Two jumps and a water splash

Last weekend I was privileged to be able to attend Rally South Australia, part of the Australian Rally Championship, held in the beautiful Barossa Valley. I have often been told how great an event this is to shoot but was not expecting to be able to have shots from two jumps and a water splash by lunch on the first day! The weather was sensational a bit cold at night but clear and warm during the day. Rally SA have a terrific spectator area, which is intersected by 4 rally stages during the day. The action is also played live onto huge screens. Over 17,000 people attended and that’s not including all the ones we kept encountering all over the forest.

For the first day I was lucky enough to tag along with an old friend, Joel, who is the official snapper for the ARC and rally.com.au. This was Joel’s 5th Rally SA and he had spent a day driving the stages on recce looking for new places to shoot from. We spent all Saturday chasing the top 20 cars around the forest, which was great fun although we did some serious walking weighed done with gear. The hike up to the top of the ridgetops stage was something Joel had wanted to do for some time so we set off to see what it was like. It really reminded me of a Rally Finland kind of stage with its pine trees and undulating road which promised the possibility of some of the faster cars getting some big air. Sure enough the zero car came through and got a little then Simon Evans came next and flew. Eventual rally winner Steve Glenney was probably the most spectacular as he was airborne for what seemed like ages.

Day 2 and I was up early to get into the Eden High stage. Taking a gamble I walked into the stage for a while until I spotted a couple of orange ARC media vests. It was Justin Deeley and Juris Pusins, two of the best motorsport photographers around, and really nice guys too, so I knew I was onto a good thing. We stopped at a nice looking jump, which was heavily backlight but would give a really nice lighting effect. Always looking for a different angle Justin then proceeded to climb a tree above the jump!

After the top 20 had gone through it was time to move on to the next stage but it was then that I got one of my favourite shots from the weekend of a local EVO but in a beautiful backlit light. The rest of the day was then just more of the same, jumps, water splashes and sunshine. Thanks to all at Rally SA for a superb event. It really doesn’t get any better and I’ve already booked my accommodation for next year.