Race of the South action features in new book
The Race of the South in Walderstown features in a new book by award-winning photographer Stephen Davison.
Across the island of Ireland, there has been a long tradition of motorbike road racing and Davison’s new book ‘The Wee Roads’ is a stunning visual journey covering the history and drama of local road racing throughout Ireland. With over 100 colour images, including photos of the Dunlop family, Guy Martin and other high profile racers, this is the essential record of this compelling sport.
From Clonakilty to Cookstown, to the marquee events of the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix and across a rich calendar of national meetings, Irish roads have produced some of the sport’s greatest races and riders.
It was on these public roads, transformed each summer into racing circuits, that riders like Michael Dunlop and his uncle, Joey, would hone the racing skills that would see them become the most successful road racers of all time.
Unlike the professionally funded circuits of MotoGP and the World Superbike paddock, Irish road racing remains a fiercely grassroots endeavour – run by volunteers and staged in villages and towns where everyday life pauses for speed.
A native of Co. Antrim, Davison grew up watching the Dunlop family in action after attending his first motorcycle road races during the 1970s. Inspired by their skill, he began photographing the sport and has been covering road racing for over 25 years as a photographer and journalist.
The joint owner of the photographic agency Pacemaker Press, Davison works for a wide range of international publications. A contributor to the documentary films Closer to the Edge and Road, this is his tenth book on road racing.
As a photographer who first discovered the sport as a boy in 1974, Davison has spent a lifetime documenting its beauty and danger. The images in these pages (captured over the past two decades), are a stirring tribute to the people, places and spirit of Irish road racing.
“While I have had the good fortune to witness and record road racing all over the world, it has always been the smaller Irish national events closest to home that have retained the greatest fascination. Punching well above their weight in terms of impact and legacy, these grassroot events epitomise the true nature of the sport in places where rural byways are transformed into race tracks over a summer weekend,” said Davison, adding that the images in the book are “a very personal experience of Irish national road racing”.