This has led to us having weekends where the up and coming young racers are battling each other to prove their worth and make it to the top. At the other end of the spectrum the old and bold racers are taking the vehicles that they, or even their grandfathers, took out on the track for us all to see once again.

So picking out an event to cover can be quite difficult. For me there has to be a hook, something that catches my eye as a spectator photographer. I look a few different things when attending an event - is it going to give me that wow picture, is the venue photographer friendly and most importantly am I going to be entertained?

This last weekend's racing at Cadwell had all of those boxes ticked. The British Motorcycle Racing Club (BMCRC known as Bemsee) was holding two days of motorcycle racing around my favourite track.

When I looked at the Cadwell website the number of races they were planning to run appeared very optimistic considering the weather conditions - wet and windy. Qualifying, with 18 races on the Saturday and 19 on the Sunday, that’s packing them in! 

As a spectator photographer that was just what I was looking for, short races (7 - 9 laps) and a huge variety. Racing over the weekend would be 9 different competitive races classes ranging from 1000cc sports bike to 250 MZs. 

But the hook for me was the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters. I have a soft spot for these smoky 1980s two stroke machines in all their guises. You can go to any bike meeting in the UK on the latest super flash sports bike and you will be upstaged if someone turns up on a mint 350 YPVS. 

Here we see Doug Edmonson on bike 13 taking on Hall bends. To get this type of shot you need to be down at an 80th of a second and standing well back from the track. 

As a gangly youth with the rest of my friends I could pretend I was Kenny Roberts on my Powervalve. It was just the same as his 500cc two stroke monster with a few less cylinders wasn’t it ? Well in my mind it was as I bounced it off its rev limiter, laying a haze of blue two stroke fumes round the local roads, great times.

If you are a regular visitor to the site you will know we are not a race meeting reporting service. There are loads of better sites out there if that is what you are after. We are photography based platform and take our viewpoint from the spectator photographer's perspective. 

As a by-product of going to the track you are going to capture the racers in all their glory and I know they come here to check out the pictures. So when we can we will publish results to complement the pictures.

However, on this occasion there were loads of classes and classes within classes, too many to report on in one article and you have only come here to read about my misspent youth and get some ideas on how to take a top quality snaps, right? So we will look at a few of the classes and scattergun a few pics of the racers throughout the article.

If you feel we have missed you out of this meeting report give us a shout, you never know until you ask. We might just come along to the next meeting and do a feature on you. That would keep your sponsors happy.

So, the rider that stood out for me was Jamie Kelman riding a Triumph in the, deep breath, Team Respro MRO 600 including the MSS Performance MRO Clubman 600 Class. It was obvious from track side that Jamie was a fast rider on a great looking fast machine and we caught up with him for a quote. 

"It's been an amazing weekend at Cadwell Park. Four 1st places from four races. Started on pole position in each race. Really pleased with the wet set up on the bike but a little work to do on the dry settings. Thanks to everyone that has helped me and thanks to all my sponsors. Without you I couldn't do it. I have extended my lead in the championship and look forward to the next round at Donington Park in a few weeks."

Ben Watton, also on a Triumph, was third on Sunday's Race 12 seen here heading up to Charlies. The picture was taken from across the track down towards the bridge near Mansfield with a Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED.

The Suzuki SV650 is the weapon of choice in the MRO Minitwins & BMCRC Rookie Minitwins. On this twin cylinder Suzuki machine it was 26 Glynn Davies that was predominant in this class over the weekend. He took the win on Saturday from pole with 78 Keith Povah coming in second. Povah got a great start briefly leading for the first lap then Davies got him on lap two to lead from the front for the next 5 laps. 

In the Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes inc Racebuykz.com MRO Clubman 1000 class it was number 72 Michael O'Brien who took the win in the shortened 5 lap race on the Sunday.

While I'm editing my pictures looking for that interesting shot I check out the riders' helmet and leathers. Why you might ask? In club racing a few of the stars of motorsport turn up on track so it's always worth reviewing your pictures. Not a star of racing but the Motorcycle News journalist Dan Sutherland was taking part in the 250 MZ races, I presume for a future article in MCN.

The MZ Class is one of the cheapest ways to go racing. The bikes are not expensive and you are allowed to run any tyre to keep the costs down. The MZ club, BMZRC also run a try before you buy experience. 

Running along side the MZ is the BMCRC Blue Haze 2-Stroke GP series. Mark Ess on bike 355 won the GP class with 55 Paul Toland winning the GPF class. Two different races series over a short 5 laps, numerous classes within classes. I did say it was a complicated race meeting didn’t I?

Thanks to Graeme Taylor Images for the great pictures and helping out on this project. Check out more of his work in the Photographers section and his website.