Tag: Alan Healy Memorial Rally

Last weekend, we were at the Alan Healy Memorial Rally held at Cadwell Park. Spectating this event is our top priority as motorsport fans; photographing the action is our second priority. It’s an easy slip to reverse these priorities, but I held to my mantra.

As a spectator, photography is my hobby these days, not a job. Put me on the other side of the fence, and if you will excuse the pun, I will focus on the job at hand, capturing motorsport action in a professional manner.

This is our review of the Alan Healy Memorial Rally organised by the Border Motor Club. As I’ve eluded to, all of the images have been taken from the spectator side. We produce these reports for the benefit of the spectator photographer that would like to get a head start when visiting an event.

If you are looking for results from the rally, we don’t do that. However, here is the championship points table after the Cadwell Round.

	Name	Car	Points
1	Michael Igoe	Citroen C3 Rally2	414
2	John Griffiths	Skoda Fabia R5	404
3	John Stone	Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2	373
4	Chris Woodhouse	Peugeot 208 R2	358
5	Michael Jowers	Ford Escort MK2	348
6	Chris West	Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit Car	342
7	James Garner	Darrian GTR+	291
8	Alasdair Stables	Vauxhall Chevette HSR	278
9	Stephen Johansen	Subaru Impreza	278
10	Nigel Wetton	Subaru Impreza	256

There were four of the Pistonclick team out at this event. Three of us have worked in a professional photography capacity at some point in our lives. One was just starting her journey; all of us paid to enter the event and have no affiliation to any of the organisers.

Alan Healy Memorial Rally preparation.

A few nights before the event, I was able to download the stage maps and study them. You can find the maps on the MSV Cadwell web page for this event. I did this to plan my visit to the Alan Healy Memorial Rally. Which is the penultimate round of the Protyre Circuit Rally Championship (CRC) 2024/25. As I reviewed the maps, I was pleased to see that there had been a big change to the stages over the previous few years.

Utilising all of the available rallying space on the CRC has been one of its unique features. Using circuit service and access roads of tarmac, gravel, and grass, the competitors will have to deal with many different surfaces on each stage. What this means for the spectator is that you will not get your regular circuit layout. Therefore, it’s a good idea to plan ahead and check out the stage maps. 

For this year’s Alan Healy Memorial Rally, a large part of the paddock had been turned into part of the stages. This has been done in the past but on a much smaller scale. For the spectators, the new larger paddock stage was a vast improvement. There was much more space to watch the action, which there was plenty of. 

Small jumps, tight turns, and sprint sections — it had it all. As a motorsports photographer, the new layout gave me plenty of different places to photograph and watch the racing. All of the fans that turn up these days are motorsports photographers; just about everyone has a smartphone. I think they were also enjoying the great views of the cars. Just about everyone around me was filming, so there was probably plenty of rally content being posted to FaceSpace, Click Clock, or Irrelevantgram.

Spectating 

Talking of the fans, there seemed to be less of them this year. It might just be me; I didn’t count them, or more likely, it could be down to the new stage layout. The paddock stage did give an enlarged viewing area, so maybe the fans had spread out more than in the last few years. 

The Mountain

Whatever the reason there was plenty of space to get close to the track. I was therefore happy strolling around the stages, stopping to shoot and watch the rally unfold. Heading to the Mountain I again found plenty of room to watch. This part of the circuit is a great spot to see the rally cars. A natural amphitheater, and when the sun is out, there are few better places to be for a motorsports enthusiast. 

For the first few stages, the cars were going the wrong way round the track. The Mountain may not be high, but it’s certainly steep. This steepness probably had something to do with the rapid deceleration / unexpected tyre wall interface by one of the cars. Righted and moved out of the way by the orange army, it sat around looking very second-hand for some time.

Hall Bends

Hall Bends is a close second on my favourite places to stand list at Cadwell Park. You can’t get much closer to the action than Hall Bends. In fact, there are very few places in the UK that will allow you to get this close to the track. 

The stages ran both ways along Halls. During my visit to this part of the track, the stage was operating the wrong way. It’s refreshing as a photographer to be able to capture the cars going in a different direction than usual. So, I made the most of it, trying out different spots.

Park Corner

When we arrived at the track in the morning, we went straight to Park Corner. This was another place that was being used in the opposite direction than is normal. Hence why we went for the first few stages; it would change to the correct direction in the afternoon. It was also the start point for the stages. Having been to this event many times, we knew this location well. The start had been placed here a few times in the past.

We also knew that we could capture something different from the normal cars on track pictures.

The great weather we have been having recently also played a part in our decision to visit Park first. The sun would be at our backs and just perfect for taking pictures around this sweeping corner. 

As the sun moved across the sky we moved to different locations. Following the sun is so important when taking photographs. Fortunately in the UK it’s mostly cloudy so you can pick your spot with no regard to the sun.

On a day like last Sunday you have to consider your locations carefully if you want your pictures to come out well. I think as a team we did a decent job and captured some nice images for our portfolios.

Alan Healy Memorial Rally Summary. 

To summarise the Alan Healy Memorial Rally for a spectator photographer is not a difficult task. It has all of the aspects you want from a motorsports event as a photographer. Lots of action, a continuous flow of different cars, and Cadwell has a good variety of locations.

As a spectator, all of the points above are also relevant. Add on the food outlets, small rally-oriented retail stalls, and small static displays of rally cars, and you have a good day out. Not just for the individual fan but also the whole family. If you are free in early April 2026, I would recommend you check it out and bring your camera.

All of our previous Rally Reports can be found here.