Over the course of the last 12 months, thousands of moments have been caught on camera by Speedhunters’ photojournalists and IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER contributors the world over. After a couple of very challenging years it was great to be back with a largely uninterrupted schedule in 2022, and 2023 – Speedhunters’ 15th year no less – is looking like it’s going to be even busier.

Before we get stuck into a brand new year of Speedhunting though, we asked four of our biggest-contributing photojournalists to recount their most memorable shoots of 2022. Here’s what they had to say…

Toby Thyer / Cruising The Fukuoka City Coast In A Carbon GT-R

2022 has been a great year for Speedhunting. There have been so many standouts that whittling the shortlist down to one was a challenge. It’s not the only challenge I’ve had this year though. On top of persistent, erm… hiccups with Project GC8’s transmission, shooting all this year’s stories have not been without a few hiccups too. The upshot? Various unfinished builds, new workshops and unregistered cars means that there are plenty of stories lined up to share with you in 2023.

One 2022 shoot that went down without a hitch was that of Sakamoto-san’s Garage Active Full Carbon GT-R. Shot at just the right time of day and with the mountains and bays of Fukuoka providing a magnificent backdrop, I was really happy with how this feature came out, even if it wasn’t perfect. This year I’ve been busy honing my craft – especially when it comes to rolling shots and post-shoot editing – and I can’t wait to put everything I’ve learned into full effect next year.

Chaydon Ford / Talking A Subaru WRC Car To Breakfast

They say you should never meet your heroes, but in my case it lived up to everything I could have imagined. I started following the Subaru WRC campaign around the time the Impreza was released back in the early 1990s, so being given unrestricted access to what was one of the most technologically-advanced competition cars of its time was something I never imagined possible. Getting a ride in the car to an event a week later, albeit brief, gave an insight to what it would have been like attacking a rally stage in period.

Since this shoot, I’ve gone on to become good friends with the guys at Autosportif, and through that friendship I’ve met even more interesting people, many of whom have stories to tell and cars that I need to feature. Finishing up my first full year as a contributor to Speedhunters has been a great experience, and there’s plenty more to come.

Trevor Ryan / The Sights & Sounds Of RMMR 2022 / Walking Through History At The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion 

Every year for the past five — save perhaps when I covered the Nürburgring 24 Hour — the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion has been my favorite event to shoot by a long shot. I always prefer to photograph older cars to newer ones, and also love covering motorsports. Vintage racing is the best of all worlds in my book.

This year’s RMMR event was significantly more fun for me than usual, probably because I just wasn’t as stressed about my coverage this time around. I spent a lot more time experimenting with new angles and pushing my camera settings. I also made plenty of time to hang out with my friends at the track and simply sit back to enjoy the action. This is how things were when I first picked up a camera, and it was good to get back to those roots at the 2022 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The 2023 event can’t come around soon enough.

Dino Dalle Carbonare / Yokomaku-san & VeilSide’s New Chapter

The highlight of my Speedhunting year was shooting the VeilSide A90 Supra at VeilSide’s HQ in Tsukuba. We’re two weeks away from the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon, and the VeilSide name will once again be on everyone’s lips as Yokomaku-san unveils his RZ34 Nissan 400Z wide-body conversion, a kit that’s being showcased in the next Fast and Furious movie.

For me, this Supra shoot celebrated the fact that VeilSide is back. At the very beginning of my auto journalist career, I spent a great deal of time shooting and writing about VeilSide cars. At one point I even produced a catalogue for Yokomaku-san. I’ve always appreciated his skill as an artist who’s created the most recognizable tuner cars, so I’m just happy to see that he’s giving it another go. While I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of modified new-gen Nissan Zs at TAS, I bet you VeilSide’s car will be the most talked about.

The Speedhunters
Instagram: thespeedhunters