Photographing the British Motorcycle Racing Club ‘Bemsee’ at Donington Park

Report and images by Kaelan from ksg_racing_photography

13 June 2024

Bemsee is the world’s oldest motorcycle racing club and is also one of the largest in the Uk. In the club there are 11 different race categories ranging from 250cc with the Yamaha Past Masters, all the way up to 1000cc with the MRO Powerbikes. Over the course of the weekend there were 44 races and each of those consisted of 7-10 laps, 7 on the Saturday and 10 on the Sunday. However, that is often subject to change due to delays with incidents. 

I’ve been in and around the Bemsee paddock for a few years now and have made more and more connections with riders and teams through my photos, to the point where I have made some close friends who I shoot for at most if not every round of the championship. I’d completed some background research on the circuit before the event to find the best locations for photos, as well as a planner for the weekend.

In a series such as Bemsee you need to be very aware of the timetable, as for me I had 14 riders to cover across several classes and a very small window to move locations, the timetable is packed with 44 races so when one finishes the next group are sent out, and there were only two classes I wasn’t covering, so therefore I had little time to change locations. 

Friday

I arrived at Donington on Friday morning for the test day and began the weekend shooting in the garages, taking portraits of our team GreenPlant Racing in the Thunderbike Ultra, a 1000cc category and my good friend Joe White in Thunderbike Sport, a 600cc category. 

At the last round Snetterton, the few portraits I did there seemed to get a lot of positive feedback and so therefore I wanted to make the most of the opportunity this time at Donington. Of which I’ve been very pleased with the results. Capturing the pre-practice preparations, starting up the bikes and putting helmets and gloves on etc. I spent the first hour or so doing this in between sessions. 

The rest of the Friday was fairly simple, visiting two more locations to cover all of the riders I needed to and to capture a variety between photos. The Roberts Chicane was first, shooting the rear of the motorbikes through the corners and accelerating out onto the main straight.

My main aims for these photos were that I rotated the camera slightly to the left to capture the lean angle as the bikes exited the chicane, and also capture the flags in the background, which added a nice contrast to the images.

The final location on Friday was Redgate, turn 1 on the inside of the corner capturing the last 8 sessions of the day. For this area I was doing panning shots at around 1/80 of a second, panning from the entry of Redgate and all the way down towards Crainers. Which looked particularly interesting with the big Heineken sign in the background. As well as this I tried a few experimental shots, trying to capture framing through the fence on the exit of Redgate. 

Saturday

Saturday begins with 11, 10 minute qualifying sessions, one after another in quick succession. Normally I use this time to stand in one spot and shoot as many riders as possible, just for any riders I'm not covering, if they ask for some photos I’ll have something for them, here I stood on the outside exit of Redgate, as they head down towards Crainers. 

When the racing began I stood on the outside of the Old Hairpin, a really great place to watch the bikes come down the hill and accelerate up towards Starkey’s Bridge. I’d never watched from this location previously in my last visit the year before, an overtaking hotspot with plenty of action. There were some great battles especially in the Thunderbike Ultra and Minitwin classes. 

This spot has an open fence with a gate that perfectly aligns with the apex of Old Hairpin which I was using to take photographs. It is also a great spot for rear wheel sliding, especially on the bigger classes such as the Powerbikes. After shooting this spot for the morning sessions during the lunch break I moved towards Starkey’s Bridge, a great spot to watch where the riders are changing direction going up towards Mcleans.

Here there was some great racing especially in the Team Green Ninja series, of riders aged 13-17 in the Junior category. Not just in one race but all throughout the weekend there were groups of six or seven riders all fighting for the win which was great to watch and was definitely some of the best racing all weekend, and saw RD Racing take 3 wins with their riders Luca and Zack.

At Starkey’s I was shooting the race battles but also tried some different shots using composition of the curb on the outside to shoot the rear of the bikes up the hill with added detail of tyre marks, these photos were some of my favourites from 

the weekend. 

The final part of the day I spent at Mcleans, a great spot for photos at Donington both for still and panning shots, there were initially 6 races I had to cover but two had to be carried over to the Sunday due to previous delays. But, in the final 4 on Saturday, I took a variety of shots, panning and stills.

The only downside to shooting this area towards the end of the day, the sun was directly on the circuit so it made it very hard to find the right settings and I had to keep changing them often to work around the lighting. 

Sunday

The final day was the most simple out of the weekend, the weather was sunny all day and it was perfect for photos. I spent the first 11 races on the inside of Mcleans shooting the corner and the run up towards Coppice, after 6 or so races I moved to the outside of Coppice to see what I could produce through the fence as a bit of experimentation, there was also an open gap which I used to capture the lean angle through the corner and the exit down the back straight. 

For the final spots of the event, I stood under the trees looking towards the Grandstand at Redgate and down towards the inside of Crainers. Attempting some wide panning at 1/50 of a second, the best shots came from the MRO Powerbikes, with riders such as Josh Wainwright fully leaned through the corners, of which he went on to take 4 wins from 4 in that race.

I stayed at Redgate for 4 races before making my way to the main straight to shoot from the grandstand for the last two races, where there was another great race from the Team Green Juniors and the MRO Minitwins to round off the weekend. 

After walking 22 miles, a very successful weekend of shooting and some great racing there were plenty of photos to begin editing and sending off to riders. 

The next round for Bemsee will be at Cadwell Park on the 5-7th of July 2024.