# Dirt car racing



## nonac (Aug 12, 2014)

Last weekend I was at the Knoxville (IA) Nationals 410 Sprint Car races. Four days of the best sprint cars in the world after the $150,000 to the overall winner. 1200 pound cars with 900hp on a 1/2 mile dirt track with average lap speeds of approximately 125mph. These were shots from the infield during time trials. The air was so humid that it was creating contrails from the wings of the cars when they were at top speed which you can see in some of these shots. All of these were shot with my 135mm f/2 on a 5d MkIII. ISO was 3200-6400, apertures f/2-2.8, and shutter speeds were 500-640.


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## Roo (Aug 13, 2014)

Nice shots particularly with the rear tyre under stress. I don't think I've seen the contrails on F1 but never on sprintcars. I go to a couple of events here each year but unfortunately don't have the infield access to get the uninterrupted shots. Have you tried some slow shutter panning shots?


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## TexPhoto (Aug 13, 2014)

Very Cool shots. 

I would try and shoot some in the 1/30-60 area to get some serious motion blur, and some at 1/1000+ to really freeze the action. The slower speeds will really test your panning, but if you get 2-3 good shots out of 50, they will be 2-3 grey shots.


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## nonac (Aug 13, 2014)

I wanted to try some slower shutter speed panning shots, but I was elbow it elbow with several others which made it difficult. I know from shooting some NASCAR shots in years past that to pan properly you need plenty of room to follow through with the panning motion. I didn't have the room to do this here. There were only a few us obstructed views that had a good view of the track from the infield and of course that's where everyone flocked to. I'll be back there next year, hopefully with some access to the photographer only areas where I would have much more room.


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