Photographic guide to Circuito De Almeria

The Almeria race circuit is one of many tracks located in southern Spain that caters in part for the dedicated motorcycle track day addict.

Located within the Andalucian desert, Almeria is one of the driest areas in Spain so is an ideal setting for those motorcyclists who crave a head start on the biking season, or a race team that wants to gather data from the 4.3km track with no interruptions by the weather.

Opening in 2001, it has all the facilities you would expect from a modern track that has been built mainly for motorsport testing. The garages are large with three phase euro camping hook ups and standard Spanish power sockets. Around the track are the usual showers, a café and accommodation comprising of en-suite twin rooms with Wi-Fi.

The great weather and facilities attract Northern Europeans who don’t fancy taking their bikes out this time of year in their own countries, what with it being cold and wet. And if you are from the Scandinavian lands your favourite piece of twisty tarmac is probably under a few feet of snow.

So the migration south for Swedes, Dutch, Germans and Brits is a natural choice if you want to lay down some rubber in the winter months. These high end track days are not the same as the many that take place all over the UK in the summer. They generally cater for the well off biker who has a track focused bike and who is willing to splash a little cash and spend a few days away.

It’s not cheap to get your bike and gear a few thousand miles to the sun and rent a circuit that only caters for this type of event. The Almeria track and its sister track Andalucia, which is right next to it, however are booked regularly not only for the track day addict but also for tyre and bike testing.

As these events require a lot of logistical support they are run over a few days to make that long journey south worth it. When you add the cost of air travel, accommodation, food and if you don’t want to use your own bike, the hire of a track focused machine, this adds to the not insignificant cost.

In my opinion these tracks offer something special and at this time of the year with temperatures in the low to mid twenties they are perfect for getting your knee down and enjoying the performance that is hard to extract from your motorcycle on the road. And it's not only the track day addict that appreciate these circuits, many race teams also rent them for testing purposes.

During my visit the McAMS Yamaha British Super Bike team were out on track in full flow ahead of this year's race season. This was not one of the official test days that are held this time of year in Spain, but a Yamaha corporate event for the company which the team were due to be at. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak it had been cancelled like a lot of other events all over Europe and the rest of the world.

Not wanting to waste valuable track time, Jason O'Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie were out collecting data for this year's new Yamaha YZF-R1. I have no idea what sort of times they were putting in, but the bikes looked great in the standard preseason black carbon fibre that all the BSB teams run before the new liveries are presented.

BSB Photographic Post Script

While I was working at the Circuito De Almeria in early March 2020 I didn’t and couldn’t have anticipated the events that were about to unfold due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) world pandemic. I was fully expecting to watch O'Halloran and Mackenzie in a full season of BSB on my return to the UK. How wrong was I. It's now the middle of May and there is no sign that racing is going to start any time soon. There is talk of running MotoGP with no spectators which Dorna Spots could probably do as it has the financial clout.

But could BSB do the same thing? Could it be viable for the UK tracks to open without the revenue from the fans? The Auto Cycle Union which is the national governing body for motorcycle sport released a plan on the 11th May for a phased return to motorsport in conjunction with the UK Governments Step Three plan which is due to start on the 4th July.

This looked like good news until you dug onto the document where it states "No spectators to be allowed to attend competitions to control capacity, including friends or family, unless they qualify as the one person permitted in addition to the rider". However, they go on to say if a vaccine were to be found this would change the situation.

The Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board who issue the permits for BSB to go racing also confirmed that all BSB events will be suspended until at least the 30th June 2020. So there could be spectators at the track if a vaccine were to be developed but more likely, if and it’s a big if racing starts again it will be behind closed doors.

Remember the SARS respiratory virous outbreak of 17 years ago? We don’t have a vaccine for that today so I'm not going to hold my breath until racing starts again. Unless someone gets within two metres of me while I'm out on an essential trip, then I will hold my breath.

Almeria Photographic Post Script

Almeria is a great track for taking photographs but is not spectator friendly. There is no access for the spectator photographer and if you do get in to get the best shots you will need long lenses with teleconverters to get the shots seen above. However, a lot of these were taken with the Nikon 200 - 500 mm f5.6 matched to a Nikon D3X utilising the crop mode so it can be done.

My work colleague for this event was shooting a Nikon D810 with a 400mm f2.8 with 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverters. A D810 is not the first choice for automotive sports photography but for this gig it was spot on. When I'm shooting for motorsports editorial work I will generally take a burst of three images or more but for this gig that is totally unacceptable.

The professional track day photographer needs to have up to 50 great pictures of each rider ready to sell at short notice on the day therefore it would be impossible to take multiple pictures and edit them in time to get that sale - 70 riders, 50 pictures = 3500 images if every one is perfect.

All the shots taken trackside have to go from camera to the rider's sales folder with no editing.

The next time you go to the track have a go at taking one shot of each of the competitors in a race with the goal being zero editing when you get home. Let us know how you get on via our visitors area on the PistonClick Facebook Page.

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