Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, 1000km of Spa

Only a week after the second MaX5 Cup races of the season I found myself back behind my camera shooting hard fought battles again. This time at Spa Franchorchamps for the Inter Continental Le Mans Cup. With less than a month to go to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this event was the last possibility for the teams and drivers to check their materials, cars and routines in race trim before the main event in La Sarthe.

It is always a pleasure to stand at the top of the famous Eau Rouge corner, the speeds these cars carry up this hill is just incredible. Also the view from here just breathes motorsport history at it’s best. There are so many good memories of races I have witnessed here in the past. This image was taken with the Go Pro camera which I use to film the action during the MaX5 events.

The all new Audi R18 made is race debut at Spa after the test days in Le Mans where it appeared in April. With the cars placing in the top three spots after qualifying, Audi looked as strong as ever. The futuristic look of these cars strongly reminded me of the Cylon’s from Battle Star Galactica. You either love them or you hate them but I think they look great.

I ran into this broken Porsche of the IMSA Performance team near the Stavelot section of the track. Hopefully it will have more luck at Le Mans.

My 100-400mm lens gives me some great new opportunities. Standing on top of the Kemmel straight I shot this image of the start/finish line. The tilt/shift effect was added later.

Due to the lay out of the circuit and the high speed of these cars, Spa is a great place to make some great panning shots. M Power all the way!!!

The all new Ferrari 458 Italia of the AF Corse team makes it’s way through the late afternoon sun at the Malmedy corner. One of the R18 Audi’s is just disappearing over the crest.

It is great to see Henry Pescarolo and his team back at Le Mans this year. Here the car is leading two Ferrari’s out of the Bus Stop Chicane.

In the end it was Team Total Peugeot who took the top honors leaving Audi with a third place finish. I have a feeling that this years Le Mans race is going to be epic!!!

Here is the trailer from Peugeot in the run up to the event.

MaX5 Raceday 2, Images

On Saturday the 30th of April, while the rest of Holland was celebrating Queensday, the second round of the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup was held. A sunny Zandvoort racetrack welcomed the drivers and their entourage. With a laid back atmosphere and great racing spirit it turned out to be one of the best race days in the cups history. For a full race report and championship standings visit the MaX5 Racing website

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Fast & Furious 5, Amsterdam Premiere

Sometimes you get lucky. You open your account, flip through the mail and see that you can win a fun night out. Just by answering a simple question. That is kind of what happened to me the other day.
I got a mail from Belbios.nl telling me that I could win tickets for the Amsterdam Premiere of Fast 5, the latest film in the Fast & Furious series. Well why not, I have been watching the films ever since the first one came out. As not all of these movies were great, the second one was actually very disappointing, I was really curious to see where the director would go with this new addition to the family.

I replied to the email and within a few minutes after pressing the “Send” button I already got a call from Belbios.nl telling me I had won the tickets. AWESOME!!! As I had won two tickets, a partner in crime was not hard to find! MaX5 racer Bart Wubben was very much willing to join me for the evening. As I could leave my work early, I arrived in time to see some of the promo events the organizers had set up to boost the premiere. A large crowd had already gathered at the Pathe Arena cinema where the event was held. DJ’s were spinning, the guys from Streetgasm were showing of some of the best tuned JDM cars in Holland and some of America’s finest Muscle cars were also present.

As the red carpet would not open up before 7 P.M. I strolled around the variety of cars and enjoyed watching the opening ceremony unfold. By 6 P.M. the MC was already hyping the crowd that Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson & Justin Lin would be on the move from their hotel to the cinema. The two actors and the director would make an appearance at the Amsterdam premiere, so already a variety of groupies and fans had shown up to catch a glimpse of these guys. However their patience would be tested for a bit.

Bart arrived a little after the opening of the red carpet. As we wanted to have some good seats we made our way into the cinema. Monster Energy drinks, Fast 5 caps and popcorn were distributed to the audience and inside you could watch the action going on at the red carpet. More and more celebrities were making the run down the press line up. Finally after nearly two hours of waiting, and getting bored from watching people enter the cinema, the stars of the night arrived. Rolling up and getting out of their Dodge Chargers it took a while to sign autographs and do the usual promo talk to the press. Alright here we go, a short interview and some casual chit chatting in the cinema for the guests and finally the film kicks off.

A few action packed hours later and I was traveling back home. Fast 5 was actually an entertaining film. This time around it was more of an action movie than a film that was based on showing street racing. This made the cars a little less shine as the stars and put the focus more on the action part. Plenty of stunts, some cool camera angles and a story that also refers to the previous parts made me like the movie. I might not watch it as often the first one back in 2001 but I will go and see it again some day.

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See more info on the movie at the official site.

The Season Kicks Off!!!

The season kicks off!!!

The Total Mazda MaX5 Cup 2011has finally started. With new teams, cars and a great vibe, the whole circus got in full swing on Sunday the 10th of April.
With a lot of new camera equipment to get my head around and many new cars and people to shoot I had my work cut out for me. Fortunately it was beautiful weather and I was very happy to be back behind the guardrails to shoot the action.
Besides photography I will be also shooting film during the season. A great new challenge and it gives a whole new look on the drivers perspective. One problem, it really makes me want to be in their seats!!! I definitely should hurry up with my track project!!! Until my car is track worthy again I will just focus on the shooting side of racing. Enjoy the photo’s and the first racing film of the season.

http://www.vimeo.com/22420347

MaX5 Racing Spotters Guide 2011

The new season of the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup is on it’s way!!! With plenty of new cars and teams I thought it would be a good idea to post a Spotters Guide. The images down below show all the entries of the 2011 season. Three of them are old shots as these cars were not participating in the session in which I took the images. Enjoy the Guide and if you are in the neighbourhood of one of the events, don’t hesitate to drop by for coffee and a lot of racing fun. All the dates can be found here!

See you in 2011!!!

Last Images

On March 4th 2011 my father passed away.

While going through his camera gear I found the last footage he shot with his recently acquired Canon Legria HF R16.
He just started filming with it and not all the material was usable. To not let his fun day of walking with my mom and brother go to waste I made a small edit of the stuff I found on his camera.
Rest in Peace Dad!

http://www.vimeo.com/22081924

Camera: Canon Legria HF R16
Song: Love You More – Racoon
Filmed at “De Wieden” in the Drenthe province in Holland

To honor him, my brother and I, will take a road trip in his Mazda MX5 later this summer of which we will make our own video to celebrate his life.

Miata Track Project

My Miata is getting a pretty old Lady. With twenty years of cruising, travel and track abuse behind the wheels, the time has come to give the engine a proper rebuild. The money was in place, parts were about to be ordered but how do I travel around during the rebuild? Last weekend the whole situation took an unexpected turn as I got a great offer on another Miata.

As some expensive parts on my car, besides the engine, needed to be replaced as well, the car on sale had these already installed and they were in good shape. Hmmm…..what to do??? Sell one, get the other? That was not an option. A lot of changes had already been made to the red Miata to make it work both on the street as on the track. Unfortunately I can not keep two cars in front of my house due to limited parking permits. Fortunately a great solution presented itself and I now have an indoor space to keep one car dry during the year. Great stuff!!! I bought the blue Miata the same day. Finally I can get some work done and learn more on how to do some wrenching myself.

This is my new NA Miata. Like the other one it is one of the first ever made. The chassis code is even under the 5000 produced NA’s at that time. It still feels like I am cheating when I drive off and leave the red one parked. The wheels are way to big for the car and it’s handling. These 17 inch wheels will be replaced with soon with the spoked wheels which I run on the red car. Small other changes will probably follow as well to make it handle better and give it a bit more of an aggressive look.

As I do not have the budget to run a full season of MaX5 racing and I love taking the photo’s for the series, I run the occasional track day instead. For this reason the car was already transforming slowly into a track car. Now that the blue car has joined the family I can go a bit more crazy. Once this car has been turned into the track spec, that I have in mind, it has some more horse power and great throttle response.
The engine will get a full IRTB set up with AE101 throttle bodies and many other additions to make it a bit more aggressive and functional. It will remain street legal so I can enjoy it while running the hills surrounding the Nordschleife and other great roads as well.

Ever since I own a Miata it has surprised me how well these little cars handle on track. While being way down on power these cars fight off some pretty hardcore machines in the corners. This photo was taken a few years back by Michael from Autofotos.nl.

This is one of my favorite shots of my car running at the Zandvoort racetrack in Holland. I was doing a track day together with the guys from Team Zerospeed. An awesome day out. Here I am running together with Mike (R.I.P.) in his mighty S2000. Credits go out to Austin from Team Zerospeed for taking this image!

The full progress on this build we be published as soon as the project starts on PagodaGarage.com

The Art of Flight

I just ran into this awesome preview of an upcoming snowboard film. Some real beautiful landscapes feature insane snowboarding. Sit back and enjoy the ride!!!

Here is the story behind the film as I found it on Youtube:

The Art of FLIGHT follows Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Muller, Gigi Ruf, DCP and Pat Moore as they dream up new global adventures and progress the sport to unimaginable levels.

Brain Farm has gathered an arsenal of the most advanced and progressive film making technology to bring the masses a snowboarding adventure of epic proportions. Filmed on location in Jackson Hole, Alaska, Chile, Aspen, Patagonia, British Columbia and more, FLIGHT brings the viewer along for the perfect blend of adventure/travel drama and high-energy snowboarding action. The Art of FLIGHT releases September 2011.

More info can be found on:

RedBull USA

TheArtOfFLIGHTmovie.com

BrainFarmCinema

Total Mazda MaX5 Cup 2011 Teaser

Here is a little teaser I made for the 2011 Total Mazda MaX5 Cup, enjoy.

http://www.vimeo.com/20110163

This teaser was made without any planning and is made of a few random frames which I shot during last season. At the beginning of this year I bought a camera slider from Indi System. The shots of the guys working on their racers were the first frames working with this slider. Great piece of kit for an awesome price. The race tracks featured in the teaser are Zandvoort in Holland, Spa Franchorchamps in Belgium and Oschersleben in Germany.
My thanks go out to the I.L. Motorsport team for supplying the onboard images.

Go Egypt!!!

After all the horror we’ve seen on the news, these last 20 days, of what was happening in Cairo; it is great to find positive videos popping up on Youtube now as well.
I have a great deal of respect for what the Egyptian people have achieved. Go Egypt!!!