News / Blog - Motorsport News

Visitors to the 2019 Motorsport Seafront Sunday and Twisty Sprint enjoyed a beautiful Guernsey summer's day and were well entertained by the racing, noise and action.

A large crowd was drawn to North Beach where the Twisty Sprint and demonstration runs showcased some of the many genres of Motorsport that are organized within our small Island.

I think the Motorsport Seafront Sunday attracts more people than any of the other Seafront Sundays and the families who visit certainly hang around for longer as the action comes fast and thrilling. The Twisty Sprint gives spectators the chance to get really close to the racing... they feel the rush of air as the competitors speed past them, the smell of brakes and overheating clutches all with a whiff of tyre smoke!

Well done to the Guernsey Clubs for working so closely together to organize such a successful event.

I've uploaded a few pics that offer a small taster of some of the Twisty Sprint and demo run action:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE 2019 MOTORSPORT SEAFRONT SUNDAY

The Guernsey rounds of the 2019 Avon Tyres/Wynn Developments Motorsport UK British Hillclimb Championship will be remembered for the great performances made by local competitors.

Once again the national contenders arrived with their specialist racing cars. As always they were spectacular, fast and bristling with the latest technology.

But Guernsey and Les Val Des Terres must give them one of the toughest of challenges among the whole seasons championship.

This Island has developed driving talent way beyond what you would expect from such a small population and those racers have hand built and modified their dated machinery to such a high level that only the very fastest national competitors can get the better of them!

Five locals made at least one run off. Darren Warwick, Nick Saunders, Tim Tulie and Paul Le Messurier all qualified for both rounds with Ian Le Messurier joining them for the round 22 run off.

So Guernsey should be proud of these racing hero's who fly the chequered flag so high for us.

My pics of the event are now online here:
CLICK TO VIEW THE 2019 BRITISH HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

Now firmly established in the Guernsey Motorsport calendar the GK&MC Reservoir Speed Event maintains a special status as it only runs on alternate years.

The 2019 event was eagerly awaited and several competitors were out to try the twisty course for the first time. More than a handful of Class records were re-written as the day was warm and dry.

I was only able to cover the morning's racing due to other commitments but this was long enough to capture plenty action.

Follow this link to view the picture gallery:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 2019 RESERVOIR SPEED EVENTY

No record was safe from attack at the 'Terres on Bank Holiday Monday. I'm not sure what was in the air but something must have permeated down the hill as nothing was holding the competitors back.... apart from a few 'abrupt stops' when the grass banks got in the way!

Sadly there were so many activities organized Island wide on this Bank Holiday that the crowd numbers of spectators were smaller than usual meaning that many missed such an entertaining day.

One thing is certain though, the racers had great fun with many taking away stories to tell how they were on the absolute limit and beyond to lower their Class record.

I was track-side capturing some of the action:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE BANK HOLIDAY HILLCLIMB

Chouet beach was lined with a large crowd of spectators for the end of season Autocross Fun Meeting.

In recent years the format of the Fun Meeting has become a sort of Motorsport 'Muratti' with a growing contingent of Jersey cars and drivers coming over to enjoy some fun on the Guernsey sands.

This year the action was non-stop and, unlike our local football team, the Guernsey Banger racers took the Trophy with a very strong performance.

I've added a new Gallery of pics featuring the action. Follow this link to view the pics:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE 2019 AUTOCROSS FUN MEETING

What a nice day in the office. Sun, sea, sand were all enjoyed by the Sandracing 'petrol heads'.

There was plenty of action to entertain the crowds who were encouraged by the seasonal sunshine.

I was on the sands capturing all the action. Follow this link to view my pics:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND-4 OF THE SANDRACING CHAMPIONSHIP

The latest Gallery features another of the weekends photoshoots.

Vazon beach was the perfect place to spend some time on Saturday afternoon. Sadly because I had other assignments booked in I could only stay for a few races... but it was worth it.

There is a new Gallery online featuring some of the action:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE 2019 SAND RACING CHAMPIONSHIP

Its been a busy few weeks doing almost everything apart from photography!

Life has been full of selling property, buying property and dealing with Advocates. I need to get back to work to pay for that one as that's an expensive business!

Also I've packed more boxes of belongings than I'm prepared to admit too.

How is it that many of us feel we need so many possessions to be 'who we are'? Probably most of them are forgotten and unused until we have to pack when moving residence!

To add to the work load I've been project managing the modernization of our new home which will be a completely up-to-date and most importantly easy to keep clean and maintained fully networked bungalow... after it is finished and we can move in. For now we have to 'camp out' in rented holiday accommodation.

Carol and I never really expected to be moving to a modern place after more than forty years living in a nearly two hundred year old Guernsey cottage but now we have started on this new journey we are really excited by it and we are certain the future will be easier for both of us.

All this ties in with my retirement in less than a years time but this will mean anything but putting my feet up as there will be a long list of decoration and projects to complete before life becomes all about putting the feet up, drinking beer and laying in the sun (at least that's my plan - I haven't run it by the boss yet!).

Luckily I was able to find my cameras this weekend (an amazing feat given we have things spread over four buildings and dozens of boxes) so I managed to get out to take some pics. I've photographed Sandracing, Cricket and a loud gig... much like normality really!

The first pics are online and feature a pre-season friendly game of cricket at KGV where Cannaccord Griffins played a visiting side from the UK, Sparsholt. The pics can be viewed here:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF CANNACCORD GRIFFINS v SPARSHOLT

It's been a glorious spring day in Guernsey and I've been enjoying the best 'offices' our Island has to offer.

They included my first stop of the day in the picturesque Talbot Valley for Round-1 of the GVC Summer Downhill MTB racing.

As well as the MTB racing I've spent two days chasing the riders taking part in the GMC&CC 2-Day Trials event. This took me along the full length of Guernsey. Those pics will follow.

Another sport and I was down on Chouet beach for the Autocross... that's another edit awaiting my attention.

And that's not the end of it! There was also the first GK&MC Sprint event at Vazon Coast Road.

All those events took place on Saturday and Sunday but my weekend had started on Friday evening with the Guernsey Dinner Boxing Club at St Pierre Park Hotel with nine bouts between Guernsey v Police Community Clubs.

Let the edits begin...

The first of my pics are online here:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE SUMMER DOWNHILL MTB RACING

The wind made it almost impossible to stand upright on the exposed corners of the Pleinmont cliffs at today's Motocross championship meeting.

However the conditions didn't stop the riders taking to the air in spectacular fashion. Once again there was some close racing and the track is improving with each race weekend.

Today's pics are already online here:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND-4 OF THE MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

It doesn't take long for a Facebook update to spark an interest in my latest pictures and two new Galleries are clocking up a load of views.

The weekends photo assignments included a couple featuring Motorsport action. Now there's a surprise!

It was also predictable that some music would feature over the two days. I popped in to The Fermain Tavern to sample some of the heaviest music available in Guernsey. There'll bit more on that in the next Blog.

For now it's just the Motorsport updates added to the Gallery. Both events were pounded by a strong and chilly wind but it was fairly bright so you would never guess from the pics. You had to be there to know!

You can now view pics of Round-3 of the Karting Championship and Round-10 of the Autocross Championship here:
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND-3 OF THE KART CHAMPIONSHIP
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND-10 OF THE AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

That was a quick edit! Helped by the consistent light (this makes an edit simpler) I've turned around and uploaded the edit of today's GK&MC Motocross Championship race before the meeting has even finished!

It's always surprising how quick we can get things done if there is a pressure on time available.

At the moment, outside of my work as a photographer, I've got many things to juggle. It's keeping life interesting, busy and challenging... and I'm loving it.

So I'm calling on experience to minimize any time wasted sitting at the monitors. This adjustment is probably doing a useful job as over time I've drifted into a laid back and relaxed attitude to editing.

Time will tell if my new habit sticks for longer than a few weeks!

The mega-fast Motocross edit is now online here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ROUND-3 OF THE MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

A quickie update as I'm waist deep in picture edits with no time to chat :-)

The 2019 Resolution IT Guernsey Rally edit is done. Yeah.

The Day-1 gallery is now online. This features the Friday evening stages which were raced mostly in the dark and gave photographers a real challenge to achieve any sort of decent result.

My effort at this challenging task is now online.

Also today it was great to see four pages of my Rally pics in the Guernsey Press. Hope you enjoyed the coverage.

Check out the Rally Day 1 pics here:
CLICK TO VIEW DAY-1 OF THE RESOLUTION IT RALLY[/url

It's been enjoyable completing the first Resolution IT 2019 Guernsey Rally edit.

The first pics online are of the Day-2 Stages. They were in St Andrew and St Saviour. There were two closed sections of the public road... actually very narrow lanes.

Each of these was raced in one direction in the morning and then reversed for the afternoon. Of course this produced a completely different Stage.

The enjoyable part of this edit (actually the same can be said about many edits) is that I get to see what I was photographing and it's almost like I'm seeing the scene for the first time!

Weirdly there is something about the concentration and adrenaline whilst photographing fast moving action that gets in the way of actually 'seeing' what is in front of me!

So I can now say categorically (and I've seen the pictures!) that this was one amazing event.

You can see if you agree with me by checking out this first Gallery:
THE RESOLUTION IT RALLY PICS_DAY-2 PICS ARE ONLINE

Will I be accused of being over excited if I state that the 2019 Resolution IT Guernsey Rally was pretty spectacular?

Well, so what if I am! I spent two days following the event including seeing some of the massive amount of organization and the number of people behind the scenes who have to come together to make this event happen... and I was more than impressed.

The Stages were varied and challenged competitors versatility on each day. A large number of spectators took full advantage of the perfect springtime weather... but it is still midwinter!

Big respect to the Guernsey Kart & Motor Club, some great work sorting that out! Or maybe it was all the helpers who came over from Jersey who brought their own sunshine along with them? I don't care if they did. It was the icing on the cake of a great Rally event. Bring it on again next year please.

I'm now working on the edit... and it's a big one! Check out the link below to keep up to date with the latest uploads.

As well as photographing the Rally I also covered 21 BOUTS of boxing at Beau Sejour and just to completely wear me out, there was also a gig to photograph on Friday night after the evening Stages of the Rally.

My whole body is aching... but it's a good kind of ache. The sort you get after having a good work-out. The only problem is my recovery rate at 64 years old isn't what it used to be :-(
CLICK TO VIEW THE RESOLUTION IT 2019 RALLY PICS

Follow the link to view pics of Round-2 of the Guernsey Kart & Motor Club's 2019 Motocross Championship....
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MOTOCROSS PICS

The weekend has been spent photographing Motorsport of the offroad variety.

First up it was the crazy world of Motocross as the 2019 Championship kicked off with Round 1.

The track looked to be in near perfect condition and it was nice to see a change to the layout. This keeps it interesting... both for the riders and photographers!

There was more offroad action of the four wheeled variety on Sunday with a busy session on the beach where the Autocross Bangers were as entertaining and competitive as ever.

The picture galleries can be viewed here:
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND 1 OF THE 2019 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
CLICK TO VIEW THE LATEST AUTOCROSS RACING

Today was a great day to photograph the Autocross Banger racing. OK it was bitterly cold but hey, it was dry and for much of the time is was bright. Remember it is January!

There was a good turn out of racers and as always the heats and finals ran smoothly. This genre of motorsport does a fantastic job of keeping the action going. This is down to the years of experience running the event. But I guess that an approaching high tide focuses the mind also!

Plenty of close action was on show for the spectators who mostly sat in their cars - no doubt with the heaters on too.

One racer didn't seem to feel the cold and as this photo shows he must have been happy as he even found time to give me a thumbs up whilst on full opposite lock in his huge Mercedes. Well done Jamie Queripel ;-)

A gallery of pics can be viewed here:
CLICK TO VIEW THE LATEST AUTOCROSS PICS

This is just a quick update with a link to the latest Karting picture Galleries.

The Guernsey Kart & Motor Club organised Round-1 of their 2019 Championship at The Track. The close and competitive racing promises that this years championship is going to be entertaining and well worth following.

The amount of effort, time and training that has been given to the Cadet classes in recent years is now paying off with some real talent on show.

I've added a few pics to the first Gallery of 2019. Take a look here:
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND-1 OF THE 2019 KART CHAMPIONSHIP

There was a double-header of action events for me to photograph this morning. I reckon that this sets the tone for the rest of the year as my diary is already filling up with a multitude of different events.

As I've mentioned many time before, it is the variety of sports, gigs, festivals, commercial shoots and news items that I photograph that makes my job the best.

I get to see and experience so much that Guernsey can offer its residents... just as long as they chose to be involved. I'm going to work as hard as ever to offer the best coverage out there. Make sure you visit this Blog page regularly to find a link to all the latest updates.

Today you can view pics of the GVC MTB XC race at The Guet and Round 7 of the Autocross Club Banger racing championship at Chouet. Follow these links:
CLICK TO VIEW THE GVC MTB XC RACING
CLICK TO VIEW THE LATEST AUTOCROSS RACING