Posted by Cleggy on Aug 15, 2010 in
Bike Racing
The historic Dundrod Race circuit in the County Antrim Hills proved once again that it is beyond doubt the best Race circuit in Ireland serving up close and fast racing.
A fast, flowing circuit with great changes in elevation and some insanely fast ‘Balls out‘ corners is as popular with the competitors who Race around it as it is with the Media Photographers whose job it is to document the events of the Race day Photographically.
For this image of William Dunlop on the CD Racing Superstock Suzuki I used a wide angle lens to capture more of the landscape, for me the fluffy White Clouds and Blue Sky really make this image.
William Dunlop is always great to Photograph, here he is on the CD Racing Supersport Yamaha R6 and again I used a wide angle lens to capture this image as he skims the Kerbs.
On Thursday for the Dundrod 150 races, Manxman Daniel Kneen, Aussie David Johnson and Brian McCormack from Waterford in the South of Ireland served up a fantastic Race where Johnson set a new lap record. It wasn’t enough though as Daniel Kneen took the win with McCormack in Third.
All throughout this years Ulster Grand Prix Bike Week Two Men showed that they were going to be the Men to beat. Falkirk Flyer Keith Amor and Ian Hutchinson.
London based New Zealander Bruce Anstey has struggled for form this year on the Relentless Suzuki but boy did he find his mojo again for the Ulster Grand Prix! Anstey sat behind Hutchy and Amor keeping a watching eye on proceeedings and then on the final lap he ‘pulled the pin‘ setting a new outright circuit lap record with an average speed of just over 133.9 miles per hour to take the Ulster Grand Prix Superbike Race win and give the Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing Team something to cheer about.
Next weekend sees an Irish Clubmans Championship Race at Bishopscourt on the Saturday followed by an Irish Superbike Championship Race at the same venue on Sunday. I will probably miss them both as I will be Photographing my Brother’s Wedding in ‘Derry.
Tags: Bishopscourt, Brian McCormack, Bruce Anstey, CD Racing, Daniel Kneen, David Johnson, Dundrod, Dundrod 150, Ian Hutchinson, Irish Clubmans Championship, Irish Superbike Championship, Keith Amor, Relentless, TAS, Ulster Grand Prix, Waterford, William Dunlop
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 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 25, 2010 in
Bike Racing
Australian Cameron Donald made the headlines at last years Isle of Man TT practice when he set an unofficial new lap record for the mountain circuit only to crash out of the very next practice session. Cameron sustained shoulder and ligament damage that would end his season there and then, robbing everyone of the opportunity of seeing him and current TT circuit maestro John McGuinness going head-to-head.
Yesterday saw Cameron Donald return to racing action for the Relentless Suzuki by TAS racing team at the Cookstown 100 road races. I captured this image of Cameron leading Michael Pearson in the opening Superbike race.
Cameron Donald leads Michael Pearson at Cookstown
Even before I had returned home from Cookstown, Suzuki Racings PR man was on the phone requesting some Photos of Cameron Donald for a press release. Below is one of my images used on Suzuki’s website.
Tags: Cameron Donald, Cookstown, Isle of Man TT, John McGuinness, Michael Pearson, Relentless, Suzuki, TAS
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 Jan 21, 2010 in
PR
At this time of year there is no tarmac based Motorbike racing in Ireland due to the long Winter nights and the cold climate, there are however plenty of awards dinners etc to attend organised by various Clubs involved in racing or organised by the sports Governing body or even the best one of them all (which was held just last week) the Irish Racer magazine Awards dinner.
But recognition for the achievements of Ireland’s Motorbike racers, from outside of the sport, is usually quite a rare thing. Carrickfergus Council decided to hold a Civic Reception in Carrickfergus Town Hall to present a Trophy to Alastair Seeley in recognition of his success in the sport and in particular his recent British Championship success riding for Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing.
I was one of the fortunate people to receive an invitation to the Civic Reception and gladly accepted the invite as over the years I have become friendly with the massive talent that is affectionately known as the ‘Wee Wizard’ Alastair Seeley.
f4.5 AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
I shot the above image with my 50mm lens. I originally planned to shoot it with my 20mm (to show more of the environment and the photo display behind Alastair) but that proved to be too wide in such a small room capturing stray people who unwittingly encroached in to the edges of the frame. A switch to the nifty fifty proved the correct choice.
Tags: AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D, Alastair Seeley, Carrickfergus, Relentless, Suzuki, TAS, Wee Wizard