Greetings from Teeswater, Ontario, Canada
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
.
.
Teeswater Fairgrounds
Dirt figure 8
Lifetime Track #2,204
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 As an SPG (Sheraton hotels) gold member I took advantage of my 2 p.m. hotel checkout option today. You would be amazed at how much I can get done after sleeping in until 9:30 a.m. and having 3-4 hours to organize my thoughts. First, I backed up my iPhone which I hadn’t done in two weeks. I used the hotel’s health club to exercise aerobically for 45 minutes. I made my airplane reservations for this coming Sunday night’s flight from Philadelphia back to Los Angeles. That was done on a standby basis of course. I reserved my next two night’s hotel rooms on Priceline. How did I do with Priceline? As an example, my Saturday night stay in Philadelphia was at a Four Points by Sheraton Hotel. Their cheapest online rate was $180 U.S. I paid $58 with Priceline. Normally my savings is 50% off of the best available online rate. Sometimes it’s more and once in awhile less. Now I was looking for a late lunch. I thought about finding a poutine restaurant. However I figured I could probably have that Canadian delicacy at the fair tonight. I thought about Mexican food. Then I reminded myself I was in Canada. I guess Mexican was out. About that time I ran across a four-star Yelp rated all you can eat buffet style Chinese restaurant called Mandarin. It was only 4/10 of a mile from the hotel. Perfect. However they closed at 3 p.m. If I went now would only give me a half hour for lunch. I love Chinese food. However I must tell you that virtually every Chinese buffet I have ever found has been lacking in quality. That was probably the case today as well. Nevertheless what they didn’t have in quality I made up in quantity. I ate fast and didn’t leave hungry. With a little time on my hands I decided to make a stop at a local Costco. I was fortunate in that Costco was right around the corner. I couldn’t buy anything. I could only “window shop”. I like doing that. I had no space in my luggage to take everything back to sunny California. When it was time to head to the race I set my Waze GPS system on “no toll roads”. Off I went toward Teeswater, Ontario, Canada. Teeswater is in the western section of the province. I didn’t have any background on Teeswater whatsoever. This was the first time they had held any type of racing in recent memory. I don’t think there were any toll roads or major highways between where I was leaving from and where I was headed. Virtually the entire drive was along two lane roads. This was a good way to see the small towns of Ontario. THE RACING Teeswater Fairgrounds – Teeswater, Ontario, Canada Tonight’s demolition derby was scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m. That seemed like a rather late starting time. I wondered if the printed program was correct with a start time that late? I pulled into the small burg of Teeswater at about 6 p.m. I certainly didn’t want to arrive late to find out the program have been incorrect and the figure 8 racing had already been completed. That would’ve been a bummer. The weather was perfect. There was no rain in sight. Temperatures were in the mid-70s with no humidity and a slight breeze. It was going to be a perfect night for going to the county fair. Teeswater has only one gas station. That gas station does not have a convenience store. However I stopped at the local liquor store to find out where I could buy a Coke Zero. The liquor store didn’t have any. I was directed downtown to a very rural country store. I wondered what it might be like to live here with such a limited shopping selection in town. Finding the fair was easy. This was a small place. Everything was well sign posted. Admission to the fair was $10 Canadian. That price included both the fair and the races. Tonight’s show was organized and promoted by Thrill Shows Productions. They bill themselves as “Canada’s #1 demolition derby”. Why would they say that? Because it’s true! Teeswater, Ontario is one of the most western points in the province where TSP promotes their events. Typically figure 8 and demolition derby participants do not tow their vehicles long distances to compete. That being the case tonight’s car count was small compared to last night. The announcer told us there were just thirteen cars in the pits. That was 13 cars in total for both the figure 8 and the demo derby. That wasn’t very many. However, I noticed that last night’s figure 8 feature winner was in attendance. That pretty well convinced me they would be having a race on the figure 8 configuration. The seating area for the fans was unusual. It made me wonder. There was a complete concrete seating/viewing area. There must’ve been 15 rows in the entire structure. What was surprising was that the stands ran nearly 100 meters in length. Teeswater is a small town. The Teeswater-Culross Rural Fair was one of the smallest I’ve seen in a very long time. What were they doing with a concrete grandstand built into the side of the hill that could seat thousands? Maybe someday I will find out the answer to that question. An hour before the demolition derby was to begin they were offering a special event that I had never seen in all of my travels. It was called “Harley – Pulling” That’s right. It wasn’t tractor pulling but motorcycles pulling weighted sleds. Don’t miss the video on this one. The Harley pulling video has been one of the most popular that I have posted on Facebook. I guess that just goes to show you! There were duel announcers for the motorcycle event. An adult woman was announcing with her sidekick a young boy who must’ve been about 12 years old. He was a stitch. I suspect one day he’ll be announcing bigger events in and around Canada. Tonight’s race activity started on time at 8:15 p.m. Thrill Show Productions does a nice job of organizing their events and starting on time. I like that. The figure 8 course itself was one of the smallest I’ve seen lately. The concrete blocks used to mark the track couldn’t have been more than 20 meters apart. The woman who had done the announcing earlier kept telling the crowd this was the biggest demolition derby ring they had had in a very long time. Nevertheless, it was still small. The figure 8 racing program had two heats with four cars and three cars respectively. The heat race winners qualified for the feature event. Everyone else went to the consolation. The top two cars in the consolation went to the feature creating a four-car main event. Despite the small track the racing was competitive given the circumstances. This wasn’t Daytona or Monaco it was Teeswater. When I drove into Teeswater and bought my admission ticket to the Teeswater-Culross Rural Fair I knew what I was getting into. Following the figure 8 racing I stayed for the two demolition derby heats. It was surprising to me that five cars in the mini smash heat and four or five cars in the big car DD could create such havoc. During a break while they changed the figure 8 track over to the demolition derby ring I saw my good buddy Walter Williams. Walter is an original founder of the Thrill Show Productions operation. Tonight he was selling souvenir checkered flags at five dollars Canadian per. I suspected the flags yielded a hefty profit margin. I wondered how many checkered flags Walter had sold in his 83 years? Good on him. The fans like figure 8 racing. The fans love demolition derby. Trackchasing’s founding fathers initially didn’t even consider figure 8 racing and turned thumbs down on demolition derby. I’m not going to say the folks from Pennsylvania were close minded or limited in their thinking… but. AFTER THE RACES I along with a very large crowd stayed until the very last checkered flag on the very last event of the night. Then I hopped in my car and made the two hour plus drive back to Toronto. Along the way I stopped at “Timmy’s” for some Timbits. I was staying at the Novotel Hotel in Mississauga, Ontario. This was a little more of an urban environment that I was looking for. However, they had given me a hotel for about 50 bucks that was selling to the public for more than $150 Canadian. It wasn’t that great of a place but it would do for the night. Good night from Teeswater, Ontario, Canada. Ontario The Heartland province This evening I saw my 61st lifetime track in the Heartland province, yes the Heartland province. I have seen more racetracks in Ontario than any other Canadian province. I’ve seen 61 or more tracks in 13 separate states and provinces. 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 Ontario sayings: Whale’s Tail: Fried dough pastry. Also known as elephant ears or beaver tails. Snacks at TEDActive are healthy and delicious … but I’m craving a whale’s tail. 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 550 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. [enter YouTube videos] 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. First ever figure 8 racing and more from the Teeswater-Culross Rural Fair 
