Sorry guys for the tardiness of my May editorial. I’ve been traveling non-stop all week and am now writing this story from the comfort of Nelson, New Zealand where I’m on a self-imposed retreat for the next few weeks.
The launch of the new Team NFS venture, my new responsibilities on the Need for Speed gaming franchise and the continued evolution of Speedhunters means that I’ve been fighting critical burn-out for the past two months. So I’m taking some time to rest and recharge in beautiful New Zealand.
But before we look at what’s upcoming this May together, I want to recap my own observations from Silverstone last weekend.
Silverstone of course, was the occasion of round two of the newly christened GT1 World Championship.
Here’s Vaughn Gittin JR and I walking down the pit lane. Vaughn was a guest of Team NFS at Silverstone as a bit of a racing culture exchange program. We decided it would be cool for him to see Patrick Soderlund’s Team NFS BMW in action and later in the year we’ll return the favour with Patrick coming to the US to see some drifting.
Returning to the pit lane. JR and I had a look at the GT3 Mustang. JR is going to present his own driver blog about the Silverstone trip next week so I’ll let him show you more details about this crazy car himself.
A shot of Patrick, who was in good spirits and feeling pretty relaxed.
For the first GT3 practice session we went down to the top of the Hanger straight to see the cars at speed.
One car that immediately caught my eye was the Alpina B6 GT3.
These are big, masculine cars; loud and obnoxious.
You gotta love any machine which is as brash and ballsy as these supercharged coupes.
Our little Team NFS car on the other hand was the smallest machine on track.
The GT3 cars aren’t as fearsome or aggressive as the GT1 machines, but are pretty fun to watch none-the-less.
… You literally have all the top GT marques on on the track. Here we have an Aston Martin DBRS9 tracked by one of the Audi R8s.
It’s a pity there is no real proper GT3 Championship in North America, as these amazing machines really should be hitting tracks all across the continent.
We headed back to the media center and met up with Patrick Soderlund. He’s looking at my photos of the Team NFS BMW from the day before. In looking at his face, it’s hard to know if he likes what he sees!
Fast forward to the next day and we see the second Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 being pushed to the grid.
Wow…
Will and Linhbergh having a cloud appreciation moment.
We then got set up trackside for the first GT3 race. We decided to shoot from the top of Chapel Curve.
I sometimes wonder if the Speedhunters crew have perhaps just too much fun shooting cars… The Silverstone corner marshals must have been wondering who these jokers were…
Having seen the series last year at Adria in Italy I was expecting a lot of bad tempered racing, but for some reason the field was pretty polite.
Time to practice some John Brooks style slow shutter techniques.
Hmmm…. Too Abstract?
Here’s the other extreme of camera technique: fast shutters which freeze the action. Look closely and you’ll see the air envelope rippling off the surface of the car.
A “negative space” style photograph. I took this snap in the new Arena Complex which offers photographers amazing open “barrier free” access to the track. There is literally nothing between you and the cars in some spots! It’s all perfectly safe, and makes for some great shots.
Poor Vaughn was trying to conduct his US business concerns while we were track side. Not sure if the person on the other side of the phone could hear him!
Some more shots of the Alpina.
Nasty.
This Gallardo was fast, but somehow wasn’t doing much for me…
The new GT3R on the other hand was pretty impressive. I think the sound of the N/A engine has a lot to do with it.
There was only one Ferrari on hand in Silverstone. You can see the disturbed air coming off the rear wing in this shot.
This R8 is from the United Autosports team. The livery gives an clue as to the nationality of the team… yep.. American.
We were shouting “MERICA!!!” at the cars each time they went past which was getting some sideways glances from the other photographers… Oops… And I’m a Canadian no less, I should know better… oh well.
Back soon with more observations from Silverstone.
:R