On Sunday 8th June I went off to Silverstone to take some photos at the Renault World Series event.

This is the second year I’ve been, last year’s was held at Donnington Park in Leicestershire. Tickets are available free of charge via the World Series website. It runs over both the Saturday & Sunday & there is racing the whole day long on both days. Given that it’s absolutely free, it’s a great day’s entertainment if you’re into motorsports. There’s also lots to do if you don’t want to sit at the trackside watching cars whizz past ever 2 minutes.

There is a ‘FamilyCity’ with a kids play area, F1 simulators & various other things to look at or try.

The event is formed around the Formula Renault 3.5litre series, much like the F1 series they have races in various countries. There is the Formula Renault 2.0litre & Formula Renault UK. Then for a bit of variety they also have a Renault Megane series & a Clio series.

I spent time experimenting with my shutter speeds. I took some 1300 shots during the day and used shutter speeds from 1/1250 right down to 1/30th of a second. The hit rate with the slower shutter speeds was lower but really slow shutter speeds doesn’t half give lots of movement blur on the background. I had to bin around 250 shots straight away due to the cars being too blurred from the slow shutter speeds.

Between races they have various historic Renaults.

They also get a Renault Formula 1 from the previous season to do a few laps for the crowd.

It was the first time I’ve ever been to Silverstone. The journey is quite straightforward for me, M1 & A43. Sadly, Silverstone is not as friendly towards photographers as Mallory or Donington; there are high fences around a large section of the track. I spent the whole day shooting from inside the circuit as it was the only place I found where the fence was lower than me. I think I was on the section between Bridge & Priory. I didn’t get a chance to walk the whole track to see what other vantage spots there are.

During the latter part of the day this aircraft buzzed the circuit & several times a helicopter took off from the middle of the track to do a few circuits before landing again.

And just one tip if you’re thinking of going to a similar event; remember the suncream! I didn’t and got burnt.