Welcome to Steve Welsh Photos automotive collection. My first foray into the photography of car events was with rallying from the early 1980s. A friend who was a Vintage Sports Car Club member introduced me to historic motoring and competition that opened up an engaging opportunity to photograph machinery and the people who preserve and use historic vehicles.
History is all about connections, the past with the present and into the future. Those threads through time are a mesmeric part of the attraction of historic motor racing to me and have led to my archive now being curated and accessible using the connections, accidental or otherwise, between the images and experiences I have enjoyed over more than 40 years. Our plans are to continue creating new galleries and editorial features exploring automotive connections that will hopefully entertain and stimulate.
RALLY
The opening rally section features the career of Colin McRae upon the 30th anniversary of the Scot becoming the UK’s first World Champion. Images begin with a fresh-faced McRae and co-driver Derek Ringer heading into scrutineering for the 1988 RAC rally and ends with a tail shot of his works Ford Focus in 2002.
A postscript image shows McRae’s protégé Kris Meeke watching Sebastian Loab, Citröen successor and the most successful WRC driver of all time, play the Colin McRae rally video game in 2009.
Next year 2026 will be 40 years since the end of the Group B era. The team look forward to presenting a gallery that reflects the drama and the gloriously mad machinery that raced through UK stages.
The Steve Welsh Photos archive contains images from Group A, World Rally cars and historic rallying.
TOP PICKS
To learn more about this collection of Colin McRae images read the blog below.
RACE
To open the race section, we have a selection of general track action, pit and paddock scenes from a wide range of historic events, including Edwardian up to more recent historic machinery. These are some examples of the photographic coverage we can produce. However, it would be remiss not to reflect the 75th anniversary of Formula 1, so we have curated two Special Feature Galleries dedicated to F1 as well.
TRACK ACTION
F1
Steve Welsh Photos has responded to F1’s 75th anniversary in 2025 with two galleries. Choices are entirely biased to memorable encounters with the people and cars that have appeared at historic events over the last 30 plus years.
Gallery 1 celebrates six of our UK F1 champions, within that we also acknowledge Sir Stirling Moss, regarded by many as the greatest race driver not to win the world championship. The image shows a meeting between Moss and then rising star Lewis Hamilton a few weeks before the latter won his home grand prix for the first time and went on to be the UK’s most successful F1 driver to date.
Gallery 2 is a celebration of some iconic cars and people that played their part during the 75 years of F1 that have appeared at historic events. We begin the gallery with the mighty Alfa Romeo 158/9 that dominated the championships first years, to a Mercedes AMG from 2021.
All of images from these galleries come from historic racing festivals and events such as Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed, Monaco Historic, Silverstone - Christies, Coys, the Classic and Festival, as well as VSCC and HSCC events.
F1 BRITISH CHAMPIONS
F1 AT 75
TRIALS
The opening rally section features the career of Colin McRae upon the 30th anniversary of the Scot becoming the UK’s first World Champion. Images begin with a fresh-faced McRae and co-driver Derek Ringer heading into scrutineering for the 1988 RAC rally and ends with a tail shot of his works Ford Focus in 2002.
A postscript image shows McRae’s protégé Kris Meeke watching Sebastian Loab, Citröen successor and the most successful WRC driver of all time, play the Colin McRae rally video game in 2009.
Next year 2026 will be 40 years since the end of the Group B era. The team look forward to presenting a gallery that reflects the drama and the gloriously mad machinery that raced through UK stages.
The Steve Welsh Photos archive contains images from Group A, World Rally cars and historic rallying.
TOP PICKS
To learn more about this collection of Colin McRae images read the blog below.