This series of photographs were taken between 2006 and 2009 whilst attending various touring car and open wheeled racing events in Brands Hatch, Snetterton and even Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

Digital photography with a DSLR was very new to me at this time. I had bought my Nikon D50 just six months before the first event and honestly, my images in this and the second event were rubbish. Crucially, however, this medium afforded the flexibility to experiment with shutter speeds, apertures and techniques such as panning without emptying my bank account in the same way using my Nikon F65 film camera would have done.

I often made mistakes. I often forgot to check my camera settings at the beginning of the day, shooting with high ISOs resulting in noisy shots. I didn't understand crop factors so, in using my F65's kit 70-300mm lens, I was always shooting much tighter than I realised. My post processing techniques and software a streets ahead of where they were in 2006.

There were limitations to being just a spectator at motor racing events. Notwithstanding the different relationship a pro may have with the tools of the trade allows them to be less forgiving with their equipment. Weather sealing and insurance certainly would have meant I would have been more likely to shoot in periods of very bad whether rather than protecting my purchase as a significant chunk of disposal (and not so disposal) income. But also are the inconveniences caused by fences and other spectators which result in compositional or technical considerations.

Finally, as a spectator, I don't have the rights to use these images commercially, but I can share them here as a record of many weekends away in the rain, cold or scorching sunshine.