Over the Fence winner

The RallycrossWorld.com ‘Over the Fence’ photo competition for fans taking pictures from the spectator area at events has been won by Briton Steve White who bagged this action-packed shot of Marcus Grönholm two-wheeling his Best Buy/OMSE Ford Fiesta at Lydden last August.

A relative newcomer to photography, White uses a Canon 500D and an EF-S 55-250mm lens. His winning picture was caught at 1/1000sec, f5.6 with an ISO setting of 200. We chose Steve as the winner because the shot is technically strong and exemplifies the kind of action that we all associate with Rallycross – as well as having that element of good luck, being in the right place at the right time, that we all need.

“I often watch from North Bend when spectating at Lydden as the Supercars frequently cock their wheels on the entry to this corner, however Grönholm really raised the bar for spectacular corner entry on this occasion!” said White. “I consider myself specially lucky to have got the shot as, about five minutes earlier, I’d realised that the camera had been on completely the wrong settings and most of the pictures I’d taken were awful! (Lesson learned: check the pictures you’ve taken more frequently!). I’m glad I checked the camera as this was definitely one of the most impressive bits of car control I’ve witnessed at first hand and I’d have been gutted to have missed capturing the moment. 2012 will be my second full year of DLSR usage and motor sport photography. It’s been an interesting learning curve so far and I hope to continue improving in years to come: I suspect it’s going be sometime before I get another picture like this though!”

As his prize we have invited White to work with the RallycrossWorld.com team at the British round of the European Rallycross Championship in April and we’ll feature a photo essay by him after the event.

Steve White caught Marcus Grönholm on two wheels at Lydden. © Steve White/RallycrossWorld.com

There are also two runners up in the competition, Belgian Johan Hendrickx who bagged a fine shot of Ludvig Hunsbedt flying over the kerbs, also at Lydden, in last year’s ERC round. Pole Wojciech Sobiecki chose an unusual high vantage point for his rear view of Sverre Isachsen on the verge of his third European title at Słomczyn last September.

[portfolio_slideshow]