Panel Advice Please

[silobass]

Hi, could use some advice!

My camera club has an annual comp that is for a small panel of prints. I've never done a panel before and would like to this year with some photos I took at the Isle of Man TT this year.

I was originally going to put a panel of 8 in (has to be between 3 and 8 prints) but the more I've been thinking about it the less sure I am about a couple of photos and I'd really welcome an opinion on which to go for.

Firstly, this is the original thought. 1 starts it off, 2 and 3 are "outgoing", 4 waiting for the bike, 5 going out of the pits, 6 & 7 "coming in" and 8 winners.

L1 by Graham, on Flickr

Then I began to think that images 2 & 3 are very similar and not that exciting but removing one unbalances 6 & 7, so I could remove one of these? Then do I need two pit photos? I really like 4 but 5 is perhaps a bit unexciting to look at? So I came up with this shorter panel.

L2 by Graham, on Flickr

Just after an opinion on which is the better panel

As ever, thank you

[dxbtiger]

From a rank amateur, I prefer the first.

As a compromise, I'd add in the other pit photo to the second so it's a total of 6.