Posted by Cleggy on Aug 10, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The very next morning myself and Derek Wilson were again off on our travels en-route to Mondello Park in County Kildare for the latest round of the Irish Superbike Championships.
For once Mondello was blessed with a Dry and sunny Day. The racing was excellent with lap records under threat, most notably by Glenn Irwin who bettered the existing British Supersport lap record. Glenn is a great talent and will go far in the sport.
Portadown’s Marshall Neill was beaten by Brian McCormack at a recent Mondello Race meeting when his Superstock machine had no answer to the Superbike and so Marshall got a wee bit of engine work done to release a few more ‘Ponies‘. The engine tuning worked a treat and Marshall took Three Superbike Race wins from Three starts and rarely looked troubled by the opposition. Marshall then took another win in the big Money Leinster Trophy race where Glenn Irwin led the first Four Laps on his 600 Honda before dropping off the Superbike pace and finishing 3rd.
Donna Lyons (L) and Orla Miller (R) were the competitors in the latest round of the quest to find the best Grid Girl of 2010.
Tags: Brian McCormack, British Supersport, County Kildare, Donna Lyons, Glenn Irwin, Grid Girl, Marshall Neill, Mondello Park, Orla Miller, Supersport
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 24, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Earlier in the week (Thursday afternoon) I took a half days leave from ‘the day job‘ to Photograph a quite unique assignment for the new issue of Irish Racer Magazine (going to the publishers this Thursday).
It was a fun shoot, rounded off with a great Chinese Meal in the Red Panda, Antrim and I can’t wait to see the images in print and read the fun interview with the Three lads. Due to an exclusivity agreement I can’t blog the images from the shoot until after the Magazine is in the Shops.
Today was a return to short circuit racing at Bishopscourt in the latest round of the Irish Clubmans championships which included Two Open National races. I really hadn’t intended to go to todays racing but the big chief Editor asked me to go and shoot a few images of Lisburn’s David Haire for another feature.
I got there just in time for the opening Supersport 600 Race which saw a great battle between Nico Mawhinney and Timothy Elwood with Mawhinney just holding on for the win.
I then shot a few quick portraits of David Haire (head and shoulders, 3/4 length and full length) keeping it simple with basic Nikon gear, one remote Nikon SB800 flash triggered by the Nikon SU800 controller onboard the Camera’s hotshoe.
After that I just shot a couple of Races (Marshall Neill won both National Open Races) and had a good ol chin wag with friends in the paddock before heading home. Me oul Jock mate Derek Wilson was there snapping away and rummaging through the pockets of the Marshal’s to scrounge a free lunch ticket. I dunno the depths that that Man is prepared to sink to just to avoid paying for something himself!
Next Saturday sees the resumption of pure Road racing with the Mid-Antrim 150 Road races. Last year Ryan Farquhar had a Four timer, will the opposition be any closer this year?
Tags: Bishopscourt, David Haire, Irish Clubmans, Irish Racer Magazine, Marshall Neill, Mid-Antrim, Nico Mawhinney, Nikon, Nikon SB800, Nikon SU800, Road racing, Ryan Farquhar, Timothy Elwood
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 15, 2010 in
Bike Racing
On Tuesday it was the latest round of the Irish Superbike Championships at Kirkistown Race circuit in County Down. The Weather forecast was for prolonged Rain but luckily it did not arrive until after the racing had been and gone.
Kirkistown is a very small, flat circuit with very few corners which makes it hard not to continually repeat shots that you have captured many times before. With the recent clamp down on Health and Safety at race circuits (fat lot of good its doing with racers still getting killed and spectators still getting hurt) it is getting even harder to capture anything worthwhile at this circuit. But with by utilising large glass and a tele-convertor its still possible to shoot some action.
The dedicated Medical Team do a great job of quickly getting to the scene of an incident and attending to the injured racers, here they can be seen in action attending to Jason Cash who luckily was not badly hurt in this crash. This incident happened quite some distance away from me but a 300mm Nikon lens and 1.7 tele-convertor helped me to zoom in on the scene for an image that the Medical Team were appreciative of.
I was down to a shorter lens and a very slow shutter speed ( 1/80th sec ) to capture some panning images when Scott Lonsdale crashed in front of me, sadly the shutter speed for panning images wasn’t quite fast enough to capture this crash any sharper.
Kirk Jamison and Gerard Kinghan are just Two of the many friends I have made through racing and although they are rivals on track they are also good friends off it, here they are locked in battle at Kirkistown. Sadly Gerard crashed out shortly after this and broke his Collarbone.
But Portadown’s Marshall Neill had one win and a runner-up spot, he would have had Two wins only a commentators cock-up on the number of laps remaining meant that his pit crew displayed the wrong info to him on his signal board allowing David Haire to win the second Superbike race. But Marshall still has a very healthy lead in the championship fight.
Tags: County Down, David Haire, Gerard Kinghan, Irish Superbike Championship, Jason Cash, Kirk Jamison, Kirkistown, Marshall Neill, Medical Team, Nikon, panning, Scott Lonsdale
Posted by Cleggy on May 26, 2010 in
Bike Racing
This past weekend saw the opening round of the Kildare championship (a new championship for 2010) held at Mondello Park, which included the high profile Leinster 100 Trophy race.
Mondello Park struck lucky with the warmest weekend of the Year so far which resulted in a larger than usual turnout of spectators, despite a relatively poor entry from the racers who obviously deemed it not worth entering due to it not carrying Irish championship status. Or is the economic downturn still hitting hard?
As well as introducing this new championship for the 2010 season, Mondello are trying hard to raise the PR profile of Motorcycle racing at Mondello with various initiatives including grid interviews with the racers, podium presentations for the main race events and the Mondello Park grid Girl search where Girls can apply to be a grid Girl for a Race weekend, all the grid Girls face a public vote and at the end of the season the winner gets a luxury Holiday as a prize.
Marshall Neill on the grid at Mondello Park with one of the grid Girls
The front row of the grid for the high profile Leinster 100 Race saw Waterford’s Brian McCormack on pole and alongside him were Marshall Neill, Glenn Irwin and Derek Shiels. Young Glenn Irwin qualified on the front row on a 600cc machine against his rivals 1000cc Superbike/Superstock machines, quite an achievement.
Front row of the grid at Mondello Park for the Leinster 100
Brian McCormack the 2008 Irish Superbike champion took the early lead and despite the best efforts of Marshall Neill who was glued to his rear Wheel all race long, McCormack secured the win and the Cheque for 1,500 Euros. Glenn Irwin rode very hard to secure the last podium position.
Brian McCormack at Mondello Park
A happy Brian McCormack will now set off to make his Isle of Man TT debut. Good luck Brian, enjoy the experience and see you over there next week!
Brian McCormack won the Leinster 100 race at Mondello Park
Tags: Brian McCormack, Derek Shiels, Glenn Irwin, Irish Championship, Isle of Man TT, Kildare, Leinster, Marshall Neill, Mondello Park, Motorcycle, Superbike, Superstock, Waterford
Posted by Cleggy on May 11, 2010 in
PR
In this blog post I mentioned how I received a Telephone call, whilst lying in Bed, from a top local racer, and how I quickly got myself organised to go out and shoot some images of him getting in some fitness training on his Mountain Bike.
That racer was Marshall Neill from Portadown and the images from that shoot and some other images from a follow-up shoot Two weeks later are printed in the latest issue of Irish Racer Magazine.
1/80th f5.6
Tags: Irish Racer Magazine, Marshall Neill, Mountain Bike, Portadown
Posted by Cleggy on May 5, 2010 in
PR
Issue #94 (May 2010) of Irish Racer Magazine hit the Shop Shelves today. Hot off the press it includes features on Glenn Irwin, Marshall Neill, Alastair Seeley, James Ellison, Bridgestone’s new BT023 sports touring Tyre, a preview of the upcoming International Road Race the North West 200 and all the usual monthly columns from riders like World Superbike star Jonathan Rea, World Supersport star Eugene Laverty, Road racing’s funny guy Mr Guy Martin and Irish Superbike contestant Kirk Jamison.
Back in early April I met up with the 2009 Irish Supersport champion, Glenn Irwin on a lovely Spring evening and done some PR photographs with him (Blog post here). The images from that shoot have been used in this months Irish Racer Magazine for this months ‘the big interview‘ feature.
Along with my images of Glenn Irwin I have multiple other photographs published in another good Month for me. Go grab a copy of the Magazine now while stocks last.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Bridgestone, Eugene Laverty, Glenn Irwin, Guy Martin, Irish Racer Magazine, Irish Superbike, James Ellison, Jonathan Rea, Kirk Jamison, Marshall Neill, North West 200, Photographs, World Superbike, World Supersport
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 Mar 21, 2010 in
Bike Racing The 2010 Irish Short Circuit Motorcycle Racing season got underway yesterday at Bishopscourt for the opening round of the Irish Clubmans Championship. A dull start with a Wet Track from overnight Rain got things off to a subdued start but the Sun came out, the Track dried up and every Race ran in dry conditions.
Included in the programme was Two open Races for ‘the big boys‘ the competitors in the Irish Superbike Championship. This was an opportunity for them to get some track time on their bikes before their own championships get underway at the same venue over the Easter Weekend.
The Two open races served up the best and fastest racing of the day providing good action for Photography.
Portadown’s Marshall Neill is one of Ireland’s under-rated racers who normally competes in the British Superstock Championship. For 2010 Marshall will be racing at home in the Irish Superbike Championships with the odd race ‘across the water’. Marshall’s first race of the day saw him have a minor crash but he showed what he was made of in Race Two by winning. There is a lot of racing to go before the 2010 Irish Superbike Champion is crowned, but already Marshall Neill is looking like a contender.
Marshall Neill leads Denver Robb, Kirk Jamison, Brian McCormack and Richard Rea at Bishopscourt
James Dickson #16 in the middle of the pack at the start of the second Open Race
Tags: Bishopscourt, Brian McCormack, Denver Robb, Irish Clubmans Championship, Irish Superbike Championship, James Dickson, Kirk Jamison, Marshall Neill, Motorcycle racing, Richard Rea
Posted by Cleggy on Dec 26, 2009 in
Bike Racing Following on from my ‘Best of 2009 – Candids’ and ‘Best of 2009 – Road racing’ blog posts, this post contains a selection of my favourite photographs from the Irish short circuit racing season just finished. Selecting your own personal favourites is never easy, and your choice varies each time you attempt it (well mine does anyway), but I’ve had a go at it and here they are (in no particular order).
Hot n heavy action as David Haire, BJ Toal and Ian Lowry battle for the same strip of Tarmac, the Grass and Dirt is thrown up in to the air from BJ’s Knee slider.
1/1000th f9 300mm f2.8 VR
Gerard Kinghan powers out of Dunlop corner at Mondello Park, front Wheel up in the air and the rear Tyre struggling to maintain its grip on the Tarmac as Gerard keeps the Throttle pinned.
1/1000th f5.6 300mm f2.8 VR
Glenn Irwin was just too eager to get on the power at turn two at Mondello Park and the power of the MAR-Train Suzuki was too much for a relatively cold Tyre at the start of the race. Before Glenn knew anything about it he was spat of the bike and looking for his landing spot.
1/1250th f8 300mm f2.8 VR
A nice slow shutter speed emphasises the sense of speed as Drew Jamison negotiates Debtors dip at Kirkistown.
1/160th f20 300mm f2.8 VR
Again a nice slow shutter speed and panning was used here to emphasise the sense of speed as Gary Johnson scrubs up some speed to enter Colonials at Kirkistown.
1/160th f14 300mm f2.8 VR
A 300mm lens and a 1.7x tele-convertor were called in to action for this tight shot of Wayne Kirwan at Bishopscourt.
1/800th f6.3 300mm f2.8 VR and TC17 tele convertor
Damien Mulleady, John Walsh, Robbie Lanigan and Ronan Shanahan in formation at Mondello Park.
1/800th f8 300mm f2.8 VR
Rubbing is racing! Marshall Neill makes contact with Ian Lowry during a cold, wet finale to the 2009 Irish Superbike championship at Bishopscourt. The contact was that heavy that Ian had to ’sit up’ and run wide on to the Grass to avoid crashing.
1/800th f7.1 300mm f2.8 VR
As always you can purchase from a selection of my vast Photographic Library by selecting from my online galleries.
Tags: 300mm f2.8 VR, Bishopscourt, BJ Toal, Damien Mulleady, David Haire, Drew Jamison, Gary Johnson, Gerard Kinghan, Glenn Irwin, Ian Lowry, John Walsh, Kirkistown, MAR-Train, Marshall Neill, Mondello Park, panning, Robbie Lanigan, slow shutter speed, Wayne Kirwan
Posted by Cleggy on Nov 6, 2009 in
Bike Racing The latest issue of Irish Racer magazine is now in the newsagents. Featuring Alastair Seeley, Kirk Jamison, Josh Elliott, Marshall Neill, Billy McConnell, Maria Costello, John Anderton and all the usual monthly columns etc
I am happy to say I have over a dozen images published this month, including this image from my Kirk Jamison photo shoot from much earlier in the yeartrans.
Kirk Jamison knows the value of good PR for his sponsors and arranged a photo shoot with me earlier in the year to obtain high quality photographs for his sponsors.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Billy McConnell, Irish Racer Magazine, John Anderton, Josh Elliott, Kirk Jamison, Maria Costello, Marshall Neill, photo shoot