02/10/2026
Hey everyone,
I’ve been meaning to say something for a while now.
I had debated with myself whether I should say anything at all or just try and slip away unnoticed, but I feel that would be doing a disservice to the people who enjoy my work and the clients who have supported me for the last few years.
I started taking this photo thing seriously in 2019.
The year my eldest child was born.
I’ve made no attempt to hide that it started because I wanted a way to be around a racetrack still, at a time where the financial constraints of raising a child meant my time racing karts had come to an end.
Before this decision, I spent my time in the 2010s–20s crewing and focusing on my own kart racing, meaning for the last 15 years my life has revolved around being at a racetrack in some capacity or another for a majority of my adult life.
So in 2019, a time that would be personally challenging as a new dad, and in the timeline of the sport about to implode in Sydney, it was probably the worst possible time to dedicate a majority of my time to being the best speedway photographer I could.
PCR, the best track in the country if not the world, was doomed.
COVID turned everything on its head, and the world was fundamentally on its way to being a very different place to what it was when I was inspired to pick up a camera.
Starting shooting on the hill at PCR for a few meetings before its closure, I floated around the speedway and tar kart tracks before finding myself at Liddell and eventually, in 2022, Eastern Creek Speedway.
By 2023, I’d achieved my goal of being a track photographer at a marquee speedway track.
What followed, while being only a few seasons, felt like a decade of sporadic, on-and-off running in Sydney, and what seemed like controversy after controversy.
Asking ourselves at the end of each off-season if we were going to see racing again next season or if we’d have to wait until March again.
While this was happening, I was lucky enough to find myself in a Monday-to-Friday job with ample hours available.
Days that started with leaving the house at 4:30 am and coming home at 7 pm became the norm.
I am very lucky that in a time where the cost of living is at the front of a lot of people’s minds, while things aren’t exactly fantastic, my partner and I are in a position of privilege where only one of us has to work.
That being said, I have skirted the boundaries of what is safe and practical in terms of pushing waking hours and pushing myself to my physical limit while trying to avoid complete burnout.
When things settled down and calendars filled up, I quickly found myself feeling like I was working 7 days a week.
This is not practical at all and has left me severely compromised mentally at times, along with seeing my physical health declining to the point of a few scary moments once or twice and some pretty bang average self esteem issues.
Anyway, I’m not leaving yet?
I might, I might not.
It’s just time I focus on myself and my family for the time being.
I have already kicked a few goals personally with my health and mental wellbeing in the past 4 months and am looking forward to building on the foundations I’m laying in regards to that.
So with the new season about to start, I have not and am not planning on renewing my Speedway Australia accreditation at this exact moment.
I may wake up tomorrow and be ready to take on the world with my camera again.
As of right now, the thought of that is a hard pass, as it has been since the Micro Nationals in June.
The only plan I have this year is helping out the team at Liddell with some promotional content, and even that is still yet to be decided when I’ll be in a position mentally to do so.
So what’s next?
If and when I get to Liddell this season it will be at a significantly reduced scope in terms of working for anyone, and more just to have fun and try and fall back in love with photography.
There was a grand plan to eventually race something myself again.
I’ve realised that with most of my adult life being based around being at one racetrack or another, it’s time just to do whatever and not have a plan.
Just enjoy time with my family and friends.
Go to a car show.
Go try some restaurants.
See some live music and just enjoy life.
I’ll be around WSS at some point, most likely with my kids, giving them the same opportunity I had as a kid to fall in love with speedway.
I’m excited for that.
They are too.
Lastly...
It’s not often you get to meet your inspirations and become good mates with them.
Thank you Gavin, without TAOS there’s no ZP Images.
See you all at a track again one day.
