Sun City

 

 

 

FOREWORD

 

The low points of 2021.

 

The preface.

As you know my hobby of trackchasing has me trying to see auto racing at as many different racetracks as I can all over the world. This was a much easier activity to pull off 20 years ago than it is today.

 

Now I have seen racing at 2,760 tracks in 85 countries. There are only so many tracks where racing takes place. There are not all that many racetracks remaining for me to visit.

 

 

I do a lot of traveling with my hobby. I see and do a lot of “stuff”. However, the main reason each of my trips BEGINS is so that I can visit a new track. On these trackchasing trips I do NOT want to be on the road if I am not seeing a new track.

 

Some track locations like those that host the Daytona 500 or the Indy 500 post their race date a year in advance. That date is not going to change unless there is some major calamity.

 

However, the tracks I am seeing in today’s times are not on the level of Daytona or Indianapolis. These tracks are often “novelty” tracks. They are “fragile” tracks.

 

 

What do I mean by “fragile”? It doesn’t take much to throw them off their game. What does THAT mean? For the goofiest of reasons, that wouldn’t affect Daytona or Indianapolis, they might not race. After I’ve taken my time and money to get to one of these fragile tracks if they don’t race that’s a major hassle.

 

Sadly, in the year 2021 I have more fragile tracks “give up the ghost” and not race that I can ever recall. This Trackchaser Report is most unusual. It details all of these tracks that DIDN’T race after I have already traveled to their location. I had flown on an airplane. I had rented a car. I had rented a hotel. In many cases I had driven hundreds of miles…and they didn’t race.

 

 

I used to deliver pizzas when I was in college. When I arrived at a house or a dorm room and there was no one to receive the pizza that was called a “bummer” all the way back in 1970. To me making a 2,000-mile trip with all of the commitments and expense as outlined above only to have a track “cancel” is way beyond a friggin’ “bummer”.

 

This is how it all happened in 2021!

 

 

Sun City Extreme Off-Road Park

El Paso, Texas

Canceled by high winds

 

Canceled by high winds? That’s a new one. I drove all the way from Dallas to El Paso, a distance of 634 miles. I talked to the promoter that morning.

 

The track and the promoter both seemed a little “iffy”. I kept driving. They canceled the race at the last minute because of “high winds”. I still went to the track shortly after the cancelation news. There was virtually no one there other than some concessions people. Did they cancel because of high winds or lack of entries?

 

I did get the chance to visit the U.S. Border Control Museum in El Paso. That was entertaining. Don’t miss my SmugMug photo album of that visit as well as the rest of the trip.

 

I also dined on some authentic Mexican food before turning around and making that same 634-mile ride back to Dallas. Bummer!

 

Lake Odessa County Fairgrounds

Lake Odessa, Michigan

Postponed by a tornado the day before

 

Today’s trackchasing mission was simple. I would fly from Minneapolis over to Detroit, Michigan and see a race at the fairgrounds early this evening in Lake Odessa, Michigan.

 

This was not my first visit to Lake Odessa. I would be returning to Lake Odessa to trackchase. That is common in my hobby. Back in 2005, I saw racing at the I-96 racetrack in Lake Odessa. That’s a permanent track that races weekly. Today’s Lake Odessa track is located at the county fairgrounds and runs just one time a year.

  

I’ve been amazed, driving all over the Midwest this weekend, at the amount of animal roadkill I’ve seen along our nation’s highways. Some of these deer that tried to cross the road and didn’t make it were huge. Knock on wood that despite having some close calls I’ve never had a “big one” in terms of hitting a deer. I hope I never do.

 

I landed on time. I got my rental car on time. This was the perfect plan. The weather was good during my drive over to Lake Odessa. What could possibly go wrong?

It just turned out, obviously unbeknownst to me, that Lake Odessa had a tornado run through the area last night. Lake Odessa is a small town. Its population is right around 2,000 people and its land area is just under one square mile.

When I got within one mile of the Lake Odessa County Fairgrounds, I saw what looked like storm damage. Trees were blown down. One house had that infamous bright blue plastic tarp over its roof. It looked like the damage had happened in the last day or so. I continued on to the fairgrounds.

 

While I was still out on the main highway, I could see the county fair grandstands. It was just 45 minutes before race time and there wasn’t a single fan in the stands. From a distance, it looked like there wasn’t really anyone at the fair either.

 

I pulled into the fairgrounds like I have done hundreds of times before but this time was different. There was almost no activity at the fair. There was a food trailer here and there but that was about it.

 

I’ve had similar situations like this in the past. A couple of times I have shown up at a racetrack or fairgrounds to see absolutely no one there on the night when I thought they would be racing. On those occasions, I had shown up on the wrong date! Had I done that again tonight?

No, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that a tornado had blown through Lake Odessa late last night. Along with strong winds, the storm dumped about six inches of rain. One woman told me the fairgrounds had had rain all week and had canceled every one of their grandstand events including today’s Unique Motorsports bump and run racing.

 

I think rain in one form or another has hampered virtually every weekend that I have trackchased this year. It’s now the end of June. Ten miles outside of Lake Odessa today I never would have predicted that tonight’s racing would have been postponed.

 

I checked the promoter’s website. They were still showing that the race was on the schedule for this evening. I checked the Lake Odessa fairgrounds website. That site did indicate that all events were canceled.

 

I was disappointed. I do know that the unexpected happens seemingly more than expected with these trips. I guess that’s what makes my hobby so interesting and challenging.

 

 

Wayne County Fairgrounds

Fairfield, Illinois

Canceled by rain the day before

 

The Wayne County Fairgrounds was scheduled to race on Tuesday night. I didn’t have any other racing to see until Thursday. I debated where to travel to Illinois from California for a Tuesday show with nothing else, racing-wise, to do on Wednesday until I could see a race on Thursday. Nevertheless, I wanted to add another track in my boyhood state of Illinois so badly that I came in 48 hours in front of Thursday night’s racing.

 

When you go on a vacation do you make your hotel reservations days or weeks before you get to where you’re going? Most people do. I don’t. I typically only make a hotel reservation a few hours before I expect to get there.

 

The main reason I don’t like to make advance hotel reservations is because of the tentativeness of the auto racing events I’m going to visit. Most of the time auto racing is subject to the whims of the weather. It doesn’t take much rain to cancel a racing program. As soon as I hear of a track cancellation I am as likely as not to make a U-turn with my rental car and head off in another direction.

 

Today, with a clear forecast for tonight’s race location in Fairfield, Illinois I decided to go ahead and make a hotel reservation. I found a highly rated Comfort Inn in Mattoon, Illinois just an hour and a half north of the track. That would be perfect… until it wasn’t perfect.

 

Once again, I was reminded that it’s generally a bad idea for me to make a hotel reservation in advance. During the four-hour drive down from Chicago to the race track location in Fairfield, Illinois I checked the promoter’s Facebook page. Race canceled! Say what?

It turns out the area got a lot of rain yesterday, so much rain that they couldn’t get things together for tonight’s racing. This happens more frequently at these once-a-year county fair shows. They just don’t have the equipment to get a race track back in shape after it’s been heavily rained upon. Eldora Speedway would absolutely be racing tonight despite having heavy rain yesterday. This wasn’t Eldora Speedway.

 

I messaged the promoter. We chatted online for a while. We were both disappointed in the cancellation. He had scheduled an at the track interview with me and his announcer. I had been looking forward to that. This race was at a county fair. All of the other grandstand nights were booked with other activities. The race could not be rescheduled this year. I’ll have to wait until at least next year to check the box on this one.

 

Now I was left with a Tuesday evening with clear weather out in the Midwest with no auto racing anywhere nearby. I did have a fallback plan. I could catch a minor-league baseball game somewhere in the general area.

 

I did a little searching. I soon found out that if I drove west a little bit, I could see a home game featuring the Springfield Sliders versus the Quincy Gems. As a matter of fact, they were having a doubleheader. I could just make it on time.

 

There was one problem with this plan. This problem was the reason that I don’t reserve hotel rooms in advance. I had a hotel reservation in Mattoon, Illinois. The baseball game was going to be played in Springfield, Illinois. My hotel was east of Springfield. The game was about 90 miles, one-way, in the wrong direction from where my paid-for hotel was!

 

Tomorrow I wanted to head out toward Hutchinson, Kansas. Hutchinson is west of Springfield. I was now going to have to drive 180 miles out of my way after the ball game to go back to the hotel (east) and then drive right past Springfield again on the way to Hutchinson (west) tomorrow. Luckily, I like driving.

 

I seriously considered just “eating” the hotel expense in Mattoon and paying for a second hotel somewhere in a westerly direction. I decided against that. I ended up staying in Mattoon.

Tonight’s game was played at the Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield. Roberts was a star pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies when I was a kid. Robin grew up in Springfield, Illinois!

 

A ticket to the game was only five bucks. Parking was free. The Springfield Sliders are a collegiate summer league baseball team in the United States Prospect League. The Sliders formed in November 2007 and were an expansion franchise for the 2008 season. The Sliders and other collegiate summer leagues and teams exist to give top college players a professional-like experience without affecting NCAA eligibility.

Tonight was “$2 day”. Several food and drink items were just two bucks. I went with a corn dog and a pretzel with cheese. There wasn’t much of a crowd. I just relaxed, had my baseball dinner and watched the game. I really wanted to be at a race tonight but the ballgame turned out to be a nice substitute.

 

Douglas County Fairgrounds

Rossburg, Oregon

No “trackchasing countable” race cars showed up for the figure 8 race

 

My original plan for this weekend called for me to fly from Portland to Anchorage, Alaska early this morning. There was a problem with that idea. The weather forecast didn’t look good for racing at the Alaska Raceway Park in Palmer, Alaska. Later in the day today, I would receive news that their program was rained out. I guess it was a good idea that I stayed in Oregon.

 

I woke up this morning at 7 p.m. after sleeping overnight in the parking lot of a Love’s Truckstop in Albany, Oregon. Despite high daily temperatures of nearly 100°, the overnight temperature was in the 60s which was comfortable for sleeping.

 

In almost every case when I do sleep overnight in my rental car or in an airport terminal or on an airplane it’s because there is not enough time to sleep in a hotel. I almost never sleep in my rental car as a cost-saving measure.

 

For some unknown reason, I’m taking a wild guess and saying it’s because of the Oregon fire season, hotel prices were out of sight all over Oregon. A Motel 6 was being offered at $220 plus tax. I was raised in the Midwest and grew up in a poor family. We didn’t have $50 for a Motel 6 back then let alone more than $250 today.

 

I had all day to find something interesting to do between Albany, Oregon, and tonight’s race location in Roseburg, Oregon. Racing wasn’t scheduled to begin until 6 p.m. I was only two hours driving time from the track.

I decided to “get my steps in” in downtown Albany. Actually, taking a walking tour which was one of the highlighted touring recommendations in the Albany historic district. In addition to that, I knocked off the Albany Regional History Museum. Honestly, it wasn’t much but then I only donated two dollars to see the museum.

 

I still had all afternoon that was open to free time. I decided to use my Regal Theater All-Access pass to go see a movie. I pay about $20 a month for this pass and can see as many movies in Regal theaters as I want.

Today I chose a movie titled “Suicide Squad”. Poor choice. It was a goofy offbeat film that had I taken the time to watch the video trailer I never would have attended. I should have seen the Aretha Franklin autobiography movie titled Respect. Next time!

 

From there I drove down to Roseburg, Oregon home to the Douglas County Fairgrounds. They race on a nicely banked asphalt oval here. This was not my first visit to the track.

 

Back in 2009, I saw racing at the Douglas County Fairgrounds asphalt oval. At the time seeing racing on that track was my 1,475th-lifetime track to see. It’s kind of amazing that since that visit, I’ve seen racing at more than 1,100 tracks. I guess I’ve been busy.

Tonight, I was returning for a special reason. In the past year or so the speedway has offered a “mini-figure 8” racing division to their promotional card. As you know a figure 8 track counts separately than an oval or road course in trackchasing. That’s why I was returning.

 

When I pulled into the parking lot of the Douglas County Fairgrounds the temperature was 98° at 5:15 p.m. That’s a little toasty. This is mainly a dry heat but it’s still heavy-duty heat. They’ve got a very large modern covered grandstand at this fairgrounds which offers outstanding views of the race track itself.

 

I had been in contact with the track’s promotional team. They assured me they would be having figure 8 racing tonight. With that in mind, I grabbed a seat in the grandstands next to a guy who looked like he would be interesting to talk to. He was.

 

I did leave a couple of seats in between myself and my new friend. Remember, we’re in the Covid pandemic!

 

We started talking as I am wont to do with folks I’ve just met at the racetrack. He was pretty impressed with my trackchasing efforts. However, I was most interested in learning about what made him tick.

 

The man lived just outside Roseburg. He didn’t have a computer or any connection to the internet! The fellow was a DIY architect. He had constructed a home with a built-in solar system that covered 100% of the energy needs of his house. I was impressed by that!

This gentleman was also divorced. He told me some pretty wild stories about his ex-wife that I can’t retell here. One of the most fun aspects of my hobby is meeting folks like this in the stands…and I’ve met a lot of them.

 

Meanwhile, I waited for the mini-truck figure 8 race. The announcer told us how the program was going to run tonight. He made no mention of figure 8 racing. You probably know where I’m going with this!

There would be no figure 8 racing tonight. At intermission, I spoke with the flagman. No figure 8 mini-trucks had shown up tonight. But what about the advanced information the track had given me saying there WOULD be figure 8 racing tonight. The flagman simply shrugged his shoulders.

 

I had slept overnight in a friggin’ car last night to see figure 8 racing in Roseburg, Oregon. I was disappointed. This was a bummer…but then I did enjoy talking to my new friend.

 

There was something unusual about the guy I met in the grandstands in Oregon tonight. He had a really heavy cough. About every 2-3 minutes it seemed as if he had a coughing fit. I didn’t give this all much thought because his stories about his ex-wife were so interesting. Maybe I should have.

 

Alpena County Fairgrounds

Alpena, Michigan

 

Autodromo Potosino

San Luis Potosi, Mexico

 

This was going to be a fun trip! First, I was going to spend the day at the Illinois State Fair. This had nothing to do with car racing. I was just going back to the fair to reminisce about my many boyhood visits from a very long time ago.

 

Then I would fly up to Michigan to catch a county fair race the next day. From Michigan, I would make my way down to Central Mexico to see a NASCAR-Mexico stock car series race. What a wonderful trip itinerary.

 

Sadly, Covid was going to derail this wonderful plan. Of all the weekends I planned to travel this year, about forty, this trip was one of my most anticipated. It wasn’t going to happen. I tested positive for Covid!

 

According to the CDC, as this is written more than 52 million of my fellow Americans have contracted Covid since the pandemic began. Even the president of the United States and several United States senators have gotten Covid.

 

I was one of the very first Californians, all the way back in January 2020 to get vaccinated. I was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine.

 

When someone has been fully vaccinated and gets Covid after their vaccinations it’s called a “breakthrough” case. According to a recent article “well below 1%” of people who are fully vaccinated come down with Covid”. I guess I’m just lucky!

 

Permit me to take a moment to explain how all of this came down for me. You probably know that early on I decided that I was not going to “live with Covid” in my bedroom for a year or more. I don’t really approach life that way but I’m not judging others who do.

Back on March 11, 2020, I landed at about 10 p.m. at the Los Angeles international airport on a flight from Stockholm, Sweden. I had been in Sweden for a week traveling all over the country and hadn’t heard a single word about Covid. But then I don’t understand Swedish!

 

When I landed late at night at LAX, I was told my flight from Europe was the last flight being allowed to land in California without the new Covid travel restrictions which were going to dramatically prohibit international travel.

 

I decided to take 12 weeks off from traveling after that trip to Sweden. Then I decided to make a major decision that would dramatically influence my enjoyment of life for the next year.

 

I decided that I could wash my hands, social distance, wear a mask and utilize the high-tech filtration systems of our nation’s airlines. I began to travel. From March 11, 2020, when Covid officially began in the United States through today, August 19, 2021, I have traveled overnight for 161 nights.

I would love to hear if any of the hundreds of people reading this newsletter know of a single individual who traveled overnight that much since the beginning of Covid. Anybody?

 

On Monday, August 16, 2021, I went down to the beach in the morning to do my normal 4-mile power walk. It was a little hotter and a little more humid than usual. When I returned home, I didn’t feel all that well. I felt the onset of a summer cold.

Over the next couple of days, I would experience first a stuffy nose and then a runny nose and some uncommon bouts of sneezing. Normally I will sneeze a maximum of two times when I do sneeze. I had one episode of six sneezes five consecutive times. That was most unusual. Later my research would tell me that the Delta virus has symptoms of stuffy nose, runny nose and sneezing. There seemed to be a pattern.

 

I live in what one could argue as the best place in the United States and possibly the world for climate and lots of other things. Our average high temperature ranges from 67 to 77° in each of the 12 months. We don’t have any bugs. We have low humidity and very little rainfall, maybe 10 inches a year at the most.

 

The area I live in doesn’t have any serious crime. We have one ethnic restaurant after another up and down the street so fine dining is available everywhere. We have lots of superchargers available for my Tesla. We even have low taxes. Last year I didn’t pay a penny of state income tax and our real estate taxes are some of the lowest in the country. I know. These are things that you don’t hear from lots of media sources but I live here. I have no reason to mislead you.

 

Despite living in such a nice place, I really enjoy travel. I’m from the Midwest. At this point in life, I wouldn’t want to live in the Midwest but I enjoy visiting there for a couple of days here and there and on a frequent basis.

 

I mentioned that my symptoms first began on Monday, August 16. I really thought I just had a summer cold. You probably know how big of a pain in the butt it is to have a summer cold if you’re going to be traveling to an area (Illinois) where the temperature is 95° with matching humidity. That’s never good.

The weekend trip I had following the onset of my symptoms was going to take me first to the Illinois State Fairgrounds to visit the state fair and then up to northern Michigan to catch a race in a small town called Alpena. From Alpena, I would make my way down to Mexico, San Luis Potosi, and be down there from Saturday through Monday. It was the perfect trip. A little bit of everything.

 

U.S. Airlines have a rule that might also be a United States government rule that you have to have a negative Covid test a minimum of at least three days before you intend to fly back into the United States from Mexico. Somewhat surprisingly if you were making a land crossing from into the United States from Mexico you do not need a Covid test. Nope. I don’t make the rules.

I was coming back from Mexico on a Monday. That meant that I needed to get a Covid test as early as Friday or any time before my Monday flight proving that I didn’t have Covid. Three days before I would return from Mexico to the U.S. I would be in Michigan. I made a Covid test appointment in Michigan. I was all set.

 

On Wednesday night, not feeling all that well, I flew overnight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis. At 5 a.m. I rented a car and drove from Indianapolis to Springfield, Illinois, a four-hour drive I was coming to visit the Illinois state fair.

What was so special about this particular state fair? I’m from Illinois. When I was a young boy, my grandparents would take my sister, Becky (above) and me to the state fair. We didn’t have much money. I remember that we would stay overnight in a huge canvas tent and sleep on army cots. Of course, there was no air-conditioning inside those tents. Especially during the day, it was damning hot.

 

My grandmother and my grandfather would take my sister and me to the harness races in the big grandstands at the Illinois State Fair. We would also tour the fair at night and peek inside the building where the huge country music shows were being performed. We didn’t have enough money for a ticket but we could at least get a 10-second glimpse of what the rich people were seeing.

For this trip, I simply wanted to replicate my boyhood experience. At the Illinois State Fair, I wanted to see the life-size butter cow, eat one of the famous cream puffs and go to the harness races. On this particular day that was going to be a little bit challenging. I had flown overnight, driven a long distance and now I was beginning to feel less than well. On top of that, the heat and humidity were stifling.

I parked just outside the fairgrounds. When I walked in, I happen to pass a large tent that advertised “Free Covid Testing”. Today was Thursday so a Covid test taken today would not help me with my flight back into the United States from Mexico next Monday. In order to make that work, I had to get a Covid test three days in advance or less, and being at the state fair was actually four days before the Mexico to U.S. departure.

 

Nevertheless, because I had the time I stopped and walked into the Covid testing tent. There was no charge for the Covid test. They could give me one right away. They would actually give me two tests. One (antigen test) would provide results in 15 minutes. The other (PCR test) in three days. I took the tests.

 

Even though I had been fully vaccinated and a breakthrough Covid test is very rare, somehow I suspected that I might actually have Covid. I suspected that so strongly that I asked the woman giving the test that if I did test positive for Covid with the 15-minute version would I be allowed to still go inside the state fair. She told me that probably wasn’t going to happen if I got a positive result.

 

I thanked her and told her that I would come back in 15 minutes…or so (“or so” being the operative phrase) to check out my results. Then I thought to myself. “Randy, you have flown overnight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis. You’ve driven four hours from Indianapolis to Springfield, Illinois and slept for a couple of hours in a highway rest area. It’s a hot and humid day. You’ve come back here for one reason…to replicate a boyhood experience”.

I processed all of that and made an executive decision. I went to the fair. I saw the life-sized butter cow. I had one of the huge cream puffs and debated on having a second one. I went to the harness races where I didn’t cash a single winning ticket all day. Then I stopped at a horse show and saw some piglets that were born in the last few days. I had the full state fair experience despite not feeling well and traipsing more than 5 miles through the horrendous weather conditions. I had as much fun as I could.

And as I walked back to my car, I stopped at the Covid tent. I kind of knew how this might turn out but I wasn’t sure. I gave them my name. They reached into the files and handed me the bad news. My 15-minute results report had a huge red stamp that simply said: “detected”. The woman who gave me my results recommended I go home and quarantine for the next 10 days.

 

The problem was that I was nearly 2,000 miles from home. What should I do? I am paid to make executive decisions. I like it that way.

 

I decided to get myself back to Los Angeles as quickly as I could. I would try to be as safe as I could for myself and others but I would return home to our modest seaside cottage where my wife would be on the lookout for me.

 

In a period of 24 hours, I had flown from Los Angeles to Indianapolis and then back to Los Angeles. I drove from Indianapolis to Springfield and then back to Indianapolis. That’s a pretty busy travel day when you’ve got a runny nose.

 

From there I did my version of “self-quarantining”. When I woke up on Friday morning, I was now on day five of having Covid. Days are measured from the onset of symptoms.

 

I really wasn’t feeling all that bad. I didn’t want to run a marathon but then normally I don’t want to run a marathon. My symptoms of a stuffy nose, runny nose and sneezing were diminishing. By Saturday and Sunday, days six and seven I felt good enough to go down to the beach and walk more than 4 miles each day. I was one of the few people wearing a mask.

 

You should know that I believe in the severity of the Covid pandemic. I am not one of those people who tries to diminish or discount the Covid death total. I believe in masks. I believe in social distancing. I believe in washing your hands.

 

I also learned during my research that a person is most contagious one to three days before symptoms ever show up from Covid. That makes it pretty difficult to try to protect others when you are most contagious before you even know you have Covid. Maybe that’s why Covid is as contagious as it is.

 

One of the benefits of having been fully vaccinated and then getting Covid is that the severity of the symptoms and outcome is decreased dramatically. Less than 1% of people who are fully vaccinated will get Covid. Then a fraction of 1% of people who do get a breakthrough case of Covid will have it be so severe as to be hospitalized or die.

 

I was pretty happy when my 10 days of self-quarantine ended and I was feeling good. The CDC says that if you don’t have a fever and your symptoms have improved and you have been self-quarantined for 10 days you are safe to go out into the world even without getting a negative Covid test.

 

I’m reading that third shots sometimes called “booster shots” will be given to people eight months after they’ve had their first vaccines. I came down with a breakthrough case of Covid seven months after my first vaccination shot. Maybe the effectiveness of the vaccination was waning by the time Covid caught up with me.

 

When I am eligible for the third shot, you’ll find me generally trying to push old women out of the way and hoodwink others to look at their shoelaces while I step in front of them in line.

 

How can I go wrong if I’ve already been fully vaccinated, have the antibodies from having had Covid and then get a third shot? Wouldn’t that be bulletproof? Who knows? I thought I was bulletproof after I became fully vaccinated.

Anyway, that’s my story. I missed out on those races in Michigan and Mexico.  I’m happy to report that I only missed one travel weekend because of the timing of all of this. Next week Carol and I will be off to New York City where we will be using our vaccination cards to get us into the NYC restaurants. Yes, New York City requires vaccination proof to experience lots of things in their town. I’m a big supporter of giving those who have been vaccinated special privileges compared to those who have not. Again, that’s just me.

That’s my story. It’s true. I was there to see it all. I saw the butter cow and ate the creampuff. I got the test with the big red stamp that said: “detected”. I’m happy to report it all worked out OK.

 

 

Crawford County Fairgrounds (2 tracks)

Gays Mills, Wisconsin

They didn’t run either of the races their advertisement said they would.

 

I didn’t know much about this fairgrounds or the promoter. Nevertheless, they advertised an enduro race and a figure 8 race. They got a lot of rain last night.

To cut to the chase they didn’t have either of these races as I sat helplessly in the grandstands. They did run some sort of a demo derby-type “race”. That doesn’t count in trackchasing.

 

I looked around the grandstands. I didn’t see any other trackchasers but that doesn’t mean there were none there. I wondered if there WERE trackchasers in the grandstands if they might try to count the demo derby event. Some people don’t really know the rules of trackchasing all that well. Others know the rules and still might try to slip something past the trackchasing commissioner which isn’t all that difficult.

 

Bloomsburg Speedway

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

Rained out!

 

The Super DIRT modifieds were scheduled to race on a Wednesday night at the brand new Bloomsburg Speedway. This was probably one of the top three planned race dates for me during the 2021 racing season. I was really looking forward to it.

My weather app is called “Weather Underground”. It is fantastic at predicting the future weather…several days out. The prediction for Bloomsburg several days ahead of Wednesday’s race date was for heavy rain. That forecast never changed.

 

The race promoter “canceled on the forecast”. As a fan I don’t like that. For the promoter, I can understand the dilemma. It did rain heavily on Wednesday. There’s no way they could have raced. I’ll try to catch this race next year!

 

Warrior Creek Speedway

Gray Court, South Carolina

No “trackchasing countable” race cars were available and running at race time

 

I’ve been trackchasing for decades. Just when I think I’ve seen it all I am reminded that I really haven’t seen it all. What I am about to tell you shocked and surprised me. In trackchasing I am not easily shocked and surprised.

Recall I need three things to make a successful trackchasing adventure.

 

1. A race
2. Good weather
3. A way to get to the track

 

Several days ago, I messaged the promoter at the Warrior Creek Speedway. Warrior Creek is a kart track. There are essentially two types of racing karts…flat karts and caged karts. In trackchasing only caged karts “count”. Why? Don’t get me started. Flat karts don’t count. Caged karts DO count…of course if the class is open to adults.

 

My Warrior Creek contact was a little tight-lipped with his information. He did say when I asked if there would be any senior champ karts (the common caged kart class) racing that there would be. He told me they usually get “five or six and sometimes more”.

The promoter’s comments made it sound like there would be a race. Next up was to confirm the weather. This looked like a problem. The race was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The weather forecast called for the area to get about an inch of rain with a near 100% chance of that happening…the day before the race. With that much rain on Saturday in the late afternoon getting the dirt track in shape for Sunday afternoon racing might be a challenge.

Yesterday I trackchased in Russellville, Kentucky. In order to get to Gray Court, Kentucky from Russellville I needed to drive four hours last night. That got me to Knoxville, Tennessee. Then I needed to drive another three hours this morning from Knoxville to Gray Court, South Carolina.

 

All along the Warrior Creek Facebook page was saying that despite getting a good deal of rain they expected to race. That was good news. I pulled into the parking lot of Warrior Creek just before 1 p.m. Practice was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

After I paid my $15 admission price, I quickly took a walk around the pit area. I was looking for the “five or six” senior champ karts that had been promised. Again, I fully recognize that a promoter usually can only “guess” at who and how many competitors might show up.

 

I will say this about race promoters, bless their hearts. I won’t say they will lie to you. I will say they will give the most optimistic explanation of their current circumstances.

 

If I call them on a rainy day and ask if it’s raining at the track, I will normally get this. The promoter might be up to his ankles in mud with rain rolling off the brim of his baseball hat and he is likely to offer “We haven’t gotten a drop of rain at the track! The sun is melting my sunglasses!” 

 

If I ask when the racing will begin, I will likely get “we always start on time at 7 p.m.”. What does that really mean? It probably means that practice will start at 7:45 and the first race will take the checkered flag at 8:30! Just yesterday the flagman told me qualifying would take 45 minutes. They took more than three hours to qualify.

 

When I ask how many cars/karts are expected I will have to use my calculator to figure the exact number. The promoter might say a dozen. Then, with my calculator in hand, I multiply a dozen by 55% and subtract three. When the promoter says a dozen that means “3-5”.

I am not being critical of promoters. It’s just that I’ve been doing this much longer than they have. They are just one promoter. I have the experience of having talked to hundreds of promoters. Promoters are not dishonest people in almost all cases. They are just a bit overly enthusiastic about what they can deliver. I never fault enthusiasm!

 

The Warrior Creek promoter told me they normally get “five or six and sometimes more” senior champ karts. I walked through the pit area. They had TWO senior champs in the pits.

 

Two was not “five or six”. However, two would work. By trackchasing rule, it takes two racers to make a race unless the race was LIMITED to two. I know. Trackchasing rules are worse than dealing with the IRS.

 

I’ll bet I’ve been able to count more than ten kart tracks when there were only two countable racers at the event. That’s cutting it close but I’ve done that many times before.

The two senior champ karts in the pit area came from one trailer, a father and son team. They also had a flat kart. The track looked good. The weather was sunny and there were TWO senior champs ready to race. What could possibly go wrong?

 

All of the karts, about 30 in total, would have a short practice and then run a heat and a feature race. I noticed the two-car senior champ kart heat race was scheduled to be the third race of the day. That was excellent news. I might be able to be on the road back to Atlanta for a late-night flight back home in good order.

 

The Burrell’s, Scott (dad) and Bryson (son) hit the track for practice. When they did that, I had just one thought in my head. These guys don’t NEED to practice. Why was I thinking that? Because if one of them had a problem that couldn’t be fixed there would be no race. If these two senior champ karts didn’t race, I couldn’t count the track.

 

You might know where I’m going with this. As I watched these two senior champ karts practice the worse thing I could imagine happened. Coming out of turn two after three laps of practice Scott Burrell’s kart began to slow and then it stopped. Oh, my goodness.

Bryson Burrell being the good son gave his dad a push back to the pit area. I had not met the Burrell’s yet. I was about to.

 

After a few minutes, I sauntered over to the Burrell pit area. I knew I was going to get bad news. I asked the elder Burrell for a status update. The news was bad. Something was wrong with the engine. He didn’t know what. He told me that when “the thing cooled down”, they might try to start it and get “some laps in”.

 

I talked with Scott for a good long time. I told him exactly why I was at the track today. We both agreed his broken engine was bad for both of us. He wanted to race his kart. I wanted to count this track.

 

Scott wanted to accommodate. He told me that after the entire program was finished, he might try to run some laps with his son for me…a race sort of…so I could count the track. That was a nice offer but an offer I could not accept.

No, ethically I couldn’t do that. A race like that would be set up just for me. That wouldn’t be right. Something like that smacked of Guy Smith and his cronies paying promoters to run special races that they wouldn’t run unless they got paid some money “under the table”.

 

I thanked Scott Burrell for his gesture. I would have to come back to Warrior Creek someday in the future, at significant expense, to see a real race. Maybe I can get Scott to confirm for me in the future where and when they will be racing.

 

Folks in my entire trackchasing career I have never shown up at a track where only two of the competitors would count by trackchasing rule and then had one of them broke before they could race. Never. Decades. Thousands of races. Never.

There was a major highlight to my Warrior Creek Speedway appearance, however. The promoter was also the announcer. He was promoting the track’s concession stand. He told everyone within earshot that their bologna sandwich was the bomb. Folks, I GREW UP on bologna sandwiches. For a long time, the bologna sandwich was my favorite meal. That along with gravy with chicken bits (we couldn’t afford the entire chicken) were my favorites.

  

Was the track’s bologna sandwich as good as it was touted to be? Hell ya! The thing was huge. I’ve had my share of racetrack bologna sandwiches, almost always in the south. Today was the best by far. Good on the concession stand!

 

It was with a sad face and a sad heart but a full stomach that I drove slowly out of the Warrior Creek Speedway. Don’t get me wrong. People have much bigger problems than I do. People who lose their loved ones or their homes to a tornado have big problems. My “Warrior Creek” problem was barely “a pimple on the ass of progress” as one wise man once told me. I’ll get over it. I have no choice.

 

From there I drove three hours in some pretty heavy traffic back to the Atlanta airport. I took a 10 p.m. non-stop flight from ATL to the Los Angeles International Airport. I landed at midnight SoCal time. That was 3 a.m. in the morning in the eastern time zone where I had spent the day. By the time I got my car and drove home I was pulling into the driveway at 5 a.m. Gray Court, South Carolina time on MONDAY FRIGGIN’ MORNING.

 

Was I bummed about all of the cancellations/postponements noted above? You’re damned right I was!

Nevertheless, I did get something out of ALL of these adventures. I got a “story”. I do this for the story. If I get a story then that’s good enough for me.

I am thankful I get to do what I do. I am doing what every last person wants to do in retirement. No, that’s not trackchasing. Then what is it? What am I doing that everyone else wants to do in retirement? I’m doing exactly what I want to do!

 

 

Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,760 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

 

 

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 860 tracks of my lifetime total.  

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,760

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.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 85

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 3.96

 

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Sun City Extreme Off-Road Park – El Paso, TX

 

Lake Odessa Fairgrounds – Lake Odessa, MI

 

 

Wayne County Fairgrounds – Fairfield, IL

 

Douglas County Fairgrounds – Roseburg, OR

 

Illinois State Fair – Springfield, IL

 

Crawford County Fairgrounds – Gays Mills, WI

 

Warrior Creek Speedway – Gray Court, SC