Other than being on the grid itself, there are few
better ways to spend a weekend than watching some
racing at an iconic circuit. Even better when you have
access to all areas.
I had always wanted to shoot motor racing in an
official capacity. A call out of the blue provided me
with this opportunity and 48 hours later I was on a
plane to Germany to cover practise and racing over 3
days for the Renault World Series at the Nurburgring.
The brief was straightforward enough, so I thought –
get yourself to the Nurburgring find these four drivers
and introduce yourself as their official photographer
for the weekend. Oh and by the way you’re part of a
crew of one.
The drivers were all making their way up the racing
ladder and I was there as their profile raising team.
Not every driver was competing in the same category
though, but they all had the same requirements
– shots of themselves trackside, in the car, in the
garage, racing obviously and podium if they placed.
But THE shot would be crossing the line taking the
chequered flag. Miss this at your peril.
Radials or slicks?
I think it’s fair to say I had no idea of the distances I
would have to cover to capture shots of each driver. Walking the length of the pit lane seemed to take
an eternity, as for the circuit itself a bus would ferry
photographers around the service road at 15 minute
intervals all day. The soles of my trainers started the
weekend as radials but by Sunday were slicks.
The pattern of each day was much the same... practise
in the morning and race in the afternoon. Each driver
needed shots uploading to their social feeds and
sending back to the UK via Dropbox for web galleries
twice a day. The lunch break was a mad dash to the
media centre to choose 12 shots from the morning,
edit them and upload accordingly. Over the 3 days I
must have taken around 4000 images.
The weekend was a success. A few months later
I was approached to cover the Le Mans 24 hr race,
I couldn’t believe my luck as this date clashed with
a family commitment, which meant instead of burning
more rubber on a track in France I was treading
the boards on a stage in Birmingham. But that’s
another story...
