The MRF Challenge – Racing Event – Feb’14

Racing brings the technological superiority to the fore that goes behind the performance of any automobile. Be it the lubricant oil, fuel, engine, brake, ….  tyre, et al..,

For MRF, the Formula 2000 Racing is a laboratory to do the litmus test on the tyre. A milestone to pomp off !  A cheer, for me as a person working in MRF.

If you know what to tune, you can bypass your peer! A precision up the notch, does make your knife hotter to cut the cheesy competition ahead and make the push forward. So, the folks who race, have the prowess in churning out the best of the products that stand out in the market.

For me  as an employee @ MRF and as photographer by hobby, I make sure not to miss the race event at NAMMA Chennai. Its a five hours bus journey for me.

Since the year 2010, as a regular to the MRF racing events, it’s a ground for me to hone in an additional spice to up my learning curve in clicking a photograph that stands a notch higher in my archives.

What I have done so far in race photography?
I have succeeded in taking sufficient number of panned shots of MRF Formula Racing cars.

What is panning?
Panning is a technique in photography which, if done right, would give a crisp image of the racing vehicle in the foreground and a blurred background. The racing effect on the vehicle gives a dramatic effect to the photograph. This is done by moving the camera in tandem with the speed of the racing car / bike. Panned shots were usually clicked by professionals using DSLR cameras. 

The haiku for yours truly is that, I learnt to churn out panned photographs of racing vehicles using my ordinary digital camera in its Auto mode. NOT AN EASIER TASK THOUGH! So much of trial and error have gone in this interesting experiement over the past few years.  Now, making a successful panned shot is a cake walk.

Got this panned photograph after trying some 25 clicks of the high speed cars racing on the track this time.

In the initial days of trying out panned shots, it was almost impossible, to get a good panned photograph. The factor of improbability did gave me a loaf of thrill to do more and more tries, to get that good panned photograph. Now, it has become easy, so is the thrill in clicking, which has got diluted a bit.

I now wanted to do something new.

What now?
Why not click a reverse of what I do in panned photography?
Let the racing car appear blurred in the foreground. Let there be a crispier background. Lets see if such a photograph looks interesting…

“FujiFilm F770EXR” recently got to be a family member with me. This is a bit advanced point & shoot digital camera bought a few months back. It has a Manual Mode option which invited me to play some new experiments during this event. In the manual mode, I have the option to fix the shutter speed and aperture.

I attended this MRF Challenge Racing event on 15 and 16 Feb’14. So, after initially roaming around the MMRT race track, having talked with few race marshals, learned to recognize the difference between the F1600 and F2000. F2000 is a little fatter boy as well a faster chick.

So, decided to fix a spot near the finish line and planned to do my experiment to get a dramatic photograph. The spot I choose was the one near the finish line.

As the race car sped past the finish line, I clicked my camera.  Many a time, there would be no car in my frame. Realized that these cars are more faster than what I thought. It was really tough to capture the car inside my frame. As I pursued in clicking few more photographs, I managed to get the nose of the car. Some times, the tail end got captured.

After a number of tries, finally honed the craft of discovering the split second wherein the speeding car would be inside my frame. After a few efforts, I succeeded to have the car inside my frame.

WOW!

It was time, I had clicked sufficient number of pictures successfully. All these have been in the camera’s Auto Mode, I went back through all the clicks to understand the shutter speed and aperture taken by the camera. Realized that, the camera was taking around 1/320 seconds as its shutter speed, and aperture at around 4.

Now, how about playing around the Manual mode of the camera? Its gonna be a first time experience. It was the time when last two laps have been on the go. I then switched the camera into manual mode. Got to set the shutter to 1/320 and aperture to around 4. It was really a "butterfly in stomach" moment.

Since the final lap is going to end in a couple of minutes, it was a moment of adrenaline gush in me. If I fail in this experiment, I need to wait for an year to do the next try. There were no option either for me to do sufficient number of tries. While I was ready, the last but one lap was on the go. I managed to click two cars, but there was no time to review the result.

It was the grand final happening. I just clicked the first car when it neared the finish line. A bit of confidence in me, and divine intervention got me to successfuly freeze the first car of the grand final lap as its nose just touched the finish line.

The spurt in the mood of the cheering crowd in the back ground spiced up the drama in this picture. A first experiment that succeeded, an additional feather on to my cap.

A memorable experience indeed !

Hey, where are the other photographs ? I hear you asking.

The photo log of the whole racing  event is available at my Face Book album here. Though its too many number of photographs there, I am sure you would fret if you do not have a look. Please log into facebook and enjoy my racing photography.

The year 2013 experience

GREAT BECAUSE


MRF Formula 2000 Racing Event got me the perfect to clicked my camera to the utmost to my satisfaction. 

Achieving a panned shot of the speeding race car with an ordinary digital camera is a challenge. Successfully achieved it. The above is the result of a panned shot of the Formula 2000cc car I clicked with my point and shoot digital camera - FujiFilm JZ300.

Got that golden half minute to get a click with the Managing Director of our organisation MRF during the race event.
 

That was a great memorable shot because my former boss and current boss are there in this frame. 

A click with Mr.Narain Karthikeyan, the fastest Indian on the Earth!

 

Bought a new Point and Shoot digital camera F770EXR through my colleague Peroumal Ji. This camera is an advanced P&S camera with a 20X optic zoom and since it is not available in India, my colleague helped me to get it from the USA.

My photography skill got mentioned in my organisation MRF - A click of my bike tyre went into the annual corporate presentation with a mention of me. Got me noticed in higher echelons of my career life.

Reviewed a yet to be launched Royal Enfield #Bullet500. Finished 2500 kms over a period of 20 days. Took it on an arduous long four day 1710 kms trip, riding the bike through four states in south india along with some interesting hard core riders. Clocked my longest ride of 647 kms through 3 states in a single day.

 

Luckily got invited to the SUV offroading initiative of Audi Chennai on the Q type of Audi cars.

Driving the sophisticated luxury car was a great experience.

Covered Offroading of Renault Duster cars. It was a great time to get introduced with the thrilling group of adventurous group - "Jeep Thrills".



 

My interest in Bulletering has now spread in my family which ended in buying one more Royal Enfield Bullet 350 (1994 model) for my brother.



 
SAD BECAUSE

Shri.Rajendra Ratnoo IAS, the then District Collector left from Cuddalore subsequent to him being transferred to Chennai. This happened in Dec 2012.

A great experience working with him in sprucing up social media initiatives for the improvement of my town Cuddalore way back in 2012. 

 This was during the kick starting of social media initiative in "Rebuilding Economy and Ecology of Cuddalore"  post the devastation due to Cyclone Thane

That was me alongside Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam which was during the kick start of Social media initiative for "Plastic Free Cuddalore".

A sad time that after Shri Rajendra Ratnoo IAS left our district, his wonderful initiatives could no longer realize its intended fruits. Had he stayed here for a few more months, the Cuddalore district would have been a fore runner in total implementation of Zero Waste. After he left, the projects got handicapped. Cuddalore is back to the bad old days of banned plastic being used every where and garbage being dumped in river bodies. 

Projects such as banning plastic and implementing zero waste system in such a big district would need a couple of years time. But before the fruits reach the people, this bureaucrat was shifted to the state capital. The sprouting of the seeds sown by him had withered for want of care. 

Though this bureaucrat is an expert in implementing environmentally conscious initiatives, his expertise has gone un-utilized by the government. He has been shifted to departments which are not related with to improving the environment.
 

One of my photographs was stolen and used for commercial purpose by Bike Basix,  an Ahmedabad based company selling commercial merchandise.

 without any credits or monetary benefits to me.

Now welcoming 2014 and expecting it to be a more interesting one...

MRF International Racing Challenge 2010 - My experience

Racing consists of both High speed and Endurance test for the tyres to be put to the toughest of conditions, be it heat and traction to the tyres. A race track has straight stretches which witnesses a top speed of around 150 kmph and the sharp turns which invite abrupt braking.

MRF International Racing Challenge 2010
So far, I happened to get myself glued on viewing those speeding race cars on the TV channels. But, hearing those loud tappets thumping alive out of these powerful race engines at just 10 feet away is really a thrill. Apart from the Formula 1600 cars, there were modified cars and three different kinds of bikes taking part in this race.

This racing event which happened at the Madras Motor Sports Club's Race Track at Irungaatukottai was wholly organized by my organization MRF. It gave me enough fodder in terms of high speed cars for my hunger to do something anew in my favourite of the hobbies called photography. So far, my camera witnessed catching interesting moments of few geeky events, travelogues, portraitures, photo walks involving street photography and musings at home. But catching a moving race car had not been my fodder yet.

There is a technique called panning which involves moving the camera along with the high speed race vehicle and simultaneously clicking it. If done right, the fast moving car appears frozen and the background appears streaked. If done wrongly, everything in the photo appears frozen which kills the racing effect in the picture. Though a race track is a lab for the tyres to get through the acid test, this "MRF International Racing Challenge 2010" was a classroom for me to learn this photography technique.

The trip.
As an employee of MRF Tyres, I got few gallery tickets for the Sunday(14-Feb'10) event. If I was sitting in a gallery and viewing this race, I would not have been able to quench my thirst for photography. Luck kicked me through Sundar Sir, who informed me that there were some race events and qualification rounds scheduled for Saturday. I started from Cuddalore at 4.00 a.m. on Saturday and reached the race track at about 10.00 a.m.


This is the entrance to the race track premises, going further straight inside leads to the pit and the tower. Getting to your left leads to the gallery.


There are different types of passes which allows entry to specific zones inside the race track. I have only the gallery pass, that too for the next day. So, I was stopped midway and not allowed to go near to Pit and race track.
But luck favoured me...
While entering, Sundar Sir noticed me standing out side, he had invited and taken me straight to the pit.


While entering the racing stand, bike race (600 CC category) was going on. First time in my life, I happened to hear the loudest decibels of the race bikes at close quarters. I stood near the fence and clicked a few pics.

So far, I am not that much a fan of Ajith. Though I am not a movie buff, his films Aasai and Vaali had made enough of unforgettable memory in me due to his apt performance.


Clicking this pic I could see enough of charm, he has in his psyche.




Though watching this sport gives lots of thumps on your adrenaline, there are risks involved in it. Alas the more the risk, the popular it is. Myself got to witness a race driver getting injured after he got thrown away from his vehicle cruising a bend.

A satisfying moment for me was that I succeeded in these two panned shots of the 600CC bikes. But this was achieved out of some 150 clicks




The podium waiting to garner the winning race driver.




The flagging off.


This bike is the Soft Bones category and are the slowest ones on the race track. Somewhat it was boring.


That is Formula 1600 whiz kid Ashwin Sundar aged just 19 and a nice person to have a pep talk. Sundar is one of the top Formula racing driver.


That is Actor Ajith's autograph.


Standing on this podium gave me some sense of satisfaction, just freezed those moments.

I requested Sundar sir to stand in front of podium.

Formula 1600 cars getting ready for the qualifying round.


For the race drivers, the competition exists only on the Track while they drive their vehicles. There is a strong gentleness and bonding while they are off the road. Seen here is Ajith having some moments with Ashwin.


Yup, Ajit has got a macho style in his walk. I enjoyed his presence there. I too got to become a fan of Ajith from now on.


Somewhat lucky to get this panned photo.


The race cars getting ready in this area called "Pit area". There were some 50 people working hard to get those 10 Formula Cars ready for the racing events.

Very expensive spare parts and Octane fuel is ready for usage

That is India's First Formula 1 Driver Narain Karthikeyan mentoring the upcoming Formula 3 driver Ashwin Sundar. Both are very gentle men to move around.

Padma shri Narain Karthigeyan surrounded by college girls…….

Mr.Isaac Prabakhar of MRF with his family members with Narain Karthigeyan.

Thats Mr. John Williams of MRF with his daughterwith ace driver Mr.Aswin Sundar.

Mr.Soman Jospeh of MRF, Manager Advertising is in action. Vehicle cannot escape from his sight.

A winner relishing his winning moments.

Video

'Super salon' type of cars giving the adrenaline gush.

Formula 1600 cars, super salon cars(Esteem), 600CC bikes, modified 100CC bikes and soft bones category of bikes are the different type of vehicles which took part in this event. These vehicles travel at different speeds and it was at first a challenge for me to get used up with these race vehicles.

My camera has moved little faster than this car.


Here I have moved my camera a bit slower than the car.


That is a TV crew catching up with the drivers after the race was over.


Racing has its own risks. In this case, the driver is lucky that he had lost only the door of his car and not his limbs.


This arch gets the logo of the organisers. That is, our MRF is the organiser and it carries the logo. This arch at the Madras Motor Sports Club was originally conceived and installed by MRF way back in 1986. The design of this arch is based on the popular Nylo Grip tyres (two wheeler) of our MRF.


It was off-race time slot and myself got the luck to peep into the race track and get this click. Its years that I got to see this arch with MRF logo in photographs, various movies and in various visuals at my organisation, but this day I managed to freeze this arch with myself in the frame, really a cloud 9 moment for me.


Closer look. No. No. Giant look of the MRF Nylogrip tyre pattern.

This is the second day at the race track.


He is my brother. He got mesmerized to get a glimpse of the racing machines from such a close quarter.


Its always not that all men succeed with their machines. His machine failed midway.




This is during the second day that Ajit came with his wife Shalini and their cute little daughter Anushka; making their way into the race track.


The cute little Anushka gave a nice moment for my camera.
What a charming face !!



Hope that Anushka be the first female formula driver for team India in the years to come.


Mr.Murali seen with Actor Ajith and Shalini.

Hey Anushka, this is Dad's toy not yours, Shalini seems to tell her kid.


Thala, getting set to go.

Seems that expert inputs getting inculcated to this Formula Car driver.

Mr.Sirish Vissa seen discussing with Actor cum Race driver Ajith

The cheer girls...

The race is to start. Cheer girls coming in to the track to protect the Formula drivers from the hot sun ( >:( Is it required!! as they already wear an helmet to take care of them?).
Still these cheer girls are equally the crowd pullers like the formula cars.

Got a successful panned shot, but my camera has travelled a little faster than the car.

The vintage cars gave some soothing moments on that hot day.



Video


A cat walk by the Vintage cars. Hope the owners are very rich people strong enough to spend on maintaining these golden chicks.


During the lunch break, there were some dance and song programme. Having clicked the high speed vehicles, freezing these dancers on the air had got to be a child's play for me.
An experience!!

Ready for the flag off.

That is Sundar sir and Simon sir.


A candid shot of Simon sir.

Video

The awesome high speed chicks making the thunders. Once these chicks went past the starting line, I got to smell the long awaited perfume of the burnt rubber.
A refined smell indeed!!

There were 10 laps and I started to catch as much panned shots as possible. Below are some of the wonderful panned shots which I finally succeeded to make out of this event.

This above pic is one of the nicest panned shot I ever got. You can see the clear MRF logo on the car and the much distorted MRF logo in the background.

Alas this photographer has somewhat added a nicest feather in his cap.
Hey, "Have you done that panning technique?"
Haaaa.

If you too are interested to do this panning technique, please get to know of it here
Come on lets go together for the next racing event. This is a simple technique that could be achieved even with the simplest of the digital cameras.

Thanks to friends of Chennai Photography Club whose inputs got me interested in photography.

On the first day of the event, I actually got shrugged off from trying the panning shots. I had crossed some 500 shots, but could not find out how the panned frame was successfully achieved. I somewhat left the pit area and was planning to leave the track premises. After that, I had a short telephonic talk with Rupya Ganesh who motivated me with the simplest of the things to be done while doing the panning. Hi Rupya Ganesh thank you very much, a bit of your motivation laid in me a strong confidence to do the shots. I once again had gone inside the pit area and continued my shooting.

Video

Alas, I have got a video for you to know first hand how panning shots are taken by photographers.

The return of the dragons.

Of course, the success of a motor race depends on the 4 bests. i.e. Tyres, Car Tuners, Machines (Cars) and the Drivers. And all four should equally match.

The making of a race tyre involves a lot of permutations. Making of these formidable tyres does carry with it a lot of research, design, development, follow-ups, trial & errors, sleepless nights by my colleagues and a lot more things. Finally a bright and superior brand called MRF.

Usually, tires when subjected to a multiple number of races do get to fail. In the Sports channels, I have noticed some of the tyres getting burnt, but I have not witnessed any such incident here. Of course right permutations have gone in designing these tyres. The enduring tyres did their very best without any failures for the multiple races and won the laurels of India's first Formula driver Narain Karthikeyan.

Of course the tyres we race are the tyres you buy!!

Myself got clicked with one of the MRF Race driver. You may notice me with a darkened complexity. Out of awestruck moments at the race track, I was roaming all around on both Saturday and Sunday under the Sun and had skipped lunch with managing an ice cream a day and few bananas. So the effect of the sun on my skin made me darker. Back at home, the effect of the heat drew me damn tired and it took 6 days for me to retain back to my normal health.

Caution: If you are in similar situation, please try to avoid direct sunlight. But if you want to catch nice photos, its not the right decision to stand in under a shadow. So wear a cap. Do not skip your lunch.

The momentos awaiting to be garnered to the winners.

Our MRF's Managing Director Mr.Arun Mammen and Advertising head Mr.Antony Rodricks.

MD of our MRF Mr.Arun Mammen




Finally the orgasmic moments for these toughest of the drivers who made the WIN.

Seen here are INRC Champion 2010 & MRF talent driver Gurav Gill and MRF veteran driver Arjun Balu along with MRF Racing Champion Aswin Sundar; enjoying the winning moments.

Some more videos for you to cherish.

Video

The modified bikes making their plunge out from the pit

video 132

The modified bikes making out the fights.

Video

The high speed bees called the formula 1600 cars

Video

The modified cars "Saloon Cars" making their way out of the pit

video 146

The saloon cars racing on the track

If not for Sundar Sir, I would have been sitting in the gallery. I would not have got the chance to catch all these photographs; you would not have got the feast of these pictures and videos in this blog.
Thank you Sundar Sir.

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Camera used: Kodak EasyShare C140
Plus few pictures I got from Sundar Sir.
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Catch on some more pictures at my flickR collective: here