There, seemingly an age ago, I got this direct message via twitter inviting me on a photowalk at JapFest in Mondello Park. It was…unexpected…to say the least. But I thought, what the hell, I’ve been complaining about being bored with the flowers, no kites, lousy weather and all that nonsense, and motor racing photography is otherwise, tough to get into, i.e., I hadn’t tried.
I figured this was an opportunity of a lifetime, or a year at least and thanked the little angels who suggested it might be worth sending me an invite. That’d be Rymus and McAwilliams I think.
I have long had a love/heartbreak relationship with motor racing. As far as I’m concerned, the rally drivers are the centre of the universe and for much of my twenties I was head over heels in love with Mika Hakkinen. I’ve been a fan of McLaren since I was 15 years old but Formula 1 is currently like an old lover whose socks you don’t particularly want to wash. Seems like 20 years since there were arguments over the breakfast as to whether Alain Prost was a better driver than Ayrton Senna or not, and why exactly, Ferrari were shit.
Oh wait. It is twenty years. Sucks to be me.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, me and Redmum drove down to deepest Kildare – oh heck I’ll have to dig out the directions again – to take photographs of the motorsports. I promptly did in my knee again plus it was raining bloody heavily. I tried to get cool photographs of the Promo Babes – mind you first we had to ascertain that Redmum wasn’t one when we went through security cos her name wasn’t on the list at the time. But we smiled sweetly and anyway she was on someone else’s list eventually. Did I mention it was raining? No? It was raining,.
There were about 20 of us there and I am not going to try and list everyone because I’ll definitely forget someone and they will unfollow me on twitter or something. Which reminds me Stephen I still owe you for those filters by the way.
I brought iCrumble with me because two of the guys begged me. I think there were about 6 girls there and the rest were de boyz. Everyone liked the apple crumble.
Anyway, as you do, I wandered around and took a few photographs which you can see here. I’m not going to say which was my favourite one. We had iCrumble, sandwiches, and stuff…and swapped lenses. Al hid John’s camera. We all modelled the Blue JapFest hi-vis jacket and I thought about a) how my brother would have loved to be there, just to hang around and have the access that I enjoyed that day. I mean I could go everywhere. In a way, I’m sorry we grew up so far from places like Mondello and karting tracks. That was his life and he followed it through magazines until he died at the age of 19.
I took pictures of the Coca-Cola girls and thanks to the rain, they weren’t great. I tried to take photographs of the internal carpark but it didn’t work. I tried to pan and failed. For someone who does kite photography, this is a bit…weird but that’s me. Never let it stop me. I went into the museum and played with the colours, lusted after an E-Type. Talked to a friend on the phone. Came back and looked around some more. Got another of the photographs I had in my head before I left. Went home and left my hat behind. McAwilliams and Damien Mulley eventually got it back to me at the Pixies last week.
Mondello had invited us in to do the photographs, see what we came up with, choose one to win a prize. I was sort of up to my eyes in the run up so I never quite got around to getting a copy of Car to try and remember what looked good in car photographs. McA said he practised panning his daughter on her bike. I think I read Neil Watson’s blog and that was about it for pre-event research. I also have memories of the cover of Car Magazine in the 1990s.
So after a week or so, I sorted through the photographs, chose five and sent them off. Mondello went off and found a judge and let the whole lot of us fester in pain and angst and longing for a while. In the meantime, I started learning to climb, got various good and bad news, wound up in Cork, at work at crazy hours, and frantically finishing a First Holy Communion bag – don’t ask – and basically, motor-racing was a long way away. Eight of the lads went down for Mondello Masters last week. I couldn’t go because I was supposed to be in Sligo with the kitesurfers.
Together with the decision to start climbing and my general tendency to try to do crazy things lately (there’s a reason which I won’t go into but amongst them I did plan to go to San Francisco for 2 days leaving yesterday), I did toy with the idea of looking into getting lessons. I don’t, however, need to do this any more.
See, there was this tweet this evening at around eight pm which broke the hearts of a lot of men. Good looking men too, but broken hearted all the same. If it broke their hearts though…well let’s just say…things are very happy here. Very happy here.
This photograph, you see…
this photograph has just won me a trip to Race School at Mondello Park. No. Seriously. Here are the details. And here’s what I won.
Needless to mention, no one was answering the phone when I found out this evening. 
Since then though, my parents are utterly stunned and delighted for me, as is my sister who knows (it’s the middle of the night for the other one – she’s heading for a shock in the morning though) and all my friends, the ones I got on twitter and on Skype. And I still can’t completely believe it.
So I don’t know yet when it’s going to happen – I hope it doesn’t rain because I want to light up the track that day. I really do. If only for my kid brother because he’d have killed for the opportunity if he were still here.
I have to thank a bunch of people here.
First up, John Williams and Ryan Whalley who probably put me forward for the list. John Fair and all the staff in Mondello Park. All the guys and girls who came along. Michael Chester who was the top secret judge who chose my photograph. The guys who modelled and smiled and talked to me that day. The rain for stopping long enough for me to take the photographs here and there.
I also have to thank Danny O’Brien who left a comment on my photoblog which was the reason I included that photograph in the selection. I wasn’t so sure about it myself at the time…He’s got great taste, better than me anyway