Another big trackchasing weekend a long way from home!
Greetings from first Prospect, Pennsylvania
then Lewistown, Illinois
then Lewiston, Missouri
then Middle River, Minnesota
and finally, Hallock, Minnesota
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Big Butler Fairgrounds Dirt figure 8 Lifetime Track #2,717 Spoon River Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #139 (re-visit on this trip) Lewis County Fairgrounds Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,718 Lewis County Fairgrounds Dirt figure 8 Lifetime Track #2,719 Legacy Center Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,720 Kittson County Fairgrounds Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,721 THE EVENT Editor’s note: I hope you enjoy my new format where you can see and read about multiple tracks that I might visit during a single trip. There’s a lot of racing variety and I like to see a little bit of each. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with trackchasing’s first mother…that would be wife Carol). I live in San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Tuesday/Sunday, July 6/11, 2021. Matching up family needs and trackchasing has never been all that difficult for me. When our kids were younger, they were in school plays and little league baseball and the like. During those years I hardly ever trackchased. There was a period of more than 10 years when the kids were younger where I only averaged a few new tracks, less than 10, each year. Contrast that to the last 24 years…I’ve averaged seeing more than 100 tracks for each of THOSE 24 years. Living in San Clemente we get some pretty nice sunsets. Then when I retired and the kids were grown, I had plenty of time to trackchase. There were always special times when my family’s needs were going to trump whatever I might like to do with trackchasing. When that happened, I simply needed to plan my trackchasing trips around those family activities. Since we moved to the beach in San Clemente the Fourth of July has always been a very special holiday. The Fourth is the biggest and most popular day of the year in San Clemente. Why? It’s the fireworks, baby! In our town they shoot the fireworks off the end of the iconic San Clemente pier. We live 500 yards from the pier. We’ve got one of the very best “fireworks houses” in town. That’s why you will rarely see me leaving San Clemente to trackchase over the Fourth of July. That almost never happens! This year the Fourth of July was on a Sunday. JJ, Kristy, Dustin, James and Mitch were joining Carol and me for the Fourth of July festivities with ribs provided by James. Then a few of their friends were invited over to watch the fireworks. Everyone had a great time. The next day, Monday, all of us went to a Los Angeles Angels baseball game. We are big Angels fans and have been since we first moved to California in 1974. I’ve already been to Angels Stadium several times this season and we haven’t even gotten to the All-Star break yet. Tonight’s game was a “giveaway” night. Over the years we’ve shown up for these special promotions and received free hats, T-shirts, backpacks and drink coolers. Tonight’s offering was special and most unique. Tonight’s Monday night game against the Boston Red Sox was “Shohei Ohtani Pillow night”. Do you have a Shohei Ohtani pillow? None of us did. That was the main reason we chose this game to attend. For reasons that I will describe later we needed to take three cars to the game. California is where the car culture began and continues until this day. We like our cars and even though our group was only seven people we needed three cars to make it happen. My 2020 Tesla Model X, was the first car to arrive. The Angels had announced that only 14,000 pillows were available and the first fans to get there would get those pillows. We were going to get our pillow! That being the case Carol, grandson Mitch (who is now beginning to drarf and I headed out to Anaheim. By the way, Mitch’s twin sister Astrid was off to camp. We missed Astrid! We arrived an hour before the game and got our pillows. Then just a few minutes later I started noticing Boston Red Sox fans walking around the interior of the stadium without a pillow. Had they been rejected and not been given their free gift? No, they had not. Angels Stadium had run out of the Shohei Ohtani pillows! Later J.J., Kristy, Dustin and James would arrive…too late to get their promotional pillow. We all enjoyed the game and when it was over, or nearly over, everyone was headed in a different direction. J.J. and Dustin had to work tomorrow so they left the earliest. Then James, Kristy, Mitch and Carol had to leave after the seventh-inning. James had an early morning flight tomorrow morning to Portland, Oregon. That left me sitting in the stands. Do you get the impression we have a busy family? I watched the remainder of the game. Then I hopped in the EEOC sponsored Tesla Model X and drove toward the Los Angeles International Airport. I had an early morning flight, 5:50 a.m., to Detroit, Michigan. It wouldn’t make sense for me to drive 30 miles south to our house, sleep there for a few hours, and then retrace those 30 miles and add another 35 miles up to LAX in order to make such an early morning flight on Tuesday morning. The easier solution would be for me to simply drive my car to the parking garage at the airport and sleep in the back, on a flat bed, until it was time to catch my flight. Here’s the way it worked out. When the game was finished, I drove to a supercharger to add about 20 minutes of charge so that I would have plenty of electricity to get me back home when I returned from the trip. This got me into my LAX parking garage at about midnight. I could sleep in the back of the car until 3:30 a.m. Then I had to get up and walk a mile to the terminal in order to arrive on time to make my flight. Yep. I did all of that. My flight on Spirit Airlines from Los Angeles to Detroit covered more than 2,200 air miles. Flight time was a little bit more than four hours. I did that flight in a middle row seat with next to no legroom which is a trademark of Spirit Airlines. Sometimes you do what you gotta do. Trackchasing from a home base of California has always been a much bigger challenge than anything my fellow competitors have encountered. When I landed in Detroit, I grabbed the rental car shuttle bus and hotfooted it over to the National Car Rental pick up location. There I got my favorite rental car, the Toyota Camry. This car came with just 6,000 miles on the odometer. I was going to add another 2,000 miles or more during my trip and then I would drop the car in Chicago. Rental car prices right now are in unprecedented times. J.J. and Dustin are planning a trip soon. They told me their rental car is going to cost well over $200 per day. I’ve heard even worst examples of current rental car pricing. I have some great rental car trackchasing sponsorship. If I let National Car Rental know that I need a rental car with 24 hours’ notice I can get one 100% of the time. My daily rates are about 50 bucks a day. If I do a one-way rental the cost is going to be somewhere between $80 and $90 for the day. In today’s world all of those prices are more than reasonable given the fact that I’m going to be able to get a high-quality full-size low mileage rental car. From Detroit I would need to make a more a four-hour drive over to Prospect, Pennsylvania. Prospect is home to the Butler County Fair. Their brochures say the Butler County Fair might be the best fair in the country. I didn’t see it that way but I admire their creativity and service in producing their brochure about the fair. This week’s weather is going to be hot and humid. How hot? Temperatures will be in the low 90s. That’s not comfortable but it’s pretty much what I have come to expect when I travel in the Midwestern or eastern United States in July. Big Butler Fair, Butler, Pennsylvania – Track #2,717. There are actually two Butler fairs in Pennsylvania. They both have figure 8 racing during their summer activities. The locations of these two fairs have been very confusing to me in the past. The name “Butler” when identifying a track or a city or both is very popular. I’ve seen racing in Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska where the name of the track or the town or both was “Butler”. Back in 2004 I first went to the Butler County fair in Butler, Pennsylvania for their figure 8 racing. That was lifetime track #754. Then in 2013 Carol and I returned to what I thought was the “other” Butler Fair in Pennsylvania. Wrong! We had come back to the Butler Fair in Butler…again…by mistake. That meant a new track for Carol but only a “re-visit” for me. It wasn’t until eight years later, 2021, that I could actually get my act together and show up at the “other” Butler Fair in PROSPECT, Pennsylvania. I guess this is an easy mistake to make. Butler, PA and Prospect, PA are only 9.5 miles apart! Tonight, I was coming to the Big Butler fair in Prospect which is near Pittsburgh. The Big Butler Fair, especially for a county fair, is big. They had a lot of people visiting the fair. They needed a lot of parking to handle it all. There was no charge for parking. Admission for tonight’s county fair was nine dollars. If I had gotten there by 4 p.m. I would’ve only paid seven dollars. There was no extra charge to watch the figure 8 racing. All of this added up to an especially low total of just nine bucks to park, get into the fair and watch the races. I’ve seen fairs charge more than $30 in total for these three different categories. Tonight’s figure 8 racing was being promoted by JM Productions. They promote figure 8 racing in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York and sometimes in North Carolina. They do a good job. I’ve seen several of their shows over the years. Racing was scheduled to begin and did began at 7 p.m. I had only arrived 30 minutes earlier so I would have to take my time to look at the fairgrounds and see what the fair was all about after the races. I had no major problem with that. Figure 8 racing sanctioned by JM Productions is noted for their “double” figure 8 races. How is double figure 8 racing different from “single” figure 8 racing? With single figure 8 racing the track will have two markers for the cars to race around to create the “eight”. With a JM Production show they actually have three markers. Tonight, those markers were tractor tires. The cars race around three markers to create the “double” figure 8 race configuration. Sorry, you asked? The car count seemed a bit small. They were four heat races of about 6 cars in each heat. That might make you think there were 24 cars. However, it seemed as if some of cars raced in more than one heat race. I couldn’t really tell if some cars did appear twice maybe driven by different drivers. I know they were supposed to have three consolation races. Those didn’t happen. The announcer told us “They wrecked a lot of cars” in the heat races. Various race winners and second placed finishers advanced to the feature event. Overall, I wasn’t all that impressed with the racing. I sat down in the lower grandstands in order to avoid the grandstand roof support polls from blocking my view. The grandstand was absolutely packed. When the race program had a delay, some fans left and were quickly replaced with newcomers. In the past 24 hours I had watched a ball game thousands of miles away with my family, then spent about an hour driving up to the airport, then 3 1/2 hours sleeping in the back of my car, then four hours flying to Detroit and then more than four hours driving over to the Butler County Fairgrounds. Tonight’s racing took about 90 minutes. Was this a long walk for a short slide? Yes, it was. I was glad to get the Big Butler Fair in my trackchasing rearview mirror! After the racing it was now time to take a look at the fair. I walked through the animal barns and the commercial exhibits like I always do. I checked all of the fun foods and drinks they were being offered at your typical county fair. I was looking for strawberry shortcake, my favorite. I settled on a vanilla milkshake when I couldn’t find any shortcake. Then while my milkshake was being made, I discovered they also sold shortcake! Hopefully, at some of the fairs I plan to visit during the rest of this trip I’ll get my strawberry shortcake. From the rest of the evening, I needed to begin heading west. Tomorrow night’s race was in Lewiston, Illinois. Lewiston is 635 miles from Prospect, Pennsylvania. I would drive as far as I could tonight to any place that included a high-quality Priceline or Kayak sponsored hotel. That location turned out to be the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott in Akron, Ohio. I really wanted to drive a bit further but the hotel situation didn’t support that idea. Tomorrow morning I’ll need to drive more than eight hours to get over to the Spoon River Speedway in Lewiston for their 7 p.m. start. WEDNESDAY Spoon River Speedway – Lewiston, Illinois – Lifetime track #139 (re-visit tonight). This would not be my first visit to the Spoon River Speedway. I went there all the way back in 1984! Yep. I keep meticulous records. At the time the Spoon River Speedway was my 139th lifetime track. I’ve been to more than 2,500 tracks since then. Why was I returning to a track that I had already been to previously? Want the “no BS” answer? I couldn’t find any other track locations racing on Wednesday, July 7 in the entire United States that I hadn’t already been to. The Spoon River Speedway was going to help me marry up Tuesday night’s location in Prospect, Pennsylvania with Thursday night’s racetrack in Lewiston, Missouri. Because I have seen racing at so many tracks, the number of remaining tracks for me to see is getting fewer. In the future there will be several track revisits that I will use to “bridge the gap” from one new track visit to the next. My drive over to Lewiston, Illinois would take me through my hometown of East Peoria, Illinois. I get through there about once a year on average. Whenever I do I stop at my all-time favorite pizza eatery, Davis Brothers. Does Davis brothers serve the best pizza in the world? I guess that is open to debate. I do know this. From a nostalgia point of view for me Davis Brothers is the best. I’ve been going there since the early 1960s. It was a high school hang out. Although the location is different than when I went there with my girlfriends in high school the pizza is pretty much the same. I ordered a large supreme pizza to go. I enjoyed every last bit of it in the parking lot. I still love Davis Brothers. From there it was over to the Spoon River Speedway in Lewiston, Illinois. I first went to this track all the way back in 1984. At the time the track was listed as being in Canton, Illinois. What changed? No idea. The track is still in the same place as in ’84. I do know that first visit had the racing being rained out after the heat races. That didn’t affect the track’s “countability”. I had seen competitive racing. At the time the Spoon River Speedway was my 139th lifetime track. I’ve seen racing at more than 2,500 race tracks since then! During that mid-1980s visit I remember the track being so dusty that once the cars went down into the first turn they also went out of sight. Then later in the day the rains came and canceled the program. Welcome to the Midwest! Tonight, rain was also a problem. The track got a strong thunder shower at about 5 a.m. but not enough to cancel the program. They started racing tonight promptly at 7 p.m. Tonight’s Tuesday night race was a special event. I would be seeing the UMP Summer Nationals Hell tour for late models and modifieds. The race was originally scheduled for Belle-Claire Speedway in Belleville, Illinois. However, they’re having some problems down at Belle-Claire and apparently their entire season has been canceled. They’ve been racing at that track for well over 50 years. Oh my. Tonight’s general admission price was $25. They didn’t take credit cards. That was a bummer because I like to save my cash when I’m on one of these trips whenever I can. The large grandstand was nearly full. That was impressive considering the $25 admission price and the idea that they were racing on a Tuesday night, a work night for many. I am not super impressed with the UMP Summer Nationals qualification program. They have time trials. The fastest timer starts at the front of his or her heat race. Then the winner of the heat race is guaranteed to start in the first four positions of the main event. Tonight, there were four heat races for the late models and four for the modifieds. With the fast qualifiers starting on the front row, six of those eight races were one by the pole position starter. The other two races were one by the driver starting on the outside pole position. There was virtually no passing in the heat races. The heats looked like a regular session of hot laps. Oh my. I sat down next to a gentleman who I would soon find out lived in Peoria, Illinois just a few blocks from my all-time favorite track the Peoria Speedway. He wasn’t all that much of a talker but he did provide social interaction for me as I sat high up in the grandstand watching tonight races. I used my “MyRacePass” app to keep me abreast of the names and numbers of the drivers and in each race. MRP is a pretty snazzy smart phone app. I think I pay about five dollars a month for it. It’s a good value. Both the late model and modified main events were won by drivers starting in the first two rows. The modified feature winner led all the way. In the late model race well known driver Bobby Pierce came from the second row to pass the leader with just a few laps to go. There was a lot of battling back in the pack. The track promoters, as well as me, could see that heavy duty rain was coming to the track shortly. That being the case they really hustled the program right along. They ended up shortening the late-model race from 50 laps to 40 laps. They reduced the modified feature raise from 40 laps to 25 laps. They changed the hornet race to be after the two main events. All good ideas tonight. I was on my way back to my car in the parking lot by about 9:15 p.m. I was happy to see a good night of racing at Spoon River following my visit of nearly 40 years ago which was somewhat disappointing. I came here tonight because I was trying to bridge the beginning of my trackchasing trip with the end of my trackchasing trip. I hadn’t been able to find any tracks racing tonight that I had never been to before. The Spoon River Speedway was a more than adequate substitute. During the races I messaged back-and-forth with John Sullivan (above) one of my racing buddies from up in Maine. John is responsible for getting me started with FloSports producers of FloRacing. FloSports does a good job of covering lots of short track events. I get to watch those races at my leisure on my big screen TV. The service costs $150 per year. I think that’s a reasonable price. It’s nice to be able to tune into a feature race from a short track on TV with all without all of the hassle of getting there from California. If I watch 150 events on FloRacing that’s a cost to me of just one dollar per track. I have no idea how the tracks or the media company makes money off of this. By the way, it should be realized that virtually no one in racing really makes any money. The only folks who do are the ones that have no investment in ownership or infrastructure. To make life a little bit easier I booked a hotel using Priceline in Canton, Illinois. My hotel was only 12 miles from the track. By the time I got there it was raining steadily. We had beaten the weatherman tonight. THURSDAY Lewis County Fairgrounds – Lewiston, Missouri – Lifetime tracks #2,718 & #2,219 I had plenty of time to get to my destination today which would be over in Lewiston, Missouri. No trackchaser had ever visited this fairground to see racing in Lewiston. I would be the first. With a little extra time to fill during the drive over to the fairgrounds I stopped at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. Our good friend Bev Herrin (above with husband Mike) is a proud graduate of WIU. For the most part the campus was deserted. I was able to get inside both the football stadium which is Hanson Field and the basketball arena which is Western Hall. Don’t miss my photographs from Western Illinois University. There was only one negative to the visit. The roads and parking lots on the campus were so torn up with potholes the place looked like an absolute war zone. The harsh Illinois winners can really tear up concrete surfaces. From there I grabbed a hotel reservation in Quincy, Illinois. My hotel was overlooking the Mississippi River which separates Illinois from the state of Missouri. Just before I headed out for tonight’s trackchasing adventure I did a quick check of where I planned to trackchase tomorrow night. That location was in Rolla, Missouri. To my surprise they had changed their race date from tomorrow night to a week from tomorrow night. This was a problem. I was committed to trackchasing in Northern Minnesota on Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. There were no new track opportunities that would fit for me on Friday night (tomorrow) given the fact that I was trackchasing in Lewiston, Missouri tonight, Thursday, and northern Minnesota on Saturday afternoon. Despite having done this for decades I continue to be amazed that no matter how tightly I plan a trip there will always be major changes like the Rolla Speedway schedule change. It almost comes down to simply planning a trip without putting any more time into it that I need to and then knowing that whatever my plan is it will change! My last name is Lewis. Last night I trackchased in Lewiston, Illinois. Tonight, I was trackchasing at the Lewis County Fairgrounds in Lewiston, Missouri. Weird, Huh? This was the first time the Lewis County Fairgrounds was having any auto racing in recent memory. Someone told me they had some form of car racing back in the 90s but I have not confirmed that. I was coming tonight to see some figure 8 racing. I pulled into the very rural fairgrounds and paid my eight dollar admission fee. There was no charge for parking. There was no extra charge to see tonight’s grandstand entertainment. Paying eight bucks for what I sometimes have to pay more than $30 for felt like a real bargain. I parked my car so that I could hear a little bit of the drivers’ meeting without having to buy a pit pass. One thing I did here during the meeting was that they encouraged contact during the figure 8 race. This wasn’t a demo derby but an actual race. I liked hearing that. Then I headed over to the concession stand. Prices were super reasonable there. I had two chili dogs and a can of Diet Mountain Dew all for less than seven dollars. After the races I would return to the very same concession stand and get another can of Diet Mountain Dew and an ice cream drumstick for the unbelievable total of just $1.75. I told the guy taking my order that I couldn’t go to the grocery store and buy stuff this cheaply. He simply smiled and said, “We’re not here and rip people off”. Well said. Tonight’s grandstand was large. By the end of the night, it would end up being nearly full. I like to sit in the top row of the grandstand. Today I marched up to the top row and who did I see sitting there? John Simpson. John is a trackchaser from the greater Kansas City area. He and I have met up for trackchasing a few times this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do so again in the near future. While John and I chatted away about our mutual hobby the first event to come onto tonight’s track was the tough trucks. At most county fairs, maybe all of them that I’ve seen, tough trucks come out and race against the clock for one lap around whatever course that has been designed. That’s what they did tonight. I would say the tough truck racing was the least entertaining of what we saw tonight. Following the tough trucks were “rally car” races for first two-wheel-drive and then four-wheel-drive cars. I had seen this talked about on social media before coming to the track tonight. I didn’t really have any idea if this was going to be wheel a wheel racing which might count as a separate track or not. It turns out that the rally car race would be held over a road course of sorts. This road course had all kinds of dirt speed bumps and very narrow passageways at different points. All of the racers started the race at the same time making this a countable road course configuration. This was a real bonus. I wasn’t expecting to see any “road course” racing tonight. The track layout was one of the most unusual I have ever seen. At one point the track layout had cars racing in opposite directions where they passed each other with only a couple of feet between racers. It was wild. Don’t miss the video. There were a couple of flips. They had a skip loader try to remove one stalled car after the race was finished. The blades on the skip loader punctured the car’s gas tank. The racer must have just filled up because some ten of fifteen gallons of fuel flowed out onto the dirt race surface. The firemen came out to make sure everyone was safe. Then they lit the spilled gasoline on fire. I have never seen a bigger gasoline fire in my life that was intentionally set. Massive! Don’t miss the video on this one. Following the racing on the homemade road course the track went to the figure 8 race. They had a flip in this race as well. I would say the racing on the road course was a little more entertaining and outrageous than what we saw on the figure 8 track. When it was all over John and I met up with trackchasers Brian and Sue Dolphy (above – on the ends). They had come from Illinois and weren’t too far from home. I introduced John to the Dolphy’s as they are three of the top new trackchasers to enter the hobby. Since trackchaser Ed Esser made an abrupt departure approaching a decade ago there really haven’t been any outstanding Midwestern Trackchasers. John, Brian and Sue are doing a good job of correcting that void. Despite living in California, I have seen more race tracks in the Midwest than anybody else by a large margin. It’s nice to know that when I show up at a Midwestern track there’s a reasonable chance, I might see another trackchaser. Until the threesome noted above came along it would be rare to see an eastern based trackchaser out in the Midwest. That would be like a fish out of water. Today came with a wide number of changes. The cancellation of the Rolla, Missouri race was a problem. Then seeing two racetracks at the Lewis County Fairgrounds sort of made up for the loss I had tomorrow night at Rolla. With these changes I went into full scramble mode. I didn’t have a new track opportunity for tomorrow night. I was originally planning to return my rental car to Chicago. Now returning it to Minneapolis made much more sense. When I got back to my hotel after the races, I called National Car Rental. They were agreeable to letting me return the car to Minneapolis and actually keep it for one more day than originally planned. This change eliminated the need for two round-trip flights from Chicago to Fargo, North Dakota. I’ll still have some major driving to do from this point forward. As this is written, I’ve driven a little more than 1.000 miles during the first two days of the trip. Yes, I drive a lot. I’m about ready to drive a lot more. FRIDAY No trackchasing scheduled for today. There wasn’t really a lot happening today at least from a trackchasing point of view. When the Rolla Speedway in Rolla, Missouri decided to move their show from today until next Friday that sort of sunk my ship. I could have tried to go to some other racing shows at tracks where I’ve already been. Today, that did not appeal to me. The main thing on my mind was making the ten-hour drive from southern Illinois (Quincy) to get me properly positioned in northern Minnesota for Saturday’s trackchasing doubleheader. Along the way I tried to spice up my day. I stopped for a quick tour of Northern Iowa University in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get inside of either their football stadium or their basketball arena. Northern Iowa has a domed football stadium called the, UNI-Dome. That’s cool. I’ve seen games in domed football stadiums but with primarily smaller schools. The UNI-Dome is on my agenda to see in the future whenever I can pull it off. I just think the idea of playing college football inside a domed stadium is beyond cool. With all of the driving that I was going to do today I figured I could probably find some entertainment somewhere. I did! I stopped in Willmar, Minnesota to see the Willmar Stingers play the Minnesota Mud Puppies. A ticket to this minor-league baseball game cost me $13. Outrageous. I don’t know how people can afford to go to a minor-league baseball game. Last Monday we paid eight dollars per ticket to see the Los Angeles Angels play the Boston Red Sox AND we got a free Shohei a Ohtani pillow on top of it. With the Mud Puppies leading the hapless Stingers by a score of 8-0 in the sixth inning I decided I had seen enough. The Willmar Stinger Stadium was the least impressive of any minor-league baseball stadium I can recall seeing. They only had seating pretty much around home plate. They did have special box-type seating for VIP customers down the line. Overall, I was not impressed with this particular outing but then again that’s because I’ve seen so much in so many places. Hotels in northern Minnesota can be expensive in the summertime. Everyone goes up there for their summer vacation. Nevertheless, using SnapTravel, I was able to snare a Rodeway Inn in Fergus Falls, which wasn’t that great, for less than 100 bucks. I felt that I won that one even though it wasn’t a large victory. Now I was well-positioned for tomorrow afternoon’s racing and the evening’s Baja racing, a staple for junk car aficionados in Minnesota. SATURDAY Legacy Center, Middle River, Minnesota – Lifetime track #2,720. Kittson County Fairgrounds, Hallock, Minnesota – Lifetime track #2,721 I awoke to a beautiful blue clear sky with daytime temperatures projected to be in the low 80s. In Minnesota in July that is absolutely gorgeous weather. Strategically I would need to drive my rental car until the gas tank looked like a dried out California desert on the inside of the tank. When that happened the orange glow from the low fuel light would be blinding me…and it would be time to stop for gas. Then when I stopped for gas, I would fill it until the tank overflowed. Where did I learn the strategy? NASCAR, baby! I decided that my breakfast would be a combination of brownie bites and Diet cherry Pepsi. You can’t go wrong with nourishment like that. I should know. I’ve been eating that way all my life. When I checked out of the hotel, I noticed the cashier had charged me for two packages of brownie bites when I only had one. When I brought this to her attention her first question was do you want two packages? It was all I could do to keep myself from reaching across the counter and grabbing her by the throat and choking her out like I had done so many times in Marine Corps boot camp. No, if I wanted two packages of brownie bites, I would’ve brought two packages to the counter. Was she trying to scam me? Was her plan to go back and get a package of brownie bites for herself on the house after I left? I don’t know. She had white skin and blonde hair so I knew she was from Minnesota. Minnesota people don’t scam folks, do they? Back to trackchasing…the Legacy Center is a unique auto racing location. It’s so unique that I am the only trackchaser ever to have darkened their door up here in Middle River, Minnesota. After today an astounding thirty of the 50 tracks where I’ve seen racing this year have never been visited by any trackchasers since official track records were kept in 1928. Today’s racing began promptly at 1 p.m. I parked on a nearby side street in the small town of Middle River. The town’s population is just 303 people. It could be good news for some to know that 52% of the population is female with only 48% of folks identifying as male with no binary gendered folks. Today’s general admission price was $15. That seemed a little steep but I knew it was going for a good cause. Nobody was getting rich off of my 15 bucks. The temperature was warm in the low 80s. I assumed that my general admission wristband was good for pit admission. My motto is “it’s better to ask for forgiveness than approval”. That has worked for a lifetime and I’m not about to change now. Today there were three racing classes that would be racing. These were all what I affectionately call junk cars. There was a four-cylinder division, a six cylinder division and a separate division for pick-up trucks. About 40 competitors were spread over the pit area. Today they would be racing on a flat dirt road course that got a little dusty toward the end. It was also one of the roughest, of many rough tracks, that I’ve ever seen. They had a good announcer and a good crowd on hand. The speaker system was solid. They were using porta potties to take care of those in need. The Legacy Center is located at what used to be the old high school in Middle River. As a matter of fact, today’s race course was basically on the old football field. I’ve never seen cars race around the track with a goal post at each end. Check out the photos! Today they ran several heat races, a consolation race and three feature races. During the truck feature a driver did several barrel rolls collapsing the roof on the driver’s side. His amateurly constructed roll cage was almost useless. The driver was carted off to the hospital. Later the crowd was told that he was not injured seriously. Today’s racing was what they call “Baja racing” here in the North Star State. Baja racing is very popular in Minnesota. I’m not sure I’ve seen Baja racing, at least by that name, anywhere else. It’s getting more and more popular up here. There was something special about today’s racing taking place in the afternoon. Middle River was only a 50 minute drive from Hallock, Minnesota. Hallock was home to the Kittson County Fairgrounds. Hallock was having their own Baja racing tonight at 7 p.m. Fortunately the men and women of the Randy Lewis Racing research department found this trackchasing double and they told me about it. Now I’m telling you about it. Trackchasers from all over the world can go here next year to get a trackchasing double if they like. I arrived at the Kittson County Fairgrounds at 4 p.m. I was hoping to eat something somewhere in Hallock. That didn’t appear to be possible. Hallock has a population of 981 people and apparently, they all eat at home. I didn’t find one legitimate restaurant in the entire town as I drove around. That being the case I drove over to the fairgrounds and parked my car. My National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry gets great mileage despite the fact that I often have it idle for hours so I can run the air conditioning. At the fairgrounds I grabbed an eight dollar serving of cheese curds. It was a small serving. Cheese curds are expensive. Then I grabbed an iced cold can of Coors Light for four bucks and took it all back to the car. I realized I might be risking a DUI by sitting in an automobile with the engine running and drinking a cold beer but it was worth the risk. They used to have stock car racing on a quarter-mile dirt oval at the Kittson County Fairgrounds. They stopped racing there long time ago. I never made it up here to see racing on that track although five other trackchasers have. Today I would be seeing racing on a dirt road course in front of the Kittson County Fairgrounds grandstand. The grandstand was modern with rows of aluminum seats and a nice flat roof. Very impressive. I would be the first trackchaser, dating back to 1928, to ever see road course racing at the Kittson County Fairgrounds. I’m always proud of any accomplishments that I have in trackchasing where I’m the first to do one thing or another. I had been on the road for four days. I had driven my rental car 1,922 miles. I still had about six hours of driving to get back to the Minneapolis airport. Assuming that went well I hoped to catch an airplane ride from Minneapolis back to Los Angeles tomorrow. I’ve got several appointments that need to be conducted on Monday so I was returning a day early on this trip which is Sunday. As I always say…don’t miss the video of the Baja racing from way up in Hallock, Minnesota. Hallock is only 21 miles from the Pembina, Minnesota border crossing into Canada. I had a “history” with the Canadian border control at the Pembina crossing. I’ll tell you more about that later. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,721 tracks. Pennsylvania The Keystone State On Tuesday night I saw racing at my 109th lifetime track in the Keystone State, yes, the Keystone State. I hold an outside the top 10 trackchasing ranking in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania ranks #6 (tied), amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Pennsylvania state trackchasing list. I have made 67 separate trips to Pennsylvania seeing these tracks. Missouri The Show Me State On Thursday night I saw racing at my 77th and 78th lifetime tracks in the Show Me State, yes, the Show Me State. I hold a #1 trackchasing ranking in Missouri. Missouri ranks #12, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Missouri state trackchasing list. I have made an even 50 individual trips to Missouri seeing these tracks. Minnesota The North Star State On Saturday I saw racing at my 108th and 109th lifetime tracks in the North Star State, yes, the North Star State. I hold a #1 trackchasing ranking in Minnesota. Minnesota ranks #6 (ties), amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Minnesota state trackchasing list. I have made 77 individual trips to Minnesota seeing these tracks. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Pennsylvania sayings: Buggy In most places, people put their groceries into the grocery cart. In Pennsylvania, they’re placed into the buggy. Missouri sayings: “I don’t need a sack. Most Missourians say sack instead of bag. That’s just their preference. Even though this might seem like a completely normal directional statement, this saying doesn’t have anything to do with direction. When a Minnesotan says “Up North” what they’re really referring to is their cabin or to the woods, but those don’t need to be in that direction. So, no matter where they are going, they’ll say they’re going “up north.” JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 845 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Basic figure 8 racing 101…from up near Pittsburgh Real racing…real good racing from Spoon River Speedway in Illinois Fire, flips, fireman falling, this video from the Lewis County Fairgrounds in Missouri has it all! See a moose…a real moose…before we go Baja racing! Dusty…no real dusty…no dustiest ever? Baja racing from way up in Minnesota See it in pictures! Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Finally…I got the Big Butler Fair in PA. Let’s go to the fair! Two tracks, one visit; met three trackchasers and toured Western Illinois University Finishing up nearly a weeklong trip with cheese curds and Baja racing. 
Minnesota sayings: UP NORTH
