Ronny Gabriels Photography

Finally, the FIA GT came back to Belgium in what was going to be a great racing weekend. The 24h of Spa is probably one of the most famous races on the European continent and after missing it the last two years, I finally made it.

Maserati MC12

A weekend featuring European GT4, British Formula 3, Lamborghini Super Trofeo and of course, the full FIA GT circus is a feast for everybody who loves racing. Not only do you get the some epic racing cars from the likes of Maserati, Corvette, Aston Martin, Porsche and Ferrari.  This year the field was extended with the GT3 spec Alpina B6, the monsterous Ford GT (including one in 2010 spec) and the trackside Godzilla that is the Nissan GT-R. Add the GT4, Britisch F3 and Lamborghini Super Trofeo cars and any of you interested in racing know why you should have been there. 

Bruxelles corner at sundown

As more often than not, weather conditions made it quite tricky on Saturday, not in the least for the photographers. The weather change constantly from sunny, to dark overcast to rain. This meant that every 10 minutes I had to change the settings on my camera to get some decent exposures.  Sadly this didn’t always work out too well.  When you have to push the ISO up to 400 to get properly exposed shots (of moving cars), you’re almost guaranteed to have lower quality shots.  The end result was that only about 10% of the photos I took made it through the first cut.

The winner of the 24h of SPa – Corvette Z06

In the end I didn’t get all the great shots I wanted, but the result was nonetheless not that bad (after setting my goals from “Professional publication shots” to “Great racing shots made by someone behind the fence”). You can have a look at the final cut of photos on my website in the Photos - Racing Season 2009 menu. I hope you enjoy them.

As a PS a little story about, in my opinion, the best shot I got the entire weekend.

Godzilla (Nissan GT-R) in the Pitlane

This shot was taken while standing on top of the Formula 1 Pitboxes. I got up there by buying a more expensive “Paddock” ticket and joining the “24h Club” which was free with a “Paddock” ticket.  The shot was taken while the cars where getting to the starting grid.  All the pro’s and VIP’s where at that point either on the track or in the pitlane. So ironically if I had gotten press credentials, I would have never been there to take the shot. I like this serendipity.  I was jealous of the “credential” people all day, but in the end, my best shot would have never been taken if I had been one of them.