Well May was another big month, a lot of time spent travelling and a lot of time spent either out preparing to, shooting or processing images.
While I've been out shooting Motocross, Speedway and Go Karts, the main event of the month was Round 3 of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) held at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway. It wasn't the first time I had been to Perth but it was my first time at Barbagallo and I have to say that I really like the track, it took some time to get figure the place out and how to get around but that is pretty standard anytime you go to a new track. I am really looking forward to going back next year, with track knowledge it will be much easier to hit the ground running.
The weekend was fantastic, ASBK is very much in a rebuilding phase but the standard of the organisation and the enthusiasm around it you can really feel that road racing in Australia is starting to get back on track and as I am before anything and racing enthusiast, that makes me both excited and happy.
Barbargallo Raceway is like many racetracks, miles from anywhere. I stayed in Perth and was faced with a 45 minute drive each way.
I'm looking forward to a couple of months break now until the next round in September at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, it is a chance to send some gear of to Canon for a bit of an overhaul and to do a few different things photographically, and maybe even try to start blogging an a regular basis. You just never know.
The welcome that the series has received at the last two rounds has been really impressive, this time the Mayor of Wanneroo came out for an hour to do the standard meet and greet but ended up staying for the entire day and along the way went to a pillion ride with Steve Martin.
Now that I have done my sales pitch for Perth, lets look at what I did while I was there...
The new Yamaha R1 is just a beautiful looking bike and the Caterpillar paint scheme on Daniel Falzons' machine just works really well.
The weather for race weekend was near perfect, except for that little rain shower that happened late on Saturday...
One thing I really love is a racetrack that has rise and fall, flat circuits are just not much fun, thankfully Barbagallo has got a lot of different levels.
I always look forward to the chance to shoot Lukey, he's a great mate, great guy and a great stunt rider.
There was a big local turnout with some, like Michelle Marais riding in more than one class.
The local support class had some interesting bikes and age wasn't a limiting factor
Western Australia has a lot of racing families
Thumbs up
There's always one...
Sometimes there more...
Getting some words from the championship leader.
There were some very excited pillions after their rides...
Mike Jones
Alex Phillis