For many motorsport photographers, we start shooting circuit racing at a grassroots level and over time build connections and experience before moving up the motorsports ladder to higher levels.

While the level of racing, sponsorship, and media participation increases as you move higher up the ladder, the core basics are usually the same: around 2-3 practice sessions, a qualification session per race, and then a race which usually runs anywhere between 40 minutes to 2 hours. 

This means that the cars are on track for around 5-6 sessions over the course of a race weekend. During this time, as photographers we are required to photograph the cars of our clients from different angles to provide the widest coverage possible. 

Different circuits have different levels of accessibility and can be faster or slower to move around, at the end of a typical race weekend the average photographer will have moved to around 5-6 spots around the track and also captured shots in the pitlane and garages.

This results in a lot of work over a short period of time and can result in some significant fatigue by the time the racing ends on Sunday especially if you are working for multiple categories.

Endurance Racing

For endurance racing, however the number of sessions increases with sometimes as many as 6-8 practice sessions across the Friday and Saturday before 3 sessions of qualification on Saturday afternoon.

Then depending on the length of the endurance race the entirety of Sunday becomes race day.  At the recent Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour for example, the cars completed practice over the course of Friday and Saturday morning, completed 3 rounds of qualification on the Saturday afternoon ending at 5:30pm before the 12 hour race started at 5:45am Sunday morning. 

This presents a unique challenge for photographers, the total number of sessions increases which means a longer period of time for us to capture the required images, meaning a lower amount of fatigue and stress right?

Well no, not exactly. Race day presents in own challenges to the constantly changing conditions of the race, for many this includes sections of the race that are at night, sunrise, daytime, and sunset. Each of these conditions presents unique opportunities and challenges and due to the length of the race we often have to work for incredibly long hours. 

Take for example the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Saturday Top 10 Qualification (Q3) session finishes around 5:30pm after which we go back to the media centre and often spend 1-3 hours captioning, editing, posting, and delivering images to our network of clients, often not leaving the media centre until 8:30pm, we then have dinner and head back to our accommodation to sleep.

The race starts at 5:45am the next morning, however we photographers often arrive as early as 4:00am to make sure we have time to get our gear set up and to move around the circuit to a place that offers the best photographs for the 30 minutes or so of darkness, as well as the 45 minutes of sunrise.

Therefore we often set our alarms as early as 3:30am to have time to get dressed, and travel to the circuit. 10:00pm to 3:30am before working through till race finish at 5:45pm before the same 1-3 hours of editing afterwards. For a 12 hour race, this means we are working for a minimum of 15 hours straight in all manor of conditions, including Heat, Wind, Rain, and sometimes even snow. 

This all sounds pretty intense, and that's just for a 12 hour race. Many of the most prestigious endurance races around the world are actually 24 hours in length: Daytona 24, Spa 24, Nurburgring 24, Lemans 24, etc. These races often see photographers awake for up to 36 straight with often minimal sleep for the weekend. 

Therefore don't be surprised to find photographers asleep in all manner of places, in their cars, trackside, or even the media centre floor. Likewise, due to the lack of sleep and fatigue, take it with a grain of salt if another photographer, marshal, or official seems a little cranky, they've had just a little sleep as you.

However, there is no comparison in the level of satisfaction and achievement that both the photographers, teams, officials and organisers feel when the chequered flag is waved and the final car crosses that finish line. 

If endurance racing is something for you I strongly advise you to give it a go, but be warned it is not for the faint of heart.