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 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 Aug 5, 2010 in
PR
Issue #97 (August 2010) of Irish Racer Magazine hit the Shop Shelves this morning. This is the Ulster Grand Prix preview issue and it also features the Laverty Brothers (Eugene Laverty, John Laverty, Michael Laverty), a remarkable story of Three Brothers from Northern Ireland all competing at a very high level in Motorcycle racing (one vying to be Supersport World Champion this year!).
Also within the pages of this Months Irish Racer magazine is features on Simon Andrews, Michael Pearson, Sandor Bitter, David Haire, Ulster Grand Prix and Manx Grand Prix previews and the usual Monthly columns from the likes of Jonathan Rea.
It has been another excellent issue for myself in that I have Twenty of my Photographs published in the Magazine this Month including the front cover Photograph from a recent Photo shoot of the Laverty Brothers.
Tags: David Haire, Eugene Laverty, Irish Racer Magazine, John Laverty, Jonathan Rea, Manx Grand Prix, Michael Laverty, Michael Pearson, Motorcycle racing, Northern Ireland, Photographs, Sandor Bitter, Simon Andrews, Supersport, Ulster Grand Prix, World Champion
Posted by Cleggy on Jul 11, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The scheduled Saturday practice session for the 2010 Walderstown Road races was pretty much wiped out due to persistent heavy Rain, thankfully I had not planned on attending practice and by the time Sunday morning dawned the Sky was already looking much clearer.
The old pensioner (Derek Wilson) was again my travelling companion which meant that I’d have to buy my own food or starve as Derek is a Scots Man and they don’t like putting their hands in their pockets too often. We travelled down together with me doing the driving and approximately Two hours later arrived at our destination to be met with a Dry circuit, and clear skies. We made the same journey last year but unfortunately Andrew Neill was to lose his life in a crash and we soon had to return home, but there was no repeat this year (just one Red flag incident) with some great racing.
With Ryan Farquhar away competing at Scarborough (and dominating proceedings) the opportunity was there for someone else to grab a few wins and a slice of the healthy prize fund. The start / finish section of the circuit is the widest section of road and it needs to be with a mass start where a bunch of bikes all have to brake extremely hard at the first road end for the first corner. Here in the images John Burrows machine has the back-end stepping out under braking.
The Supersport race was led from the start by William Dunlop on the CD Racing R6 Yamaha and it looked like he would never be headed.
But half way through the race his brother Michael started to come on strong and was soon right on his back wheel. With a lap to go Michael made his move passing William in mid-air over the jump and managing to get the bike down, and slowed for the peel in point to the next left hander before going on to take the win.
The next event for me is the Irish Superbikes at Kirkistown on Tuesday and then off to Kells for more road racing at the weekend.
Tags: CD Racing, Irish Superbikes, John Burrows, Kells, Kirkistown, Ryan Farquhar, Scarborough, Supersport, Walderstown, William Dunlop
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
Posted by Cleggy on May 19, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Each year the North West 200 gets harder to Photograph, more and more restrictions are placed upon media Photographers in the name of safety.
With limited access and often having to compete for clear shooting space with the general public, not to mention favouritism by the promoting club shown to ‘the chosen Three‘ you really do have to choose your location carefully. This year I based myself around the Primrose Hill and York corner section of the circuit to give me a few different locations all within relatively short walking distance.
I generally look for a location that will give me a variety of shots from the one spot so that I can maximise the potential of the location rather than endlessly shooting similar looking images. For this location on the inside of Primrose Hill I was able to shoot head-ons, rear shots and climb a high Grassy bank to get an elevated shot looking down on the bikes.
Situated very close to the start / finish area this location is ideal for a first lap group shot of all the Race Bikes screaming round the left-hander.
William Dunlop in the thick of the Supersport race action at the 2010 North West 200
After a lap the slower riders from the B and C groups became a bit more strung out and I was able to turn around and shoot some rear shots with a 70-200mm lens (at 135mm) to allow me to capture more of the scene and include the Sea in the background as the spectators watch the action unfold.
William Davidson during the Supersport race at the 2010 North West 200
Climbing up to the top of a Grassy bank gained me some elevation allowing me to shoot down on the bikes, this time using the 200mm end of my Nikon 70-200mm lens I was able to isolate a single Bike for a shot with a slightly unusual perspective that you rarely see in Irish racing Photographs.
Ryan Farquhar during the Supersport race at the 2010 North West 200
But the main talking point of this years North West 200 was the performance of Alastair ‘Wee Wizard’ Seeley who won Two Races for the Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing Team and in doing so managed to become the first local winner of a Superbike Race at the North West 200 since Philip McCallen way back in 1997.
Alastair Seeley celebrates winning the main North West 200 Superbike race at the 2010 North West 200
People think that the job is finished after the chequered Flag drops on the last Race of the day, but my Monday and Tuesday evenings of this week were spent captioning and key-wording all my images, then culling out the lesser quality images, before culling them a second time so that I then had a good tight selection of publication worthy images.
Tags: Alastair Seeley, Nikon, North West 200, Philip McCallen, Photograph, Photographers, Primrose Hill, Relentless, Ryan Farquhar, Superbike, Supersport, TAS, Wee Wizard, William Davidson, William Dunlop, York corner
Posted by Cleggy on Apr 11, 2010 in
PR
Today I attended the MAR-Train racing Clay Pigeon fund-raising shoot at Temple. At the fund-raiser I got chatting to Glenn Irwin the 2009 Irish Supersport 600 champion, he had some free time as did I, and so we hastily arranged a PR photo shoot in the townland of Carrickfergus close to Glenn’s family home.
We started off shooting him and his new sponsor Pro Net safety services followed by some action shots of him training on an Enduro bike round the families own Motocross track, then we done some posed stills of him on the Enduro bike and finally we travelled to a new location and shot more PR images of Glenn and his Honda CBR600RR race bike high up in the Carrickfergus Hills.
I am only sharing one image from todays shoot and will return at a later date to show the rest of the images.
Glenn Irwin – Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED 1/200th f6.3
Tags: Carrickfergus, Enduro, Glenn Irwin, MAR-Train racing, Supersport, Temple