Winnaar Hoofdprijs in Sarthe Endurance Photos wedstrijd!

At the end of March 2023, I received the news that, just like in 2017 , I had won a prize in the Sarthe Endurance Photos competition. This is a major photo competition organized annually by the Sarthe region around the 24 Hours of Le Mans. My winning photo of the #38 Jota Sport Oreca 07 LMP2 was my shot. For this photo, I deliberately positioned myself behind the track marshals and used a slow shutter speed to create an orange haze. To achieve this, you have to move very steadily with the car. The added challenge was that from that vantage point, I couldn't really see the car approaching. You could hear it and maybe see a radio antenna or a rear wing peeking out from the barriers. But otherwise, I had to mostly just use my intuition to control the movement. It's still fantastic that it resulted in this photo and that the jury recognized it.
But for a long time, I didn't know what prize I'd won. The awards ceremony was held while I was traveling in England. So finally, the evening after the ceremony, in my hotel room next to Tower Bridge in London, I saw that the website had been updated: I'd won first prize in the Day (Jour) category, which is for action photos taken during the day!

I'm incredibly proud of this, of course; it feels like a bit of recognition for constantly trying to improve and come up with something special. And with my prize, my visit to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, the 100th anniversary edition, will also be a very special one. So expect a special report on that too!