Crikey, it was cold this morning, with -10 degC showing on the thermometer, as my shaking, frozen fingers, fiddled with the camera settings for this unique event, over 400 years since the last happening.

All told the results were not too bad, but as expected a long'ish exposure was needed, which tended to burn out the highlights. After using several shutter speeds, and taking a dozen or so pics, I decided to upload the image shown above.

Unless some new wonder drug appears, I do not think I will be around for the next winter solstice lunar eclipse!

What do you mean you want a job doing in 10 minutes..?

With 14 inches of snow between the cars on the drive and our side-road, and then another 100 metres to the main road covered by almost the same amount of snow, a four-wheel drive on snow tyres would have been needed!

Roll on the summer...

Teesside Karting

As races go the one held Teesside Karting at the weekend, by some of the former rivals from the 2009 Warden Law Thunderkart series, was a classic.

Over a 40 minutes race our Hayden-Media and Karting Magazine driver, James Hayden, making a return to the track after a 12-month absence, became involved in a superb fight for the lead between eventual race-winner Daniel Laws, and 3rd placed finisher and Warden Law champion, Craig Brock. James was more than happy with his 2nd place after such a long absence. All three had led at some point during the last 10 minutes, with Daniel just taking the win over James by 1.272s, with James 0.161s ahead of Craig!

With my last race, because of injury, being two years ago now, when I took part in the Wembley 24-hour meeting, it almost made me wish I had been part of it..!

Cracking stuff guys!!!

Tristram and Lynsey

I had the privilege of covering the engagement party of former kart racer Tristram Oman, and his fiancee Lynsey Stoddart at the weekend, in an excellent gathering of friends and family in Stockton-on-Tees.

Back in 2004 I reported from Sharm-el-Sheikh in Eqypt, when I covered the Rotax World Finals, where Tristram had won all his heats and the pre-final, took pole position for the main final, only (as predicted...) for him to be 'taken out of the race' at the first corner. It was the only way he would have been beaten, because in a honest, straight-forward fight, he was unbeatable.

It has to be said that Tristram was the sort of racing driver who had the ability to achieve more success had he not become a team boss instead.

Andrew Lancaster

It is with immense regret that the death of Andrew Lancaster was notified to me on my return from Monaco. Andrew had been the victim of a building accident in Bradford, when he was buried under a pile of rubble at a construction site after a trench wall collapsed.

Andrew was one of those charming, unassuming characters, who once told me he was quite happy to take a back-seat, and stay out of the limelight, in his bid to help his younger brother, Jon, reach the highest levels within motor-sport. Jon, of course, competed in World Series by Renault in Formula 3.5 this year with Fortec Motorsport, and with his foot in the door of reaching his Formula 1 ambition, both he and his family have been devastated by this accident.

Words can mean so little during moments like this, but our thoughts are with all of the Lancaster family at this sad time.

Monaco 2010

The 14th Monaco Kart Cup got underway this weekend, and my 'room with a view' delivered the above scene when I opened the curtains this morning, after the Star Princess had moored on the jetty just inside the harbour during the early hours.

As far as the racing goes, qualifying and some of the heats were held under a hot, sunny sky, although the clouds that threatened rain after gloomily appearing across the top of the mountains, thankfully failed to produce the anticipated downpour. The evening forecast for the remaining heats and finals on Sunday (tomorrow) though leaves a lot to be desired...

Early indications in all three classes (Endurance/KF3/KZ2) on todays evidence remain too open to predict, although Jack Hawksworth in KZ2 looks very quick, as he bids to overcome a mechanical failure in the first of his heats. It was also pleasing to chat to Oliver Rowland, who is also appearing in KZ2. His dad was due to come to this race to watch Oliver in action and he will be sadly missed.

Dave Rowland

Details remain unclear, but the sad news this weekend would suggest the passing away of Dave Rowland, father of Oliver, the 'rising star' in karting signed by McLaren Mercedes, to follow in the steps of Lewis Hamilton.

Dave was a great bloke, very friendly, and obviously a strong supporter of Oliver's racing career.

We, as a family, used to race against Dave back in the mid-1980's in 100 National, and have followed Oliver's career closely ever since he was a young Cadet kart champion.

Our thoughts go to the family at this sad time.

Vicki Butler-Henderson

on behalf of Karting Magazine I had the pleasure of meeting Vicki Butler-Henderson at the weekend, who really was one of the most charming people I have ever met. With a true passion for motoring exotica, and the faster the better, Vicki is highly entertaining to listen to when she speaks of her work.

To car and/or motor sport aficionados Vicki does not need any introduction, but her time on leading TV shows such as Top Gear and Fifth Gear (the latter's latest series is due out in October next month), means she has been able to drive and race some quite exquisite cars. And from this she has brought out a new book for the Christmas market "100 Sexiest Cars - The Hottest Hundred" by Carlton [ISBN: 978-1-84732-638-6].

Her favourite? Well the Bugatti Veyron came 3rd, and the Porsche 911 Carrera S was 2nd. For her top car you need to buy the book, and with a signed copy on offer in a Karting Magazine competition next month (November issue), this is the chance to get a personlaised copy before opening any presents on Christmas morning.

Norwegian Adventures

Add the Queen Mary 2 ocean going Cunard liner (not a cruise ship folks...), to the stunning Fjords around Norway, makes for a superb scenic view. And yet in spite of its vast size the floating majesty is dwarfed by the mountains, some as high as 1,000 metres that surround her. And with the ever-present cloud layer rarely clearing the summits, what better view could a landscape photographer ever ask for?

British Grass-Track Championships 2010

For the third year in succession I covered the 2010 British Grass-Track Championships near March in Cambridgeshire, on what was one of the hottest days of the year so far.

With sun-burnt calves, whilst trying to dodge the dust as I kept the sun behind me, the tractor and 10,000 gallon water bowser was used to spray the dusty track. The dampened surface worked well for the race immediately after the dowsing (see pic above), but after that the dust returned.

With former European Superstox champion, Ivan Russell, on hand to present trophies to the seven classes, congratulations must go to the youngster Scott White, who went on to win a British title for the third year in a row, whilst 90cc graduate Harry Hensby won the junior 4-stroke 125cc title.

Beautiful weather greeted the competitors for a round of the Super 1 Championship at Rowrah in Cumbria over the weekend. After five wet meetings from the last six, race day on Sunday made it two dry races in a row. Cumbrian weather will have to be careful - I might need sun-cream..!

Superb racing, spoiled only by the odd pedantic protest, came from all four classes, with Mark Litchfield reigning supreme in Formula SKF. The PF International entered former British Champion was untouchable - fastest in timed qualifying, winner of both heats, and winner of both finals. A boring day at the office for Mark.

Jacob Nortoft in KF2 continued his winning ways from his race win at Genk in Belgium a few weeks ago, when he took control of his class for a well-deserved victory. The junior KF3 category meanwhile fell to the Racing Steps Foundation supported youngster, Jake Dennis, whose international experience in 2010 is clearly being put to good use on home turf.

And finally in Cadets it was Tom Harvey who showed he could sustain serious pressure from his rivals, when he kept all and sundry at bay on his way to the chequered flag, to maintain his Series points lead.

The drive of the race though came from Dylon Phibbs in KF3, where after a disaster in timed qualifying, and two similar 'disasters' in his heats, meant he was confined to a low grid slot. To then be able to care his way up the running order, reaching 6th place by the flag in the main final, as he put pressure on the driver immediately ahead of him, was quite impressive stuff. Another lap or two and 5th place was on the cards. The young racer just needs to start from the front now...

Le Mans 24 hours

Anthony Davidson, together with his team-mates Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene, drove a stunning race yesterday in France, when they came close to a podium finish in the Peugeot 908 HDi LMP1 car.

Anthony had led the race at one stage, but a night incident with a Ferrari, and then an electrical problem that took some time to fix, delayed them for awahile, until Anthony, in the sole surviving trio of team Peugeot's, was told to "push"... and "push" he did! Sadly what appeared to be a turbo failure with just 2-hours remaining, when Wurz had Audi under pressure for second place, ended their day.

Naturally there was controversy, when a back-marker GT2 car decided to visit the barriers in the Porsche Curves, and since Anthony was blitzing the Corvette driven by Emanuel Collard at the time, the commentators and forums provided some unjust commentary and statements.

Scruting of the TV footage clearly shows Anthony was not only very quick and setting fastest race laps, but he was also on the racing line, and on the inside of the Corvette as they went into the left-hander. As a journalist, I would have reported how the Corvette driver should have been aware of his position, and the fact he was being lapped again, but instead lost control on the 'marbles' and hit the barrier.

Anthony receved plaudits from his team for a superb effort, whilst others berated him for his supremacy on the track. "I'm a racing driver," Anthony said, "and I had to take a few risks." And racing drivers are paid to win, if necessary by taking risks, and are not paid to acquiesce with an 'after you...' mentality.

Well done Ant..!

The pleasure of photography comes from having a good subject (or subjects), and delivering a result that makes a client happy.

I had the pleasure of doing such a job this week, where the two sons of a proud mum wanted both indoor and outdoor (a glorious sunny day in the beautiful contryside outside Bradford in West Yorkshire) photographs taking.

Having to handle a camera for a living can be such a hard life..!

David Sutton

One of our leading lights in motor-sport, David Sutton, a former British kart champion, accepted an offer to race in a round of the Euro Max karting championship this coming weekend, at Wackersdorf in Germany, using an Alonso Rotax powered kart.

Our Dutch contact in Germany, Bas Kaligis, reported just how quick David was in practice as he prepared for qualifying, where David had in fact set the fastest time of the week so far, until a fateful session yesterday.

On what is probably the slowest corner of the Wackersdorf track, David was struck by another driver as he overtook the slower kart, which pitched his own kart into a roll. David's mechanic Ben, who was out with him, felt if the accident had happened on a quicker part of the circuit, David would probably have been OK. As it was, the kart flipped on top of him and this has caused a lot of physical distress to the British ace.

Reports this morning from the hospital in Germany, would suggest that David is unlikely to be allowed to leave until Monday at the earliest. He has broken ribs on both sides of his body, what appears to be a fractured shoulder, a broken wrist, and air on one lung that is being monitored. For a lean, strong, and tough driver like David, who looks the 'racing driver' part, he no doubt owes his fitness to not being in worse shape.

Get well soon buddy!

Karting greats Past, Present... and Future..?

Round 4 of the WSK Series at Genk in Belgium over the weekend bore witness to one of the greatest kart drives, when the 15-year old future champion of Formula 1, the little Dutch ace Nyck De Vries, dominated the mighty of the 'blue riband' Formula SKF category.

The 1993 British Formula A champion from 1993, Mark Rose, of Mark Rose Motorsport, who now runs Hazz Truelove in Formula KF3, is happy to claim that De Vries is the greatest kart driver he has ever seen... and Mark's driver selections over the last 20 or so years have been rarely wrong.

See with Mrk above is Nyck, together with the two Truelove brothers Matt and Hazz, who finished a fine 8th overall in his own final.

Hairy stuff in Genk..!

Lucile Cypriano of France provided early action in the opening laps of the final Formula KF3 heat in Genk, Belgium this morning. It is good to see that despite being airborne and rotating left, she has the presence of mind to have full left lock on the steering to try and control her direction..!

Ricky Flynn Motorsport driver Nicolas Beer though is controlling this class at the moment, and after another heat win this morning is now in a good position for this afternoon's main final.

WSK Euro Series - Genk, Belgium

Gloomy and overcast conditions started the weekend for the penultimate round of the 2010 WSK Championship Series, but this did little to stop a good start for the British contingent, when Ben Cooper won the opening heat of the Super KF formula.

Driving for the Kosmic Racing team, Ben took his Kosmic-Vortex to a solid win, crossing the line unchallenged for the first of his three heats. He currently lies in sixth place in the Series on 45 points, and all is not yet lost, although it will be a hard task to close down on the top 3 who are quite a few points ahead of him.

York Railway Museum

It has been many a year since I last visited the York Railway Museum, and must be one of the best 'free' places to visit in Yorkshire.

The 'Duchess of Hamilton', from memory, was not in residence the last time I was there, but images of this sleek, streamlined steam train was needed by a customer, who also wanted to be in the final pics. As those are of a personal nature they are not shown here, but I liked the view of the 'Duchess' from the front, which I felt gave a striking and dramatic impact.

A trip to the York Railway Museum should be on most people's list, and not just for the railway enthusiasts.

From the Archives

How karts have changed over the years..?

Whilst looking through some archived images I came across the above pic of yours truly, when I made my race debut at Fulbeck in Lincolnshire on novice plates (or what is now more commonly accepted as being a 'rookie'), in the 100 National class.

It was a scorching hot June day in 1984, and the kart was my brothers' (Andrew and Kieran) Premier chassis (from the late Brian Wilson stable) using a Parilla TT27 engine on Bridgestone tyres, and which was fresh from a race win at Wombwell the previous month in Andrew's hands.

It was a traumatic day as I had only been able to get in five laps practice the previous weekend at Lindholme before an engine problem intervened on the older TT22 motor. The problem remained on the TT22 for first practice when the engine refused to start, and so we switched to the race-winning TT27 for the second session, only for one of the more experienced green plates to spin on the first lap and wipe me out! I was able to re-start, and with the grand total of three laps to learn the track, plus the five laps from Lindholme a week earlier, I was into my first race!

Starting 29th I finished 11th, and then in the second heat after starting on grid 30 (all novices had to start at the back of the grid), I finsihed in 10th place. With no experience, but with two good results against the class opposition of the time, I was on a high, until Andrew found a fracture in the chassis that we could not repair.

The fracture obviously came from the earlier 'hit' at the chicane in practice, but unknown to me it had also kinked the rear axle. When Kieran subsequently drove the kart at Wombwell the following week he declared it undriveable. He asked me if I had felt a vibration at Fulbeck, which of course I had, as I remembered how my blurred eyes had watered from the vibration, but I thought that was normal..! No experience remember, I just thought that was what karters put up with. I'm pleased to say young bruv was quite impressed by my latent prowess!

Fun days.

Zuera 2010

OK, maybe a bit of artisitic licence has been used, but my frustrations at not being able to go to Zuera in Spain for the next round of the WSK series, will be evident from those who know me. Up until early this morning my evening flight with Ryanair from Stansted still seemed a possibility, but then the weather problems made even that an impossibility. And even if I had, somehow, been able to get to the track, the problem would have then been trying to get back.

At least there are a few benefits by not being able to travel to Spain today, and decorating the house is not one of them. Eurosport has Jon Lancaster's first race of the year in the WSR Formula 3.5 event tomorrow (after a 22-hour drive to Motorland Aragon in Spain), we then have the Chinese GP on Sunday, and I have a load of requests from Glan-Y-Gors drivers to see if I have any images of them from the last Super 1 round a couple of weekends ago. Leading TKM driver Randal Lynn has even made a tentative offer to race with 'Hayden-Media' logos, so that is something esle that I now need to look at...

The next WSK race is at Genk in Belgium next month. Perhaps the ash will have cleared by then..? If only to stop me having to suffer from cancellation charges..?

Glan-Y-Gors TKM Super 1

My season opened in North Wales last weekend with the TKM (and Honda Cadet) round of he 2010 Super 1 Championship, at the pictureseque G-Y-G circuit, where some excellent racing was on offer.

To say it was a bit chilly on the highest part of the circuit was perhaps an understatement, and with the distant mountains covered in snow, apparently from a snow fall just a couple of days earlier, maybe an extra thermal or two would not have gone amiss..! And after coming back from Asia just a couple days earlier where the temperature had been closer to 40 degC, instead of the 5degC at G-Y-G, maybe I had good reason as I struggled to avoid camera shake!

Randal Lynn (pictured) had an accident with Charlie Bruce-White in Extreme TKM when both had been fighting for the lead, leaving the way clear for Ryan Cole to take a closely fought win. Over in Honda Cadet meanwhile Billy Monger was a worthy and ecstatic victor, with James Peace (Junior TKM) and Michael Rich (Senior 4 Stroke), mounting the top step of the podium in their respective classes.

Zuera is next on the schedule in two weeks time in Spain, for another round of the 2010 WSK championship, so further news to follow soon...

Top Step of the Podium

Well, it's been a long time coming, and because of a sojourn in Asia I have been away for awhile so this Blog update is later than it would otherwise have been, but Anthony finally returned to the top step of the podium after winning the Sebring 12-hour race for Peugeot.

Teamed up with his Austrian ex-F1 friend Alexander Wurz, and the Spanish ace Marc Gene, the three of them won a tense and exciting race, with Anthony overjoyed at being in charge of a 'proper' racing car again.

It was curious at the weekend when commentating for 5 Live in the Malaysian GP, when Ant and David Croft received a text suggesting Anthony was criticising Force India..? Whilst he would no doubt wish to be able to get into such a car, and would arguably be quicker than either Sutil or Liuzzi, the fact remains that the Peugeot LMP is, as Anthony put it, a "race winning car", and that is the difference.

Anthony signs at last...

After being left stranded in the wilderness by short-sighted Formula 1 teams, especially where years of loyalty to one team since 2001 have counted for nothing, it is satisfying to report that Anthony finally has a race-seat sorted for 2010.

He did test for the Peugeot sports-car team in 2009 at Paul Ricard, but despite his rapid pace he lost out to a Frenchman at the final reckoning. Thankfully the Peugeot bosses have recognised the talent in their midst, which led to Ant being signed to drive in this year's Sebring 12-hours, and the Le Mans 24-hours. He will be partnered with his old Austrian friend Alexander Wurz, and the Spanish ace Marc Gene, in what is not just a potential race-winning LMP-1, but also a race-winning driver combination.

It was about time some good news emerged from 2010...

2010 plans now settling into place

The new 2010 Yellow Pages directory will be out soon, anticipated for February 2010, when my new advert (see above) will appear for the first time.

With the plans in place 2010 promises to be a good year, and once the racing season calendar has been settled, you are likely to find me setting-up shop on spare days, either at The Range near North Bridge in Doncaster, and/are at the Lakeside Outlet on the outskirts of Doncaster close to the M18.

Do not be afraid to call in for a chat, or to even view what is on offer. With the latest digital wedding albums that few people in the area can probably match for the cost, together with canvas prints, exclusive limited edition prints, and images 'burnt' into wood, courtesy of my networked colleague James Scatchard of Photo-Etch, most people should find something different that might tickle their taste buds.

PF International test with Jon Lancaster

It seems like a long break over the winter months, with the recent heavy snow having an effect on events nationwide, but it was satisfying to be able to get to PF International this weekend, as part of the Jon Lancaster family team.

Jon's 2010 season should be settled early next week as he puts in place exciting plans for this year, with potentially Formula 1 just on the horizon. And nothing could be more befitting than Jon, who ain't so 'little' anymore, when bearing in mind his race-winning seasons in Renault World Series 3.5 (2009), European Formula 3 (2008), and European Formula Renault (2007), which of course followed his highly successful final year in karting in 2006 as the Vice World Champion.

Jon has retained close links with Ronnie Sala at Birel, one of the leading karting marques of the 21st century, and as a means of keeping Jon's eye sharp in preparation for his 2010 season in Europe, Ronnie, along with his former karting engine man Fred and GKS Lemmens, had provided a brand new chassis and engine for the PF International test.

A full report will appear on http://www.jonlancasterracing.com/, but needless to say, Jonny Boy had an exciting time back on the karting season after almost a four year absence.