Greetings from McCook, Nebraska
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
McCook Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #908 Reprinted with permission from my Friday, July 22, 2005, Trackchaser Report. THE CLASSIC TRACKCHASER REPORT Editor’s note: This is a CLASSIC Trackchaser Report. What the heck does “Classic” mean? It’s simply a Trackchaser Report that comes from my trackchasing archives. Typically these will be stories from tracks I visited five years or ten years or more ago. For whatever reason (usually not enough time) it didn’t get posted to my website when I first made the track visit. Often a classic TR will not have a video and/or photo album attached. I didn’t begin producing my YouTube videos until 2009 (YouTube channel: RANLAY). I didn’t begin writing a complete Trackchaser Report until I had seen about 425 tracks. Photo albums were sort of hit or miss during the early years of my trackchasing. Additionally, if you see a website link know that link worked when the TR was originally written. Will it work now? Your guess is as good as mine! Nevertheless, this CLASSIC Trackchaser Report has finally bubbled to the surface and is now available for everyone to see at www.randylewis.org. I hope you enjoy it. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with the county fair queen up in Idaho). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial 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! FOREWORD Friday, July 22, 2005. Greetings from McCook, Nebraska And the readers respond After reading Will White’s first European track report, Pryce B. of Milan, Illinois had this to say, “Walking to a track in a foreign country? Will makes you look like the Donald Trump of trackchasing!” Greg Z, formerly of Grafton, Wisconsin and a Packer fan responded with this following our meeting with Bart Starr, “Somehow my fondness has grown for you just a tad, as I had not known that you were a modified Packer fan way back when, and that you’ve grown to appreciate the mystic power now as a senior citizen. I understand your priorities, especially during the summer, but I’d like to request a game of golf in the weeks ahead, during one of your brief stays in San Clemente. By the way, the draft beer preference is more reminiscent of a Packer fan than strawberry daiquiris and key lime pie martinis, you pansy! Greg, sticks and stones can break my bones but jokes about daiquiris will never hurt me. I’ve heard them all after years of daiquiri consumption in the corporate world. By the way, rather than a beer can collection, I have a miniature umbrella collection. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS This trackchasing with Carol is an upscale life-changing experience. When she is part of the trip, we stay in a luxury hotel, eat in the finest restaurants and sample the entertainment choices of the city. Soon she will return home and I will be left to the Motel 6s of the world and the Burger King drive-thru. I had better enjoy her lifestyle while I can. Of course, Carol does not demand any level of pampering at all. At the same time, I want her to be comfortable so I try to develop a plan that will let Carol enjoy her trackchasing trip so she will want to come again. When I can, the plan she becomes a part of has less driving than normal and more asphalt tracks than dirt tracks. It does not always work out that way, but ideally, it would. All of that being said, our drive over to McCook, Nebraska was just north of 300 miles. The folks in this part of the world are experiencing a supreme heatwave with temperatures over 100 degrees. The car’s temperature gauge peaked at 106 today. The humidity is low, but the air is hot. When the wind blows, it feels like a hot fan blowing on you. We needed to leave Wichita today by 2 p.m. We checked out of our hotel at nearly noon. We will not be getting a hotel tonight until after the races and after we drive about 100 miles. What all that means is that we have a couple of hours to kill where we will not be driving and we won’t be at the races. How would we fill two hours? We chose another movie at the Old Town movie complex. Our movie was the WEDDING CRASHERS (Carol’s rating: B+, Randy’s rating: B). One of the main reasons to choose another movie after one yesterday was to enjoy the in-movie dining experience and to stay in air-conditioning comfort. We walked into the movie and chose our seats. We then pressed the red button located at our seats to let the server know that we wanted to place an order. We kept our order simple, hamburgers, fries and drinks. While we watched the movie, they prepared the food. In what seemed like no time our food was being served. The server brought the food on a tray that was fitted into the movie seat. Our food was excellent and not all that expensive. Yesterday’s screening room had seven rows of seating and today’s room had 11 rows. Now when we go to our local theatres in SoCal, we’re going to feel like a bunch of hicks knowing that the avant-garde residents of Wichita are enjoying the best in movie viewing. If you get to Wichita, you might want to seek out the Old Town area for food and entertainment. I received an email from California trackchaser Ron Rodda this morning. He’s planning a racechasing/trackchasing trip with his wife in his motor home this month to the Midwest. They were planning to leave about now, but moved back their departure because of the hot weather. Since Carol and I are already out here, we will tough it out. I would say the weather I have encountered this year has been poor from a temperature point of view. Prior to the continental Europe trip, it seemed temps were abnormally cold. Since that trip, the weather has been much warmer than expected. Luckily, there has been very little rain to affect the race programs. RACE TRACK NEWS: MCCOOK SPEEDWAY, MCCOOK, NEBRASKA – TRACK #908 This racetrack is my 19th-lifetime track in Nebraska giving me the lead in the Arbor state. There are still about 23 countable tracks for me to see in Nebraska. About nine of those race on a weekly basis. This is Carol’s 195th-lifetime track. It was 102 degrees when we entered the McCook Speedway. Surprisingly, the track was in good condition and it didn’t get very dusty at all. There were six classes racing tonight. These included 13 classic modifieds, 11 mini-trucks, 7 mini-sprints, 13 IMCA stock cars, 11 IMCA hobby stocks and 14 IMCA modifieds. I’ve decided that I like about 12-16 cars in a class on a small track. That gives the class two heats and an “A” main. Tonight’s sixth and final “A” feature, the modifieds, took the checkered around 10:45 p.m. That’s not bad considering the official start time for the six-division program was 8 p.m. When I arrived in McCook, I had a minor panic attack. The town looked so familiar to a Nebraska town I had visited back in late May. I feared I had driven all this way only to be re-visiting a track I had already been too. It turned out that I HAD been to McCook in late May but it was on the way to the Hitchcock County Speedway in Culbertson just 11 miles down the road. Whew! Both the McCook Speedway and the track in Culbertson have the same announcer. He remembered me from our interview in May and tonight we had a nice chat. I was lucky I talked to him. He told me that my planned Sunday night track, WaKeeney Speedway was not racing and that nearby Thomas County Speedway in Colby, Kansas WAS racing. That tip saved me a lot of trouble. He also gave me one more idea that will change a plan I had for later in the year. The racing was fun tonight. Once the sun went down the heat wasn’t too bad but it was still warm. The track has a large 22-row aluminum grandstand and the P.A. system is good. The lights on the front stretch are excellent but the lights in the turns are some of the worst I have seen all year. The flagman is perched in a flag stand all the way down in turn one. Carol and I ate at the Taste of Texas BBQ restaurant on the main drag in McCook. It was very good, so if you like BBQ and plan to go to either Hitchcock County Speedway or McCook Speedway that would be a good place to eat. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Normally I try to get white rental cars. For some unknown reason I accepted a dark blue National Rental Car Racing Chevy Malibu. With the extremely hot conditions, that was probably a stupid move. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. 2005 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS 10.Will White, Quakertown, Pennsylvania – 15 Driving distances Los Angeles International Airport – trip begins Wichita, Kansas – 27 miles McCook, Nebraska – 375 miles Air travel Los Angeles, CA – Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX – 1,235 miles Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX – Wichita, KS – 346 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: 81 Speedway – $8 McCook Speedway – $8 Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once, as I ever was. (on the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip) July 23 – Pikes Peak International Raceway (oval), Fountain, Colorado July 23 – I-25 Speedway (oval), Pueblo, Colorado July 23 – I-25 Speedway (figure 8), Pueblo, Colorado July 24 – Thomas County Speedway, Colby, Kansas (** not the first time to visit this track) ** Perris Auto Speedway, Perris, California – February 5 ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England – March 27 ** Tucson Raceway Park (outer oval), Tucson, Arizona – April 30 ** U.S. 30 Speedway (outer oval), Columbus, Nebraska – May 26 ** Rocky Mountain National Speedway (oval), Commerce City, Colorado – May 28 ** Hawkeye Downs (outer oval), Cedar Rapids, Iowa – June 3 ** 81 Speedway, Wichita, Kansas – July 21 I can tell you that “The History of America’s Speedways – Past and Present” authored by Allan E. Brown has this to say about the Hub of the Valley Speedway. 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! You might have remembrances about this track. If so, please feel free to share your memories in 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 Nebraska sayings: Sorry About the Poo Smell 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. My visit to the McCook Speedway was before I began making my personal YouTube videos. Therefore I share someone else’s McCook Speedway video experience. 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. A very concise photo album from the McCook Speedway 
Planned new racetracks
Racetracks visited in 2005
