A strange fact struck me yesterday whilst watching the formula 1 GP. In Britain we are motor sport crazy. Seems like a strange revelation to have on Sunday morning but it is the combination of the places I have been over the past couple of days.
On Friday I went with my friend to see where he works, a sort of take a friend to work day, only his place of work is a race track. He is the official photographer for a track day company – a company that organises events where by non racers get the chance to race around a circuit for the day. The circuit in question was Anglesey which is next to the see about 100 miles travel from the nearest major city. In short it is really remote by British standards. So there we were on a Friday morning and the paddock was buzzing. The track day was delayed by an hour so that another event could take place. The following day was a two day clubman event, the lowest level of motor cycle racing, and many of the racers were already there getting an extra day’s practice in by signing onto the track day event. The weather was damp with the occasional rain cloud blowing in off of the ever present Irish sea but still people were going out in each of the sessions.
I have no idea why we as a national are so motorsport mad but we are. In contrast the Korean track is hardly ever used other than for the F1 GP. If that was in this country the track would be in use almost everyday, including Christmas, with different events. I am sure there are other countries who are as dedicated as we are but I wonder if many other countries would make such a remote track as Anglesey on a damp Friday morning so busy.
The photo was an experiment using the panorama stitching software on the NEX 5 – an interesting result.
Simon Marchini
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