FIA GT1 at Spa last weekend

[cpufreak]

The support race for the 24h, was the usual main event - the FIA GT1

I love the cars in these races, I love the close racing.. but I'm not a fan of the format... 1 hour races are too short.

As a photographer, they basically limit you to a couple corners in a race... and yes they are two races per weekend, plus qualifying and practice... but for me, a 4hr+ format works much better.

As such for the qualifying race on Friday, I set up shop on Eau Rouge

This was Corvette's race



Number 11 led from start to finish, chased closely by the Reiter lamborghinis..

The sight, sound and feel of these thoroughbred racers is a sight to behold- if you've not been to see a FIA GT event, I urge you to do so at the soonest possible convenience - the GT1 Corvettes, Murcielagos, and MC12s are I think only homologated until the end of next year and I don't know when we will see cars of that ilke ever again.

Being limited to one corner meant that most of my shots came out looking pretty similar..with this one of the Ford GT looking much like the one of the Corvette above..




So I tried experimenting a bit with some very slow shutter speeds to try and make it a bit different... not quite perfect.. but perhaps with more practice I can get away with using 1/25th like I tried here:



For the championship race, on the Saturday, I decided to head down to La Source, and then get some shots in the pits..

This was Reiter's race.. their Murci scoring their first victory to date



Being only a foot away from these thundering beasts was highly enjoyable







Once the race was underway, I wandered down the pitlane to capture the stops..







With the pit stops, and driver changes out of the way, there wasn't much left to do for the pit crews..except wait



and a nervous wait for Westbrook, and Grosjean....after the driver changes




At the end, teams watched out for their cars to come back..




but there was only one winning car...big grins for the reiter boys

[_dobbo_]

thanks for these! Lovely.

[webby74]

excellent photos once again, motorsport photography is something i to have a keen interest in.
do you have any of the lambos flaming?

[samvia]

Superb photos! Watched the GT1 race and a fair bit of the 24hr race on Motors TV, really fancy tieing it in with a Nurburgring visit in the next year or 2.

Are any of the La Source shots available as a wallpaper?

[cpufreak]

webby74 said:

excellent photos once again, motorsport photography is something i to have a keen interest in.
do you have any of the lambos flaming?

Not from Spa.

This was at silverstone a couple of months ago

[cpufreak]

samvia said:

Superb photos! Watched the GT1 race and a fair bit of the 24hr race on Motors TV, really fancy tieing it in with a Nurburgring visit in the next year or 2.

Are any of the La Source shots available as a wallpaper?

You should definitely go to the Nurburg 24hr, and the Spa 24h.. very different races from the atmosphere point of view, but both worth seeing.


I'm sorry - I can't give away high resolution copies for free. I hope you understand, but I have to cover the costs of my travel, equipment, and time.


I post watermarked images in resolutions up to 1400x900 to flickr, for non commerical use - http://www.flickr.com/photos/itwasntandy - or you may contact me privately if you wish to license images in larger sizes.