Monday, May 4

Oh.. bike heaven!

I have been in heaven this weekend. On Saturday we went to the British Superbikes at Oulton Park. A combination of very fast motorbikes and photography! wayhey! What more could I ask for?

We decided to go to Oulton for the practice day rather than race day for two reasons. a) it was cheaper, and b) less people.

As we arrived at 10am we could hear the superbikes roaring around the track on the first of their practices. Isabelle was almost bouncing out of her skin with excitement in the back of the car. We've decided that she is a little petrol head, biker, rock chick. She loves rock music, Guns n' Roses being one of her favourites, she loves bikes, can name most parts of a bike, and helps Mark in the garage. If he asks for a 12 mil spanner, off she trots to the toolbox and finds the one with a number 12 on it. Same for a 10 mil spanner etc. oh, and the same with sockets. She knows her stuff. She loves to jump on the bike when Mark is driving it into the garage. So, at Oulton Park, she was sooo excited. She prefers bikes to cars. She looked a little devil in her bandana and ear 'dependers' as she calls them.... and as you can see from this photograph, she is very much a daddy's girl.

It was a day of wall to wall bikes, with the 125cc's, supersport 600's and the British Superbikes.. the big guns! I couldn't get over how busy the paddock and pits were. I've not been to a 'big' motorsport event before and was shocked at how big the hospitality suites were, and all the mechanics and re-tyre companies who were so busy they could barely keep up. I LOVED it and I want to do more and more motorsport photography. We're planning to go to the British Touring Cars at Oulton Park at the end of May. This isn't going to please my Mum, because she keeps nagging me about going over for a visit again and she wants us to go to her place the same weekend.

Then in July.. we are going to see the MotoGP at Donington. I think we're going on practice day because it's £18 entry, but race day it's £48. The advantage of going to a practice day is that you can actually get trackside without too many people vying for space. MotoGP is THE motorbike race .. it's the Formula 1 of bikes.

I'm hooked!! Here are a few shots from the day.