Clio Cup

Events - BTCC Thruxton and Support Races

As a spectator, Thruxton is often a daunting thought for any keen photographer. The fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar and one which is always busy with thousands of spectators means finding a prime location to photograph the races is no easy task. Challenged by various heads whilst panning (trying my best not to hit them, honest...) and chainlink fences Thruxton isn't the best circuit to photograph at in my opinion. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hannah (my better half), James (my brother) and family trecked to Hampshire for the British Touring Car Championship and support races. This photograph below is of Jason Plato storming to victory in the final race after having an unlucky incident in race one with a tyre malfunction and hitting a wall at speeds in excess of 100mph causing a 6G impact! Hats off to the Silverline team getting the car back out for race two!

I think the saying goes that "Rubbing's Racing" and Tom Onslow-Cole certainly showed that during race one where he powered the AmD Miltek Golf to it's highest ever finishing position of 7th, congratulations guys! Great to see this car mixing it up the field of well established names.

The British Touring Cars weren't the only formula to provide close racing all day, with everyone pushing the cars to their limits. This below photograph shows Pierce (Car 24) locking up on the approach to Campbell. I think it's safe to say Thruxton was home to one of the best Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup races in a long time this weekend.

Formula Renault driver Andrew Jarman (Car 28) featured heavily in my Brands Hatch photographs purely because the car looks stunning at speed. This time around it was a different approach to capture him tackling the 'Club' bend at Thruxton. This photograph was taken using my mark II 2x extender, which previously I had been worried about with degrading image quality and focus speeds. However attached to my trusty 70-200 F2.8 IS L it proved fantastic at Thruxton. AI Servo tracking speeds gave me no difficulty, and the images at 100% crop are insanely sharp!

Finally i'll leave you with Tom Ingram crossing the start/finish line at Thruxton whilst being congratulated by his team as he leads the championship in the Ginetta G50 Supercup.

Hannah has also uploaded some fantastic shots onto her blog site, and if you'd like to check them out please click here.

If you are interested in viewing the full set from Thruxton please feel free to click here and visit the gallery.