Plum Pudding races, Mallory Park

Boxing Day circuit racing has returned to the UK after a one-year absence, as Simon Wood (Crossed-up) has already illustrated with a couple of cracking shots in The Gallery. It was nice to catch up with Simon during the morning, although my day was subsequently rather compromised. I was using the K-3 at a racetrack for the first time (with Sigma 100-300) and also had the K-5 IIs for wider-angle/close-range duties (with a Tamron 17-50, freshly acquired from the Bay of E). I hadn't been there long when I noticed strange black spots in the K-3 viewfinder. I soon realised that these were actually in my left eye - and my left-side vision began to blur quite rapidly. The circuit medical centre had no eye-testing kit, so at lunchtime I opted to leave and drove straight to A&E at Moorfields in London, where the initial prognosis suggested a retinal tear and, possibly, permanent damage. I was summoned for am emergency operation yesterday, but the consultant had a good old probe before concluding that the retina looks OK and that I have suffered a haemorrhaged vessel that will hopefully clear of its own accord in a week or three, although I have further tests pending. In the meantime, I'm adjusting to using my right eye to frame a shot - and it was interesting that a number of photos were initially way off-centre. Anyway, that's enough ocular nonsense: here are a few shots from a brief day at the races....

1 - Commitment (K-5 IIs)


2 - Peculiar diversity (K-3)


3 - Exuberance (K-3)


4 - Contrasting headgear (K-3)


5 - Contrasting lines (K-3)


6 - Clio lane (K-3)


7 - Equilateral triangle (K-3)


8 - A decent crowd underlined that there are far better things to do on Boxing Day than rushing out to save £50 on a new sofa (K-5 IIs)


9 - Unhappy Christmas - he'd led through the first corner, but crashed at the second (K-3)

Lets hope that you get the eye issue sorted Simon.

A great set. I normally put the K3 on wider glass to make use of the resolution and the K5's go on the longer glass.

Best regards

Simon

A typically good set, and another lot of great captions. I hope that your eye is sorted out quickly.

Best wishes
Phil

Great set as always Simon. Unlike your self, I completely missed all the off track excursions, and despite the almost continuous exuberance of number 66, I didn't nail one decent wheelie shot either

I hope all goes well with the eye. Be getting away early you at least missed the rain and snow, and the queues of sofa shoppers at Fosse Park!

Hi,

Great set of photos from the plum pudding.

Myself and a mate were racing in the big bike class and wondered if you caught any pics of us.
No 90 blue & black bike
No 113 white & black bike

Cheers.

Great shots in what must have been trying conditions.
Hope the eye improves very soon.

Thanks to all for the kind words about both photos and left eye. Vision hasn't improved over the past 48 hours - but it hasn't got any worse, either. Hopefully I'll have a better understanding after another trip to the vet this afternoon.

@Mark Wood: Mark, I'm sorry but I don't seem to have anything of you or Gordon Scott individually - by the time racing started I was more concerned about my eye than trying to take shots of everything. That said, you both appear in the image below. I missed the accident of rider 111 (Aaron Bradley) because he had a huge lead and I thought the second group of bikes would make a better photo. As I focused my attention in that direction, I heard the sound of Suzuki sliding on asphalt and knew I'd just missed a shot of the leader hitting the deck...

Good Luck at the docs Simon!

@Mark Wood (no relation?), I was also there shooting and have had a dig through my shots. I found a few, although they aren't the best from the day by any means, but I've stuck them in a gallery here if you want any of them.

Thanks for the pics!!
Cheers
Mark.

Hope the eye gets sorted soon!