Pardon my amateur-ness, I borrowed my friends camera gear and tried to take some pics. I know its not as sharp and the composition is not what I wanted but it was my first go. Last time I took pictures was with a digital rebel...the first one

I am definitely open to critiques and suggestions, how shots could have been better? Any tips? Things to watch for?

I didnt have much access to the track as it was basically before and after the front straight FYI

Evan Steel Performance Crew

What kind of gear were you using? I think they look pretty cool. I've been wanting to shoot bikes. Where were these taken? Out west somewhere it looks like. I'm in NW FL. I'll have to go to Road ATL or Barber sometime to try my hand at it. Thanks for sharing.

Not bad for a first effort. Looks like the WERA races in Vegas last weekend. I spot a few familiar racers in the pics, like Chris Peris in the first one, Jimmy Wood and Steve Rapp.

You might enjoy this series of articles written by a buddy of mine about motorsports photography:

http://www.motorcycleaddicts.org/learned-hard-way/12411-motorsports-photography.html

http://www.motorcycleaddicts.org/learned-hard-way/12909-motorsports-photography-part-2-blur-not-blur.html

http://www.motorcycleaddicts.org/learned-hard-way/14198-motorsports-photography-part-3-shutter-speed.html

Pic 1: Probably my favorite of your shots here. Not sure if it's been cropped, but the rear tire is a bit close to the corner of the frame. Nice sense of motion with the panning effect and slower shutter speed that shows the wheels turning, although the rider and bike appear a bit soft on my monitor. Panning shots are tough to get just right. You need to have just the right shutter speed for the lens to get the blur, but also track the subject so smoothly that it stays in clear focus.

Pic 2: Okay snapshot, but what is the story you are trying to tell? Lower right corner is very dark and water bottle is distracting.

Pic 3: Unless you were just trying to get a shot of the logo on the back of the guy's shirt, this shot doesn't say anything.

Pic 4: Decent shot of close racing action through the corner. I'd have cropped it a little tighter, and used an aperture that blurred the background better. Port-a-potty is unfortunate distraction. If I couldn't get rid of it with aperture settings, I'd clone it out in Photoshop.

Pic 5: Subject that is in focus (leading bike - Jimmy Wood) is smaller in the pic than the blurry bike behind him, making your eye not know quite where to go. I'd crop it to minimize the trailing rider. Light at that time of day is pretty harsh, too.

Pic 6: Too much empty space in right of frame (and a port-a-potty). Should be cropped in tighter. Would probably be a more effective shot if Rapp (leading bike) was in sharp focus, rather than Toye (second place bike). Corner worker standing in background is also a distraction.

Pic 7: Kind of a cool shot. I'd probably crop out just a bit more of the foreground, and focus on Rapp looks just a little soft.

Keep working at it! It's fun, and certainly I've learned that it's not as easy as it looks (both the racing and taking great photos of the racers!).

Lots of examples of racing pics on my blog if you're interested:
http://www.latebraker.com/blog/?cat=3