At The Races - CMRC Round 2

A day at Anglesey Circuit - Trac Môn

Back in April I seen a post on Facebook about a Classic Motorbike Race, I thought that would be good to watch and then totally forgot about it. Fast forward a few weeks later and the girlfriend came and said to me ‘My Dad is asking if you want to watch some motorbike racing at Anglesey Circuit’, I don’t think she had finished the sentence and I had already said ‘Yes’.

The circuit has to be one of the best in terms of location, driving down to it on almost single lane roads with open fields as far as the eye can see. Then the other half of the track is surrounded by the Irish Sea. Walking around the track you can take on the beautiful views across the Irish Sea towards Snowdonia or to the west towards Holy Island and beyond to Ireland. You can also get a glimpse of St Cwyfan’s Church, the church in the Sea which is a popular photographers destination.

CMRC Classic Racing Motorcycle Club

We got there at 09:00 and despite the small drive there, the sun decided to stay where we came from. Hidden behind cloud the temperature soon dropped down. I had my 8 year old son with me who wanted to wear his football kit, not the best time to wear shorts and T-shirt. After arriving we took a walk along side the track, as the first lot of bikes came out for their practice lap.

The practise was well under way, but that sunshine stayed away. Less than half an hour in I think I asked my son about 25 times ‘are you cold do you want to go back to the car to get changed?’ each time he replied with ‘No’ but his face said something else. Not only was I asking him this his Grandad asked him too. After the first lot of practice came to an end my son caved in and asked if he could get changed

Walking back to the car I stopped to put my camera in my bag, 20 seconds after putting it away we had a bike crash right in front of us. Thankfully the driver was ok. He picked himself and dusted himself down.
The above set of photos was all from the first practise.

After my son got changed we took a walk in the opposite direction but not too far. As the next lot of bikes came out so did the sun, but as quick as the bikes flew pass so did the clouds blocking that much needed heat from the sun.

We were now stood just off the car park, looking over a straight which led into a bend. Opposite was another straight taking them away from the bend. A perfect position for me to capture them.

Coming off a bend and down another straight.

As we headed towards dinner time, the sun was still a hit and miss. My hands started to feel the cold as the clouds built up, still though them gaps in the clouds made a huge difference. It was like going from one climate to the other when that sun hit you.

Banking to the right ready for the straight

Dinner time soon came and all the riders went in for a break, we got back into the car for our dinner. I was pleased to get in it just to warm up. After 25 minutes or so the bikes came back out and I left the warm car to sit on a bank, just in front of the car. Thankfully it started to warm up as the bikes got ready for their first race of the day after they have been practising all morning.

You could really tell the difference in the engine sizes in the different classes, the speed on them do a lap was noticeable, I was still sat on the bank and was soon joined by my son and the in-law. The races continued and I continued shooting away, checking the settings often due to the constant change in light. One minute it was beautiful and sunny the next it was cold and cloudy. I tired a few panning shots but didn’t quite pull them off. There was plenty of time remaining for me to continue practising.

As one race finished another started with-in minutes. A pleasant surprise was seeing the Motorcycle Sidecars racing, wasn’t too many of them in the race but still it was great to watch them. The Sidecar passenger using their body weight to help the Motorcycle get around the turn more quickly by distributing their weight across the sidecar and bike. Quite remarkable to see when the bike comes screaming down the straight.

One of them did start slowing down and soon fell behind the rest of the pack. Before coming to a complete stop on the side of the track. They soon cleared the track ready for the next set of racing.

As the next race got underway that Northerly wind made its presence known again. I retreated to the car with the other 2 and watched the next race from the car.

I briefly got out of the car to take some more images as the bikes flew past.

As we approached mid-afternoon we decided we would watch one more race before heading home. Again we watched most of this race from the car as many others did, and I did briefly pop out to take my final few shots of the day,

I was happy to be heading home to check the photos I had taken, hoping I haven’t messed up with my settings and ended up with a load of blurry images.

All the images above are in a lower quality for saving on website server space. Other than being cropped and having minor adjustments to colour then the photos are as they were taken. They are also just snapshots of the photos, with plenty of space around the rider in the original photos.

I did play with one photo and edit it a little with motion blur, you can see this photo here.,

Edited image adding motion blur, this is the only image I edited and added anything too.

“My Favourite Photo Of The Day”

No 42 banking around the bend

Hope you enjoyed my first picture blog on my new site.

Some of these will be available in the shop in the near future as Phone, Tablet or Computer background.

Until next time take care.