Any of you that follow my activities on Speedhunters (or look below this post for that matter) may have seen my recent stories from the FIA GT event at Silverstone. It’s quite an experience shooting events of this scale, it’s an even bigger experience shooting the GT1 class. I’ve gathered together a couple of my favorite images from last weekend below. I hope you enjoy !

Saturday gone saw the seventh and eight rounds of the 2011 Irish Touring Car Championship which took place at Kirkistown Circuit in Northern Ireland. Working with the ITCC has been an absolute pleasure and privilege. They’ve provided some amazing and well organised races so far this season and it can only get better. The full gallery of images can be found on my Flickr and the upcoming race report can be found on the ITCC website. There are a couple of more images after the break …

Photos by Paddy McGrath for the Irish Touring Car Championship

This car was my own personal Moby Dick for such a long period of time but it finally got caught in front of my lens last October to be captured exclusively for the pages of Classic Ford Magazine. Accompanied by the one and only Baron Bryn Musselwhite we set about spending a day getting to know this extraordinary track racer from a greater era than I’ll ever know. Check out  just some of the images after the jump …

Photos for Classic Ford Magazine by Paddy McGrath

More images after the break …

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

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

Last weekend I had the rather excellent opportunity of shooting the FIA GT races at the Paul Ricard HTTT near Marseille, France. It would be the very first time I had ever shot an FIA sanctioned event, let alone the pinnacle of tin-top racing at the most advanced racing circuit in the world. I was present to cover the event for Speedhunters.com and my aim was to concentrate on the #76 and #77 cars of Team Need for Speed in GT3 and the #22 and #23 cars of Sumo Power GT in the GT1 class. This set of photographs is from the Friday practice sessions. More after the jump …

by Paddy McGrath for Speedhunters.com

Ventured back onto the rally stage for the first time in over two years yesterday for the MK2 Escort Challenge which I was covering for Speedhunters.com. It was a great change of pace shooting on closed roads; I forgot how exciting it can be chasing stages, exploring the countryside to find a good spot, having the craic with marshalls and other photographers. It’s crazy how different each sort of motorsport can be. Click the continue reading link for the rest of the images …

by Paddy McGrath for Speedhunters.com

Just before my laptop spontaneously combusted a couple of weeks ago, I shot my father’s Escort 1300 Executive. The shoot took place on a chilly winters morning by the seaside. It was a back to basics shoot for me; no lights, rig or tracking shots. Just the 5D2 and two lenses. More after the jump …

The harsh sunlight didn’t do me too many favours, but it was an enjoyable challenge trying to work through it.

The cliff face provided a nice backdrop for some profile shots.

Shooting into the sun was always going to be a challenge, but I tried to harness the light to make some detail shots a little bit more interesting.

It was tough trying to balance the horizontal lines of the car with horizon line as the car was facing slightly uphill.

The harsh sidelight provided great texture on the original vinyl roof.

Returning back to the city centre, we parked up for a quick snap beside this old bridge. The houses behind the camera acted as a huge reflector, throwing the light back onto the car.

Think the blue is a touch too strong here but I do like the shallow depth of field and the desaturated background. Lessons to be learned for the next outing.

More on my Flickr.