Tips on photographing cars drifting?

Challenging task, lots of fast action, some danger depending on where you position yourself and opportunity for some great pictures.
Fast glass, fast camera and I would be prepared to bag/cover the camera as some events have a surface that throws up clouds of dust.
The point of it is that the tires are spinning and the cars are sliding sideways so getting that movement is a challenge.
 
I'm interested in seeing some results, for sure!
 
Don't stand in the way.
 
While I've never shot action with cars, I have with aircraft and many of the techniques carry over. You don't want to use too high a shutter speed as dennybeall mentioned above as you will want to show some motion blur with the wheels to show movement. In order to do this effectively you will need to smoothly and consistently pan with the car as you snap the shutter. When you perfect this technique you will get both motion blur of the background, as well as the wheels of the car spinning.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This shot was taken at 1/160 of a sec to blur the prop and I panned with the aircraft to give the sense of speed that the aircraft was flying.

Pitts%2520Special%2520high%2520speed%2520pass.jpg
 
Relatively slow shutter speed, pan with the cars, and most importantly keep one eye open for yourself. I've only shot one drift event and it was a "Hobbiest" type event. Non-Pro drivers that tended to lose control frequently and unlike most racing events the direction they went in wasn't always predictable. I was right on the edge of the track as well and finally decided a little more lens and a little more distance was the safest way to go.
 
Most drifting shots i have seen are very boring, unless you can get in close on the inside not sure if you can get good shots
 
I dig the first photo, just need a tighter crop. Continue with the panning and hope that the cars produce some tyresmoke today(not easy when it's raining/wet)!
 
Tomorrow, I'm going to the car drifting event. Do you have tips on how to make the photographs look more outstanding?
- get as close as you safely can
- try unusual angles if possible - very deep, very high
- get on the inside of longer curves
- practice panning somewhere before - e.g. next to a public road
- get a map of the event, try to talk to the people that run the show so they can give you tips what the best spots are
- safety first!!!!!

Have fun!
Andreas
 

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