SINCE stock car racing roared back to life at Odsal Stadium Ian Bannister has been a regular at the track.
The accomplished photographer, who specialises in the motorsport, always has his camera with him - but not necessarily to take pictures of races.
“I look at what’s happening behind the scenes, the stories behind the races - I may take a picture of a driver working on their car, a driver having a chat with fans before a race, or drivers with their families and friends.
“Last October, at a meeting in Northampton, I came across a driver I knew from when I started watching the sport in the 1970s. He is now in his eighties and was there with his son and grandson who are current drivers. I managed to get a picture of them together: Willie, Paul and Bradley Harrison, one of the iconic families of the sport.”
He adds: “I take pictures of drivers with their cars before the race, with their car in pristine condition, and afterwards too.
“I like to put a bit of a story behind the pictures and post a bit of narrative on social media with my photos,” he says.
Ian was thrilled to be back at Odsal once again after the stadium re-opened to stock car racing last year after an absence of almost a quarter of a century. He was involved when the stadium was recommissioned. “I took pictures of the re-emergence of Odsal. It’s brilliant being back, there’s always a great atmosphere.”
Since Ian set up as a photographer in 2019 his post-retirement career has taken off. As well as commissions to take pictures at races, he has seen his work published in magazines and the national and local press.
A well-known face in the sport, he travels to stock car races across the country.
“I like taking pictures behind the scenes. The photographers who capture the on-track race action are outstanding, I don’t want to compete with them, I try to do something different.”
His interest in photography goes back a long way, beginning at school, when he studied the subject as part of an O-Level. “My teacher really encouraged me to go out and take pictures, anywhere, from the local park to the town centre.
“I set up a dark room in my parents’ bathroom, which didn’t go down too well.”
On leaving school he embarked upon an apprenticeship in engineering, later going into banking and then education.
He worked in further education colleges until making the decision to retire three years ago following a diagnosis for prostate cancer. “I had no symptoms but had a PSA blood test and was surprised when it was diagnosed as I was only 52,” he says. Ian is now cancer-free following a successful operation - radical prostatectomy - to remove his prostate.
Since 1991 Ian has worked as a stadium announcer at Burnley Football Club. The club's former chairman Barry Kilby, set up a charity, Barry Kilby Prostate Cancer Appeal, to test men at football clubs after finding out that he himself had the condition. “That’s how I came to have the test,” says Ian.
On retiring, he decided to set up as a photographer, focusing on his stock car passion while also taking on commercial work.
“Stock cars have been an interest of mine since the 1970s. When I was growing up my dad and a neighbour took me along to watch races - we would all over the country.
“I think my dad preferred a pint and game of snooker than standing in the cold getting covered with muck and shale,” he laughs. “At shale meetings, even after a shower we couldn’t get rid of the orange dust. But Dad thought I would enjoy it - and he was right, I did.”
He first went to Odsal in 1979. “The most memorable occasion being a Saturday in September 1981 when a friend of mine, Len Wolfenden, won the F1 World Final.”
Ian began by taking pictures using a Kodak Instamatic camera. I would take them to a local chemist to be developed and sell them at the tracks. It didn’t make me rich, but I enjoyed it.”
After getting married and starting a family, Ian took a break from the sport attending only a handful of meetings over the last 30 years, but continued to take photo’s including other motorsport.
Then a friend, Howard, asked him if he wanted to go to a stock car meeting at Belle Vue Stadium in Manchester. “At that meeting he told me he had terminal cancer and it turned out to be his last meeting,” says Ian. “His news ignited a spark in me to make the most of life and start going to meetings as often as I could.”
He continues to enjoy it - both behind the lens and watching the races. “It’s a great sport - it’s a full contact sport, there’s always plenty of action because the best drivers start at the back - to win they have to pass every other driver on the track.”
Ian also works with the BSCDA (British Stock Car Drivers Association) promotional team who do an excellent job to promote the sport.
He also creates striking stock car artworks, adapted from his photographs, which appear on his Facebook page and other stock car-related Facebook groups.
He is in the process of creating a website.
*facebook.com/Ian-Bannister-Photography
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