F1 photographer Darren Heath nails it:

“The slate-wiping revolution that’s swept through F1 has reminded everyone of just why our sport is so special. Just think of what the teams have achieved in such an incredibly short time. Brazil 2013 marked the end of a prehistoric age for the sport, the ancient ‘technology’ employed to propel the cars finally being consigned to the trash. Five short months later completely new engines, ERS, electrics, turbos, braking, aero et al practiced, qualified and raced hard around Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit.”

How McLaren’s first tilt at Le Mans in ‘95 was saved by some judicious use of WD-40.

An hour and a quarter of Mark Higgins flogging an ever-so-slightly-enhanced Subaru around the Isle of Man TT course. What’s not to like?

Purchased.

Sprints at Phillip Island

Porsche Club of Victoria Sprints at Phillip Island. Cold and wet, wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

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Phillip Island Classic

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The Hollywood Megamercial

Ken Block is back for round 4 of his gymkhana series, this time he’s in and around the Universal Studios lot.

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S1K qualifying

Some shots from last Friday’s qualifying session for the 2010 Sepang 1000km enduro.

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Ten-tenths, tank-slapper, stint, parc fermé etc

Bathurst 12 Hour time

The Bathurst 12 Hour Race is on again this weekend, looks like they’ll be 47 entries split into eight classes, sadly no entries appear to have been received for the MINI Challenge class again.

Outright victory looks like it’ll again be a battle of the Evos, with the Shelby Mustang looking like the dark horse if it can make the distance (pun intended).

I was lucky enough to go to the race last year and had a great time: no crowds, open and largely unrestricted access to the pits, great weather. Due to number of things happening right now, I’m not going to make it this year, though I’ll be following along with the live stream when I can on Sunday.

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Trackday at SIC

Spent a day out at the Sepang International Circuit on Saturday, checking out the local trackday scene. Unfortunately I didn’t bring along my long lens so only had a max of 55mm to play with, not the best for taking shots at a circuit with such massive F1-compatible runoffs.

Ended up walking right out to the end of what they call “The Mall”, between the main back-to-back grandstands along the two long straights, could not get over the size of this place. The trackday was being held on what is the full 5.5km F1 layout so that action was pretty spread out. That said, from a vantage in the main stand I could see the majority of the track, I just couldn’t reach it with my camera.

Lots of Lotii in attendance, along with a bunch of well sorted JDM Hondas, Subarus, a few (LOUD) Altezzas and a Veilside-kitted RX7.

The day itself seemed well organised, I only saw a couple of incidents - one Civic failed to secure its bonnet properly with obvious results, whilst another car (I think it was a Proton of some sort) stopped out on the circuit and brought out the red flags during one session. Overtaking seemed to be allowed anywhere and most, if not all, cars had passengers each time they went out. I can see how - with those two massive straights - the layout would suit big-power cars and can imagine that the big stops at the end of them, combined with the heat, would make this circuit pretty tough on brakes.

Perhaps next time I’ll get out on the track myself.

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Try before you buy

Went along to the MINI Challenge Roadshow event at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway last Thursday. The event was designed to showcase the MINI Challenge series and racecars to drivers and potential sponsors that may have been thinking about joining the burgeoning series. A really well organised day that had me seriously thinking dreaming about ways to raise a budget to get into one of these great little machines for the ‘10 season.

The highlight of the day were the track sessions where potentials could get behind the wheels of a MINI Challenge car for a handful of laps around the GP circuit, I can’t think of a single other category that provides a similar opportunity to borrow a car for minimal outlay. Really impressed, my mission now is to get my CAMS licence sorted so I don’t miss another opportunity like this one.

Had a terrible time trying to take photos of the event around the track, everywhere I put myself I was being attacked by dive-bombing magpies. They were fine when I had my head up and kept facing them, but the second I put my head down and looked through the camera viewfinder…

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How to test an air intake restrictor

I love the simplicity of the scrutineering test that appears to have caught out the K plus K Motorsport Saleen at a recent FIA GT round:

The S7R was thrown out for failing to conform with the regulations when its engine failed to stall when the restrictors were blocked during post-race scrutineering.

Block the intake at the restrictor and see if the engine stalls. Brilliant.

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A lap of the creek

Here’s a video of me driving a lap of Eastern Creek Raceway in the MINI. This was one of my faster laps of the day and just happened to be my final one for the session - look out for the chequered flag just after I cross the finish line.

Being so late in the day I was short shifting in a few places and was definitely running out of brakes, so there’s still plenty of room for improvement - both in my driving and car setup. The steptronic (auto) gearbox works a treat around the circuit, punching out lightning fast changes and never once resisting my requested downshifts when called upon to do so.

To shoot this video I was using my new camera rig between the rear seat headrests, the camera itself was a Panasonic DMC-FT1 / DMC-TS1 that records in AVCHD Lite format at 720p resolution. I converted the raw video to DV using VisualHub (RIP), with a basic edit in Final Cut Express.

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BMW Sprints at Eastern Creek

Some photos from Round 3 of the 2009 BMW Drivers Club NSW Supersprint at Eastern Creek that took place yesterday. Very impressed with the way these events (and the BMW club) are organised. Yesterday’s round was also a round of the EPCC, so there were a quite few different makes out on the track to keep things interesting.

I had much better luck taking photos than on previous attempts, though still not 100% impressed with the sharpness of my long lens, will definitely like to invest in some better gear (lenses) in the not too distant future. Played around in Aperture much more than I normally would when putting these shots together, amazing how an average shot can be resurrected with a little bit of of a tweak here and there. Hope you like them.

Please drop me an email if you’d like copies of any of these shots.

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Bathurst 12 Hour

On a whim, I went for an early drive Sunday morning, rising at four and heading out of the city and across the mountains to Bathurst to watch the annual twelve hour race for production cars, aka the Bathurst 12 Hour. Had a brilliant run across the Bells Line of Road though light rain, very thick fog and zero traffic, arriving at the track just after the start.

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