Super Lap

This is a post I have been looking forward to doing for a while now.  One of the things that I think got me interested in photography was the many hours spent as a teenager staring at car magazines (ok, so maybe I still do!).  Now i've finally had a chance to have a go at creating some of these images myself.  This was by far the most fun I have had taking photos so far!  I took 850 photos on the day, before my batteries died, shooting from 9:30am through to 5pm- golden hour!

For the non-car-people, Super Lap (a.k.a. World Time Attack Challenge) at Eastern Creek, is a time trial event, with catergories for race teams and high-end tuners, down to weekend warriors.  These cars are very quick and highly strung- they sound and look every bit as fast as they go.  Add into the mix a drift race, a motor bike stunt team, a display of all sorts of nice cars and one mental stunt plane; and you have a pretty fun weekend, with plenty of photo opportunities!

One of the best things I found about this event, was that all the spectators are allowed into the paddock, to wander through the garages and see exactly what goes on behind the scenes, drivers dont hide in transporters or behind locked doors at this event.  Throughout the day, I found it interesting to see how the different personalities of the drivers come out on and off the track...

This is the legendary Eiji "Tarzan" Yamada, chatting to his manager after a TV interview. Compare this to Sasaki quietly chatting to his engineer and looking at telemetry on a computer.

There is always an assortment of other characters that appear in the paddock, who don't really come to set the quickest laptime... or even do a lap at all!

I have shots of nearly every car that took to the track last weekend, but I figure that you probably don't want to see all of them, so I have just put up a few that I think turned out the best. If anyone is interested in other cars that were running, drop me an email and I can hook you up!

 In case you were wondering, the weather was less than impressive for most of the day, so I have opted for a darker, high-contrast look, over my normally deep blue skies and sunshine.

This shoot was my first attempt at panning shots of cars, and this was a bit of a learning curve, but I think after a days shooting, I may have added a new skill to my repertoire.

My plan for next year (it was that good!) is to hopefully get my hands on a media pass, so i can get even closer to these cars!

OK, so the drivers were pretty amazing ... but this one man show in his plane.. he must have taken his brave pills when he got up that morning!  Also this photo was almost my only photo to have a clear blue sky in it!

Wandering around the paddock gave me a chance to fire off a few candid shots and some abstracts.  All in the name of photography I swear! Nothing to do with the beautiful machinery on display!

Just quietly.. I think that as much polish was used, in the making of this event, as petrol!

While the time trial boys keep their cars in nothing short of immaculate condition, the drift guys were happy to rub pannels and generaly push as hard as the cars will allow, sometimes further!

 Beau Yates was the winner of the drift session, beating the bigger cars in his little Sprinter.

Another wander through the paddock.... 

  
This would have been my chance to chuck in a quick lap myself!  The owner of this Evo got out and left it running while he tried to open this gate! Sadly, I decided it was a probably a bad idea because Tarzan might have got upset if I had beaten him...

 Normally backlighting in a shot like this doesnt work, but in this case it gives this BMW a menacing appearing...

Tough day at work huh?

No! No! Nothing to see here....

There's always one black and white shot... this one looks pretty nice in colour too, but the B+W highlights the cars smooth lines. Also notice that car looks like it isnt moving... it was probably doing 120-150km/h on this part of the track.. I dont even know how i froze it like that!

I love the way this shot makes the car look so low and wide.. it somehow makes look even quicker!

Über-Soob!  Tarzan doing what he does best! This car sounded evil too... anti-lag made it crackle and pop whenever he lifted off the thottle..

To me, this shot looks like I stole it from Auto-Salon magazine... in a good way!

As the afternoon started to wrap up, the afternoon sun was fading... making shooting at high-speed quite difficult.  But my efforts were rewarded with this super-smoothing looking shot of a 180SX clipping the ripple-strip on turn 1.

With my camera battery fading as quick as the light, i had almost given up.. then...

... the sun burst through the clouds, covering the course in a surreal golden light!  These two shots are the last two my camera took before its battery packed it in.. but wow!  What a way to end the day!

This is my favourite shot of the day, I think it sums up what this sort of racing is all about...