A Mini Adventure

Last weekend I was at Oxton Circuit for the Autograss racing, as you may recall. This presented me with the opportunity to try out the video facility on my new camera – I hoped for good results, as the video function was the prime reason for purchasing it in the first place. And the results are in.

So far I’ve made and uploaded a pair of films based on the day’s events. A Mini Adventure is a very simple single take of Debbie’s debut in Mini L226, and basically just follows her progress around the track. I’m impressed with the video quality, although it loses a bit of clarity after conversion from MOV (Quicktime) to AVI for editing purposes. It’s annoying that Quicktime can only be played back directly on a computer, but to edit a clip or do anything remotely interesting requires a conversion.

With A Mini Adventure I simply tidied the video up, added titles and a great track from DanoSongs, who rather thoughtfully has composed music specifically for the purpose of being used in such projects. It’s quite a nice little movie, and provided a good opportunity to try out the excellent zoom lens on the TZ6.

The second film, Go WEST! takes the thrills and spills from a selection of heats, edited to give the appearance of a continuous race. DanoSongs once again provided a cracking, adrenaline-pumping soundtrack and gives the film a Top Gear style feel – I think it’s one of the best tracks I’ve ever used in a film, in terms of matching the content with the music. There were plenty of highlights to choose from, and I think that the camera did an amazing job with the rushed, close up action and constant refocusing on fast moving objects.

The camera has a choice of formats to choose from, so I went with widescreen at 848 x 480 for a panoramic viewpoint that definitely works well with the subject in this case.

I can say that so far I’m definitely very happy with this camera, and am now a Panasonic devotee. I’m looking forward to capturing some different subjects, and to this end I’m booked as a family wedding photographer in a couple of weeks time – as well as having to make a speech. So, no pressure there, then. Let’s hope the bride doesn’t scoot back down the aisle as quickly as these cars did!

Nova Again

Ever wondered what happened to all those Vauxhall Corsas, Novas, Escorts and most of all, Minis, that used to populate our streets years ago? If you’d assumed that many were put out to grass you’d be partly correct, as on Sunday I was introduced to the sport of Autograss Motorsport, commonly known to the fraternity who follow it as Grasstracking.

When the boyracers have killed them, Grasstrackers show them how its done!

I work in a car-dominated job, and most of the lads are involved in cars in their spare time – everything from restoring classics up to rallying. Two of them compete in Grasstracking, and they suggested that as a new season was just starting, then why not pop along for the day to see what was involved? Although I have little interest in cars themselves, I’m always up to try something new and this sounded quite interesting. It would certainly be a change of pace from my duties on the Nene Valley Railway, and if nothing else, at least I’d be able to understand some of the canteen chat, much of which has always been a foreign language up till now.

Into the first bend - always the high point of each race.

Thus it was that I arrived at Oxton Grasstrack in Nottinghamshire on Sunday morning for my first visit to some real live Motorsport. Unlike racing such as Formula One, Grasstracking is extremely informal. As the name suggests, the course is an oval dirt track in a field. That’s pretty much it, really. Looking at the track, I’d say it was about the same size of my old school running track of 1500 metres, so no matter where you stood, you saw all of the action which meant that photography would be feasible – great news, because I wanted to give my new Panasonic a good work out. Spectators can get to within about 30 feet of the track behind a safety barrier – take it from me you don’t want to be any closer because dust, gravel and debris come flying over the barrier at regular intervals – and some of the cars come too. That makes you spill your coffee.

Bloody satnav's playing up.

There are numerous events all day, as cars compete in various classes. Most of the technical detail was over my head as a newbie, so for the benefit of other Grasstrack virgins, there are races for small cars, bigger cars, souped up cars and dune buggies. These are further broken down into sub-groups, but I’ll leave that for now – to all intents and purposes from a spectator’s point of view, this is banger racing. I was going for the visual spectacle and Oxton certainly didn’t disappoint. Every race, regardless of class, is only 5 laps (if there isn’t a crash that stops things prematurely), and the turnaround between races is usually mere minutes, so there’s no hanging around waiting for something to happen. Something that cheers up an impatient grumpy old sod immeasurably, I have to say.

A Nissan Micra, and no sign of a Werthers Original.

The camera performed extremely well, with reflexes that were vastly superior to that of the photographer. I got some lovely shots of dust and marshals in hi-viz jackets, but after some practise I began getting some cracking close up action shots. I was delighted with the video quality as well, and will work on editing a YouTube film during the week ahead.

I'm sure there was a car there when I pressed the shutter, mate.

It was an enjoyable day, with the added bonus of being able to support our own driver in his tough as boots old Escort:

You might mess with Stan, but only the once ...

– and a big congratulations to our Debbie, racing for the very first time in her Mini. Despite never having set foot – or wheels – on a circuit before, she successfully completed every race without mishap or sliding off the track, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’ll be keeping track of her progress throughout the season, and plan to visit a few more of these events during the year. They’re easy enough to find – just follow the dust cloud!

Debbie romps home in her first ever race. You done great, girl!

Keep an eye open for future events.