Good morning everyone,

So as last year I was able to join this event in the neighbour country, France.
The FFSA GT4 (French Federation GT4 championship) is a racing series that races Grand Tourism category 4 cars like Aston Martin, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Audi R8's and even Alpine cars (quite used in France, actually).

This is a quite nice race because the cars fit the track. And also because a part from this series there are lower series racing together in this event, so you dont get bored of it.
The track is from 1933 and it has a couple of fast chicanes and even on one side it gets across an airport track that was added later.

This time I was able to understand how to arrive to places I was wishing I knew how last year, and others I did not but I walked them anyways to check what I was able to see from there.

The event goes 3 days (I was able to join 2 days only) and its quite popular in France. Last year they had as lower series the Renault Clio Cup which was spectacular, this year they raced other series like the French Tourismes Series (TC France).

So here some of the pictures, I hope you like them.












Oh! And this time I got to photograph some accidents ! (not my fav part of racing but when nobody gets hurt like in this occasion, its a plus for imaginery variety).















Both drivers walked their way out and luckily with no injuries.


Almost a full secuence of another incident on Sunday's race,














Adrien Tambay in the grid, before someone crashed on him (he was driving the yellow Audi that was pushed into the barriers)










Here Nico Prost with his team mate, they won Sunday's race. (yes he is Alain Prost's son)






Something "weird" I have not seen in Spain but in France is that they add some sticks or whatever you call them to limit the track limits, and usually there cars hit them and kick them and destroy them, and well I got the exact moment when an Audi decided to cut a corner and kick it out of the way








One more mistake from the Aston Martin we have seen before making a mistake, one day earlier.








As said before there is not only one racing series on this event but 5 and so the TC France also races there, and it was also fun to watch on sunday




You can call it a Peugeot Series almost xD










That one I never got it right as I was panning and never expected it to happen



And here I see the car coming towards us so I decided no pics until I am in a safe space,








Okay back to the GT4 Pictures





























[img width=532 height=800]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51238173904_4df3b7ebab_b.jpg[/img]










I have pleeeenty more images in the flickr albums linked there, so feel free to check them out, and if you like the images i'd happily post more.
Please remember all rights are reserved and those images only belong to me. And that if'd like to get a print from me you can always check this link Dani Gonzalez

A part from that just adding that this was my first race after testing the K3-III coming back to my K3-II and K3 and I can say there is a big difference in working with those or the K3-III that usually uses to nail focus. I mean you can work with the K3-II and K3 no problem, but knowing you'll miss some shots. Like the 2 first images of the accident I show here are not sharp at all they miss focus, while maybe using a K3-III they'd been in focus.

Now I see I never uploaded the Saturday Race images in Flickr so will post some more images in a future post here

A part from that, yes Pentax CAN photograph motorsports, as you know already.

I hope you like them,
BR,

---------- Post added 06-10-21 at 01:04 AM ----------

So, Saturday pics here we go !!












Aurelien Panis, son of Olivier Panis (1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner in Formula 1)



Saturday Winner's hug

[COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added 06-10-21 at 01:04 AM ----------

I've also forgot to say pics are taken with both Pentax K3-II and Pentax K3 SIlver + Sigma 17-50mm f2.8, Pentax DA* 50mm f1.8, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f2.8 and Sigma 100-300mm F4.
BR!

[red5isalive]

But wait !!!! Because there is more !

There were 3 more categories racing there !
Formulas, Funyo they call them, and GT Cars Free category for amateurs. That last one had a Subaru, maaaany old Renault Clios, a Volvo sponsored by Peugeot, and even older cars like a Peugeot 306 from mid 1990's !

I just took pictures of all those ones one day each but let me share some images here also

Those are the GT Cars Free category



Two renault Clio's fighting and overtaking



There were cars that even could compete on the TC France category like this beautiful Peugeot 308 TCR





That one was sounding great





Those ones I shoot them on Sunday because they were the last race on Saturday and I had no idea what they where so I just sit as an spectator to check what those where and I was impressed! I really really liked it so decided on Sunday I should be there shooting them and also decided to try to check new spots while those cars where racing, so it seems it worked.

Then some pic of the Formulas I took on Saturday. Saturday early morning the track was a bit wet still from the raining from Friday. As on Friday it really rained in a heavy way.







And then the Funyo category









Ups...


















BR

[red5isalive]

Bump it up

[ToddK]

Another great series of shots Daniel! I think I could spend all day looking at them. Thanks for sharing them!

[red5isalive]

Another great series of shots Daniel! I think I could spend all day looking at them. Thanks for sharing them!

Thanks Todd,
Glad you like them,

[wtlwdwgn]

Wow, you had yourself a great weekend! It never hurts to be in the right place at the right time when shooting motorsports!

[red5isalive]

Wow, you had yourself a great weekend! It never hurts to be in the right place at the right time when shooting motorsports!

Thanks Steve! Yes I have enjoyed it

Indeed! When you find the spot, things use to happen And of course it does not hurt at all

[mroeder75]

Did someone postulate that Pentax is not a sports camera? This is all the proof that it needed. Great series.

[red5isalive]

Did someone postulate that Pentax is not a sports camera? This is all the proof that it needed. Great series.

Thanks mate,
Thing here is people gets confused. You can shoot whatever with a camera. Or at least a DSLR.
Just the thing here for me is: with one or other gear it will take you more time or shooting to get the picture you are looking for.

If you just sit there and all of a sudden you will to turn on the camera and point it into the object and shoot and get a perfect frame, then you are wrong (not You, you know), but if anyone practices a bit with the gear we have, Pentax works for everything. We know AF is erratic so it won't work all the time, it might take you three shoots in getting the images not blurry but once you know how does your gear perform, you will work on that.

So yes you can do motorsports with Pentax, it is a bit more tricky than with other brands (i have tried with Canon and Nikon) but it works. Also the new camera (K3-III) is far way more accurate in AF and I felt it like being closer to what a D500 user gets (yet the buffer is an issue on the Katie3 (K3-III) anyways).

Thanks for passing by,
BR,

[bogdan255]

I enjoyed every pic from here! Even those with the accident.

Thanks so much for sharing!!

[red5isalive]

I enjoyed every pic from here! Even those with the accident.

Thanks so much for sharing!!

Thank you very much

Glad you liked them

[mroeder75]

Thanks mate,
Thing here is people gets confused. You can shoot whatever with a camera. Or at least a DSLR.
Just the thing here for me is: with one or other gear it will take you more time or shooting to get the picture you are looking for.

If you just sit there and all of a sudden you will to turn on the camera and point it into the object and shoot and get a perfect frame, then you are wrong (not You, you know), but if anyone practices a bit with the gear we have, Pentax works for everything. We know AF is erratic so it won't work all the time, it might take you three shoots in getting the images not blurry but once you know how does your gear perform, you will work on that.

So yes you can do motorsports with Pentax, it is a bit more tricky than with other brands (i have tried with Canon and Nikon) but it works. Also the new camera (K3-III) is far way more accurate in AF and I felt it like being closer to what a D500 user gets (yet the buffer is an issue on the Katie3 (K3-III) anyways).

Thanks for passing by,
BR,

I had a nice sports photo, too.

That said I sent your link to my brother-in-law who was a volunteer at Elkhart in Wisc. about 40-years ago, and he really appreciated your photos. He had some great photos from his era as a volunteer so many years ago.

[red5isalive]

I had a nice sports photo, too.

That said I sent your link to my brother-in-law who was a volunteer at Elkhart in Wisc. about 40-years ago, and he really appreciated your photos. He had some great photos from his era as a volunteer so many years ago.

This is awesome thanks

I have been volunteering since 2007 and still do but everytime is less and less. I mean we made a great grup of guys but I have the feeling that I need to give photography a go and let this aside and maybe come back later on. Its been 14 years and a lot of races as volunteer so I also know a lil bit this part of Racing. It is great, you get to know a lot of different people and at the end of the day you are trackside watching what you like

[Sailor]

Great fun and great series!!!

Jer

[red5isalive]

Great fun and great series!!!

Jer

Thanks Jer! Glad you like them