During most of the events I get out to, there are usually several grids of glory hungry racers to take advantage of. To not take advantage of them would be a waste of laps and camera handling practice.

For sure, there are occasions where I’ll use the support races to review a few images, take a load off for 5 minutes and tend to a dirty lens, eat come lunch or make my way to another section of the track ready for the next showcase, but on the whole, I’ll use the support races to practice; to fine tune an angle or composition I’m trying to capture, or simply because the racing is good.

Experience is teaching me that you have to be careful when shooting the support races, however.

It’s very easy to get involved, and get dragged away in the action. I have done this before only to find that my cards are full and the feature race is still an hour away…plenty of time to delete some of the dross, but it’s not ideal as you’re not watching the track.

On the other hand, let’s say I find a new and interesting angle, I have to be careful that the new and interesting angle is over-used and suddenly becomes the shot of the day…for everything.

Yup, shooting the support racing is great practice, and yes they provide a perfect opportunity for more time on the trigger, but I am learning to bide that time, to make sensible choices in what and when I shoot to give me more control of the end results.

No point in coming home with a gallery of Ginettas when the Blancpain is the race everyone is interested in…Ginetta might be happy, mind.

Even thought I don’t make a point of shooting those secondary events, inevitably, there are images I capture that I like and feel are worthy of showing off.

I might experiment a bit or practice a technique I have been researching. You may be able to gain access to the paddock of a particular series opening up opportunity for alternative images, or I may simply use the time to practice and revisit my settings. Often, I end up with a surplus of images that I’m pretty pleased with.

So without further ado, please enjoy my first gallery of ‘misfits’ taken at several different events so far this year. I sure there will be more of these in the future.