Greetings from Weeping Water, Nebraska
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Cass County Fairgrounds
Dirt figure 8
Lifetime Track #2,262
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: 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! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES FRIDAY In my world I never know what day it is. There is no need. I look at it this way. I know that I went to dinner with Carol yesterday. I know that I might have a dentist appointment today and we’re set to go to a movie tomorrow. My world has just three days in the month. Those are yesterday, today and tomorrow. However, I did know that I would need to drive about 550 miles from last night’s hotel location in Merrillville, Indiana to tonight’s racing destination in Eagle, Nebraska. My GPS system told me that would take almost 8 hours. That made an 8 a.m. wake up call a good idea. An 8:30 a.m. departure from the hotel was the plan. Just as I had pulled into the hotel last night my rental car low fuel light popped on. I would need gas this morning. I used my Gas Buddy iPhone app and soon found out there was a Costco warehouse store within 4/10 of a mile from the hotel. Who knew? What did I ever do before technology guided my every move? Yes, I was saving money on fuel at Costco. Yesterday before I left home in California I noticed our neighborhood Costco was selling gas $2.28 a gallon. That was cheaper than the lowest price I could find anywhere else in San Clemente. Whenever I drive back in the Midwest during the summertime it’s a bug fest on my windscreen. That doesn’t work well with getting gas at Costco. They don’t offer anything for customers to clean their windows. Now it was time to get going over toward Nebraska. I would have to drive across the complete width of Illinois and Iowa to get there. There was no time to waste. However, along the drive I thought about the idea of having lunch with my good buddy Pryce a resident of the Quad Cities. Pryce is the CEO and owner of a major fast food/casual dining chain in the area. It’s pretty nice to know that you can still call up a CEO on two hours notice and get a luncheon appointment! Pryce treated me to lunch at the Hungry Hobo. We had an enjoyable and lively conversation for more than an hour. Pryce is one of those guys who is fun to talk to. He is genuinely interested more in what you have to say than what he has to say. I find the most boring conversationalists are those folks who only want to tell you about themselves and what they did. To my way of thinking any good conversation has an equal number of questions from one person to the other. Those people that never ask about the person they’re talking to had best be avoided. Following my time with Pryce, in Le Claire, Iowa I hopped back on Interstate 80. Where was I headed? Weeping Water, Nebraska. I drove more than 300 miles over to the Cass County Fairgrounds in Weeping Water, Nebraska. Weeping water is definitely one of the more unusual names of the cities where I have trackchased. I had hoped to have a possible trackchasing double tonight. However when I called one of the tracks that was involved in that double (Eagle, Nebraska) I learned they had canceled their evening’s racing. It doesn’t take all that much water to cancel a dirt oval race. That got me to thinking. Maybe I should call the Cass County Fairgrounds and confirm they were racing. I did just that. However there are some drawbacks to contacting a county fairgrounds at their general listed phone number. Typically what you get is a local volunteer. They don’t know a figure 8 race, in most cases, from a 4-H flower show. About all they can do is read the fair’s printed agenda. Today when I called I got a fairly uninformed confirmation they were racing. Since I didn’t have any alternatives I continued on my way to Weeping Water, Nebraska. The AT&T cell phone service out in these rural parts of Nebraska isn’t that great. Luckily once I plug a route into my Waze GPS system it’s “in there” regardless if I lose cellular connections or not. THE RACING Cass County Fairgrounds – Weeping Water, Nebraska Race time at the fairgrounds tonight was 7:30 p.m. I pulled onto the fairgrounds at 7:28 p.m. I had to park in a grassy field adjacent to a cornfield. It was wet and muddy and the going was treacherous. Nevertheless I found a spot for the National Car Rental Racing Chrysler 300C. Then I gingerly walked a couple hundred yards through a very muddy mess in my Bass sponsored brown suede deck shoes. Along the way the national anthem could be heard in the distance. I stopped along with other Nebraskans and waited for our song to be completed. In Nebraska they stop in this circumstance. In lots of other places the folks wouldn’t show that courtesy. I couldn’t find anyone selling tickets to the event. I could see the grandstands but for the life of me there wasn’t anyone selling tickets. I entered the grandstand without paying anybody anything. Was I putting anything over on somebody? No, I was not. I grabbed a seat in the top row of the aluminum grandstand and sat next to a farmer and his wife. Sooner or later the topic of how much it cost to see the races tonight came up. My new friend was proud to tell me that the local sponsors of the fair picked up the entire tab for the crowd tonight. That’s right. Tonight there was no charge for parking, there was no charge for the fair and there was no charge to see some of the best figure 8 racing that you’re going to come across anywhere in the entire United States. Welcome to Nebraska, home of the NIMS people. Contrast tonight’s policy with last night’s event in rural Michigan. There I pay two dollars to park, five dollars to enter the fair and $10 to watch the racing. Tonight’s fair and the racing was far superior to what was showing last night in Michigan. It just goes to show you that you don’t always get what you pay for. Tonight’s figure 8 racing would be conducted over a flat very damp Nebraska black dirt racing surface. The cars raced around a couple of tractor tires used as markers for the figure 8 course. The course wasn’t that large. The tractor tires couldn’t have been more than 30-40 yards apart. The grandstands were packed on both sides of the track. On the backstretch from where the flagman stood the beer garden was doing a land office business. I’ve seen figure 8 racing at nearly 300 locations. From experience I can tell you that the best big car aka V-8 powered figure 8 stock car racing happens in Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska. Nebraska has a series called the “NEFIGURE8” group. They run at about 10 Nebraska fairgrounds during the year. Their racing is fantastic. I did notice a couple of potential safety problems tonight though. First of all the starter for the series stands on the track surface within just a few feet of where the high-powered figure 8 cars are sliding around the track. I wish I was the beneficiary of his personal life insurance policy. I need the money. Additionally in front of the grandstands fans were allowed to position their lawn chairs just behind a chain-link fence. They were sitting within 6-8 feet of the racetrack itself. Some of the cars racing tonight were the equivalent of high-powered late model stock cars. There was no way a chain-link fence was going to stop these cars if one got out of control. I really wonder what this group’s insurance company thinks of this seating plan? They do have insurance right? I frequently lament the somewhat lame novelty figure 8 “racing” offered by some county fairgrounds. Those are low-speed affairs with junk cars racing under muddy conditions. Tonight’s racing surface was as tacky as it ever got an Ascot Park. The announcing was limited. This made it difficult to get information about the classes that were racing. I do know this. The stock car class and modified class raced as fast as humanly possible around this small dirt figure 8 course. They had top-of-the-line powerful V-8 engines. They didn’t back off at the “X”. You simply must take a look at the video I’ve produced for your viewing enjoyment. You will see exactly what I’m talking about with the high-speed crossing at the intersection with no major problems all night. At intermission I took a walk through the pit area. There were about 25 cars in the pits covering from what I could tell four different classes. One class brought only two cars and another had five from what I could see. That put about 10 cars each in the remaining stock car and modified classes. Nebraska is the only place where I’ve seen racing cars that look a little bit like steel tanks. These racers are custom built for this type of racing. Normally the driver sits right in the center of the car left and right front and back. The body panels come together at right angles. These cars look stout. They’re fast and they handle really well over the sharp turns around the figure 8 course. While I was in the pit area I didn’t see anyone wearing wrist bands. Was it true that everyone in the pits was admitted for free as well? I suspect it was. Thank goodness for sponsors. Each of the cars ran a heat race and a feature event. They were a couple of consolation races as well. Again don’t miss the photos and the video racing footage to see exactly what Nebraska figure 8 racing is all about. You’ll know, based upon my judgment from seeing so many figure 8 races, that you’re watching the best figure 8 racing in the world. AFTER THE RACES The racing was finished at a little past 9 p.m. I considered taking a more full tour of the fair itself but the wet grounds discouraged me. The carnival area seemed to be about a half mile from where the racetrack was located. That might have been the longest distance between those two parts of a county fair that I’ve ever seen. Tonight was one of those rare nights where my hotel was located fairly close to the racetrack. I had only about a 25-mile drive over to the Country Inn and Suites Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Carol and I had stayed here a couple of weeks ago so I knew what to expect. Nevertheless, the first five or six miles of my drive was over a rural gravel road passing through the cornfields of Nebraska in the dark. That would’ve been a bad place to have a flat tire. However I arrived at my hotel without incident. With the help of Priceline I had paid just $42 for my room at the Country Inn. The clerk confirmed that other guests checking in tonight would be paying $108 plus tax for the room I had reserved. Folks, if you’re not using Priceline.com to get your hotel rooms what in the world are you waiting for? Good evening from Weeping Water, Nebraska. Nebraska The Cornhusker state This evening I saw my 42nd lifetime track in the Cornhusker state, yes the Cornhusker state. That breaks a tie with Ed Esser for the state trackchasing lead here. I know that had Ed lived he would have seen more Nebraska tracks. I wish he had. He was a fun trackchaser to compete with. I’ve seen 42 or more tracks in 16 separate states. 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 Nebraska happenings: Huskers Games Shut Down The State! Nebraska Cornhuskers football is basically a state religion. On game day, Memorial Stadium becomes the third largest city in Nebraska, with over 90,000 screaming fans. With more than 320 consecutive sold out games, the Cornhuskers have been one of the most dedicated fan bases for over 50 years. It’s no surprise that a baby Cornhusker’s first words are usually “Go Big Red!” QUICK 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 575 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of 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. 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. The trip out to Weeping Water, Nebraska for the best figure 8 racing in the country! 
