Greetings from Bowling Green, Kentucky
and then Paris, Illinois
and finally, Benkelman, Nebraska
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,726 Edgar County Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,727 Dundy County Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,728 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Kentucky, Illinois and Nebraska! It’s summertime and county fair time. It’s time to move around the country and I love doing that. I travel this way so you don’t have to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. Fair enough? Now get out there and go somewhere. Covid is in the rearview mirror and getting smaller every day. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with long-time racing buddy Jim Sabo at the first Bristol dirt race). 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 Monday/Thursday, July 19-22, 2021. Most race tracks in the United States race on Saturday night. The next most popular night of racing would be Friday. I’m going to guess that 90% of the race tracks in the United States race on these two days. The same is true for English-speaking foreign countries. This would include locations like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. Virtually every other country, read those non-English-speaking countries, race during the daytime over the weekend. Why do well over 98% of all race tracks race on the weekend during the evening or during the day? Because most race tracks are financially dependent on spectators. Spectators are working during the week. Their free time comes on Friday night and Saturday night or during the day on Saturday and Sunday. This isn’t rocket science, is it? As you know, I am a trackchaser. My hobby encourages me to see racing at as many different facilities in both the United States and the world as I can. As I try to see these many tracks the above reminds me that most of my trackchasing will take place over the weekend. There’s one exception to all of this. During the summertime, mainly during July but a little bit in August the United States has one thing that virtually no other country with the exception of Canada has. What’s that? County fairs! I’m pretty sure that just about everyone reading this has been to a county fair. I have as well. I estimate that I have been to more than 500 county fairs with the primary purpose of seeing some county fair summer fun in the form of auto racing. County fairs and state fairs used to run “big-time” racing events. Back in the day open-wheeled cars like midgets and sprint cars or possibly a traveling stock car circuit like IMCA would race at the county fair. For the most part that has changed. Today’s county fair auto racing offerings are made up of figure 8 races and low-cost enduro stock car races. It was with all of the above in mind that I established a schedule, one week in duration from Monday through Sunday, that would allow me to visit six different race tracks for the very first time. Carol would join me for part of the trip. Then I would run into a couple of buddies up in South Dakota who would come along to another track I was visiting. In total, I would see racing in six states, Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Minnesota. What do you need to do that properly? A good rental car! I’ll share my trip to the first three tracks in Part 1 and the final three tracks in Part 2. Let’s get started. MONDAY I just finished up a trackchasing trip in Jim Falls, Wisconsin (above) yesterday afternoon. The original plan was to try to fly back to Los Angeles on Sunday evening and then return to the Midwest next Wednesday. At the very last minute, that plan changed. I discovered a racing opportunity happening tonight in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I could easily get from Jim Falls, Wisconsin down to Bowling Green, Kentucky in time for this evening’s racing. Of course, my idea of “easy” is not everyone’s idea of easy. Then I could just “hang out” in the area until I showed up in Paris on Wednesday night. No, I’m not talking about Paris, France but Paris, Illinois. More about that later. The weather forecast for all of these locations was excellent. It was going to be dry but warm as you might expect with Midwest summers. I do two kinds of planning with my trackchasing. One is the immediate plan which includes what I expect to see today or this week. The other is the longer-term plan where I sort of “pencil in” trackchasing opportunities. This longer-term plan (above) is very tentative and subject to all kinds of changes. After yesterday’s trackchasing in Jim Falls, Wisconsin I drove down to the Chicago International O’Hare Airport. This morning I hopped on a flight and flew to Nashville, Tennessee. Once in Nashville I grabbed a rental car and drove a couple of hours up to Bowling Green, Kentucky. This next fact might be surprising to most of my readers. It was surprising to me. Tonight, I was going to be seeing racing at my sixth different race track in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green isn’t all that large. Its population is around 70,000. All the way back in 2001 I had seen racing at the Beech Bend Raceway (above from back in the day). They offered competition on a paved oval and a paved figure 8 track. Then in 2013, I came to the very same Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds I was checking out tonight to see their dirt figure 8 racing show. A year later in 2014, I was down to the NCM Motorsports Park to see road course racing on their west course. I returned five years later to the NCM Motorsports Park for racing on their grand course. These were two different road course track configurations at the same facility. Today’s racing at the Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds was going to be contested over a dirt oval. As you probably know by now trackchasing allows the counting of race tracks on three different kinds of configurations. Those are ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. As you also may have concluded I take full advantage of the existing trackchasing rules even though I am not a proponent of several of them. I simply play by the rules that others have set so that I can compare my lifetime track totals with the lifetime totals of other trackchasers on a apples and apples basis. Tonight’s ticket sign was a little confusing. The sign told me that general admission tickets were $12. A pit pass was “only” $10. I had never seen such a thing before. Pit passes are always more expensive than general admission tickets. What I didn’t understand at first was the pit pass fee was $10 in addition to the $12 general admission price. That made sense. Tonight’s dirt oval might have been a sixth of a mile in distance. That’s a guess. The track was made of red clay which is a popular clay color in the south. Tonight’s racers were competing with a series of four-door generally American-made low-dollar race cars. There was one thing that set them apart from other low-dollar cars that I’ve seen race. You would probably never guess what that would be. I have never seen a more unusual group of color combinations that these race cars offered. The car numbers were painted in colors that were very difficult to distinguish from the car’s main color. This wasn’t just true for one or two racers but for 10 or more. I have never seen such a thing. There was a small crowd in the aluminum grandstand. I grabbed a seat in the top row as I always try to do. I was simply enjoying my own company when a fellow came up and sat down next to me. Normally, that’s a good idea. Tonight, not so much. This guy talked absolutely nonstop. Soon he was telling me about a back injury he sustained as a young man. He had broken his back and had several surgeries. It wasn’t long before he was raising his T-shirt and asking me to touch his scar. Sometimes too much is too much. The man’s son, equally on the rural side, joined us. Both of these guys talked nonstop. How was I going to get out of this one? It was as if the trackchasing gods immediately recognized my situation and solved the problem. My two new “friends” recognized an acquaintance on the other side of the track. Soon, they were off to join him. Thank goodness! The track got dusty. They watered it periodically. Nevertheless, the water didn’t do any good whatsoever. Despite the cars not being that high powered after only two or three laps of racing the track was back to a dusty dust bowl. Don’t miss the video! When the races were finished, I took a quick walk around the fair. I didn’t see any animal barns. They had a good-sized carnival. I had done my share of walking today. Eight miles worth. It was time to head back to Nashville and prepare for the rest of the week. It was going to be busy. TUESDAY From July 15 through July 25, I was actually going to see racing at 10 different race tracks. I would see racing at only one track each day during this 11-day period. The trip would include a good deal of driving but whenever I can knock out 10 tracks in 11 days, I think I’ve been pretty productive. This morning I woke up in Nashville, Tennessee. My first stop was at a Waffle House because that’s what people who wake up in Nashville on a Tuesday morning should be doing. Then I stopped over at a place called “The Wash House”. What was the Wash House? This was essentially a laundromat. I only brought enough clothes for a five or six-day trip. When that shorter trip turned into an 11-day trip I didn’t have enough clean clothes. This necessitated a trip to the Wash House. I will be the first to admit that I have no skills whatsoever in the area of domestic chores. Carol does everything for me. I am helpless when it comes to chores. My inexperience in the area of domestic chores was apparently very obvious when I walked into the Wash House. I was literally a fish out of water. The three very helpful Hispanic ladies who worked at the Wash House recognized my dilemma and did their very best to help out. I think they all looked at each other and simultaneously concluded that this guy doesn’t know how to do his own wash. They were correct. It is true that in nearly 50 years of marriage I have never washed or dried a single item in our household. Why do I say that? Because it’s true. You always get the truth from me in these Trackchaser Reports. Soon the ladies were helping me with change for the washers and dryers and giving me advice on how exactly to do this particular chore. I appreciated them very much. I asked if I could take their photo when I was leaving so that you folks could see what these helpful women looked like. Out of modestly, they declined. Thank you, ladies. I really appreciated your help. When this was all done…I was missing a sock. How does that happen? This was the one night of my 11-day trip that I didn’t have any auto racing scheduled. I looked around and tried to decide what might be a good Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. I found a good one. Up in Lexington, Kentucky the Lexington Legends were playing the Long Island Ducks in a minor league baseball game. This contest would be happening at the Lexington Legends Ballpark. To add a little cherry on top of this particular sundae it was $.25 hotdog night. That had my name written all over it. Here’s a little bit of Wikipedia information about each of these teams. Lexington Legends The Lexington Legends are an American professional baseball team based in Lexington, Kentucky. They are a member of the South Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a “partner league” of Major League Baseball. The Legends have played their home games at Lexington Legends Ballpark, on the northeast side of the city just inside New Circle Road, since 2001. The Class-A Kissimmee Cobras moved from the Florida State League to Lexington following the 2000 season. In the postseason, the Legends defeated the Hagerstown Suns in the first round and advanced to play the Asheville Tourists in the League Championship Series. However, the series was cancelled after the Legends won the first two games of the series due to the September 11 attacks and the Legends were declared co-champions after having gone up 2-0 before game three was canceled. Long Island Ducks The Long Island Ducks are an American professional baseball team based on Long Island in Central Islip, New York. The Ducks compete in the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), an independent “partner league” of Major League Baseball. The Ducks played their first season in 2000, two years after the ALPB inaugural season. Since their inception the Ducks’ home ballpark has been Fairfield Properties Ballpark, formerly known as Bethpage Ballpark (2010-2020), Suffolk County Sports Park (1999), EAB Park (2000–2001), and Citibank Park (2002–2009). The “Ducks” name refers to Long Island’s duck-farming heritage (itself represented by the Big Duck ferrocement) and recalls the former Long Island Ducks professional ice hockey team. Minor-league baseball is often played in some very nice but smaller stadiums. Minor-league baseball is really not all that well attended. Like lots of sporting venues across the country, crowds are down due to a general lack of interest as well as the Covid pandemic. Tonight’s game was played in front of a crowd of only a couple hundred people. Speaking of crowds, the stadium’s largest crowd ever was a standing room-only affair for 9,300 people to watch Roger Clemens do some rehab work on his return to the Houston Astros. Minor-league fans love it when a major league baseball player of note comes to the area for a game or two getting ready for a return to the majors. There was something special about tonight’s game. In the eighth inning, I decided that I had enjoyed all the minor-league baseball that I needed to see for the evening. As I was walking out of the stadium, I heard a foul ball clearing the upper roof and landing on the concrete not too far from where I was heading to my car. I looked around. There was no one near me. The ball settled up against the fence maybe 40 feet from where I was standing. Even though there was no one in the immediate area and no one seemed to know this foul ball had even come out my way I hustled over to grab it. I can’t recall the last time I’ve gotten a foul ball at a ball game. This was my lucky day. WEDNESDAY I picked up my rental car in Nashville yesterday morning. I didn’t plan on returning home at the end of this trip from Nashville. That meant that strategically I would need to return my rental car to a location where I DID plan to return from at the end of the trip. With all of this being the case, I took my rental car this morning to the Indianapolis, Indiana airport. That limited my liability of a one-way rental to just one day from Nashville to Indianapolis. My hobby is jampacked with strategic options. I wasn’t done with minor-league baseball on this trip. Today there was going to be an afternoon game played at Victory Field in Indianapolis. I’ve been trying to see a game at this venue forever. It seemed like every time I was in Indianapolis, which was often, the Indianapolis Indians were playing somewhere else. Today’s game which started at 1:35 p.m. featured the Indianapolis Indians hosting the Toledo Mud Hens. I grabbed a cheap “lawn” ticket. Then I sat in the stands to watch the game. This was going to be a perfect addition to my trip with tonight’s auto racing being in somewhat nearby (103 miles) Paris, Illinois. Today was a good day for afternoon baseball. Although it was warm, I found a seat in the shade. There I enjoyed my “go-to” baseball refreshments those being a hotdog and large salted pretzel. The signage at the ballpark today reminded me that such luminaries as Harmon Killebrew, Herb Score and Razor Shines have played for the Indy Indians. When the game was finished, I was off to a special location. Tonight, I was going to be seeing some racing in Paris, Illinois. My kinfolk on my mother’s side were from this area. As a matter of fact, both my grandparents grew up in Oakland, Illinois (18 miles from Paris) which still to this day has a population of only 900 people. Every year during Memorial Day our family reunion would be held in Oakland. I would spend much of the day in the car listening to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio. “Cousin Ernie” Gilkerson Today I visited Oakland and checked out the cemetery where some of my relatives are buried. Then I took a quick drive over to Metcalf, Illinois. My uncle Ernie Gilkerson, who carried the racing nickname “Cousin Ernie” (above) and his family were from Metcalf. They’re all gone now. Uncle Ernie was a modified stock car driver of note. I never got to see him race because we didn’t have enough money to make trips like that. I wish I had but I never got to do that. Tonight’s auto racing at the Edgar County Fairgrounds would begin at 6:30 p.m. Tickets were only five bucks. This is a small town agricultural area. Folks don’t have a lot of money for entertainment in this part of the world. Tonight’s dirt oval track configuration was a bit unusual. Essentially, they had a long line of concrete Jersey barriers placed end to end. The cars raced around this concrete barrier in a clockwise direction. That’s unusual. Most racing of this type runs in a counter-clockwise direction. Some lifelong racing fans may not think of junk car racing as “real” racing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I would ask people who might have that point of view this. Folks in and around the Edgar County Fairgrounds in Paris, Illinois are not going to be having a NASCAR Cup race in their immediate area anytime soon. The World of Outlaws won’t be in Paris, Illinois either. Aren’t these folks entitled to the smallest sliver of the auto racing pie? There’s nothing wrong with having SOME KIND of auto racing in these out-of-the-way places once a year. You might want to check out my video to see what this kind of racing looked like. Thursday This morning I was back at the Indianapolis airport. I needed to return my rental car… again. This was simply more rental car strategy. I am always impressed when I come to the Indianapolis airport. Indy has one of the most attractive terminals of any airport I visit. They also have race cars on display there on a permanent basis. Today I would be flying from Indianapolis out to Denver, Colorado. Yes, if you were thinking that trackchasing keeps me on the go you would be absolutely correct. I had a special visitor joining me today. Trackchasing’s First Mother also known as wife Carol was coming out for a quick two-day trackchasing extravaganza. She doesn’t trackchase quite as much as she used to. I think she’s gotten her fill but she is nice enough to come out and see 10-15 new tracks a year. That’s more than quite a few spouses are willing to do. Carol and I both met in the Denver, Colorado airport. Today we were heading up to Benkelman, Nebraska. That was a driving distance from Denver of 203 miles. Benkelman has been racing at this county fair location for decades. They race only a night or two each year so fitting them into my schedule with their geographical remoteness has always been a challenge. Tonight, we made it. Benkelman is home to the actor Ward Bond. Everybody is from somewhere right? You may remember Mr. Bond from Wagon Train and the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life. We stopped for a moment at the Ward Bond Memorial Park. Tonight’s racing was happening at the Dundy County Fairgrounds in Benkelman. I was surprised at the quality of tonight’s covered grandstand. Carol and I dined on pulled pork barbecue with macaroni and cheese and baked beans. It was decent. This event featured some decent “real” race cars of the street stock variety. With Dundy County racing on Wednesday and Thursday nights they could attract local racers from the area who compete at Nebraska and Kansas tracks on Friday and Saturday nights. This might have been the first and only racetrack to have cow pens in the infield. Not just cow pens. Cow pends with cows in them while the racing was going on! I was pleased to see David Murray Jr. was racing this evening. David has won more IMCA feature race events than anybody in any division with IMCA ever until he was passed for that title recently. For David, that’s more than 500 feature wins! IMCA first sanctioned auto racing in 1915. They are the oldest auto racing sanctioning body in the world! Well done. One of the highlights of tonight’s show wasn’t on the track but at the concession stand. The locals were featuring homemade ice cream along with blueberry pie. That’s always a good recipe for a county fair visit. Afterward, Carol and I checked out the animal barns to see some pretty healthy-looking cows and pigs. This completes Part 1 of this two-part series of trackchasing through the midwestern plains. Just a few minutes into Thursday (Part 2) our lives were about to change. More on that in…wait for it…Part 2. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,728 tracks. Kentucky The Blue Grass State This evening I saw racing at my 57th lifetime track in the Blue Grass, yes, the Blue Grass State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Kentucky. Kentucky ranks #15, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Kentucky state trackchasing list. I have made 40 separate trips to Kentucky to see these tracks. Illinois The Illini State This evening I saw racing at my 108th lifetime track in the Illini, yes, the Illini State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Illinois, my boyhood state. Illinois ranks #8, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Illinois state trackchasing list. I have made 93 separate trips to Illinois to see these tracks. Nebraska The Cornhusker State This evening I saw racing at my 46th lifetime track in the Cornhusker, yes, the Cornhusker State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Nebraska. Nebraska ranks #18, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Nebraska state trackchasing list. I have made 33 separate trips to Nebraska to see 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 Kentucky sayings: Kentucky: We’ve got the copyright on Fried Chicken! Illinois sayings: Grab your gym shoes. Even when you aren’t actually going to the gym, these are your gym shoes. You might know them better as sneakers or tennis shoes. Nebraska sayings: Home of The Richest Man in The World 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 855 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 my video production from the racing action today. A dusty night in Southern Kentucky Coming back home…to some small town auto cross racing This track races just two days a year…way out in western Nebraska 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. Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” All photo albums are fully captioned. Returning to Bowling Green, Kentucky once again…for the sixth time! From the Wash House to Lexington Legends Ball Park to the first-ever autocross race in Paris! 
