The reality of trackside access
Most events in the Philippines where motorsport photography happens — circuit time attack runs, track days, autocross series, drift rounds — put some version of a barrier between the camera and the car. Chain-link fencing, catch-net, concrete kerbing with armco above it, or the combination of all three stacked at a corner exit. Shooting in the clear, with nothing between you and the subject at speed, is the exception rather than the rule.
This is not a complaint. The fencing exists because the car is going fast near people, and that barrier is the reason both the car and the photographer go home afterward. It's a constraint to work within, not a problem to solve by standing somewhere you shouldn't.
What you can do is understand how different barriers behave optically, where to position yourself to minimize them, and when to accept that a particular shooting spot isn't going to give you a clean frame regardless of aperture.
Chain-link versus catch-net
These two behave very differently in front of a lens. Chain-link — the diamond-pattern wire fencing common at local circuits — has a geometric structure. When you shoot through it wide open with enough glass between you and the car, the diamonds dissolve into a slight softening or, at extreme apertures and close focus distance, disappear almost entirely. The Viltrox 85mm at f/1.8 can come very close to clearing chain-link when your lens hood is touching the wire and the car is at a reasonable distance into the corner.
Catch-net is harder. The netting material is denser and doesn't dissolve the same way. What you get instead is a texture overlay on the image — not the full geometric pattern of chain-link, but a scrim-like interference that reduces sharpness and adds noise to the background. The shot is recoverable if the car is sharp and the subject exposure is correct, but you'll never fully eliminate the net the way you can eliminate chain-link.
The practical takeaway: when you're walking the circuit before cars go live, find the chain-link positions first and mark them. If a corner with good angle on the car is covered in catch-net, it doesn't mean skip it — it means manage your expectations and check whether the netting has any gaps you can position through.
Aperture and distance — the two variables you control
The optical principle at work is simple: a wide aperture throws anything close to the lens out of focus relative to a subject farther away. The wider the aperture and the greater the distance between lens and subject, the more effectively the barrier disappears. This works better at longer focal lengths because the compression also separates the near and far planes more aggressively.
This is one reason the Viltrox 85mm is the motorsport lens in the kit for motorsport photography Philippines situations where barrier management matters. The combination of f/1.8 maximum aperture and the longer focal length means I can shoot through fencing that a 35mm at the same aperture would not clear.
Distance from the fence matters as much as aperture. Press your lens hood against the fencing — get as close as you physically can. The moment you step back from the barrier by even half a meter, the out-of-focus math shifts against you and the fencing starts to become visible in the frame. At close proximity to the barrier, the wire is so close to the front element that it sits too short of the focus distance for the camera to resolve it. Step back and it starts to enter the rendering circle.
Walking the circuit — the work before the work
For track day photographer PH jobs, I put aside thirty to forty-five minutes before the first session to walk the circuit on foot. No camera, just looking. What I'm checking: where each fencing type starts and ends around corners, where the gaps are in barriers (often beside gates and marshal post openings), how the morning or afternoon light is going to hit each corner, and where a car will be at maximum lean or maximum angle relative to a given shooting position.
This walk changes what I shoot completely. The angle I'd pick from satellite view often turns out to have a concrete wall I missed, or a gap in the catch-net at the exit of a corner that opens a clean sight line I wouldn't have found otherwise.
For every event I cover as part of my automotive photography Cavite and wider Metro Manila work that happens off-site, the mental map from this pre-session walk is the most valuable piece of preparation I bring to the session.
When you can't beat the barrier
There are shooting positions where no amount of aperture or proximity will help. A thick concrete post sitting directly in the line between lens and car at the moment of peak action isn't an optical problem — it's a geometry problem. The post is too far from the front element to dissolve out of focus, and there's no workaround.
The honest answer for those positions is: they're not your shot. Move around the corner, go to the next available gap, or accept that the frame from this position is a wide establishing shot that puts the barrier in context rather than tries to hide it. Some of the best motorsport photos from local events include the fencing deliberately — shooting slightly across rather than directly through, using the geometry of the chain-link as foreground texture that gives the image scale and a sense of containment.
The fencing can be part of the image when you commit to it. The shot that fails is the one where you're halfway — the barrier is neither hidden nor used, just sitting in the frame as a distraction.
Catch-net sway and timing
Catch-nets are not static. At a busy corner with cars going through, the net moves. There are brief windows where the material is resting and the interference is at its minimum. You're timing your shutter to the subject but also, secondarily, to the net. If you notice the net has been agitated by the previous car's draft and is still swaying, wait for it to settle before committing to the frame.
This is one area where continuous burst helps, not because the frames are interchangeable but because across ten frames, one or two will land at a net-rest moment where the capture is noticeably cleaner.
The shot that makes it worth it
The reason to put up with barrier management at motorsport events is the shot itself. A car at speed, through a corner, properly timed — nothing communicates what motorsport actually feels like quite like that frame. If you want to see how this translates from the process side to finished images, the gallery has motorsport and track day work alongside owner features and build documentation from around the Philippines.
The barrier is part of the job. Work with it, not against it.