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 May 11, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Earlier tonight saw the opening practice session for the 2010 North West 200 Road Races. With Roads scheduled to close around 5pm, and myself stuck in work at Antrim until 4:30pm, I made the decision not to attend as I would have been unable to make it up to the circuit, get myself signed on and the car parked up before the Roads closed. Instead I am venturing up on Thursday for the daytime practice session, which at this stage is looking a bit iffy with the Irish Weather!
The move to daytime practice is a great idea (despite it costing me one of my all too few days of annual leave from the day job) and its a move that the competing Teams are all in favour off. Hopefully the Weather won’t turn out to be as bad as is being predicted.
In this blog posting I displayed a Photograph of Ryan Farquhar’s new Kawasaki Superbike, which at that stage he hadn’t even ridden. Ryan got a few laps on the bike at a damp Kirkistown Race circuit yesterday morning before taking it out tonight for first practice for Saturday’s North West 200 races. Despite the lack of time on the bike Ryan managed to post a time that would leave him 6th quickest in a session headed by Honda’s Steve Plater and John McGuinness.
The evening’s practice/qualifying session for the North West 200 Race saw a lengthy delay due to an oil spillage when Gary Johnson’s engine blew up. Lets hope that Thursdays qualifying session sees no such delays and gives us some good light to capture some nice images for the various publications we represent.
Tags: Antrim, Gary Johnson, Honda, John McGuinness, Kawasaki, Kirkistown, North West 200, Photograph, Ryan Farquhar, Steve Plater, Superbike
Posted by Cleggy on May 6, 2010 in
Bike Racing,
PR
Ryan Farquhar surpassed the late great Joey Dunlop’s victory record at Killalane in 2009 to become the most successful Irish national Road racer ever. For a man that has won almost everything there is to win in the high risk sport of Motorcycle Road Racing, Ryan has his feet firmly on the ground.
Working out of a small garage workshop at the side of his Two up, Two down Killyman home he burns the midnight oil meticulously preparing his own race bikes, putting in long hours behind the scenes that the majority of race fans just don’t realise. Every nut and bolt is inspected, tightened and checked and double checked to ensure that come the weekend and the next race that nothing has been left to chance.
Tonight Ryan invited me round to look at and Photograph the MSS Kawasaki Superbike that he has the use of for his assault on the dream of a Superbike victory at one of the big three International Road Races. If the bike is as good as it looks then Ryan will be in with a fighting chance, despite the high calibre of opposition he will be up against.
Despite this being a bike prepared by MSS Colchester Kawasaki under the supervision of Nick Morgan, Ryan still stripped the bike down to see what brackets etc needed strengthening to survive the rigours of Road racing. If Ryan doesn’t get a win or Two on this bike, you can be sure it won’t be his own fault.
Ryan, best of luck for the racing, and keep it safe out there.
Tags: Joey Dunlop, Kawasaki, Killalane, Killyman, Motorcycle, MSS, Nick Morgan, Photograph, Road racing, Ryan Farquhar, Superbike
Posted by Cleggy on Apr 4, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Friday and Saturday saw the start of the Irish Superbike Championship season at Bishopscourt. With Northern Ireland currently only having Two race circuits of a suitable standard for Championship racing it is hard to shoot some original images. For this weekend I decided to concentrate on panning images using a slow shutter speed.
Long, Large, heavy Glass on a monopod is hard to hold steady at the best of times, but when a gusting Wind is catching it, it becomes doubly hard.
Bruce Anstey – 500mm 1/250th sec
James Dickson – 500mm 1/200th sec
With the Wind came heavy Rain showers, lots of surface Water and race Bikes using Wet weather Tyres means lots of spray getting thrown up and this can give the auto-focus motors on Cameras/Lenses a hard time.
In this Photograph Cameron Donald on the Relentless Suzuki sits up and brakes to scrub off some speed for a chicane and you can graphically see just how wet it was!
Cameron Donald – 500mm 1/320th sec
Cameron Donald – 500mm 1/160th sec
Road racing specialist Ryan Farquhar went to Bishopscourt for some track time to help him shake off the Winter rustiness and get his 450 single and 650 Twin bikes dialled in for the season ahead. Ryan took a couple of race wins in the Super Twins class whilst also showing the potential off the ‘wee thumper’ Kawasaki KX450F single.
Ryan Farquhar, Kawasaki ER650F – 500mm 1/100th sec
But the weekend belonged to one of Ireland’s most under-rated racers, Portadown’s Marshall Neill who won all Three Irish Championship Superbike races on a Superstock Suzuki GSXR1000.
Marshall Neill – 500mm 1/200th sec
Marshall also became the 2010 winner of the long running Enkalon Trophy.
Tags: Bishopscourt, Bruce Anstey, Cameron Donald, Enkalon Trophy, Irish Championship, James Dickson, Kawasaki, KX450F, Marshall Neill, monopod, panning, Portadown, Relentless, Ryan Farquhar, Superbike, Superbike Championship, Suzuki, TAS
Posted by Cleggy on Feb 28, 2010 in
PR
Motorcycle racer Michael Pearson and the Ballygowan Road Race Supporters Club held a PR day today at the La Mon Hotel and Country Club. The purpose of this event was to announce Michael’s plans for the incoming racing season to the few people and press that bothered to attend.
Michael will ride a superbike Kawasaki ZX10 for Ivan Morrell (Ryan Farquhar’s right hand man in recent seasons) with backing from the Ballygowan Road Race Supporters Club.
Tags: Ballygowan Road Race Supporters Club, Ivan Morrell, Kawasaki, Michael Pearson, Motorcycle racer, Ryan Farquhar, ZX10
Posted by Cleggy on Sep 8, 2009 in
Bike Racing The Sales and Marketing manager of Kawasaki Motors UK recently contacted me about buying the reproduction rights to one of my images of Ryan Farquhar (captured at the Mid-Antrim road races) as they (Kawasaki) wanted to run an advertising campaign in Road Racing Ireland magazine.
The advertisement would obviously be aimed at promoting the Kawasaki brand and ideally it would go some way to increasing sales of Kawasaki Motorcycles in the UK and Ireland. But it (the advertisement) would also serve the dual purpose of thanking Conor Cummins and Ryan Farquhar for their achievements in the amazing sport of Motorcycle road racing on closed public roads achieved on Kawasaki machinery.
The advertisement can be seen in the current issue of Road Racing Ireland magazine for sale in Newsagents now.
Tags: Conor Cummins, Kawasaki, Road Racing Ireland, Ryan Farquhar