Jax Raceways

Jax Raceways

Dirt oval

Lifetime track #183

Jax Raceways in Jacksonville, Florida is officially listed as my 12th-lifetime track where I’ve seen racing in the Sunshine State.

I did not begin writing my famous “Trackchaser Reports” until the middle of the year 2000.  My first official Trackchaser Report was written for track #425, the State Fair Speedway in Sedalia, Missouri.  I saw that track with my brother Mark on May 28, 2000. I went to Jax Raceways on Friday, February 8, 1991. I was only 32 years old at the time. I don’t have an official Trackchaser Report from my visit to Jax Raceways

Before 1980, I never kept track of when I went to a track. I just know from memory that I had seen racing at 71 different racetracks from when I was born in 1949 through the 1979 season. This was affectionately known as the “Group of 71”. As this is written I’ve seen racing at more than 2,600 racetracks.

You see when I first became a racing fan I never gave the idea of “trackchasing” a passing thought. Why? Trackchasing requires the funds to travel long distances. I grew up poor. We had no money for travel. The ONLY vacation I can ever remember taking until I was in college was a bus trip from Peoria, Illinois to Evansville, Indiana to visit my grandparents. We had absolutely no money for luxuries and travel was a luxury.

I began my racing fan “career” as a “racechaser”. How did I decide beginning in college and running through the early 80s where I would go to the races? That was easy! I simply followed my favorite drivers. I scoured the Hawkeye Racing News for advertised race dates. I followed my favorite dirt driver, Darrell Dake, all over his home state of Iowa and my home state of Illinois. We were big Dick Trickle (above) fans. When he was racing at a big show we tried to make it there. Yep. I was a racechaser. I didn’t give a second thought to whether I was visiting a new track or not.

However, somewhere in the 80s, I decided I liked going to a track for the first time more so than re-visiting a track for the 10^th time. It was also about this time that Darrell Dake was slowing down his race schedule and Dick Trickle was moving from the midwestern short tracks to NASCAR. Of course, during the 60s and 70s, I was a regular at my hometown track, the Peoria Speedway. To this day the Peoria Speedway remains my all-time favorite track.

Much of what I can tell you about the Jax Raceways is from memory and outside research.  

I can tell you that “The History of America’s Speedways – Past and Present” authored by Allan E. Brown has this to say about Jax Raceways. By the way, I can’t even imagine the level of research it took to make this book. There is a listing from virtually every racetrack that ever existed in the U.S. and Canada. It truly does border on the unbelievable. Well done!

The track opened as a paved oval on June 9,1968. They ran on the hard surface through 1972. Then in 1973 they changed the track to dirt. It seems that more tracks go from dirt to asphalt but that isn’t always the case.

Then the “speedwayandroadcoursehistory” website shared this info about Jax Raceways.

“When opened in 1973 this 1/2 mile dirt oval soon became a major draw to the venue, When the track was built soil from from the old Westside track was used, After decades of use the property was soaked with all manner of oil and fuel.

After closing in 2004 developers bought the property with intensions of building homes, The EPA killed that plan and any immediate future plans for the site due to the soil contamination.”

My only note from my 1991 visit was “spectator fell down grandstand”! I seem to remember the track having an “oiled down” dirt racing surface. Billy Moyer won the feature event.

I also now the next night I was in Valdosta, Georgia at the Thunderbowl Speedway to see Jimmy Snyder in the #68 win. Then the next night I was back in Florida at the Lake City Speedway in Lake City seeing Jack (Blackjack) Boggs win in his #B4. I was down in Florida for SpeedWeeks. I saw a few more races in Florida before heading back home to California before the Daytona 500. I was working for a living back in those days!

You might have remembrances about this track and the cars (above) and drivers that race at Jax Raceways.  If so, please feel free to share your memories of the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them here.

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

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