A little low light action photos

I have a bit of a dilemma here.  I love low light and abhor flash.  Making matters more difficult at the Ventura Raceway this past Saturday is the protective fence that keeps cars from flying into the stands also buggers up the auto-focus on the camera as the camera wants to focus on that stationary fence rather than the action.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to focus on fast moving cars manually in low light?  Buggers I tell you.

Regardless, I did get some images that were usable from the races.  The highest ISO (1600) my camera can go to is also a bit noisy, most noticeable in the shadows when viewed at maximum size.  That ISO isn't as high as some of the newer DSLR's can achieve but does yield satisfactory handheld images. The ISO limits speeds to under 1/100 second which yields blurred images of the fast moving cars...not a bad thing when you are trying to convey their speed on the track.

More pics in my flickr set.