BSB Brands Hatch
British Super Bike Round 12
Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit
The final three championship deciding rounds of this years' British Super Bikes were held at Brands Hatch last weekend. If you are a follower of this Championship you will know by now that Scott Redding was crowned champion at the final round.
If you don’t follow BSB Josh Brookes, Redding's team mate won all three races but Redding who is in his rookie year still managed to take the title at the first time of asking by finishing on the podium in all three races.
To take the Championship at his first attempt is quite impressive. Redding jumped from a full on MotoGP bike last year to a less familiar Superbike this year and the even less familiar twisty, narrow, UK tracks.
Most of Scott's recent riding has been on the international scene racing 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP bikes. He still managed to take the title away from guys that have been riding BSB bikes and tracks for years, which takes some doing.
It was no surprise that he was going to do well in this domestic championship but how well has surprised a few independent observers. It shouldn’t have done. His credentials as a racer were there to see. In 2008 and at only 15 years old, he became at the time the youngest ever grand prix race winner at Donington Park.
This race win had been coming. The 2008 season started well with front row starts and fastest laps set, however he was to end the year in 11th place, not bad for his rookie year.
After two seasons in the 125cc class he moved up to Moto2 in 2010 until 2013. In his last year he took second place in the championship, with three race wins and getting on the podium seven times. Lady luck wasn’t with Redding in the last three rounds.
Leading the Championship, a bad crash during qualifying at Philip Island resulted in a fractured wrist taking him out of the race. In the next race in Japan he was hit by a fallen riders bike being taking out of that race as well and effectively putting paid to his Championship bid.
Moving up to the premier motorcycle racing class in 2014 with Honda, he achieved his best result of 12th in the MotoGP Championship. Riding with Ducati and Aprilia didn’t improve his record and he eventually moved to BSB last year, reinventing his career as a Superbike rider.
Winning the British Championship at the first time of asking on the Paul Bird Motorsport Ducati has impressed the Italian manufacturer resulting in a ride in World Superbikes for 2020. He will be aboard the full factory Aruba.it Racing Ducati, teaming up with fellow Brit Chaz Davies and replacing Álvaro Bautista.
Good pub fact, Bautista was Redding's team mate in the Gresini Racing Team for the 2014 MotoGP season.
Bautista was very successful in the opening WSB rounds but faded away and finished up second in the championship. He didn’t seem get on with the Ducati team and has moved on, but the man to beat in WSB is the Northern Irishman, Jonathan Rea MBE. He has taken the track version of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR to an impressive 5 consecutive World titles .
There are now quite a few Brits in WSB, and with Redding having a strong fan base it should make this race series even more popular in the UK. The UK round of WSB will be at Donington Park, dates are yet to be released but it should be in July.
In the National Superstock Championship Richard Cooper had wrapped up the title a few rounds back with an impressive eleven race wins and seven second places on the Build Base Susuzi. But Lee Jackson spoiled the final round party taking the win buy under half a second from Coops.
Lee will be riding along side Danny Buchan on the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR next year in the Superbike class.
Jack Kennedy made it two from two in the Supersport finishing off his season in style before he too moves up to the ride the Santander Salt TAG Yamaha R1 along side Dan Linfoot in the Superbike class.
So let's take a look at where Scott secured his Championship title, Brands Hatch. This Kent track was originally a grass track and is one of the more interesting tracks for the spectator photographer to visit.
Heavily wooded with a lot of elevation changes, it has a few very good locations to capture the action and a lot that aren't good due to the amount of safety fences erected in the last few years.
Brands Hatch is a fair old trip form my usual stamping ground of the Midlands, but worth it for the final BSB round of the year. The Saturday was our preferred day for the following reasons. Being south of the Dartford tunnel there was no way I was going to travel on a Friday round the M25 just to watch some practice.
On Sunday the venue will be rammed, with the restrictions that brings for the photographer. However, I'm sure the atmosphere was amazing.
Saturday gave us a problem free run down the motorways, a wet practice session first thing, three qualifying races and race one of the weekend all for the princely sum of £20.
For the rest of this report I will look at how and where I and the rest of the team captured some of these images in this article. If photography is not your thing you can skip the words and just look at the pictures.
Arriving at the circuit entrance and walking towards the track you are greeted by the back of a few grandstands and for the BSB meeting the trade village. Clark Curve is to your right running into the Brabham straight.
There is not much to hold your interest as a photographer here, but as a spectator you can get some great views. Like 90% of Brands there is a substantial safety fence running down the straight to Paddock Hill bend.
This is where it starts to get interesting. This very fast down hill right hander leads into Druids where you could spend most of the day. This corner has three great photo opportunities.
The first is looking back to Paddock Hill bend where the rider will be coming up hill straight at you and at speed, so if it's dry they can get a little out of shape before they tip the bikes into the corner. There is a photo hole in the fence and if you are lucky you can get some great head on shots and as they tip into the corner.
Following the direction of the riders and shooting back into the bend there are loads of angles to explore but at this time of the year the light can be challenging. The thick tree cover doesn't help, making a lot of dark and light patches on the track. Auto ISO will help here - set it and forget it, using manual for the shutter speed (nothing faster than 320 of a second) and an aperture which needs to be wide open.
This allows you to "see through the fence" f5.6 in my case which is the widest the 200-500mm Nikon lens I was using will go, fortunately it's very sharp even this wide open.
The other spot is on the inside of the bend. This area is accessed by the bridge you passed earlier on your way to the apex of Druids. Standing on the inside of the corner is a popular spot. In fact so popular that I couldn’t find a gap on my brief visit. This is odd as the photographers standing there were shooting into the sun.
However, no one was on the down hill section and I was happy to fire off a few shots here with some pleasing results as the sun was over my left shoulder and my back, perfect.
As always I will make observations about the track and the facilities and how the owners can improve the experience for the fans if they ever read these reports. The main gripe is the red bins and there are loads round Druids.
I paid £20 to get in to watch the racing but I'm sure the bins didn’t. So why have the bins been placed in the best spots next to the track and zip tied to the fence? Two people could stand where the bins have been placed. Move them back and if you must zip tie them, attach them to the trees or the many other bits of race track furniture.
This will allow more people to get closer to the action and not have to stand next to a smelly bin that people are trying to access from behind you.
Moving on from Druids you can head back the way you came on the infield towards Graham Hill bend and follow the infield round, or at the back of Druids take the path to the bridge and turn right to Pilgrims drop. Just before Surtees you will see a Marshall post - here is another great spot.
This shot has been done to death but worth a go if you can get a space. It was a bit packed when I arrived and I only took a few images. RP Watkinson Photography managed to get a good spot and grab a few pictures to give you an idea of what you could get.
To get the best shot here, a step is a good idea to shoot over the low fence. Korie McGreevy was one that I managed to get a decent picture of at this location. My most memorable shot of Korie was when he went sliding past me at Cadwell on his arse.
Korie won the Superstock 600 race and clinched the Championship title at Brands Hatch by six points from Shane Richardson; determination and a good supply of duck tape was essential in the support races.
The rest of Brands is fast straights and sweeping corners with some good views. I have been practicing how to take simple, sharp head on cornering shots for the last few reports that anyone can do with a little practice. I think it's coming along nicely. Well I think it is, so that’s what I concentrated on at Brands Hatch, hanging around the Druids complex mainly.
However, when I did eventually get home I looked at my phone which records my steps taken and I had walked 9.7km, where to I do not know, it's not that big a corner!
This style of cornering photography is simple to capture, but you do need more than one subject in the frame and a ideally a hairpin, which Druids is. When panning you are using a slow shutter speed to blur the background to give the sensation of speed while keeping the subject sharp.
You need to practice panning this and not everyone has the time to do that. This technique allows you to use a fast shutter speed which helps getting a nice sharp picture but still retains movement in the background.
To recap panning, in an ideal panning shot the subject is captured at 90 degrees to you, a slow shutter speed and you track the subject moving your upper body from the hips with your knees slightly bent and pressing gently on the shutter release as you follow the subject.
Using the back focus button in continuous auto focus would also be the smart thing to do while doing all of the above.
This shot at Graham Hill bend where I captured the Sidecar race one winners and British Sidecar Champions Ellis and Richardson in the LCR Honda was taken using that technique.
In the example below I'm getting the other riders to give me that feeling of speed and movement, but most importantly a pin sharp subject and a 3D effect that you don’t get by using a slow shutter speed.
In a corner the rider will be tipping the bike over, therefore you will not get the rider and machine sharp as you are panning in one direction and the rider is moving in another.
However, for a very short while the lead rider and machine will be stable and not moving up or down relative to the track, allowing you to pan and use a slow shutter speed to blur the background. But if you are not getting the results you want select a fast shutter speed around or faster than 320th of a second.
This is usually way too fast a shutter speed to get a pleasing shot. It will nearly freeze the action, keeping the subject very sharp and only just blurring the background. If you have other riders in the shot it should work, but it needs to be taken head on with the spokes of the wheels of the lead vehicle hidden, which you can just see are not in the shot above.
The other riders are still maneouvering, dropping the bikes into the corner, I'm now focusing and panning to the left with the lead bike inducing a little blur in the following riders. Ive left the crop quite wide on the image below so you can compare the track to rider 81 Luke Stapleford.
I've moved my focus point (9 points) up high on to the lead rider's helmet. A wide f-stop helps with the blurring and also helps as they were all taken through wire. A wide f-stop has the added benefit of removing the wire in the photo.
After a while you will see the line the riders take and how they move on a motorcycle, so will be able to predict the panning track you are going to take.
#25 Josh Brookes, Redding's team mate who came second in the championships rides in a very upright smooth manner, not moving his head much therefore making it easy to capture a sharp picture of him. Whereas #45 Redding moves around a lot, hanging off the bike. #28 Bradley Ray leans right out into the air with a lot of head movement.
But its' #83 Danny Buchan who is the most stable, getting it all down on the deck. I don’t think a rider can get much lower.
A little practice and you should be able to master this technique. It won't work in fast sweeping corners; you will need to go back to a slow shutter speed for that. But you should get you some great pictures for your portfolio at the hairpin at your local track.
On a different note sometimes you need to be a bit lucky, looking in the right direction and have the skills to capture the moment. Walking up to Pilgrim "look at the moon" "wow its so clear today, would be great if a plane went past right now" RP Watkinson Photography Nikon D4, 200-500mm.
If you have any observations on this report head over to the PistonClick Facebook page and leave a comment, or better still come to the track with us and join in with one of our reports. I would like to thank Keith Adcock and RP Watkinson Photography for the great images captured at Brands Hatch and for helping out with this report.
I will close this year's British Super Bike Championship with the Champion Scott Redding who took the Italian Ducati Panigale V4 R to victory with a suitable Latin quote, Veni, vidi, vici.
Follow us on Social Media: