Track Junkies - Port Shepstone, South Africa

in photography •  6 years ago  (edited)

Last weekend, our local racing group hosted the final track day event for the year. It was a great day out with an amazing selection of cars, and top-class food (as usual). Fortunately, we already have 4 dates confirmed for next year, so if you like what you see below - stay tuned, there's plenty more on the way.

Naturally I had my camera in tow, and since I know you'd prefer to look at photos instead of writing, this post is very image heavy... with some small headings underneath each photo giving some more perspective.

Enjoy!

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This Ferrari F12 is a regular at these track outings of ours. It's good to see the owner giving it a proper workout on a regular basis (and trust me, he's anything but gentle on the track).

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Another car that saw plenty of track time on the day came in the form of this very bright and very loud Porsche GT3RS. I lost count of how many hot laps the owner did per session - a true testament to the durability of these more extreme track weapons.

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Speaking of track weapons, feast your eyes on the old king of the Nürburgring. This Porsche GT2RS is easily in the list of one of my favourite cars, and it was a real treat to see it blasting around the circuit.

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You're probably getting tired by now of seeing yet another Porsche on your screen, but bear with me, there's some more appearing soon. Just gaze at this bright red Cayman GT4 for a while before you keep scrolling. Thanks.

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Ok, time to move away from the Germans, and what better car to start off with? This Aston Martin Vantage V8 was packing a mean soundtrack from the rear, and also setting some consistent lap times. Astons aren't very common track cars here, so seeing this one on the circuit was a surprise.

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This 200SX is far from standard, housing a built RB26 engine from a Nissan GTR under the hood. Being RWD, the tail was getting slightly happy in some corners, but the owner managed to hold it down. You can also see a really cool drone racing video of this car (and a few others) from the day here.

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This section of the track is one of the most harrowing, known as the "mineshaft". A fast downhill section leading into a tight right-hander has seen plenty of incidents over the years, clearly none of which bothered the driver of the F12.

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Another corner that has seen some action is this sweeping right-hander that leads back into the main straight - easy work for this Cayman GT4.

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Meanwhile back in the pits, it was time for the GT2RS to cool down. Being able to wander freely around the pits on days like these makes for good opportunities to admire these machines up close.

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Hot on the heels of the Ferrari F12, I have to hand it to the driver of this Aston... he was certainly pretty fearless when it came to the mineshaft.

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The last GT4 in attendance was this menacingly dark version, which is also a regular fixture at these track outings. The owner is also one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and he was more than happy to give me a ride around the track in his car.

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Now here's something - a Shelby Can-Am race car. I've never seen one of these before, but apparently a large number were exported from the United States to South Africa over the years. It retired about halfway throughout the day with gearbox issues.

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When you get that perfect side panning shot!

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Probably the least powerful car in attendance (but still a very fun one) was this Toyota GT86. Even though these cars were down on power compared to the rest of the crowd, their handling and reliability kept them running all day long with decent times.

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Last one from the mineshaft, here's the GT3RS launching down the hill. Also, have you noticed the ocean in the background? This track is certainly one of the most scenic ones in South Africa.

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Throughout the entire day, I was shooting with my regular 24-105 F4 lens - except for one photo. This one. It was a shot I took on a whim, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. Abstract... almost.

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To finish off with, you guessed it - another photo of the GT2RS. Can you tell I like it? One day...

Thanks for looking!

Equipment Setup

CameraCanon 6D
LensCanon 24-105 F4 L Series
AdditionalHoya CPL filter
ProcessingLightroom CC
LocationPort Shepstone, South Africa

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Car race! I liked to see pictures of cars as elegant as the Ferrari, I have never seen one in real life, I imagine they are expensive and that's why they do not look on the streets of my city, I love watching the cars run high speed on, but reading his publication made me experience the same sensation.

Amazing photos! I really like how you managed to capture each one of them in great details even though they're speeding. Great beauties, all of them.
                     
Congratulations for your curie vote ^_^.

Thank you, still chasing that perfect panning shot, but there are some good ones in here :)

Hi garethb,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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Thank you for taking us to this racing with sport cars. The pictures you have made are really good quality, there must be a certain setting that you used because the cars are really great detailed captures, almost everything you can see well. Of course this is a dream of anyone to drive at least once in their life one of those cars, I believe that must be why people still love to visit such places, to have close look and sometimes just a touch their dream car. Visiting such place live, it must be a lot of roar in the air. But that is the feature of sport cars too. Wonderful show and your presentation is absolutely stunning.

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haha! Howdy sir garethb! One day indeed! Those cars aren't cheap. This is great to highlight each car though and describe it, that's very effective and the photos are excellent! I think you did a wonderful job on this post, well done and you will be doing other posts when you go to the other races? Can't get tired of looking at these fabulous machines!