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While the SBR team was busily preparing to have the world’s fastest jeweller Stuart Bishop and his ’67 Camaro Diamond Doorslammer ready to hit the Ipswich quarter-mile next week, the team at the Ipswich Art Gallery was working equally hard hanging the exhibition of 20 finalists as judging drew to a close.

The winners of each category across the Stuart Bishop Racing and Australian Drag Racing subject areas as well as the Overall Winner will be announced at the Ipswich Art Gallery on Tuesday June 3rd, with the winning images set to be displayed at the Stuart Bishop Racing pit area during the Castrol EDGE Winternationals event.

Unveiled on May 24 and open for viewing until June 22, the Ipswich Art Gallery exhibition presents the finalists from four categories across the subject areas of Stuart Bishop Racing and Australian Drag Racing taken from the past 12 months.

“The Ipswich Art Gallery Wallace Bishop Jewellers National Photographic Competition is the perfect preamble to the number one drag racing show in the country, the Castrol EDGE Winternationals to be held at the outstanding Willowbank Raceway on June 5-8,” said Ipswich City Council Arts, Community and Cultural Services Committee Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Pisasale.

“The Wallace Bishop Jewellers National Photographic Competition exhibition is a real crowd-pleaser. Ipswich is the home of car-culture in Queensland, and hosting this exhibition complements the City of Ipswich collection.

“The standard of entries received for the inaugural Wallace Bishop Jewellers photographic competition set the high standard, and that standard has been surpassed this year with some stunning entries across all categories.

“As motorsport once again takes centre stage in Ipswich there’ll be plenty of interested visitors to the Ipswich Art Gallery to soak up these expressive and exciting images of the glory of drag racing.”

Many visitors to the Castrol EDGE Winternationals are people new to Ipswich and the Ipswich Art Gallery and can often be heard commenting on how enjoyable their experience was.

Creating new experiences while introducing and involving people further into the sport has been the motivation towards the Wallace Bishop Jewellers Photographic Competition and for company Chief Executive Officer Stuart Bishop the experience has been truly worthwhile.

“In a lot of ways artistic flair is something which encapsulates my own involvement in drag racing, particularly in respect to the presentation of my ’67 Camaro Diamond Doorslammer which I’ll again campaign at this year’s Castrol EDGE Winternationals,” said Bishop.

“This car is very unique in its design, not only through the roof top cubic zirconia diamond configuration, but also through the attention to detail in every aspect of the car.

“Overall aesthetic appeal is something that is engrained in the family business at Wallace Bishop Jewellers and this transcends with my involvement in drag racing. There are strong synergies which exist in all forms of art.

“For this reason, we have been pleased with the response from fans and photographers Australia-wide during the competition’s second year and hope to see the concept continue to grow well into the future.”

Final judging of the 20 finalists in the Wallace Bishop Jewelllers Photographic competition will determine the winners in each of the four categories.

The photographer who lays claim to the overall winning image will also be presented with a half carat, 50-point diamond, similar to the one encrusted into the roof top configuration of Bishop’s Diamond Doorslammer.

Website: www.stuartbishopracing.com.au

Stuart Bishop ready to rumble at last month's Castrol EDGE Tin Top Titles at Willowbank Raceway (Pic: Angus MacMaster)

Stuart Bishop aboard his '67 Camaro Diamond Doorslammer (Pic: Angus MacMaster)