Classic cars at Winton Raceway, Victoria, Australia

There was Winton happening under uncertain late autumn skies. I was armed with the GX7 with the 12-32 and 45-150 lenses.

I hadn't photographed a car race of any kind for about 30 years. Had the old hand lost its cunning? We were about to find out. 16 pix.

Just as we entered, a race was hitting the first corner! Click, click, click!

Then it was the classic car show we looked at.

Classic models of classic cars.

Classic? A DS utility truck??? Some Australians have no respect! Pop-up flash put some light into the shadows on the dark side; without it, this pic might have been pretty darned black. Pity about the green flare spot on the wheel arch, obviously coming from the super highlight on the windscreen.

Austin Healey 3000. Pop-up flash opened up the shadows and gave the pic a lot of "life".

What a lovely radiator and emblem thing.

Ha ha -- life on the farm! I used the pop-up flash to put a little light into the shadow side of the subject. It boosted it nicely.

Say what? Sublime!

Elfin-Holden V8. Lambo performance for a fifth of the price, proudly proclaimed Bryan Thompson, the owner, former driver of all sorts of racing machines and truck dealer. I should have used the pop-up flash to put some light into the black grille.

Ridiculous! Brockbank drew a delightful cartoon when these first came out showing a pedestrian kicking it out of his way.

Some of the drivers were nearly as old as their cars! A pre-WWII MG driven by a WWII baby!

Fun with the electronic shutter! Brockbank used to put a lean lkke ths (but more so) on his cartoon cars -- he was copying from old photos taken with 5x7 Graflex cameras which had a focal plane shutter which took bout 1/10th of a second to traverse the film and so produced a stretched or compressed image just like the e-shutter does taking 1/10th to scan the sensor.

Austin 7s battle it out. The green machine was a genuine factor supercharged model, I was assured (it startled us when it took off t the start with its acceleration), while the home made special behind it had superior suspension and handling.

Muscle cars go, go, go!!!

Yay -- the old hand hasn't totally lost its cunning. I set the shutter to a moderate speed, set IS to vertical only, not horizontal (you can do that with both Panny and Oly cams), prefocussed on a section of track, held the focus with the back button, then set my feet so they were right for the end of the pan, and twisted to capture the cars then pan with them. This one is close to perfect -- a Holden Torana v.1. My bro, who is the car racing expert in this family, reckons that color was called Yellow Dolly; I actually owned one when they came out and I swear it was called Yella Terra. With a 186 six cylinder engine, three big stromberg carbies, extractor exhausts, and all the good gear, they used light weight and better handling to beat the Ford Falcon V8s and the Chrysler Chargers for Australian touring car supremacy back in the day.

Not quite right for focus but two interesting cars -- a Hillman Imp that looks even more toy-like today than it did back in the day, and a Chrysler Charger with the big 6 Hemi engine that gave the Toranas and the Ford Falcons a run for their money but in the end, lost the race.

White on white, Mustang and Mini Cooper, at the finish. I deliberately kept the shutter speed low to give an impression of speed. I over did it. Too low. About 1/300 or 1/350 would have been better.

The start of the last race as we prepared to leave. How many different makes can you spot.

With the varying cloudy and sunny light, I spent a lot of time switching from Standard to Vivid mode. Worked pretty well.

An interesting day pootling down memory lane. I recognized some of the cars; they were new when I was a petrol-headed lad. Now I don't even own a car or motorbike! LOL.