I'd snoop around ebay.com and see what you can get. Optical zoom is nice, bur image quality is more important. Stopped looking for cams a while ago, but see if you can find a Fuji S5000 or perhaps S304 if 5k is too expensive. On a buget, I'd say these are about as good as it gets - good lens, nice warm Fuji colors, extremely easy to take good shots with.
If you turn around and decide to spend more, don't pussyfoot and get a prosumer - save and get a nice used 300d or D70 if you can afford it. I've had a sucession of prosumer cams the last few years - Minolta D7, D7HI, Fuji S7K - all good but they completely pale into insignificance compared to my D70 w/18-70 kit lens and 70-200 f2.8. At the raceway I can now actually take the shot I want to take, not just snap away like mad hoping to catch it :shock:
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