Hi all,

This weekend a few friends and I took our cars and headed to Bathurst to get away from the city. Some of you may have heard of Bathurst before, it is the location of Australia's most famous racetrack, where all kinds of endurance races are held for touring cars to GT racing. The track is know for it's extreme elevation and reputation for being unforgiving. When races are not being held, it's just a public road that anyone can drive on.

I thought it would be a good opportunity for some photos, so I welded up a camera rig that bolted into the back of my Mazda3 (yes, I am still looking for the right Jag for me). It just bolts into the spare tire, and has some straps in case the spare tire bracket broke to stop the whole thing falling out of the car. The camera is on a Manfrotto mount that I have modified for the rig, and I use a tether that is rated to 800kg in case the camera were to fall off the mount. The boot is held in place using a turn-buckle style extension that I welded up. A rubber door-stop takes most of the vibration out of the rig! The little red flag is to indicate the overhand of the rig past the extremity of the vehicle. I also took along my suction mounts for the cameras.

I was shooting using my Canon 40D with the Sigma 10-20mm, remotely controlling the camera with a V5 Cactus wireless trigger set. I decided to use my 40D over my 1D because it was lighter (less weight bouncing on the arm which could induce more vibration), and in the event of a disaster, a 40D is fairly worthless compared to the 1D.

My friends were driving a green Ford XR8 ute (heavily modified, pulling 300rwkw - I really enjoyed driving this around the circuit), a Ford Fairlane (Ford Australia's interpretation of a luxury car), and a Ford Mondeo TDCI.

Here are a few photos from the outside taken by others (sorry about the poor quality). The camera on the side glass is just for some HD video footage.











And here are a small sample of results. I haven't finished editing them all yet (only got home late yesterday) but it gives you an idea:















I also did some shots with my ever-reliable suction mount on the roof:



I learned a few things on the shoot. First of all, I needed a tinted filter to reduce the light coming in, so I could slow the shots down more. This would give more background and wheel blur. Even on ISO100, the sky was so bright and would not allow much slower shots without being completely washed out.

Also, the little Mazda is not an ideal camera car, it's too stiffly sprung and light. An XJ8, on the other hand.... maybe for next time!

Anyhow, it was just for a bit of fun. After we spent a few hours at the track, we kicked back for some beers and just enjoyed catching up.

Cheers.

 

I've always wanted to visit that 'Track'.

Nice work.

 

Some cool shots thanks for sharing..........looks like a fun day out

 

Thanks guys, it was a heap of fun.

 

Good pics, but I agree you could do with an extra 1/10s on your shutter speeds. Still, rig looks nice and stable, and selecting a light camera was a good idea.