I received the September / October issue of Speedscene magazine today which has one of my images as the cover shot and a further 10 images within: five from Prescott on 25th July and five from Shelsley Walsh on 15th August.
Today was my last hillclimb event of 2021. It took place at Prescott and involved an assembly of rally cars from through the years (and a few others). To be honest I was a little disappointed with the entry – no Audi Quatros, Metro 6R4’s, RS200’s, Cosworth Sapphire’s – all rally cars that I went to see back in the days of the RAC Rally stages in the Welsh forests.
So that’s it for my motorsport for 2021. Now time for another project which will take place in the warmth & dry of my studio through the Winter months.
Sunday saw the final of the 2021 British Hillclimb Championship at Loton Park. The top 6 places had already been decided because any points gained on the day wouldn’t change their position – but there were still the lower places to be decided and, of course, some were chasing the hill record. And chase they did – unbelievably the hill record was broken 17 times with Wallace Menzies taking top spot on the last drive of the day.
So that’s the end of competitive hillclimbing photography for me this year – just one more event at Prescott next Sunday with some rally cars and I’ll be hanging up my kit bag up for the Winter. However, I have a photography project planned to keep me occupied – watch this space!
Today saw the final speed event of the VSCC calendar with a hillclimb at Prescott. It was a misty start but the sun soon broke through and the afternoon was positively warm – not bad considering it’s Autumn now. Here are a few random images from the day – a full gallery of over 240 can be found at www.john-hallett.co.uk
As soon as events have the word ‘finale’ in their title you know that the end is nigh. And so it was at Shelsley Walsh yesterday with their last competition event of the 2021 hillclimbing season. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most exciting entry list although there were a number of classic cars from the 1960’s which always appeal to me (probably because I grew up with them!) Here’s a few shots of them and you can find more on my website at www.john-hallett.co.uk:
The weekend was the annual visit of the Vintage Sports-Car Club to Loton Park in Shropshire. I went along today and was a little surprised by the lack of cars in the paddock as I arrived and it wasn’t long before I learned that with the Goodwood Revival next weekend many had decided to give Loton a miss in order to keep their cars in top condition. It was a shame because a lot of the more interesting cars for me (Edwardians and ERA’s) were just not there. I did my best though and came away with over 300 acceptable images which are now in a gallery on my website. Here is my favourite shot of the day:
Yesterday I was the official photographer for the last drivers school of 2021 at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb. So what does a typical day for the photographer entail?
If you want to drive your car up Shelsley Walsh under expert tuition find out more here.
A gallery of 340 images from last Sundays British Hillclimb Championship round at Prescott has just been added to my website at www.john-hallett.co.uk.
Here’s a shot of the new hill record holder:
The British Hillclimb Championship round at Prescott yesterday saw the hill record broken 3 times, twice by Wallace Menzies and once by Alex Summers. At the start of the day the record stood at 35.42s, set by Sean Gould in 2019, by the end-of-play yesterday that had tumbled to 34.65s with Menzies last run of the day. There was also a welcome back to Will Hall after missing for 6 months due to a damaging ‘off’ previously in the season. Here is is at Orchard:
I was primarily taking images on behalf of Speedscene magazine and so spent the entire day ‘on the hill’ taking shots of every car just in case they were needed for the forthcoming article. It does therefore tend to result in a long series of record shots – but that’s the downside of working to a brief rather than just taking photographs for pleasure – however the upside is that I get them in print which, for me, is the ultimate aim. Actually I must confess to getting a bit ‘arty’ during the morning and took this shot:
A big thanks to Phil W who e-mailed me advising that the website link to the VHRA gallery was pointing to last years event. This has now been rectified and 300+ images from 2021 can now be viewed here.
