Photographing the British GT Snetterton
Photographing the British GT

Snetterton

Prior to the British GT round in May 2018, my previous visits to Snetterton had been many years previous. I hadn’t seen the new extended layout or the MSV refresh. On returning, it certainly looked good and the staff we encountered on the day were a credit to MSV.

The GTR below is snapped at Brundle where the kerbs are merely an aiming point for the left hand side tyres. It’s also a superb spot – looking over the cars and needing 70mm focal length. More from this location later.
For the 2019 British GT race, the day dawned cooler and hazier than Easter Monday’s sunshine at Oulton Park and pretty much stayed that way all day. For the first one hour race, I headed round the outside of the track to shoot from the Coram / Murrays area. This is much quieter than the usual spectator areas of Riches, Ago’s and Brundle.

The seemingly never-ending right hander at Coram gives a variety of shots - all at track level and with the cars at speed - with a reasonably interesting background -

Head on – with the dust kicked up when the cars run wide. These are all at 500mm focal length.
Panned side on – without too many of MSVs bright red wheelie bins in the background ! Taken at 200mm focal length
The entry to the left hander at Murrays provides a panning shot with circuit identification on the grandstand behind (and don’t Lamborghinis look good with gold wheels !) Taken at 200mm focal length
The exit from Murrays then offers a shot with the crowd behind – insert stock “stop me and buy one” joke here ! Taken at 500mm focal length.
If you don’t normally head round this side of the track, it is well worth a look. You can get all the way to Riches and for the British GT meeting you could drive round and park up here.

For race 2, I headed to the more familiar area around Brundle and Nelson (the latter apparently named after Lord Nelson rather than Nelson Piquet). There are a range of angles available and, as with the rest of Snetterton, nary a fence in sight.
Standing on the inside of Brundle offers a panning shot – the Mustang is at 1/250 and 70mm focal length – but you could go with a slower shutter speed and wider angle and perhaps include the spectators behind. 

I really like the effect of the coloured spokes on the wheels which indicates where the valve is situated.
At the exit of Brundle, there is sometimes drama and sometimes well-ordered driving … 70mm and 200mm focal length
The rear shot into Nelson provides interest with a good background. Taken at 200mm focal length.
The exit from Nelson has an effective backdrop for a panned shot. The #95 Aston Martin is at 1/250 and 200mm focal length. Slowing it down, the #2 Aston Martin is at 1/160 and 130mm while the #69 Huracan is at 1/160 and 100mm. 

There’s always room for a little Dutch Tilt on the #47 Aston Martin.
My final location for race two was The Bombhole – a right hand bend with a dip at the apex to accentuate the lean as cars power through. Focal length here was 200mm and the shutter speed is up to 1/1000.
I am tempted to return to Snetterton for the BSB round over the summer and will definitely be heading there for the winter rally series that PistonClick reported on earlier in 2019.
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