying up in the mountains, the track, the event, the list goes on…..
The other races on track had a couple of interesting cars in them, from a Pagani Zonda to some recent F1 cars in the BOSS GP series.
NLS7, Nuburgring
In the October I finally got to the Nurburgring for the 7th round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Series, all of these photos were taken from spectator areas around the Nordschleife.
Spa Six Hours
A quick trip over to Belgium for the Spa Six Hours, a day of classic racing from various car classes and decades crescendoed with a six hour endurance race for cars of the mid to late 60s. It was filled with GT40s, E-Types, Cobras and Mustangs.
Japfest & Trax
Two of the drift events I covered this year were the DriftMatsuri demos that were part of the Japfest and Trax car shows. 100+mph entries were the aim of the day for the drivers with two fast corners of Brooklands and Luffield to follow. It’s always fun to shoot these events as they are so chilled with no competition to put pressure on the drivers.
Teesside Autodrome
It as another busy year covering 14 different events at Teesside Autodrome, I love the selection of events that I get to shoot every year!
Slidehouse RC
Something a bit diferent were the three events I shot for Slidehouse of RC drifting, two open days at their track and a trip to Goodwood to demonstrate the hobby to car enthusiasts during one of their Breakfast Club meets. These are tough to photography as they change direction very quickly and often the best angles are getting as low as the cars.
Freetech Endurance Championship
Another unexpected phone call resulted in me photographing the Freetech races for the championship and many of their riders and teams for 4 rounds of the championship. It was a new challenge with a lot of pressure to nail the shots quickly, of many bikes, and move on every few laps. It was the only way to capture so many of the bikes on track in as many different photos as possible during the races. In between all of that there were pit shots and promotional shots to capture for the championship, a fast paced task but enjoyable with so many great people around the paddock.
Other Events
I also manage to attend a few other events, my yearly trip over the Anglesey for DriftMatsuri, a GT Cup test day at Donington Park and a test day at Snetterton all feature in these last few images form 2022.
Thanks for joining me on this look back through my photos from 2022, I can’t find the works to express how thankful I am to everyone that supports, books me and generally keeps pushing me further in my dream career!
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