I do wonder sometimes if human beings are really wired to deal with the modern convenience of international airline travel. The past 2 weeks has seen me drop in and out of London, Marseille, Vancouver and Seattle as easy as going round to the shops. And when I look back on this whirlwind, transcontinental tour, the whole trip seems like one big impossible dream.
However there is photographic evidence to show otherwise. I was indeed shooting at Paul Ricard Circuit two weeks ago, and immediately followed this with the trek to Evergreen Speedway last weekend.
So as I got to photograph and experience at these two events back to
back, I thought it would make an interesting Speedhunting article to
cross compare these rather different motorsports disciplines:
Professional Drifting and International GT Racing.
I’m a big fan of both Formula D and the FIA GT1/GT3 series, and will attempt here to articulate what I like about both arenas.
Let’s start with the GTs.
The FIA GT1 and GT3 series are typical of European motorsports culture at its best. These are some of most desirable, production based GTs on the planet.
But exclusivity also breeds desire.
And its the access to these fields of racing supercars that’s the true appeal of the two FIA GT championships. You can’t help but get excited to see all these amazing cars, at once, in the flesh.
Yes, some of the cars on the grid are big budget builds, but they’re still fundamentally the same models that you see at meets, grass roots events and around town.
So is one better than the other?
For me no, but I tend to have a wider range of automotive tastes that most people.
In terms of cars, I’d say they are different, with one not really outweighing the other.
Other people might argue that high end exotics are for rich people… for snobbish playboys. The real deal are the machines which represent true drift culture.
Anyway I digress… Let’s look at the locations where I shot these photographs.
First up, we have Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France.This is truly an astounding motorsports facility.
It’s more like a high end country club than a race track. The entire grounds are manicured, landscaped gardens.
Check out the entrance lobby to the pit building. In all my travels I’ve never seen a racing facility on this level.
The walls are decorated by several of these 1 story tall paintings. They depict the graphical styles of the Paul Ricard circuit. Pretty cool.
There is no more an exclusive and facinating place to be than on the GT1 pre-grid.
This certainly is NOT open to the public. But if you are one of the lucky few with the correct pass, then the excitement is all the greater.
And I suppose this shot sums up the difference between these two very different worlds: one is inclusive, the other exclusive. One represents the many, the other, the few…
But Is one better than the other?
I’ll be back soon with part two to explore this question further.
:Rod Chong