British Super Bikes Donington round 3
British Super Bikes - Round 3
Donington Park
Donington Park hosted round 3 of the British Super Bikes championship over the May bank holiday. Using the National circuit which excludes the Melbourne loop leaves the spectator photographer with a few less options to get those great pictures.
If you look in the PistonClick Circuit Guide area you will see our updated Donington 2019 photographic guide on where to take photographs at this circuit. In that guide the Melbourne loop is recommended as you can, in the right light, get some excellent shots there. As it was not in use, we therefore concentrated on the infield for this report.
Different members of the PistonClick team were at Donington over the weekend at different times. RP Watkinson Photography braved the masses on Sunday to bring you the race pictures.
I went to the Friday practice day to grab some shots of the riders before the masses turned up for the Saturday and Sunday Race days. Starting off at Redgate first thing in the morning we were able to get a few warm up shots before the BSB riders took to the track.
First out were the British Talent Cup followed by the Dickies British Supersport / British GP2 Cup. I shot a few test pictures of the Talent Cup riders but to be honest they are all riding the same white machines and wear the same leathers, so a little dull to look at.
Harry Leigh here on the number 16 machine is currently 20th in the championship so probably doesn't get much in the way of media coverage. Here you go Harry, you're welcome.
Jack Kennedy and Alastair Seeley are vying for the Supersport championship with Kennedy winning the previous four races and Seeley coming in second. It looked the more of the same with Kennedy taking pole position for the sprint race.
However, during the race Kennedy came off at Roberts while sitting in fourth place, Seeley went onto win. Having fractured his right scaphoid (hand) Kennedy didn’t race on the Sunday. Seeley took this race as well to take the lead in the Supersport championship.
The British Super Bikes were out next at 10:30 for one hour of free practice time. Redgate corner is excellent at this time of the morning, the sun is behind you making the bikes pop in the sunshine. A superzoom is required here if you want to fill the frame. I used a Nikon D7200 with a 200-500mm and a standard motorsport 70-200mm on a Nikon 2DX to capture the images.
As the bikes are tipping towards you, you can go for a high shutter of around 320th of a second to freeze the action. This is my default setting when I know I have got the pin sharp pictures I want I will then start to lower the shutter speed.
As Redgate is a large corner there are quite a few angles but you will end up with very similar shots. Moving down the track you are able to get more of a head on shot to mix it up.
Scott Redding was to go on and have a very good weekend winning all three races. The first and third race ran their full lengths but the second was shortened due to rain with Redding just taking the lead from Xavi Fores before the red flags came out.
Redding now leads the championship from Tommy Bridewell who was constant all weekend, taking two thirds and a fourth in the first race. Tommy was joint leader with Tarran MacKenzie coming into this round but is now 6 points behind the series leader Redding as we head off to Brands Hatch for round four.
As my favourite spot for snapping the superbikes is at the Melbourne loop which is part of the Grand Prix circuit, and was not being used for this round, we moved up to Roberts to try our luck shooting through the thick safety wire.
Usually I don’t have any problems here but looking back at my images there were a lot of soft ones. A combination of the wire, the bright sunlight, a smaller than ideal f stop and a bit of heat haze had an effect on the pictures.
As I had a few hours until the Superbikes were back out on track I decided to walk the whole of the inside of the track. There isn't much that interests me as a spectator photographer round this part of the circuit when the motorcycles are on track as you are some distance from them. On Starkey's Straight there is the practice start which leads you up to the bridge at Coppice.
To get a good shot at Coppice as the riders go over the bridge you will need a small step or be quite tall. A reasonable picture can be had here but it is a popular spot so it can be a long walk to look at the back of other photographers heads as there isn't much room.
From Coppice back round to Redgate you are a little far from the action. You can still get the odd nice shot or two but you will have a higher percentage of keepers the closer you are to the action.
The BSB riders came out again at 15:20, the light was not as good as the morning but we still managed to grab a few good pictures. Ryan Vickers didn’t have much luck over the weekend. He was trying to avoid a rider coming out of the pit lane and hit a bump on the track, sending him down the road with a quick trip to hospital to fix a broken collar bone.
It was a strange weekend, with a lot of riders hitting the ground hard. Josh Brooks had a massive high side as did Keith Farmer. That was Farmer's second get off over the weekend and it was a big one. Let's hope he is ok and ready to do battle at the next round at Brands Hatch on the 14-16 June.
The British Super Bikes and support race series is always a great event to watch. The bike liveries are colourful as are the characters riding them, and the racing is extremely close. Unlike a lot of other motorsports the lead can change a number of times in a lap so for a spectator and a photographer this race series ticks all the boxes.
British Super Bike Championship after Round 3
Pos Rider Team Points
1 Scott Redding BE WISER DUCATI 115
2 Tommy Bridewell Oxford Racing Ducati 109
3 Tarran MacKenzie McAMS Yamaha 108
I would like to thank RP Watkinson and Craig Hobbs Photography who were the other shooters for this report.
You can see more of Craig Hobbs Photography by visiting his website.
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