Supercars photographer honoured with special award

Supercars photographer Mark Horsburgh has been honoured with a special award by Motorsport Australia.

A veteran of over 20 years shooting at race tracks around the world, Horsburgh has been honoured with the Special Award for Outstanding Media Contribution in Challenging Circumstances.

It comes after he managed to shoot at Supercars events amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

With restrictions on personnel at the track, Horsburgh was, at times, the only photographer at the venue.

He produced work for a number of outlets, while committing to his duties to produce outstanding images for Supercars.

Motorsport Australia recognised his efforts the wake of his brilliant work in 2020.

"It was determined that a new award was necessary for Mark's outstanding efforts in 2020," the statement reads.

"With COVID-19 limiting the number of attendees at events, there were many Supercars events where Mark was the sole photographer producing work for a wide range of outlets.

"The pressure to shoot and meet the needs of so many different publications was immense and Mark produced high-quality work in a challenging environment, which is certainly worthy of recognition."

Last year, he opened up to Supercars.com about his passion for the industry.

"Over the years I've been pretty lucky to get to know a lot of these drivers and share some moments with them," he said.

"When a driver wins Bathurst, you get caught up in that whole emotion.

"It's our biggest event… I get to jump up on the podium at Bathurst and you sort of get caught up in that whole atmosphere.

"You get to feel, in a sense, the vibe that the drivers feel. You’ve got hundreds of people down the bottom screaming out and things like that.

"To be a driver winning Bathurst, I can only imagine it’s 10 times better than that, but yeah very fortunate to see some of the things.

"When a driver wins a championship, it’s great to capture those moments – well any race for that matter."

Horsburgh will be behind the camera at the Repco Mt Panorama 500 later this month. Tickets are on sale now.