Better known for it’s field sports, the world re-knowned Wembley Stadium played host to the fourth and penultimate round of the 2010 JDM Allstars series. The entry list was vastly improved upon when compared to previous rounds with only the exceptions of Phil Morrisson and Martin Ffrench being the big absentees. The event was a two day affair, but due to other commitments I could only make the final day of the event. As to be expected from the JDM Allstars crew, the event went without a hitch with only the weather interrupting proceedings for a few minutes during the day. The full gallery can be found after the jump …

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

A slightly faster update this time ! This was my first ever trip to Santa Pod, a venue I’ve been wanting to visit for quite some time. The event was Rotorstock, a gathering of the UK’s finest rotary powered Mazdas. The event was also host to the fourth round of the 2010 HKS Drag Series. Shooting drag racing for the very first time was an eye opener. Coming from the never pointing in the right direction style of drifting, shooting cars traveling in straight lines was a welcome challenge. When I say that, I don’t mean it in a derogatory way, I’ve genuinely come to appreciate the challenge of creating a perfect run over a quarter mile. It ain’t as easy as it looks. More after the jump …

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

It’s been a busy few weeks so I’m only getting around to posting these images from Ford Fair now. The event took place at Silverstone and was a massive hit. With an estimated 3,500 exhibitor cars on show, I didn’t even see half of them during the course of the day such was the quality on show. There wasn’t a section you could walk past, every car promised some sort of detail that could be appreciated. The rest of the images are after the jump.

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

To celebrate the global AE86 day on August 6th, I met up with Prodrift competitor Dennis Healy who famously piloted the Nexen Tires SR86 with great success. He’s now built this Trueno street car from the track car which had an unfortunate meeting with a tire wall last year. This car has all the right ingredients to make the perfect ‘86 : horsepower and simplicity. More images after the jump …

for Speedhunters.com by Paddy McGrath

July 25th saw the Irish branch of the Ford RSOC once again descend on the forecourt of Bolands Main Ford Dealer, New Ross, Co. Wexford. It’s the second year running that Bolands have cleared their showroom and forecourt to make room for some of Ireland’s finest Fords. The quality of the cars was something else and the quantity was considerable too. Anyways, enough talk the rest of the images are after the jump …

for Speedhunters.com / RSOC by Paddy McGrath

Or the 8/6 as our friends in the US and Japan would say.

Happy AE86 Day folks, be sure to keep an eye on Speedhunters for the full feature above along with a host of other AE86 stories !

I posted a sneak preview of this a couple of months back. Well the feature just hit the shelves in issue #157 of Redline Magazine so you can check it out there. There’s also a brief behind the scenes feature on Speedhunters about the shoot. The rest of the shoot can be found after the jump.

by Paddy McGrath for Redline Magazine

It was quite an honour to view the FIA GT1 World Championship after the weekend and find my photograph as the header image with the subheading of ‘Le Castellet battle hots up’. The image was shot on Saturday afternoon of an energy drinks promotional girl dancing in a swimming pool. I shot the image tight to her glasses which showed the reflection of the other girls also dancing. The FIA GT1 media team, SRO, also used a selection of my images on their official Facebook page.

The final day of the Paul Ricard event started as the others did. Extraordinarily hot. Having agreed with our Creative Director to swap trackside for pits and paddock, I based myself primarily out of the Sumo Power team’s pit garage. This also doubled as the Team NFS garage during the GT3 race. Speedhunters support both teams so it really was ideal. It was also ideal in the way that everyone spoke English as my French is pretty basic. This is the final set from the event, I hope you enjoy …

Just as a note, certain parts of this gallery maybe not safe for work !

by Paddy McGrath for Speedhunters.com

The Saturday of the FIA GT event at Paul Ricard saw me take to the trackside for most of the day. In sweltering 35+°C temperatures, it was a challenge lugging around a 400mm 2.8 prime attached with a 1.4X extender to the 1D. However, Paul Ricard is a vast circuit and even at 500+mm you can still struggle for focal length. The track is unique in that it does not have any gravel traps. Instead, it employs the use of the Blue Line Concept. The concept utilizes different surfaces with increasing levels of grip to slow down the cars. The areas marked with blue stripes have more grip than the race surface and gently slow the car whilst the red areas aim to stop the cars. The following shots are from the Saturday qualifying and race sessions.

by Paddy McGrath for Speedhunters.com