Last Saturday I had a rare day off which kind of turned into ‘not-really-a-day-off’ but an enjoyable one none the less. The occasion was the first shakedown of the Wexican Motorsport Toyota Altezza and I was on-hand to document the event. It was a pretty chilled affair and was the perfect opportunity to test out some new equipment namely the Canon 17-40 F4 L, Canon 135 F2 L and the Canon 1.4x extender on the Canon 300 F4 L. It’s also been a while since I got to shoot some live track action so it’s great to be getting back into the motorsport season once again. The following shots primarily focus around Martin and his Altezza but if you head over to my Flickr page, there are a couple more images of some of the other attendees’. More after the jump.

by Paddy McGrath for Wexican Motorsport.

I spent most of yesterday working on a personal project of mine with Martin Ffrench. I had the honor of shooting the exclusive of his SR20DET Toyota Altezza back in November and even luckier to have the chance to ride along side him during the practice sessions. These are only two short laps from the morning whilst Martin was still working on setups and ironing out any small problems. I’ll have a better video and some photographs up later this week.

Wexican Motorsport, have just launched their Drift Experience and officially announced their Drift Academy. Vouchers for the Experience, which make awesome Christmas presents for those loved ones with an interest in motoring or even for those you want to convert to the world of motorsport, as well as information regarding the academy can be found on www.wexicanmotorsport.com

Back in April, I was lucky enough to have time to shoot some portraits of some of the drivers and staff of the Prodrift Super Series. When the majority of your work is based around the machine and not the man, it can be refreshing change of pace to shoot the men (and indeed women) behind the visors. The idea behind these portraits was to portray the people behind the cars, to show the real person and not just the name you may recognize from the commentary.

More after the jump …

The above shot of Shane Lynch (Team Japspeed Stobart Maxxis), was shot with a Canon EOS 40D with a 24-105 F4 L lense. The shoot took place in a music festival tent at Donington Park in the UK. Using two flashes, one high camera left and another low camera right, both fired through white umbrellas.

Kieran Hynes, Prodrift Series Head Judge, Canon EOS 40D, 24mm, ISO100, f/8, 1/160th

Alan Lenihan, Hankook Tires Nissan Silvia, Canon EOS 40D, 47mm, ISO200, f/5.6, 1/125th

Dennis Healy, Nexen / Hunky Dorys Toyota Corolla SR-86, Canon EOS 40D, 24mm, ISO100, f/8, 1/125th

Ian Bergin, Judge & Commentator, Canon EOS 40D, 67mm, ISO100, f/4, 1/160th

Mike Deane, Silverstone Tyres / Deane M-Sport Nissan Silvia, Canon EOS 40D, 60mm, ISO200, f/7.1, 1/125th

Martin Ffrench, Wexican Motorsport Nissan Silvia, Canon EOS 40D, 24mm, ISO100, f/8, 1/160th

Dean ‘Karnage’ Kearney, Maxxis Nissan Onevia, Canon EOS 1D MKII N, 50mm, ISO800, f/1.4, 1/125th

After much swearing and minute adjustments, the latest Wexican Motorsport video is online. The footage features more on-board, more out-board and more action than before. The music is by Waterford band, Gorbachov and the song is titled ‘Come & Get It’ from their debut album ‘Can’t Start the Machine’

Enjoy !

Since the site has been inactive for so many months, I thought I’d fill you in on my 2009 so far. It all started with an AE86 owners day at Mondello Park …

The track day was organised by the staff & members of www.ae86irl.com, an Irish based owners club of all things Toyota which primarily concerns itself with the AE86. The above Kp61 is owned by Mark Walsh, a Dublin guy with a lust for retro Toyota. The car has been rebuilt with a TRD speclist as long as my arm.

Prodrift regular Dennis Healy was on hand to thrash the life out of his BEAMs engined coupe.

Current Formula Drift championship leader Darren McNamara debuted his spectacular carbon clad Trueno.

This red Levin is a daily driver and is currently apart being rebuilt with a 20v 4-AGE by D.K. Developments.

The ’86 day was followed by an epic road trip across to the U.K. for the first round of the 2009 JDM Allstars series with Martin Ffrench from Wexican Motorsport.

We sailed into Fishguard before driving south to Devon, to collect the infamous Dragon Performance RX7. Then it was northbound to Newcastle.

The Dragon and Wexican crew taking a well earned rest stop en route to the event.

The Angel of the North let us know that our destination wasn’t too far away.

Ffrench was on fire all weekend, despatching the opposition seemingly at ease. It wasn’t until his Top 4 battle against Driftworks driver Dan Chapman where the car ran out of fuel that he would be stopped.

The first round of JDM also allowed me to shoot my first ever FMX shots. The riders looked awesome against the blue sky.

Newcastle City as a backdrop was simply spectacular. Perhaps the best backdrop I’ve seen for a drift event.



In Part II, I’ll show you through another epic roadtrip and the wettest event I’ve ever covered. For anyone interested in more on the above, I covered them for Speedhunters, here are the links !

AE86 Ireland Trackday Here

The Road To Newcastle, JDM Allstars Part I, Part II & Part III

More coming soon …