Greetings All,

This topic may have been discussed elsewhere but I thought it was good for us novice to have a topic dedicated to this. I just purchased a Nikon D50 and plan on taking photos of the on-road RCs. In my opinion, the off-road stuff is easier to get a sense of motion because of the flying debris, jumps, more frequent pile-ups, etc. So here are my questions are it relates to capturing motion shots for on-road cars:

1. What is the best technique for capturing motion?
2. Do you shoot mostly laying down with a mini-tripod/monopod to capture a more "full sized view"?
3. Does the background blurring effect come from panning with the car (this may be related to question 1)?
4. Cars moving perpendicular to the shooting position appear to give the best results, however should the focus element be the car or the track just under the car?
5. My plans are to shoot 95% outside, so light should not be an issue, for the indoor carpet guy, would the same principles apply?(Probably not but figured I would throw it out there)
6. Any other tips would be helpful.

I plan on going out to the track this weekend and burning off a couple of memory cards full of shots(experience being the best teacher) but I figured any pointer could help me and other novices. Thanks.