News / Blog - Motorsport News

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

There was a great turn-out for the last Motocross practice day of 2018.

Thankfully the rain stayed away this time as the cancellation of recent races has put a strain on the good spirit in the Club. However all the troubles were forgotten when the riders saw that the track was in good condition. There was also the interest in running the track in the reverse direction.

I spent time track-side and captured a few pics. This is a link to the Gallery:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE MOTOCROSS PRACTICE

I've been tidying some folders and found two more rounds of the GK&MC 2018 Karting Championship that I'd missed due to there being other Press assignments in them too.

The error has now been sorted and two new Galleries featuring Round 8 and Round 10 have been added.

Follow this link if you want to check my pics out:
CLICK TO VIEW THE MISSING KARTING GALLERIES

Motocross... but without too much mud. It looked like the track was in pretty good condition considering the heavy rainfall during the last couple of days.

I know it rained heavily on Friday evening as I got very wet whilst photographing a football game!

But back to the motorsport. Apart from the gale-force winds on the top of the Pleinmont cliffs it was great to photograph Round-8 of the Guernsey Kart & Motor Club Motocross Championship.

My pics are now online here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND-8 OF THE MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

The one thing that wasn't in short supply at Saturday's Motocross championship meeting was dust!

It was also windy enough on the exposed cliff top to make it hard to stand whilst shooting with a large lens.

When those two things are combined there was only one place to be... downwind!

I made every effort to avoid the dust storm but of course that was impossible. Perhaps fortunately, I was booked on another assignment early in the afternoon meaning I left early - but not clean. It took a bit more than a brush off to sort me out... ten minutes in the shower did the job.

The Motocross racing was the first shoot in a long, busy day that didn't finish until 11.30pm and the fifteen bouts of boxing at the Oktober Slugfest at Beau Sejour. Those pics will follow.

Follow this link to view pics of Round-6 of The Motocross Championship:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE MOTOCROSS ROUND-6

It's been another hectic week of shooting and edits.

As always it's the edits that drag on but even those are well on the way. But I'm calling it a day with this last edit. More to come tomorrow.

Pics of Round-2 of the Winter Autocross Championship are now online:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND-2 OF THE AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

The last two hillclimbs of the season had one thing in common.... heavy rain!

Inevitably this saw the numbers of competitors depleted. To be fair to those who didn't turn up I have to say that the Petit Bot hill is tight and challenging even in perfect conditions so when you add into the mix 'rivers' of water running down and across the tarmac there is a real risk of aquaplaning into the stone walls!

It would be all to easy to end the season's racing with a trailer load of pieces and a long winter project trying to put them back together!

However there's always the 'mad bunch' who turn out whatever the weather and they were there at Petit Bot having fun.

I too popped along to take a few wet pics. They're now online here:
CLICK TO VIEW THE WET PETIT BOT HILLCLIMB PICS

I hadn't expected to find the time to take pics of the Channel Island Mower Racing Association's race meeting last Saturday.

However the opportunity appeared between two of my assignments and it was to good to miss.

I'd already spent an hour or so getting layered in dust up at the Motocross racing and had to brush myself down before popping along the the Dressage Championship. Luckily I was early enough to capture pics of a few riders before they took an inconvenient (for me) break for lunch!

But this opened a small time-slot before I had to get to the Fairfield for the Dog Show... I bet you'd love my busy life, eh!!!

So it was more dust for me at the Mower racing where the guys obliged me by running a race so I could quickly grab a few pics. Thanks lads.

My pics from this one race are now online here:
CLICK TO VIEW THE LATEST MOWER RACING PICS

A quick mention of another gallery addition from a hectic weekend.

This assignment was the first one on Saturday morning and I'll be honest, I was quite pleased that I didn't have more than an hour and a half to spend taking pics! Particularly as I needed to be respectfully clean for jobs later in the day.

It was just that it was sooo dusty! There was no moisture anywhere on the track so during the bigger races a dust storm formed over the clifftop track. In fact a times the racers just disappeared from view.

But, almost repeating my previous comment about the wet Imperial Hillclimb, often the best pics come out of discomfort.

So I quite enjoyed this edit as the dust clouds added a bit of drama to some of the pics. Check them out here:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND 5 OF THE MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP