I like to think that I am comfortable with uncertainty. I actually think that’s a strong quality to have. I really don’t worry about what might happen unless I think it will happen.
A person can almost always get a certain guaranteed result rather than experiencing an uncertain result. However, there is a price associated with certainty. Usually, you’re going to get a smaller reward with a guaranteed result. That’s the way it works in the financial world and the world of risk in general.
I have long said that I need three things for a successful trackchasing trip. First I need a race. Secondly, I need a way to get to the race. Finally, I need good weather so that once I get to the race, the race actually happens. Pretty simple, huh?
This weekend’s trip was filled with uncertainty at every turn. There was so much uncertainty that I actively considered not going on the trip at all.
If everything went as planned, I would be trackchasing on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. However, rainy weather was coming in late Friday night and early Saturday morning to all of the southeastern locations I was considering for Saturday night.
I finally decided that my trip would sink or swim, see what I did there, with the Corinth Motor Speedway in Corinth, Mississippi on Saturday night. Over the past 10 years or so this track has gone in and out of business a couple of times.
A track with a history like that doesn’t put up as strong of defense against rainy weather as a track that’s been running continuously for 50 years. In the end, the weather forecast called for a half inch of rain on Friday night and just a little more rain in the early hours of Saturday morning. I called the track. They told me they were “confident” they would be racing. I’ve heard that many times before from track promoters. For some reason, the guy in Corinth, Mississippi sounded believable.
On Sunday afternoon, I planned to see a UTV race in Cherryville, Missouri. This race was fraught with uncertainty as well. The uncertainty focused on whether or not the actual racing would meet the somewhat arbitrary and sometimes hilarious rules of trackchasing. I called the track and got in touch with the property owner, Ryan. I think Ryan was a bit uncertain about what I was calling about. How many track managers in Missouri get a call from a guy in California asking how their UTV starting procedure will happen? None?
I live in Southern California. Probably 80% or more of the tracks that operate in the United States are more than 1,000 miles from where I live. That means I have to fly to most events. I could drive but it would take two days to get there minimum and then another two days or more to get back. No, I can’t really drive to most of the tracks I visit.
I would also have to leave on Friday for a race that was happening in Mississippi on Saturday night. This outcome is called the “California trackchasing penalty”. No one has successfully attempted trackchasing while living in California. It’s just too tough to get from California out to the Midwest or East. The “California trackchasing penalty” extends my travel schedule each year by 30-50 days.
I considered flying to Dallas and Atlanta and Nashville and St. Louis. Ultimately I landed on St. Louis as my best option.
I sat down and bought a couple of airline tickets on two different airlines. That would get me from Los Angeles to St. Louis. I would fly on a standby basis. The planes were full. I hoped a couple of passengers would bail on their flight at the last minute making room for me.
The weather forecast for Saturday knocked out the other options that I was considering in Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. With Mississippi being west of those states they would get the bad weather earlier. Getting the bad weather earlier might give them more time to get the track back in shape after the rains came.
With the uncertainty of whether Sunday’s race would even count or not and with rain heading into the southeast for Saturday’s race and with the uncertainty of my airplane options off I went. No doubt about it. I am comfortable with uncertainty.
I made a flight from Los Angeles to St. Louis. I wouldn’t be landing until nearly midnight on Friday night. On Thursday, the day before I left on this trip, I could have gotten a hotel for about 50% of what I ended up paying once I knew I would get on a flight. Sometimes uncertainty can cost you money!
It is sad for me to inform you that it looks as if I have lost my sweetheart car rental sponsorship deal. I had that sponsorship for nearly 20 years. The company I retired from has been giving me this benefit all along. Recently, they changed their rental car supplier from National to Avis. I used to be able to consistently buy full-sized National rental cars for $50-55 a day with unlimited miles. Additionally, I could get the very best cars on short notice with fantastic customer service. National got me in and out of the rental car lot in a matter of minutes.
Now my company is going with Avis Rental Car for their employees. Retirees are not eligible for these good deals. Now I am relegated to searching all over the place to get a good price on rental cars. I knew I was getting a good deal with National. I just didn’t know exactly how good of a deal I was getting. It’s difficult to get a full-sized rental car for less than $100 a day in my new world. I’m glad I’ve invested my retirement money so well that the new rental car situation should not be a big hindrance but at the same time, it will be an annoyance.
To avoid an extra day of rental car expense I landed in St. Louis late on Friday night. I selected a hotel that offered a shuttle from the airport to the hotel in this case the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. So far so good.
Saturday
I slept in and went down and did some treadmill work. Just recently I completed one year of walking more than 4 miles every day for 12 months. Then I took about a month off. Now starting April 1, 2023, my aerobics goal will be to walk four miles or more for six out of seven days each week. That’s a strong goal, but not quite as difficult as what I just completed over the past year.
Next up I grabbed the airport shuttle from the hotel. The shuttle driver was a retired St. Louis police officer. He had some stories to tell me regarding his 33 years of police work, and the time he spent in Ferguson, Missouri during the riots.
I slipped him a nice gratuity to take me directly from the hotel to the Hertz rental car location. This saved me from riding back to the airport and then having to get on a separate shuttle from the airport to Hertz.
I have not rented very many cars from Hertz in the recent past. Nevertheless, I still hold a “Gold” status, which is better than nothing, but certainly not top-tier with Hertz. Hertz puts your name up on a big board to recognize a renter’s gold membership. Yes, it’s a lot more convenient to be top-tier!
I was able to pick up a Toyota Camry for this trip. That’s my favorite rental car. This Camry had 32,000 miles on the odometer. That’s about 25,000 miles more than I normally have when I rent my Camrys from National Car Rental. Welcome to my new world.
I had all afternoon to make the five-hour drive from St. Louis down to Corinth, Mississippi. When I get back to the Midwest, I like to stop at all of my favorite restaurant chains that exist in the middle of the country but don’t operate in California. One of those places is Steak ‘n Shake. I grew up with Steak ‘n Shake as a boy. I went with the chili mac. It was surprising to see that option came in at 1,200 calories. Maybe that was a misprint? Whatever. I did enjoy the chili mac to the fullest.
I contacted one of the promoters at the Corinth Motor Speedway a few days ago. His name was Matt White. Matt was very enthusiastic about my coming down to visit his track.
As a matter of fact, Matt searched my Facebook page and my website. Then he posted to everyone on his Corinth Motor Speedway Facebook page that the World’s #1 Trackchaser was going to be making an appearance in Mississippi. I like a promoter who promotes.
The Corinth track has been out of business for at least a couple of years over the past five years. As a matter of fact, when I plugged the current track location into Google Maps they told me that the track was permanently closed! That was obviously untrue.
I drove 333 miles from St. Louis to Corinth, Mississippi. I had just enough time to scope out downtown Corinth. I’m glad I did. This looked to be a classic southern downtown area with a city population of about 15,000. That’s just about the size of the town I grew up in as a boy in East Peoria, Illinois.
When I pulled onto the track property I was charged a relatively low $10 admission price. I found a spot to park and change from short pants to long pants. Tonight’s weather would be cool, dry, and windy.
I’m not sure when the Corinth Motor Speedway was first built. It’s been some time ago. I checked the History of American Speedways book to try to figure that out. It seems the track might have been built in the 60s or maybe in 1993. The track is a quarter-mile high-banked dirt oval. I think with the proper care and maintenance this track could provide some very interesting racing.
Tonight, was opening night. I thought they had a pretty nice crowd on hand. Fans watched from all over the place. There were fans in the grandstands, fans in their cars, and fans in special elevated viewing areas.
I went up into the announcing tower and introduced myself to Matt. He was handling the announcing chores. I think Matt was happy to put a name with a face. I also met the other CMS track owner and promoter, Jimmy Hayes. Jimmy was in his first year of race promotion and seemed to be enjoying it. I think everyone could see there is a lot of work to do. I can only imagine when you have an aging facility the nearly unlimited funds that are needed to get everything right.
While I was in the tower they told me they had a problem with their water truck which resulted in the racing surface throwing off quite a bit of dust. I was also told they had 46 cars in the pit area. I believe they were running six classes so this would put the car count on average per class at about seven or eight.
They would be running a heat race for each car and a feature event. Most heats had four cars and in some cases five. The winner of the heat races would start on the front row of the feature event. I never like that idea all that much. This system doesn’t promote much passing. I think I prefer a passing point or even a draw system to shake up the field over putting the fast guy at the front of the feature.
I noticed that the track was offering a bologna sandwich on the concession menu. You will only see a bologna sandwich on the menu at southern tracks. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a southern dirt track that doesn’t offer a bologna sandwich.
I watched the racing from the announcing tower, down by turn one, and then from the bleachers overlooking the exit of turn four. They were racing factory stocks and limited late models along with modifieds and some low-dollar classes. I want to wish everyone at the Corinth Motor Speedway the very best of luck for the 2023 season. They’ve got a lot of nice people at CMS.
It’s not easy to be a race promoter. It’s even more difficult when you are trying to promote a track that’s been in and out of business over the past few years. It’s hard to get a decent car count. If you don’t get a good car count, your crowd will be down. Race promotion, especially in some locations across the country, is just a difficult business.
All this year and into the future I am going to have some very challenging logistical travels with my trackchasing. The reason for that is that I have seen all but about a dozen of the permanent short tracks and permanent road courses in the United States. Where am I going to find tracks that I have never visited?
In the future and that means this weekend I can only count on seeing those twelve or so permanent tracks. Luckily, there are always going to be those “one-off” tracks that seem to pop up at county fairs and on farms like Sunday’s UTV racing.
This reminds me of the trackchaser in Belgium who has seen 262 tracks in his own country alone. Belgium is about the size of Maryland! This can be done in Belgium because almost all of the racing is done on local farms. This year a group races on one farm and the next year they race at the farm across the street.
The “classic” trackchasing trip for me used to be seeing dirt oval racing on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Now, this weekend’s trackchasing trip had morphed into my new “classic” trip. That would be seeing racing at one permanent track and one someone unorthodox track like the UTV race I hoped to see in Missouri tomorrow.
This afternoon I had driven five hours to get from St. Louis down to Corinth, Mississippi. After the races tonight, I had another five-hour drive to get from Corinth, Mississippi to Cherryville, Missouri.
People are always coming up to me and saying, “You are living the life” or “Boy, do I wish I could do what you do”. These folks are almost always seeing me at a racetrack. What they don’t see is what it took to get there or what it’s going to take to get to the next racetrack or to get home.
If I drove all the way to Cherryville tonight I wouldn’t get there until 3 a.m. central time. The race was scheduled to begin on Sunday morning at 11 a.m.
What did all of this mean? I would not have any time to sleep in a hotel. I had anticipated this. I brought a pillow and blanket and expected to be sleeping overnight in the Hertz Toyota Racing Toyota Camry!
In essence, the “worm has turned” for my trackchasing. I never expected to have seen virtually every permanent race track in a country as big as the United States. During the past 25 years, I have averaged seeing more than 100 tracks each and every year. No other trackchaser can even sniff at an accomplishment like that.
However, the price I will pay for seeing all of those tracks in the past 25 years is nearly no options for the future. I will be making my trackchasing living in 2023 and beyond off the proliferation of the “one-off” tracks.
These UTV off-road tracks can be fun and they can be challenging to find. Nevertheless, they are a heck of a lot different than the stock car racing I grew up with and at the tracks that were considered my “home” tracks depending upon where we lived at the time. What were my “home” tracks? How about these heavy hitters? Peoria Speedway-IL, Queen City Speedway-OH, Manzanita Speedway-AZ (above), Ascot Park-CA, Danbury Fair Race Arena-CT, Orange County Fair Speedway-NY, Rockford Speedway-IL, and Santa Fe Speedway-IL. With the exception of the Peoria Speedway (my all-time favorite track) and Orange County all of these tracks will be closed at the end of the 2023 racing season.
On this trip, I drove past an old drive-in movie theater screen. The place wasn’t in business any longer. The screen looked like it might blow over in a strong wind. I hate to say it but I really think that short-track racing is going the way of the drive-in movie theater.
I have people in the trackchasing world forward who forward to me “Trackchasing Census” Information. I think the people who contribute to the census are doing a good thing. This census tries to identify every track that is offering any kind of “heads-up” racing on ovals, road courses, and figure 8 tracks.
This year I have never seen more permanent short-track ovals going out of business. Even one of my all-time favorites, the Rockford Speedway (above), is closing at the end of the 2023 season after being in business for well over 50 years. I was very sad to learn about that. I’ve seen some of my best short-track asphalt oval racing ever at Rockford.
SUNDAY
People tell me they would love to be a trackchaser like I am. I wonder if they would say that when I was driving through a series of rural, winding two-lane roads on a Saturday night in the Ozark Mountains at two o’clock in the morning while they were in bed sleeping?
I did stop somewhere in Missouri for gas in the middle of the night. Gas was selling for $2,99/gallon. I find that particularly amazing since gas sells for two dollars and more a gallon in my home state of California.
It was definitely an interesting drive up through the Ozarks in Missouri. I saw hundreds of deer. For the most part, they just grazed on the side of the road but from time to time several crossed the road slowly in front of me. I definitely had to be on the lookout.
My Sunday morning/afternoon UTV race was sanctioned by the AXC off-road group. The race was sponsored by Offroad Armor. The race location would be at the Flying W Ranch @ KP. No trackchaser had ever trackchased here. I would be the first.
Today I would be making my 15th new track visit of 2023. At seven of those fifteen tracks, I was the first trackchaser ever to visit those tracks. In almost every case I didn’t know those seven tracks even existed a year ago. That’s what I mean by, in most cases, by a “one-off” track popping up.
I figured I could pull into the track in the middle of the night, find a parking space, lean back in my driver’s seat, and sleep for a few hours. That’s exactly what I did.
Fortunately, I had some good GPS directions provided by the race organizer. The last six miles of the 312-mile drive were on a rough, dirt gravel road. This would’ve been a bad place to get a flat tire in the middle of the night…with no cell service. Towards the end of those six miles of off-roading, the terrain got really wet and muddy. I wasn’t sure if the Hertz Racing Toyota Camry rental car was up for those conditions. Fortunately, it was. I saw the Flying W Ranch sign.
It did get a bit chilly overnight. I pulled in at 3:30 a.m. Not a creature was stirring. I was awakened at 6:30 a.m. by something very unusual that I don’t encounter all that often.
I was freezing. I checked the car thermometer. It read 29°. I guess I really was freezing! From time to time for the rest of the early morning, I turned on the engine heater to keep myself warm.
There’s one thing I like about renting Toyota Camrys. When I fill the tank until it overflows, I can get 175-200 miles of driving in before the gas gauge comes off full. Then when I return the car, I fill it to overflowing once I’m inside my “fuel window”. That way when I return the car the gauge shows full. I have no idea how “full” the car’s tank was when I picked it up.
The grounds of the Flying W Ranch were saturated from the recent rains. As I scoped out the terrain this morning on foot, it felt as if I were walking on a waterbed. Today was going to be a sunny and clear day. Temperatures would max out in the 60s. There was no rain in the forecast.
In the daylight, I surveyed the condition of the Hertz Racing Toyota Camry rental car. It was pretty muddy. I was probably going to need a car wash of some sort to avoid being hassled by Hertz before I returned the car to St. Louis.
I was in Missouri for some woods UTV racing. What is “woods UTV racing?” Actually, it is exactly what it sounds like. UTVs racing in the woods!
Today’s course would be six miles in length. UTV racing is not much of a spectator event. For the drivers, this form of racing has to be a blast. Normally the spectators can see the very beginning of the race for maybe 30 seconds and potentially catch a glimpse of the racing here and there. I’ve been known to walk back into the woods for a closer view. Not very many spectators do that. One time I walked into the woods in Indiana and came out with a pretty significant case of poison ivy! I had never had poison ivy in my life.
I arrived on the grounds at 3:30 a.m. I slept overnight in my car for just three hours. I was awakened to 29° temperatures. I had made quite a commitment to be here. Nevertheless, I STILL didn’t know if I was going to see any “trackchasing countable” racing. Trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. Trackchasers will not show up anywhere if they can’t count the track.
After I cleared the cobwebs from lack of sleep, I discovered that I was a little bit on the hungry side. I didn’t have any food or drink in my car. Fortunately, there was a food trailer available. I grabbed a Philly cheesesteak even though I was a long way from Philadelphia. It was actually pretty good.
It was at the food trailer that I met up with a guy named “Dirt”. How many times in your life have you met anyone called “Dirt”? His real name was Kurt Driemeyer but he preferred “Dirt”.
Dirt was the sponsor of today’s event. Dirt is the owner of Offroad Armor (www.offroadarmor.com). They sell accessories for Side by Sides, UTVs, ATVs, Trucks, Jeeps, and more. If you’re in the market for those products check out what they have to offer.
Dirt was an extremely positive and friendly guy. He told me about all of his plans to build up UTV racing at the Flying W Ranch and other Missouri/Arkansas locations. He was so positive. Dirt had me believing what he was selling in the first minute or two. It was a pleasure to meet up with this fellow.
I was thrilled to see six novice UTV racers ready at the starting line at 11 a.m. They all took the green flag at once (a head-to-head start and yes another “Randy Rule”) and raced downhill, then across a stream and finally straight up the side of a mountain within 30 seconds. That start made the Flying W Ranch @ KP location my lifetime track #2,867.
It was about this time that I met up with Ryan Wuebbeling, the property owner. He calls his nearly one thousand acres a farm. Their cash crop is hay.
I talked to Ryan a few days ago. I often wonder what people think when they get a phone call from me. I tell them I am a trackchaser. I tell them I’m not a racer. I’m not a local fan. I’m just a character from California who runs around the country and the world seeing racing at as many different tracks as I can. Most promoters or landowners in this case have never heard of such a thing.
Today I talked to Ryan for quite a while. I asked him what he thought when he took my call. He said he thought I was his insurance agent asking a bunch of strange questions and trying to trap him! Nevertheless, Ryan took time out of his day to answer my questions and text more information later.
I will tell you this. When I have to tell a racetrack promoter that the trackchasing hobby is all about seeing racing but that we don’t count flat karts, motorcycles, or UTVs that race on a timed basis I feel bad. The conversation is a lot like going to a friend’s house. Your friend plans to serve you steak and green beans. Then you tell them you don’t like steak and green beans. As a guest, I would never do such a thing. I don’t like doing this as a trackchaser either.
It’s not that I don’t like flat karts or motorcycles or UTVs that race on a timed. It’s just that the politically motivated almost always east coast trackchasers could never get a handle on someone from out of their area kicking their butts in a hobby they started. Sorry. That’s the truth. Trackchasing’s political elite thought they would shut down my UTV trackchasing with their “everyone must start at once” rule. It turned out exactly the opposite. If I had to guess I would say I’ve seen nearly 200 UTV race events. That’s two or three times more than any other trackchaser.
Ryan told me about his racing which mainly focused on motorcycles. Four years ago, he traveled all the way down to race in the Baja 1000. He ended up finishing fourth in his class. That’s fantastic.
When Ryan and I finished talking, it was time for the experts and the sportsman UTV racers to begin. The experts brought six competitors. They all started in one line. The sportsman had ten racers. They started in two lines, but each one of those two lines would count according to trackchasing rules.
How is that? Today they decided in advance to have a sportsman A race and a sportsman B race. All five drivers in each sportsman row would be competing in their own individual races. I would love to see other racing organizations do that. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it done that way before.
Given the fact that I only had three hours of sleep last night and that I hoped to get on a nonstop flight tonight from St. Louis to Los Angeles and that I was a couple of hours from the St. Louis airport, I elected to head for the exits shortly after the start of the expert and sportsman races. I had a full day, and night, at the Flying W Ranch @ KP off-road track.
There were three highlights that jump out at me about today’s event. First would be the challenging effort that was required for me to even get to the track. Secondly, meeting the people including Dirt and Ryan was the best highlight of the visit. Finally, the start of the event was as exciting as any UTV race I’ve ever seen. For this to be a commercial success they just need a way to have spectators experience the thrill of UTV racing.
The last six miles of my early morning drive to get to the Flying W Ranch were on some very rough gravel roads. Some spots were really muddy. I think that wetness came from a nearby creek. My rental car looked like it had just completed the Baja 1000.
When I stopped to get gas about 100 miles outside of St. Louis I asked if there might be a do-it-yourself car wash around. To my amazement from the window where I was asking the cashier this question stood a do-it-yourself car wash. Soon I was over there plunking two dollars’ worth of quarters into the machine. I made my car look as good as a rental car with 32,000 miles on it could look.
And I headed back to the St. Louis airport I hoped to standby for a flight to Los Angeles that had no seats available. Maybe if a couple of people didn’t show up I would get a ride back to Los Angeles tonight. If not, I would go on Priceline.com and buy a room at a hotel that had an airport shuttle. I would have returned my rental car at that point.
In the two days I had my rental car I drove it almost 800 miles. I had expected to drive it that much. I stayed in one hotel on Friday night and slept in my car on Saturday. I saw one permanent track and one temporary track where they are only going to race a couple of times during the year. I also found out about another off-road track where they will have racing this year. That’s always good news.
I would rarely if ever take a flying trip to the Midwest to see one track. It used to be that I wouldn’t do it for just two tracks. Now tracks are getting so scarce in and out of the Midwest and East that I will make a long-distance trip in search of “only” two tracks.
Next weekend Carol and I are planning to trackchase in California at the Irwindale Speedway. We don’t get to do that very much. That will be followed by some international trackchasing in faraway places like Mexico, Japan, and Australia.
Thanks for checking out my trackchasing. As you can see there is always a lot going on at the track or away from the track. I like it that way.
Randy Lewis
World’s #1 Trackchaser