Monochrome Monday travels back to the Le Mans race circuit in France in the early 1980s as I continue the exploration of my black and white negative files.
This is Team Bike leaving the pits after a nighttime pit stop. Photographed from across the track I like the way the rider departing the pits and most of the pit crew are silhouetted with light on just one of the pit crew and the rider who just finished their stint.
This a my day 30 contribution to Becky’s April Square Tops photo challenge and a follow-up of sorts to my day nine contribution.
A thank you to Becky for a fun month of squares. Given that our internet connection was flaky at the start of the month and I ended up in hospital a week ago I’m amazed that I only missed one day.
This is Beeston Castle on top of a sandstone crag in Cheshire. The lines across the sky ar star trails. If I recall correctly this is an 100 minute exposure taken in the middle of the night. I was one of the volunteers protecting a Peregrine nest site on the cliff face below the castle.
This is my contribution to the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Nighttime.
I decided to go with a random selection of nighttime photos covering over 40 years.
Wybunbury churchyard at night looking out onto the main road through the village. Part of an art school project in the late 1970s.
Moonrise through an Oak tree in Hatherton, Cheshire. I’m not sure when this photo was taken, it’s possible that I was still in high school.
Snow and hoarfrost covered farmland by moonlight. Photographed near Punnichy, Saskatchewan in the late 1990s.
Night racing during the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle race in France in 1982.
Stars over Colpoy’s Bay and the Niagara Escarpment a month ago. I forgot to change the alarm when the clocks went ahead in the spring so was down on the shoreline an hour and a half before sunrise.
This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Number and in this case the number is 59 during the first weekend of April 1982.
That was the race number for Team Bike in their first World Endurance Championship race, a 24 hour motorcycle race at the historic Le Mans race track in France.
Number 59 makes a pit stop in the middle of the night. The bike is refueled and the oil level in the motor is checked while the riders discuss something and a French official uses a torch to watch the pit crew.
Number 59 enters the start/finish straight at around midnight. 9 hours into the race, 15 to go.
Number 59 makes a dawn pit stop. Tyres are being checked to decide if either will need to be changed on the next pit stop while being watched by multiple French officials.
This is day 26 and the last Sunday of Becky’s January Squares: Light photo challenge so I’m going with a shot taken in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
This is a Team Bike pit stop at around 3 o’clock in the morning. One of the pit crew is using an inspection light to check the oil level in the engine while a French official uses a torch (flashlight) to make sure the British are following the rules to the letter. I’m using inspection light although they’re known as a trouble light in Canada.
This is my Saturday, day 18 contribution to Becky’s January Squares: Light photo challenge.
I picked this photo because it was taken at 11:10 p.m. on a Saturday night according to the giant clock at the end of the pit lane. Two taillights heading up the start/finish straight at the Le Mans race circuit during a 24 hour motorcycle race. The race started at 3:00 p.m. so just over eight hours, or one third of the race down.
This is my day four post for Becky’s January Squares: Light photo challenge.
A rider enters the start/finish straight at around midnight during the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle race in 1982. Even in those days most endurance race bikes ran twin headlights but this machine is competing in the silhouette class where the race bike has to have the same silhouette as the production machine it’s based on. So a single headlight and only minor modifications allowed.
Nine hours down, fifteen to go.
