Honda CBR1000Sp2 Round 4 Australian Superbikes Darwin
Race number 1 and race number 67 adorn the two Honda CBR1000SP2 s debut at Hidden Valley for round 4 of the Australian Superbike (ASBK) championship. Rider Troy Herfoss #1 and Bryan Staring #67 must be anxious to try out the new machines for the Honda Crankt Protein Team. Meanwhile, I was disappointed that I could not attend Friday practice or Saturday qualifying. Needless to say, on Sunday, I was keen to get track-side with my camera. My wife came along with her camera too and we used the morning warm up sessions to dial in our settings. There was some cloud that kept drifting across the sun making it interesting having to constantly adjust exposure settings.
Lucky to photograph the ASBK championship in Darwin
Darwin is a great place to live. The dry season weather is the best and sporting events like this come to our fabulous track nestled in the Hidden Valley Motorsport complex. There is so much going on in the dry season, it is full on every weekend. As we drove into the race track we passed quads racing and the go karts were also going hard. But we came to see the motorcycle spectacle.
Capturing this fast sport is a challenge. It takes a while to settle into the relaxed mode that enables calm camera panning whilst watching for the right background or a glint of sunlight reflecting off the fairing. I like the inside of the corner with the sun fully side on. There are only a few choice spots around the Valley depending on the time of day. I know we are in a good spot when we are joined by many other lens wielding fans. Yes Darwin is a secret gem indeed.
Honda CBR1000SP2 looked good on the track
Supporting Classes racing on Sunday include Moto3/125GP, Motul Supersport, Supersport 300 and Motorsports NT club challenge. All of these races provided spectators some great racing. There were a few spills that added to the crowd tension but all in all it was good clean close racing. The Superbikes championship provided some incidents which saw a rider lose points in race 1. However, the spectacle of these riders handling these power horses is phenomenal. When you look at the photographs and see the way the tyres work out, how the riders lay those machines over, rubbing knees on the kerbing, you appreciate the sport.
At Hidden Valley you can get very close to the track at turns 7 & 8, the exit of this fast corner has the occasional wobble under full noise. Not much beats that for a show. Although, Trying to get a good photo there is tricky. My favourite image is of Bryan Staring pushing that new Honda CBR1000SP2 through that very corner. (Featured Image and also posted in my Motorsport Gallery). The new Honda s looked to be handling pretty good and placings in both of the days racing told the story. Check out the ASBK site for the Round 4 summary. ASBK.com.au Round 4
Photography of high speed sport.
To capture an action image that is sharp but shows the speed motion is the goal. For these bikes I held shutter speeds around 1/350th to 1/500th of a second. I like to shoot with the aperture set around 7.1 as this helps get a sharp image with a slightly larger depth of field. Also, an aperture of 7.1 with a 400 mm focal length lens will still provide a blurred background to assist with the subject being the standout focal point. I ended up adjusting the ISO to compensate for the sun ducking in and out behind clouds. I am getting quite quick at doing this by feel. This avoids taking the eye away from the viewfinder and risking missing something. These races are relatively short and every capture has to count. It does take a while to get your eye in but when you do settle into the mood there can be some fabulous images captured.
I did miss the crash in SBK race 1 at turn 5. I just caught a glimpse of sparks in my viewfinder, just out of shot. Furthermore, when I looked up to see what was going on the bikes were hidden in the dust as they bundled across the grassy infield. I did photograph the dust though, Lord knows why. We had a fun day and the challenge I set my wife to capture some blurred backgrounds with slow shutter speeds kept her busy and rendered some good shots.
