Prior to today,I have only ever attended one Stages Rally, and that was a January one at Brands Hatch a couple of years ago.
I saw that this Rally was on at Goodwood and that it was free entry for spectators, so I decided to give it a go as forecast was quite reasonable for the day following several wet and windy days.
I was a bit dismayed when rain that wasn't forecast started as I arrived, but I took shelter and stuck with my plan.
One stage was just finishing after I had parked, so the fairly short shower was actually in between track action. It seemed to take a while for the organisers to ready the next stage, but eventually hey were ready and the first cars set off to start that next stage. It soon became obvious that I was not in a good position for decent action photos, so I walked to a different spot where I hoped the action might just be worth taking.
I found myself playing with shutter speeds for panning etc, just to try to achieve nice effect with slower speeds and reduced the ISO setting so that depth of filed wasn't too much - essentially I was bored and started playing for the sake of it. So, the photo of the Citroen C2 below was a panned shot at 1/60sec - very pleased with result.
Overall, I would say that the day enabled me to at least get some fresh air and sunshine and blow away some winter cobwebs. However, I soon realised that this type of event is not really for me.
The action, certainly on this venue and being almost completely tarmac, is simply not exciting enough for my liking. A fairly small entry, they had 49 out of their maximum possible 55, limited the number of interesting cars - by interesting, I mean quick and potentially likely to provide some action.
The morning Stages consisted of laps anti-clockwise around the Circuit, with temporary chicanes
constructed of cones and wooden pallets set at various intervals around the Circuit. Occasionally they made use of the tarmac run-off areas that exist at various corners. The afternoon Stages went the normal clockwise direction, but to a similar pattern, some stages being one lap and others two laps. Sadly, all too tame for a fan of pure racing. If some of the action could have at least been 'off-road' then I may well have found it more entertaining.
The overall winner was a 4 wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo6, that was tidily driven but in my eyes never looked or sounded quick. Second went to a spectacular looking Proton, which at least sounded quite good, while 3rd went to a venerable Mk2 Escort that had a really racy sounding engine when the driver gave it 'the beans'.
There was plenty of variety in the entry, especially in the lower engine capacity classes, and quite a few entries that seemed to be really enjoying themselves- which I guess was the main part for them.
I don't think I will be back for any further events of this type - I guess I should stick to proper racing, or go take a look at proper off road Rallying which appeals to my photographic side
particularly.
The copter shot that follows, was taken between stages as Goodwood operates flying lessons etc as well- it was simply too good to miss, such bright colours and against a blue sky.
