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:
Although the main purpose of the photographer at a drivers school is to capture images of the cars progressing up the hill it is also important to get some others shots to encapsulate the mood of the day. Here are a few from last Tuesdays Drivers School at Shelsley Walsh:
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.
Once again the British Hillclimb and Sprint website has used four of my images to supplement their review of the recent Championship Challenge hill climb at Shelsley Walsh: See it here.
Yes, just like buses, you wait for a hill record to be beaten and it happens three times in as many minutes. The hill record at Shelsley Walsh has stood since 2008 when Martin Groves set a time of 22.58s. Yesterday, during the morning top 12 run-off Wallace Menzies broke it first with a run of 22.55s, then Sean Gould followed with an ever faster time of 22.37s. The final contender, Alex Summers, had all the pressure and although achieving a great time had to settle for second place with a run of 22.52s.
Not to be outdone, the ladies record was also broken. In the second and final run-off Nicola Menzies achieved a time of 24.70s taking the 24.73s record set by Sue Young in 2007.
This was a day that many hill climb enthusiasts will remember for some time.
At the start of the year I was really questioning how much motorsport photography I wanted to to do this year – but here I am with busy weekends up until the second week of October. So what’s happening in the short-term? This weekend sees me at Shelsley Walsh for another round of the British Hillclimb Championship (and I’ve already been booked to take photographs of the event for Speedscene magazine). The following weekend sees me at Mallory Park with the Vintage Sports-Car Club, and the weekend after I’ll be heading down to Prescott for the annual visit of the Vintage Hot Rod Association. Here’s a shot from last years event:
A number of years ago the Bromyard Speed Festival came into existence as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company were the proceeds are used to fund future events with any surplus going to local charities. Originally it was run in the town of Bromyard, Herefordshire but was only planned to run every two years due to the administration of shutting down the town centre to allow the vehicles to parade. Covid has put paid to this over the past couple of years and so the event has moved to Shelsley Walsh in the interim.
So yesterday I was one of the volunteer photographers who spent the day on the hill photographing the various entrants of cars and bikes, which had an age range from 1923 to 2019. It wasn’t a competition (no timed runs) but just a showcase of interesting vehicles. It all went very smoothly and was a great day out.
The images from all the photographers will shortly be available for sale (proceeds to the charity) here.
On 4th July (Independence Day in the US) I made my way to Shelsley Walsh for the annual visit by the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC). Covid restrictions had been partially lifted meaning spectators could attend – albeit in their own ‘bubble’. Fortunately I bumped into fellow photographer Dennis Wood on arrival and he kindly gave me a lift up the hill in his car saving me a strenuous climb first thing in the morning.
To say that the weather was changeable would be an understatement – it was dry, then wet, then dry, then…. you get the drift. It made for some entertaining photographs though, you always get some nice plumes of spray from the cars that have no wheel arches.
A gallery of 258 photographs from last Sundays British Championship Hillclimb at Shelsley Walsh has just been added. Check it out here
I paid a visit to Shelsley Walsh on Sunday as they hosted a round of the British Hillclimb Championship. Spectators were allowed in once again, albeit in their own ‘bubble’. Shelsley is fortunate in that it is relatively easy for them to create bubbles, with spectators on the right-hand side of the track and competitors and officials on the left. For photographers it does limit the vantage points and so we all end up taking pretty much the same photographs – and it limits how often we can move around because we are on a live track most of the time.
This became more apparent halfway through the morning when I had a telephone call saying that my electronic sign-on wasn’t registered and so I had to ‘immediately’ leave trackside to sign on in the office. At that time I was halfway up the hill at Bottom Ess and had no way of getting down quickly (the footpath was in the other bubble). Fortunately the marshals came to my aid and during the next batch change one of them drove me down in the pick-up. I thought that I was then resigned to spending the rest of the morning at the bottom of the hill but David Lowe (one of the commentators) was heading up the hill at the next opportunity and kindly agreed to take me back up in his Porsche. So I ended up with an impromptu hill climb experience thanks to the kindness of the marshals & officials.
With regards to the competition itself it was a very enjoyable day. It was wet in the morning but dried out considerably from lunchtime onwards and I certainly felt as though my mojo had returned and the photographs reflect it.
