Greetings from Long Prairie, Minnesota
And then Madison, South Dakota
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Todd County Fairgrounds Ice oval Lifetime Track #2,763 Long Lake Ice Course Ice road course Lifetime Track #2,764 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Ever seen a demo derby done on ice and snow? I had never…that I can recall. Carol and I headed to the Midwest and the Upper Midwest for my weeklong birthday celebration. Along the way we caught basketball games, a hockey match and a few museums. The trip was capped off with ice racing! 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. Welcome to my 2022 trackchasing season! I AM A TRACKCHASER. What’s a trackchaser? What is trackchasing? Trackchasing is a hobby of mine. With trackchasing I do just three things. Each one is of equal importance to me. I travel the world watching auto racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. I seek out “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” during my travels to keep myself entertained when I’m not at the racetrack. 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 I plan airline, rental car and hotel accomodations to get me from my home in Southern California to racetracks located in the United States and all over the world. Just the planning part of my hobby is as much fun as anything. I am known as the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”. How did I get that title? I have traveled to 85 different countries and see racing at nearly 2,800 tracks…that’s how I got that title. 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/Monday, January 18-24, 2022. Carol and I travel a lot. Like anyone else we also have one birthday every year. However…we don’t just celebrate our birthdays for one day a year. We try to make our birthday celebrations a weeklong event. My birthday is in January. That being the case whenever we’re doing a weeklong celebration of my birthday it normally means we are traveling in cold weather. That would be the case with this trip as well. I decided that I would like to visit the Midwest to see some sporting events, some Trackchasing Tourist Attractions and a couple of ice races. Carol was happy to ride along. The first four days of the trip included a couple of basketball games, a hockey match and some museums. This is what all of that looked like. TUESDAY We would begin our trip by flying from Los Angeles to Chicago. At the end of the trip, we would return from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. In the middle of the trip, we would have to change rental cars in Minneapolis. Why? Cost savings! Our first stop was going to be in Sycamore, Illinois home to my sister Becky and our brother-in-law Bob. We get together with them two or three times a year despite living about 2,000 miles apart. They would join us on a major Trackchasing Tourist Attraction at the NIU Convocation Center for a basketball game with Northern Illinois University hosting Bowling Green State University. Carol and I are graduates of Northern Illinois. We had never been able to see a game in Northern’s relatively new basketball arena. The arena seats 10,000 people and opened in 2002. According to Wikipedia the place has hosted several popular entertainment acts including Entertainers that have performed at the center include Bob Dylan (from MN), Bill Cosby, Blue Man Group, Brooks & Dunn, Daughtry, Drake, Dave Chappelle, Sugarland, Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Chamillionaire, Chingy (from STL), Rascal Flatts (from OH), Michelle Branch, John Mayer, Wayne Brady, O.A.R., Hoobastank, Ludacris (from IL. In 2003.), Ashlee Simpson, Jason Aldean, REO Speedwagon(from Champaign), Ja Rule, Counting Crows, Bill Engvall, Jimmy Eat World with Paramore, B.B. King, 311 (from Omaha), Cheap Trick (from Rockford), Joan Jett, Cedric the Entertainer (from STL), Larry the Cable Guy (from NE), Nelly and St. Lunatics in 2005, Sheryl Crow (from MO), Ciara, Dierks Bentley, Kanye West (from Oak Lawn, IL. In 2005.), Twista (from the Chi. In 2005.) Lupe Fiasco (from Chicago. In 2011.), Kid Cudi(from OH), Incubus, Staind, Big & Rich, Three Days Grace Casting Crowns, Styx (from Chicago) with Kansas, Jars of Clay (from IL), Gretchen Wilson (from IL), Brett Eldredge (from IL), Garrison Keillor (from MN), Sesame Street Live, Young Jeezy, T.I., and T-Pain. Once we landed in Chicago, I gave the Northern Illinois University athletic department a phone call. The game was starting in four hours. That’s why it was so surprising to me to score 4 tickets at center court about 15 rows up from the court for just 10 bucks each. I couldn’t believe it. The arena is decorated in Northern’s school colors of black and red. It’s really a beautiful smaller arena. Tonight, there was an unbelievably small crowd of only 300-400 people. The students are currently off-campus and doing school online because of Covid. It was also a brutally cold evening. Nevertheless, I was pretty surprised at a crowd this small. Unfortunately, Northern Illinois could not overcome the Falcons of Bowling Green and went down to defeat. WEDNESDAY After a robust breakfast with Becky and Bob in Sycamore Carol and I headed out toward Des Moines, Iowa. This evening we were going to be seeing the Drake Bulldogs host the Bradley Braves in the Knapp Center in Des Moines. I grew up near Peoria, Illinois home to Bradley University. When I was 11 years old Bradley was the #2 ranked team in the country. They always had a strong basketball program. I went to many of their games in the Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse (above) until I left the area in my early 20s. Bradley and Drake were members of the Missouri Valley Conference when I first started following the Bradley Braves. That original conference included Cincinnati, North Texas State, Tulsa, St. Louis, Wichita State, Drake and Bradley. Back in the in the early 60s Cincinnati was a major power winning the NCAA championship. As a boy I would get to go to one home game each year to see Bradley play. I always picked their home game against the Cincinnati Bearcats which at the time featured the “Big O” as in Oscar Robertson. I have so many fond memories of Bradley University basketball and their radio announcer Mort Cantor. Mort started broadcasting Bradley basketball in 1955 and did so for a record breaking 29 years. This evening Bradley was a 6.5 underdog but ended up winning the game. I was happy to see that. Throughout the game I was texting with Rich Hallam an avid sports fan and follower of Bradley basketball. He actually took a screenshot of Carol and me in the stands while he watched the broadcast on ESPN+. I’m the guy in the yellow jacket above. We had a fun night inside the Knapp Center where mask wearing was strictly enforced. After the game we were remined it was a bitterly cold night in Des Moines. THURSDAY We picked up our rental car two days ago in Chicago. I knew that I was going to have to drop the car at the end of the trip in Minneapolis. I didn’t want to pay for six days of a one-way rental so we turned in our car in Minneapolis today. This strategy would save us about $200. We will end up having a one-way rental for just two days and a four day rental, picking up the car in Minneapolis and dropping it at Minneapolis for four days. Trackchasing logistics are a big part of the hobby! I’m happy to report that Carol and I would be staying in upscale Marriott hotels for every night of the trip but one. Today we used Yelp to select a local Indian restaurant for dinner. That was followed by a visit to the Saint Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. The attraction of this game was seeing the Minnesota State Mavericks, the #2 ranked college hockey team in the country, play the hometown Saint Thomas Tommies. Saint Thomas came into the game with a record of 2-22. Both victories came against Ferris State so that tells you something about Ferris State’s hockey team! Saint Thomas had played Minnesota State a couple times earlier this season losing 9-0 and 5-0. Tonight, it was quite the shock to see the Tommies leading the Mavericks after the first period, 1-0. However, quality normally prevails and the Mavericks of Minnesota State won tonight’s hockey match 5-1. The next night the venue was reversed with the Tommies playing the Mavericks at Minnesota State (Mankato, MN). Similar result. Minnesota State won 7-1. FRIDAY My weeklong birthday celebration continued with a stop in Minneapolis to see two different museums. The first one was the Northwest Airlines history center located inside a Crown Plaza hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Northwest Airlines was purchased in 2010 by Delta Airlines. This was a small informal museum. There was no admission charge to see the display of airline uniforms and all sorts of memorabilia from Northwest Airlines. Since I fly so much, I got a kick out of this museum. It was manned by a fellow who was very knowledgeable about the airline industry. We enjoyed conversing with him. The Northwest Airlines History Center was followed by a trip to downtown Minneapolis to see the Mill City Museum. Starting in the late 1800s Minneapolis was a huge milling manufacturing location. Wheat is a major crop in North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas. Wheat was shipped up to Minneapolis and they used the local rivers to power their plants. General Mills and other large wheat manufacturing companies dominated in Minneapolis. SATURDAY Today Carol and I were going to sit out in temperatures of about 0° to watch our first ever demolition derby on ice and snow. I had been in contact with Josh Stock the event promoter a few weeks in advance. Josh was super helpful in answering my questions and confirming that they would also have an autocross race. Although his event was focused on demolition derby it was the autocross racing that would attract the World’s #1 trackchasing couple to the Todd County Fairgrounds in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Josh even offered me a racecar to drive in the autocross race. I wasn’t sure I was up for that! Why? I saw their wild and crazy autocross race in Alexandria, Minnesota last summer. It was wild and it was crazy. Secondly driving in a well below zero wind chill atmosphere with no windshield wasn’t exactly what I want to experience. I graciously declined Josh’s offer. The admission price was a little bit on the expensive side at $20 each. However, if you are going to have a major demolition derby event in the winter there are probably gonna be some extra costs which justify the increased admission price. In the end I thought the admission price was fair. Today there were 80 entries in total with about three quarters of them being demolition derby cars. I was super impressed by that car count. I was a bit disappointed to see the program start about an hour late. I think whenever you have “first time events” you’re going to run into a lot of things that are unexpected. On subsequent attempts these things can be smoothed out. I reminded myself we were seeing a demolition derby in the middle of the winter in Minnesota with temperatures well below freezing. Carol and I made four major stops at the Todd County Fairgrounds. First, we took a tour of the pit area and listened in at the drivers’ meeting. You’re not gonna wanna miss the photos of so many unusual looking demolition derby cars who were ready for some heavy duty crashing and banging. Our rental car was parked just behind the county fair grandstand. This provided a “warming hut” whenever we needed it. We also spent some time over in the food tent. They had a couple of heaters in there that made things a little bit warmer. My hot chocolate was so hot that when I took my first sip through a straw (never a good plan) I had to spit out the contents. The liquid was near boiling hot. I burnt my tongue. We spent the rest of the time sitting in the grandstand just as if we were at a county fair in Minnesota in the middle of a hot and humid July evening. However, today it wasn’t hot and humid. It was cold. Fortunately, the wind wasn’t much. It’s always the wind that makes the cold. The demo derby was contested in a traditional demo ring with a snow and ice competition surface. The auto cross race actually went around most of the demo ring in an oval configuration. Unfortunately, the track was so slick down in turns one and two that the cars got all tangled up blocking the entire track. They had to red flag the heat to take time to tow away the stuck stock cars. Finally, they just gave up on the autocross for the time being and went with the demo derby part of the program. We had arrived at the frozen fairgrounds at about 1:30 p.m. We hung out in the cold for three hours before throwing in the towel. During that time, we saw only a little bit of autocross racing but just enough to be able to count the track per trackchasing rules. The announcer didn’t mention if they were going to have any more autocross racing after canceling the remainder of the heat races earlier in the day. Later on, I would get a chance to talk with track promotor Josh Stock. He told me that when all of the demolition derby racing was finished, they wrapped up the autocross racing and it turned out really well. I’m sorry I missed that. However, we didn’t know if there was going to be any more autocross racing for the rest of the day. I didn’t really want to sit out in the cold for four or five hours or more. Nevertheless, we were both thrilled to be able to see our first demolition derby event in the cold weather. From the Minnesota demo derby location, we made the four hour drive down to Madison, South Dakota. This drive was a real white knuckle event. We were traveling on two lane roads. It started to snow. Some of these two lane roads were state highways and some were only county roads. There was very little traffic. It had only snowed a couple of inches but there had not been any snow plow help on any of the roads we traveled down toward South Dakota. Under these conditions about the best I could do was to drive at 30-35 miles an hour right down the center of the two lane highway so as not to end up in the ditch. We did see a large number of cars and trucks off the roads and in the ditch during our week of travel here in the Midwest. I didn’t want to add one more vehicle to that total. At about 11 p.m. we arrived at the Best Western Plus hotel in Madison, South Dakota. Best Western properties especially the Best Western Plus hotels have really stepped up their game over the last few years. Tonight’s hotel was outstanding. When we went to check in the desk clerk told me that he had a room reserved for us that would allow pets. I told him that we didn’t have a pet with us. I’m not a big fan of pets in general. I hope my pet owning readers are not offended by that comment but that’s just my preference. The desk clerk could not have been nicer. Why is that? He’s a member of the “NIMS” people. What are NIMS people? “NIMS” stands for “Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota”. I travel into each of the 50 states about every three years. I think I’m well qualified to tell you that the nicest people in the country live in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Even though we had paid for our hotel stay via Priceline the desk clerk upgraded us to a huge hotel suite room and gave us two coupons for free drinks at the bar. He told us the bar would be closing quickly on this evening. We arrived just in time to get our drinks and bring them to our room! SUNDAY I was more than anxious to see some ice racing in South Dakota. I had never seen any ice racing in the Mount Rushmore State. However, I had seen ice racing in 23 different states, Canadian provinces and countries. Here’s the list. I had done my research on the racing at Long Lake. Just like at the Todd County Fairgrounds we would be the first trackchasers ever to see any racing at this track. When this weekend was finished, I had seen racing at four locations in 2022 and at three of them I was the first trackchaser to ever visit. It is true that trackchaser John Simpson of Kansas had seen some ice racing at Long Lake. When he came in 2021, he saw racing on their ice racing oval. Today, unbeknownst to us at the onset of the day, we would be the first trackchasers ever to see racing on the road course at Long Lake. I was more than fortunate to find Chris Weatherton, a side-by-side racer at Long Lake, to help me with all of the questions I had about today’s event. Chris was most helpful but then that was to be expected because he is from NIMS country. Carol and I began our day with brunch at the Hillside Resort that overlooks Lake Madison. The resort was only about 100 yards from the best viewing locations of Long Lake. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to see on the frozen Lake Madison. We dined on calamari, onion rings and roast beef au jus with a beautiful view of Lake Madison. When we finished, we went back to Long Lake to watch today’s ice racing. The weather here in Madison, South Dakota was the worst of the trip considering what we wanted to see was happening outside. The temperature was about 10° which really wasn’t the problem. The wind blew straight into our faces during the entire time we were at the lake at about 20 mph. There would have been no way we could have watched today’s racing by sitting outside. We would have been frostbitten in a matter of minutes. Luckily, I scouted around until I found a place where we could watch the racing from inside the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. Inside the car we were as snug as a bug in a rug. We had an elevated viewing position as well which was just perfect. I had promised Chris Weatherton that I would look him up in the pit area for today’s race. His side-by-side wasn’t in running condition so he hopped in his wife’s four seater side-by-side. Sadly, I could not pull the trigger to leave our warm rental car and walk about a half mile into a wind chill temperature of somewhere between 15 and 20° below zero to meet Chris. I apologize. I hope we get a chance to meet him personally again somewhere at a South Dakota race. Yesterday, the main purpose of the event was demolition derby. The autocross racing was a very small part of the entire show. Today on Long Lake in South Dakota almost all of the races featured motorcycles and ATVs. The side-by-sides aka UTV part of the show was nearly an afterthought. They did have about eight side-by-sides in both the studded and non-studded classes. Some of the earlier classes raced on the Long Lake ice racing oval. They also had a “TT” course that was attached to the oval. This had the competitors making some left and right hand turns when they exited the oval’s turn three and before returning to the oval’s turn four. I was surprised when the side by sides did not race directly on the oval but competed on the oval AND the TT course making it a road course. Apparently, some of the side-by-side drivers were surprised as well. In one race there were four competitors. Two of the drivers raced around the oval track and two of them took the TT “turn off”. This surprised the starter! The racers had to re-group to get further instruction that the SXSs were going to race today on the TT course. It was nice to be able to sit in the car and watch the races and listen to the track announcer on a local FM channel. This gave us quite a bit of background information on which classes we were seeing and which classes would be racing next on the lake. I wish more ice track promotions did this. From Long Lake we made the four hour drive back to Minneapolis. We thought about trying to catch a late night flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles on this evening. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. We had arrived at Long Lake at 11 a.m. They were just wrapping up the drivers’ meeting at eleven. Following brunch, we were ready at the advertised 12 noon start time. I thought for sure we would be able to see the racing and maybe catch a flight home tonight. Not possible. For some unexplained reason they didn’t start at noon as planned. The first race of the day didn’t hit the ice until nearly 1 p.m. We were not catching a late night flight with this late start. They ran about 35 or 40 races before they finally got to the side-by-side classes. That was a lot of motorcycle and ATV racing to watch. It does seem like when SXS racers are part of the program they almost always race last. I’m not sure if they were able to have every class today race two races. There were no lights at the track. It didn’t seem as if they could complete a second race before dark but we would not be staying around for that. Fortunately for the four hour drive back to Minneapolis the roads were clear. We stayed in a very upscale Sheraton Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. We had a little trouble with the clerk and Priceline on checking in but once we overcame that we were up to our suite. We would need to sleep quick for about six hours before catching an early morning Monday for flight back to Los Angeles. MONDAY I’m happy to report that our weeklong birthday celebration was a resounding success. We can’t wait to do it next year. Virtually everything went according to plan. The Saturday night drive in the snow on bad roads was a challenge but we made it. We landed back in Southern California at about 11 a.m. I really hope you’ll take the time to look at my SmugMug photo albums of all of the tourist attractions and the ice racing. I’ve also provided a couple of ice racing YouTube videos which people tell me are always very entertaining. This was only my second weekend of ice racing so far in January. We’ve got trips planned to Texas to see the grandkids and Florida for a 50th wedding anniversary cruise coming up. I don’t expect to be back on the ice for another month and by that time warmer temperatures might be a possible obstacle. That’s about it from the Midwest and the upper Midwest. Lots of people go from cold climates in the winter time to vacation in the warmer climates. We do exactly the opposite. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,764 tracks. Minnesota The North Star State On this Saturday afternoon I saw racing at my 113th lifetime track in the North Star, yes, the North Star State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Minnesota. Minnesota ranks #5, 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 80 separate trips to Minnesota to see these tracks. South Dakota The Mount Rushmore State On Sunday afternoon I saw racing at my 22nd lifetime track in the Mount Rushmore, yes, the Mount Rushmore State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in South Dakota. South Dakota ranks #31, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time South Dakota state trackchasing list. I have made 18 separate trips to South Dakota 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 An insulting way of referring to an overprivileged/rich person. Possibly comes from the phrase, “have your cake and eat it, too.” “That’s a cake eater school. All the kids there have rich parents.” South Dakota sayings: French won’t help you here. If you grew up in South Dakota, you’ll understand that the French pronunciation of our capital is wrong. One way to tell if someone is a true South Dakotan is whether they say “peer” or not. 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. 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. Our first ever demo derby on ice…plus much more! Motorcycle crash! Did this man live to ride another day? My first ever ice trackchasing effort in South Dakota. 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. The “civilian” touring part of my weeklong birthday celebration! Our first demo derby ever on ice…Long Prairie, Minnesota My weeklong birthday celebration finished up with a trip for ice racing to South Dakota.
Alaska
Alberta
Andorra
Belarus
British Columbia
Finland
France
Iowa
Italy
Maine
Manitoba
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New York
Ontario
Quebec
Russia
Saskatchewan
Sweden
Vermont
Wisconsin
Minnesota sayings: Cake Eater
