Last year we covered a lot of motorcycle racing, and at many of those events Tony Goldsmith was the man swinging a lens for Asphalt & Rubber. We asked Tony to share some of his favorite snaps from 2016. We hope you enjoy them. -JB
As we look forward to the 2017 season I thought I’d share some of my favourites images from 2016. Above, the eyes of a man after a very fast lap at the Isle of Man TT.
My journey to Macau for the 50th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix didn’t get off to the best of starts. I had just boarded my flight from Madrid to London, and discovered my tablet and laptop were missing from my bag.
After a few moments of panic, I came to the conclusion that they must have been stolen. I had spent three hours in the lounge at Madrid – someone must have taken them then.
It then slowly dawned on me what happened. When going through security, I had taken the laptop and tablet out of my bag as normal. After scanning my bag the security guy wanted all my camera gear out of the bag and sent me back.
I have no idea what makes Madrid security different to any other I have ever gone through, but obviously I wasn’t going anywhere if I didn’t do as instructed, so I emptied my gear into several trays and sent it back through.
Once everything was cleared I packed all my gear back into my bag, but left my laptop and tablet behind!
This gallery of photos came with a note from photographer Tony Goldsmith, apologizing that I was just now getting them, and also that they weren’t his usual “Gold Standard” of quality.
It turns out that when Tony left Valencia to go to Macau, his laptop took a different trip at the Madrid airport. This means that Tony wasn’t able to process his shots after the Macau GP ended, and also explains their late arrival to Asphalt & Rubber.
If you ask me, they look pretty damn good…as usual. Tony is a true talent with a camera, if you haven’t noticed already. I’ll let him tell the tale about this year’s Macau in the comment section though, but if the rumors are true, the full story involves a circus seal, a tube of toothpaste, and a pair of galoshes. -JB
