To be honest it will take great holiday and animal photos, but racing photos is difficult to say, as i use to be a motorsport photograpaher before i came back into R/C i was spoilt with the Pro Canon DSLR's i was using. For me i find it hard to take the quiality of photos (like Jimmys) with this camera, but then i am very critical of my photos
but you may find it ideal.
But the video camera is spot on, and unlike most digi cam's you can zoom in and out while filming.
You are more than welcome to try the camera at a meeting, and download the pic's to a laptop?.