Posted by Cleggy on Aug 10, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Friday qualifying sessions were a wash out due to persistent, heavy Rain and so the Armoy Club had to run practice sessions on Saturday morning prior to the commencement of racing, with the inevitable delay to the planned schedule of events for Saturday Race Day.
When the racing did get underway at approximately Two O’Clock conditions were ideal with Dry Roads all round the undulating circuit and even some sunshine.
The Dunlop Brothers fresh from their boycott of the Mid-Antrim were back in action and Keith Amor took the opportunity to get some ‘Seat time‘ on his bikes with the Ulster Grand Prix just around the corner.
As is the norm now William Dunlop won both of the Two-stroke Races (125cc and 250cc) but there was at least a decent battle behind him for second. The Two stroke classes are slowly dying which is a shame as they are proper Race bikes, built purely for racing and a decade or more ago produced some of the best racing seen in Ireland.
Yorkshire’s Dean Harrison was back for more on the McKinstry racing machinery and he proved that his double victory at the Mid-Antrim was no fluke by once again taking Two Race wins in the Support classes.
Adrian Archibald fresh from a high speed crash at the Mid-Antrim was back racing and showing no ill-effects.
Yet again Ryan Farquhar showed his class and undoubted skills on a Motorbike as he took Four more Race wins in another dominant season, but Keith Amor denied Farquhar a fifth when when he took the Supersport class victory.
Tags: Adrian Archibald, Armoy, Dean Harrison, Keith Amor, Mid-Antrim, Ryan Farquhar, Supersport, Ulster Grand Prix, William Dunlop
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 31, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The small County Antrim Village of Clough is the location for the current Mid-Antrim Road Race circuit and as far as Irish Road Race Circuits go, it is one of the better ones.
The first Two Races of the Day were the Junior and Senior Support Races. These classes are for the inexperienced Road racer and are usually the ‘hairiest‘ races of the day with many competitors being off the racing line, or getting in to a wobble.
One such inexperienced Road racer hails from good pedigree. Dean Harrison is the Son of Conrad Harrison a very experienced Sidecar racer who bagged a TT podium earlier this year. Dean was aquired by Billy McKinstry after Billy’s Antipodean racer Josh Trigwell disappointly left the McKinstry racing Team early in the Season. Dean in a very short space of time has shown that he is a great talent, a nice kid and if hes careful will have a great future in the sport.
In this image below Dean gets well out of shape over Alexander’s jump towards the end of the Senior support Race shortly after he had taken the lead. None of the other racers attacked the jump as fast as Harrison who went on to take the Race win having earlier won the Junior support on the McKinstry racing Kawasaki ER6.
Today was a showery day with poor light levels and a lot of the Mid-Antrim circuit has overhanging Tree canopys which meant that for Photography I was having to shoot at a much higher ISO than I would have preferred.
Back in October I blogged about a Photo shoot I done for Alan Bonner. This Season was Alan’s debut Road racing Season and here he is looking smooth at Alexander’s jump.
There was another shower prior to the GP250 Race, here Victor Gilmore heads the battle for Third place in damp but drying conditions.
The GP250 Race was won by local Man Barry Davidson, Barry has been trying to win this particular Race for a long time and today it all came good for the likeable Davidson. Here Barry plays up to my Camera having spotted me at the side of the Road.
The Mid-Antrim Road races have been good to Adrian Archibald in the past. The quiet Ballymoney Man has seen and done it all in racing and today he battled all the way with Ryan Farquhar, however in the Grand Final Archibald crashed out on the final lap but luckily he was not injured.
But the days racing was dominated by Ryan Farquhar who better mastered the treacherous conditions to take Five Race wins from Five starts all on Kawasaki machinery.
Thankfully there were not too many officials/Marshals on a power-trip this week and the various press Photographers were able to get on with their job almost hassle free.
Tags: Adrian Archibald, Alan Bonner, Alexander's jump, Ballymoney, Barry Davidson, Billy McKinstry, Clough, Conrad Harrison, County Antrim, Dean Harrison, GP250, Josh Trigwell, Kawasaki, Kawasaki ER6, Mid-Antrim, Mid-Antrim Road Race, Ryan Farquhar, Victor Gilmore
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 19, 2010 in
Bike Racing,
PR
Ask any Road racing fan to name an iconic image of Irish Motorcycle racing and the bets odds are a heck of a lot of them will mention the jumps at the Kells Road races in County Meath. Photographers’ images from these jumps have been used on countless Magazines, Newspapers, Books, Calendars, Race Programmes etc and go a long way to promote the event, attracting sponsors money to the races.
This year the Kells club and Chief Marshal agreed that only Five accredited, insured photographers at any one time could Photograph at either jump, a fair and amicable agreement on the grounds of safety. Then about Ten minutes prior to the start of practice that agreement was over-ruled by the powers that be and we were told that no Photographer could shoot the jumps except from the same areas that the public can shoot from. Needless to say there was uproar with the Photographers association even talking about a mass boycott of publicity for the event. However a boycott would not hurt the right people, nor would it help the sport which is already in a very fragile position.
Whilst supporting the sentiments behind a boycott I could not fully support it as I had pressure on me to deliver images for Adelaide Insurance and Irish Racer Magazine. Adelaide not only sponsor the Kells Road races but they also advertise in Irish Racer and sponsor the Irish Racer Awards dinner.
Why one side of the Road is deemed safe and the other side declared as too dangerous I don’t think I will ever understand that thinking! In my opinion nowhere is safe and I’m personally prepared to photograph anywhere that I myself feel comfortable with. As it was I shot some images from the ‘safe‘ side of the Road.
In this image I used a wide angle Nikon lens to capture Australian racer Cameron Donald is in mid-flight on his Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing Superbike.
Towards the end of practice the cruel side of the sport reared its ugly head again claiming the life of Stephen Larkin and predictably in this nanny state we live in today there is now yet another call for Road racing to be banned. Should we now also ban driving to work? or ban Horse riding?
On Race day Adelaide insurance had a few PR girls to assist with PR and out on the grid prior to each race. I again used a wide angle Nikon lens and the ever reliable Nikon SB800 flash gun to capture this image.
Race day was blighted by constant light rain, which then turned to heavy rain by mid-day and eventually conditions became too wet for racing to continue. Definitely not a Kells road race to remember, from what is normally an excellent race meeting.
In my Photograph below, TT race winner Adrian Archibald huddles under an umbrella with fellow racers Davy Morgan and Michael Dunlop.
Tags: Adelaide Insurance, Adrian Archibald, Cameron Donald, Davy Morgan, Irish Motorcycle racing, Irish Racer Magazine, Kells, Kells Road races, Michael Dunlop, Nikon, Nikon SB800, Photograph, Relentless Suzuki, Stephen Larkin, TAS
Posted by Cleggy on Jun 8, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Monday morning came and it was a slightly fresher more overcast day with none of the predicted rain. Road conditions were perfect for racing and despite the low light levels I decided I would venture to the Glen Helen section of the circuit knowing full well that the overhead canopy of leaves and branches would rob me of even more light.
The location I chose offered me a couple of different shots which was just as well as there were Two good races on the schedule, the opening Supersport race followed by the Superstock race.
In this image below Adrian Archibald is on full on short circuit mode as he takes this right hander fully committed. Both Adrian and William Dunlop were very impressive through here.
Ryan Farquhar was in a confident mood for the Superstock race having been quickest in that class throughout practice. The Killyman resident led the race from the start but a slow pit stop at the end of lap Two allowed Ian Hutchinson to eek out a slender advantage. Ryan got right back down to business to retake the lead and extend the lead, but the final lap saw Ryan catch back markers in bad places which was enough to cost him the win.
Ian Hutchinson took the win his second of the day and his third of the week and now is a hot favourite to equal or better Philip McCallen’s record of Four TT wins in one week.
Tags: Adrian Archibald, Glen Helen, Ian Hutchinson, Isle of Man TT, Philip McCallen, Ryan Farquhar, Supersport, Superstock, TT, William Dunlop