Snetterton Rally Stage
8th February, Snetterton Race Circuit, Norfolk
Snetterton hold a number of race weekends through the year. They host British Touring Cars,(BTCC), Super Bikes, Truck Racing and GT racing. This was slightly different,and is their first event of their 2025 race calendar. It is billed as a rally stage but only 10% of the course is off-road. The majority of the course is on the Snetterton 300 circuit. This visit had become a photography club outing. I was accompanied by Robbie Holgate, Keith Bringlow, and Darren Summers. Darren quickly became the subject matter expert by admitting he had been to this event last year. A round of early pick up that we left Stevenage by 7 am and had a clear journey to Snetterton, arriving at the circuit about 8:40am having had one stop. Robbie had a disabled badge which meant that we could take the car into the middle of the circuit into the disabled parking area area.
During the course of the day there were three track layouts and for each layout there was a Senior and Junior race. The Juniors were racing in small hatchbacks, the Seniors race were an eclectic mix of Ford Mexico Escorts Subaru Impreza’s, Mitsubishi Evo’s and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Initially, we made our way to the section where they cross the inner circuit via a gravel section. Although there was no real sideways action, there were still photographs to be had with the cars throwing up gravel. That we probably stayed here about an hour before moving on to one of the track sections where they’re coming into a tight 90° left-hand and then race up towards the traditional start finish straight. We had for lunch at around 11:45 at the on-site cafeteria. After lunch we made our way out onto the long bank section overlooking the track section with all the tight bends and changes of direction. Because of the direction the cars were travelling, there was nothing really of interest here and we then moved back into the middle of the circuit where we found an infield section where they were racing through a section where the traditional Pit Garages are. This made for one or two interesting shots.
By now it was just after 2 pm and we’ve been there since 8:30, the weather was not improving and we had photographed all of the cars multiple times going in both directions. It was felt there was little to be gained by staying for another three hours and getting more of the same. We headed home back to Stevenage. I plan to go to Snetterton again this year at least for the Superbike day as that something I’ve not photographed before.
Photographically it was a dull overcast day but that hardly matters as we were all trying to get a sense of motion into our photographs. This meant we were at low shutter speeds. The lowest of my pictures above were taken with the shutter speed of 1/30 of a second. This means even a base of 125 or 160, the camera is closing the aperture down to somewhere between F6 and F 11 to expose the shot correctly. I did notice that on the lowest shutter speed I was using to get all of the car in focus They almost have to be perpendicular and opposite you. Getting them coming around a bend towards you at 1/30 of the second was so difficult that only part of the car was in focus. Overall and enjoyable and challenging day but thankfully was not as cold or indeed as wet as had been forecast a day or two early.