Ronny Gabriels Photography

Sunday on the Zolder Circuit. Great races of the Belgian GT championship, the Benelux Racing League and the Belgian Historic Cup. Great photo opportunities. Me shooting away and then it happened. The most stupid thing that can happen when you’re a photographer. My batteries went dead. Now normally that’s not a problem, because I always carry spare batteries that I can put in the Battery grip I use for my Canon 400D. The thing is, I have never had to use the spares and no they weren’t dead either. I loaded the spare batteries in the special holder and put it in the battery grip. So far so good. I tried turning the camera on and nothing happened. I took the special holder out and put it back in again, still nothing. So I took it back out and took a close look. What I didn’t see the first time (or ever before) was that on the bottom side of the holder, there were slots for two more batteries. So the holder took 6 instead of 4.
There I was with only 4 batteries that might as well be dead too, because without the two extra ones, the camera wouldn’t turn on. After looking for batteries in all the shops around the circuit I had to come to the conclusion that my day of shooting the races was over. Stupid and embarrassing. So now I will not leave the house with a) fully charged camera batteries and b) ENOUGH spare batteries.

The moral of the story is of course, try out everything before you leave, even the spares. I will not forget this lesson easily, and I promise you that if it would ever happen to you, you won’t forget either.

So I took a lot less photos this Sunday than on other racing events. That doesn’t mean there were no good ones. They will be posted later this week, after I had a chance to have a look at them. So see you back here later on for the report of the races that I did get to shoot.

PS: the red in my cheeks is finally fading after two days ;-)

Contrary to wath the Belgian weather service had predicted, Leuven's “Grote Markt” square was bathed in sunshine and thus the perfect setting for an very unusual sight.  On the square, several of the competitors of the BTCS (Belgian Touring Car Series) were parked.  It didn't take too long for a nice crowd to form around the cars. Some who knew this city demo was happening (identifiable by the cameras they brought), some were quite surprised to see racing cars in the city center. And that last part of the crowd, was what this demo was all about.  Bringing the championship to the people who might otherwise never get to see them. 

 BTCS on Leuven’s “Grote Markt”

Now what's so attractive about BTCS, you might ask?  Well the main attraction of championships like these, is the fact that it features touring cars.  They are built on the foundation of normal roadgoing cars you and I drive (see later).  They are not hyper-designed race machines like Formula 1.  Although those are also impressive, most of the people know they exist.  What a lot of people don't know is that the car they drive is also racing in a championship.  Confronting those people with this fact, might bring new crouds to the racing circuit, and after all that's what it's all about. 
Because a lot of people believe that going to the races is expensive. It's really not!  They are of course thinking of the ridiculous prices you pay for F1.  You pay 75€ for a ticket that restricts you to one part of the track or even one seat.  For BTCS races you pay 15€ max (for most races free tickets can be downloaded somewhere), but it not only gives you access to the entire circuit, it also provides access to the paddock.  If you want that in F1, you'll pay astronomical amounts of money.  That's why championships like BTCS are a lot more fun, because you can bring the entire family or go with some friends and don't have to worry about having to cancel your vacation because you ran out of money. A little analogy might be in place here. If the F1 is the huge concert in some big stadium, the BTCS is the free concert in a public park that you take the wife and kids to. Both are great concerts, both are fun, but only one is affordable for everybody.

Now back to the city demo in Leuven. Because after a couple of hours on the city square the cars took a little trip to the square in front of the station.  To get there, they had to drive through the main city shopping street.  Resulting in an unusual sight of racing cars riding along at walking speeds and a lot of surprised shoppers standing by and watching. The parade ended after a couple of minutes in front of the station, where the racing cars were parked next to their raodgoing brothers and sisters.  Another perfect way to prove to people that in fact the cars they drive can be made into racing cars.  There were of course some signing session by well known drivers, a demo of a BTCS pitstop and some goodies to take home. 

BTCS driving along the “Bondgenotenlaan”

Although I must admit that most of the people there were already racing fans, I think quite a lot of people's eyes were opened to a form of racing they had never heard of.  It's funny how everybody stops and stares when a proper racing car crosses their path.  And despite the fact that a lot of people are now buying eco-friendly small town cars, you can see in their eyes, secretly they still want a racing machine. 

 BTCS next to their roadgoing counterparts

The photos of the city demo can be found on my website (under Photos/Racing Season 2009).  For people who are reading this because they are trying to find out what in the hell they say in Leuven on Saturday, take a look at the BTCS website here.  The next Belgian race is on the 16th and 17th of May in Zolder.  Free tickets can be downloaded here.

Hope to see you all soon on the race track! Next event, this Sunday, the Belgian GT opening race in Zolder!

Last weekend the Belgian Touring Car series got underway with a great opening event called “Francorchampions”.  Besides two races of the BTCS on Sunday it also featured two races of the VW Fun Cup and a race for the Dutch Supercar Challenge (DSC). 

Although very different, each of these championships has it’s qualities.  The VW Fun Cup is focused on less professional drivers all driving the same cars.  Fun is really the only way to describe these races when you see them.

VW Fun Cup in action

The Dutch Supercar Challenge focuses on much heavier machines and is Holland’s number one racing championship for good reason.  A very wide range of cars, several divisions and a lot of entries make this quite a spectacle to watch and hear (my ears still haven’t recuperated entirely after the hearing the sounds of the thunderous Marcos racing in the DSC).  This will, by the way, not be the only time that the DSC comes to Belgium, so if you have a chance to go see them, do so!

 Ferrari 430 in the Dutch Supercar Challenge

But of course the big event of the weekend were the first two races of the BTCS.  A clear cut Touring car championship that features a lot of cars, some very close racing and some very well known national drivers.  It’s always a pleasure to see these exiting races and since the people who organise the championship provide free tickets for almost every race, it’s cheap too. What more could you possibly want.

  Mazda RX8 in the BTCS

As always, photos of the event can be found on the website.  Check under the sub-category “Racing Season 2009” of the “Photos” menu.  Enjoy them and feel free to comment on any of the shots or of course on this blog.  See you soon!

As mentioned in the last post, this weekend marked the start of the racing season at Spa-Francorchamps with a race for the Dunlop Sport Maxx Endurance Cup.  And yesterday evening I posted the photos of that race (and some of the Gentlemen Drivers Cup) on the website. 

Because I will hopefully be shooting quite some races this season, I made a seperate sbub-category under the public photo gallery named “Racing Season 2009”.  Here you will find all of the photos of the upcoming races. 

So please check out the photos and feel free to leave comments.  I have to say that although I used new equipment, the result was better than I had feared.  Enjoy.

Dunlop Sport Maxx Endurance Cup, April 5th 2009, Spa-Francorchamps

Yesterday, my 2009 racing started with a race of the Dunlop Sport Maxx Endurance Cup at Spa-Francorchamps.  The crowd was quite small, which gave me the perfect opportunity to test some of the new equipment I will be using to shoot motorsport this season.  With just a handful of amateur photographers there, most of the best sports for shooting the action in Spa where open.  So I took my time to familiarize myself with the new lens and the monopod.  To my own surprise, it took quite a while getting used to the equipment. The amount of good shots where very limited but I have to say that by the end of the day, I got the hang of it again.  Hopefully next week, at the start of the BTCS season, again in Spa, the result will be a lot better.

Shots of the DSMEC race will be posted later this week after I have deleted all of the bad ones. ;-)

As mentioned before, next week, the BTCS (Belgian Touring Car Series) starts at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.  The race will be supported by the VW Fun Cup and the DSC (Dutch Supercar Challenge). These three events make for a very interesting race weekend.  And best of all the entrance is free if you print the invitation you can find on the website of the BTCS (http://www.btcseries.be).  So if anyone out there wants to join me, whether it's for the racing or just the photographic opportunities, just send me an email.

For me next week is the real kick-off of what I hope is going to be a race filled summer.  My personal calendar includes the following events (in April and May). (More events later on in the season will be posted soon) 

BTCS and DSC    - 11-12 April  - Spa-Francorchamps
Belgian GT         - 25-26 April  - Zolder
Le Mans Series   - 08-09 May   - Spa-Francorchamps
BTCS                 - 16-17 May   - Zolder

So check back soon for more racing information and of course a lot of racing photographs.