I shot stock cars, midgets and road racing for about ten years. One of the
best tips I can give you is to pre-focus on a spot on the track where a car
or bike is likely to be when they come by. Then, begin panning with the
vehicle before it gets there and a split second before the pre-focus point
is reached, fire the shutter. Continue to pan as the camera fires to keep it
in frame through the lag time of taking the pic.

The best place to do this is at the apex of a corner. If you can get to the
inside of the turn and stand at the center of the radius, it is a piece of
cake.

One other hint, keep an eye on what's coming your way on the track. If you
are close enough to the action to get a good frame of the racing, you are
likely close enough to get smack by someone leaving the track on the inside
of the turn. As soon as your fire the camera, snap your head back toward the
action and see what else is coming along. Being on the inside of the turn
helps, since anyone completely losing it mid-turn, will likely go off the
outside.

If you can't get close to the action, just use a long lens and frame and
shoot like any other action. Just keep your shutter speed up, unless you
intend to show a lot of blur for effect.

Apex of corners are easiest, followed by entrance/exit of corners. Straights
are tuff, unless you are shooting down the track. Bikes passing you at 90
degrees going 150+ MPH will be nearly impossible to shoot without tons of
practice.

When you get back from the races, post some of the pics someplace so we can
have a look.

Mark

You need to keep watch of shutter speed when photographing moving objects
but still wish to convey the essence of speed., so shutter priority can be
helpful. You don't want such high shutter speeds at to totally freeze all
motion, background, rotating wheels, etc. I'd start around 1/320 sec and
move up n and down given the specific situation. And work a lot on getting
a smooth panning motion to obtained a blurred background. Practice,
practice, practice.
--
Ed Ruf (Usenet2@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

Cool.  Should be fun.  Call in advance and see what it'll take to get
close / out in the middle of the track (if they allow it).

Some of my co-workers are into motocross, and I grabbed some shots a few
weeks back.  Better ones are here:
http://www.pbase.com/hornbaker/wallpapers  They were all taken from the
middle of the track, close to harm's way. :-)

I find that around 1/1250 (@ 100mm on a 70-300mm lens) is a good balance
between freezing the bike & rider, but blurring the background and the
spinning wheels.  I prefer very low apertures for shallow depth of
field.  Use spot focusing to make the camera focus on the right subject,
and use continuous-focus mode if your camera offers it.

Find vantage points with interesting background.  Grab a magazine and
see what kinds of shots look best.  Some favorites seem to be halfway
through a corner, where the bike and rider are close to horizontal.  Or,
coming out of a corner on the high side, with a spray of dirt coming off
the rear.

Track the subject when you're pressing the shutter.  This will blur the
background, but freeze the subject like this:
http://www.pbase.com/hornbaker/image/65400506

Hopefully you're shooting during the day.  Find a shutter / aperture
combination that works well and lock it in manually.  You'll end up with
some shot in the shadows that need to be lightened a bit, but it'll
prevent dramatically bad exposures.

It's a lot to swallow, I know.  Pick a few points, try them, and build
from there.  Most importantly, have fun - realize that it's a constant
learning process, and you've got to take a lot of shots to get a few
really good ones.

Cheers,
Richard

First things first and I'm assuming you've never done this before so bare
with me if I'm mistaken.  Keep your eyes and ears open ALL the time.  Even a
motorcycle can cause serious injuries.  My first time on pit road at Atlanta
taught me that as a Kasey Kane crew man knocked me on my a.s.  He was very
rude about it but had he not knocked me out of the way I would have been hit
by the car.

The rest is all very subjective.  As always there are many ways to skin a
cat.  This is what I've found works with me.

2) A piece if advice, don't get so caught up in shooting the racing that you
forget about all the other action around the track.  The people, the pits,
the riders, the equipment, the track itself, all provide great photo opps.
Keep your eyes open.

3) That telephoto lens is your friend.  I shoot mostly with a 70-200 or
100-400 depending on the size of the track.  I also use a 17-40 on a second
body but to be honest it's not really used that much.

4) Shutter Speed.  As already stated the slower the shutter the more motion
blur you get and the better the feeling of speed.  The trade off can be
sharpness of the subject.  I'd start out with a fairly high speed say 1/500
or even higher and then show the shutter down as you get more practice.  I
find that 1/200 provides a good sharp subject with plenty of motion blur.

5) Panning, Good posture is important here IMO.  Plant you feet and hold you
arms in close.  Move only with you torso.

6) Focus and shooting.  Lots of good advice give here already.  I use the
center focus point and AI Server or continuous focus.  I will prefocus on a
point but only to give the AF a bit of an advantage.  Shoot in burst mode.
I usually shoot off 3 to 5 in a burst.

7) Metering.  I usually shoot in TV mode using Partial metering.  With my
Canon that means the center 9% of the lens.

I'm sure there's more but that all I can think of now.  Here is my racing
galleries.  http://www.pbase.com/rkircher/racing  Feel free to look around.
Look over the EXIF data.

Most important thing is to have fun.  And post some results.  :)

Corner shots are what look cool at a bike race and the pit straight is a
AWFUL place to shoot at Road A. I'd be shooting at turn 5, or the chicane
before the bridge.

After a lot of time spent at work and dealing with other things, I have
finally been able to add some of the photos from Road Atlanta to my gallery
so you guys can critique them for me.  Most of the racing photos were taken
from either Turn 1 or from Turn 12 (the last turn before the Start/Finish.
The photos were taken with my K-M 5D and a 100mm-300mm lens.  I can say that
I am hooked for sure and now am working on getting better glass by the next
time I make it to Road Atlanta.

The photos are here  http://www.kimomi.net/cpg148/thumbnails.php?album=24