Panning at drag races

Went to the drag races yesterday
Thought I would get in some practice before the season gets in full swing
Definitely doing something wrong when it comes to panning
The cars look clear enough but the background isn't blurred , just looks out of focus
I'm using a Canon T2i, 100 >> 400 lens with the stabilizer on and mode on #2
I set the camera at 1/64 and 1/ 125 of a second, AI Servo
Should I have turned off the Stabilization, switched to mode #1 or used a slower shutter speed ?
Or a combination of all the above
Thanks

They don't look too bad to me, outside of the out of focus in the third picture.

You got most of them bang on, well done.

from the videos i've been watching on how to do a "proper" panning shot, is to wait until the subject is somewhat directly in front of you. but then again, that's just an opinion !


happy shooting

I think you could slow down your shutter just a tad bit more. Just my two cents, they're nice now tho!

I agree; they all look pretty good from a panning perspective. I think most the background blurring is from motion.

IS Mode-2 is correct.

Like (almost) everything is life, it's a trade off; this time between really dramatic blurring and "keeper ratio".
The slower the shutter speed the more blurring, but the higher the chance of a useless blur everywhere. Also, as you go to lower shutter speeds, you may end up stopping the lens down so far that diffraction starts noticeably softening the image (somewhere around f/11 for an APS-C camera).

Most of the time I'm just looking to get enough blurring that things don't look "frozen".
I usually take a couple of test shots at different shutter speeds and chimp them to see how the wheels and background look.

Shooting bursts also helps. By definition there will always be one shot that's the sharpest.
Also, I'd suggest using AI-Servo focus and shift the AF-Start function button to one of the buttons on the back of camera that are under your thumb (ex. the "*" button). The T2i may already have a dedicated "AF Start" button. Press that before you want to start shooting and the AF and IS will "spool up" so they're both running before the subject gets to the point where you want to take photos.
I just checked:
Custom Function:
IV-9: Shutter/AE lock button
0: AF/AE lock
1: AE lock/AF
2: AF/AF lock, no AE lock
3: AE/AF, no AE lock

Mode 1 is "Convenient when you want to focus and meter separately. Press the

If you want more motion blur then you need to get closer to your subject so that your panning motion is faster.

These don't look terrible. It depends on what you're going for.

This might help: First shoot with moving cars need advice.