Motor sport photographer, Lyall Chinnery, talks about how he made his start capturing images of racing cars
So, you want to be a photographer — photographing racing cars and travelling around the world sounds like a wonderful lifestyle. True, but I didn’t think of it like that until a friend of mine — Des, who owns a camera shop — put it to me in that manner after some beers late one night. The next day I found myself moving into the basement of his shop; I was on my way. A hundred dollars or so later and I had more bench space than I needed to position my enlargers and developing tanks.
Bitten by the Shutter Bug
However, before I go any further, let’s go back in time to my high school days. There, I discovered that I liked art, right up to the point in the fifth form when I ended up with a teacher who saw abstract art as the bees’ knees. So, when someone said that photography was available as a trial subject I jumped at the opportunity. The course turned out to be great, and I did well.
When I left school at the end of that, my final year and joined the work force, initially I didn’t give photography much of a thought. I had money, mates, and then the motorbikes started to turn up along with a competition licence — although that subject is better left under a mat. Suffice it to say that after a not so graceful way of getting off a bike at speed I had a visit from my grandmother while in hospital. And it is totally her fault that, once again, I was bitten by the bug; albeit a shutter bug. All it took was a few magazines. One concerned model planes — that was close, I almost took up flying! However, the other magazine — a photographic journal — had the most impact, particularly an article on photographing racing cars.
Encounter with a Cooper-Climax
As a young fellow, school holidays had given me the chance to go places. One such place was Matatoki, a little place between Thames and Paeroa. The farm I stayed at was owned by a friend of an uncle, and there, in a barn, was this old race car — a Cooper-Climax. Wow! This was fantastic. I mean, I had been to the track and watched racing cars at Pukekohe, Levin and Bay Park during Christmas holidays — they were great times, but I never got into the pits.
So when I saw that Cooper, my eyes popped out of my head. Here was a racing car minus its bodywork. I could see everything — the motor, springs, space-frame and, yes, I had to leave some footprints on the car’s frame as I climbed into the Cooper, sitting in the same place that had been taken by many famous drivers before me. I grabbed hold of the steering wheel — which seemed to be two miles wide — and I almost won the race but for the small problem of my uncle yelling come on boy, time to go.
I took a quick, final look back at the car from the barn doorway as I left — the Cooper looked more ghostly than anything else, sitting in the corner, dust that I had disturbed sparkling in the sunlight from the barn window. So, right from an early age I was fascinated with racing cars.
Making History
Back to photography — it is rather funny how things start. The car I owned at the time did a front wheel bearing, forcing me to limp into Kihikihi to a garage. And in the corner of the garage was a Midget racer that was being built. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up crewing for the guys who ran this Midget. That also gave me the chance to get out in the middle of the track, and after a while I started to sell some of my photographs.
As these were weekend sessions at the speedway I still had a full-time job, but I was now taking a lot of photographs at the speedway and at motocross events. The speedway drivers I would see at the next meeting, but it was more difficult tracking down the motocross guys in order to sell them a few photographs.
Since those early speedway days, I’ve been away from the serious side of motor sport for 20 years or so, but I still reckon it’s all about talking to and meeting people, both young and old, and seeing the history of past years, or getting that shot of somebody who could become part of the history that still has to be written about New Zealand motor racing.
Words and photos: Lyall Chinnery
This article is from Classic Car issue 224. Click here to check it out.
