Greetings from Amarillo, Texas
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and then Ovalo, Texas
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Silver Dollar Speedway fna Tri-State Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #1,423 . . Cedar Hill Raceway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,655 THE EVENT Editor’s note: From time to time (actually about five times) I will return to a track not realizing I have been to that track in the past. When that happens I am disappointed. However, if that is all of the disappointment that comes my way in life I will have a good life. My visit to the Silver Dollar Speedway aka Tri-State Speedway created a small amount of disappointment which was soon erased the next evening when we pulled into the Cedar Hill Raceway. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with my racing friends in Moldova). I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,670 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. 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 Thursday-Monday, September 24-28, 2020. Thursday A couple of weeks ago I went trackchasing at the Route 66 Speedway in Amarillo, Texas. By pure happenstance, I happened to notice that the Amarillo Auto Racing Hall of Fame (above) was located in a building on the grounds of the speedway. I stepped in to take a look. Then I got to talking to the two people who are representatives of the hall of fame. I told them just a little bit about my trackchasing hobby. That’s when I learned from them that there was another track in Amarillo called Silver Dollar Speedway. I was told they raced cage carts and micro sprints. I had never heard of the Silver Dollar Speedway in Amarillo! Of course, I had been to the Silver Dollar Speedway a few times up in Chico, California for their World of Outlaw shows. So with the knowledge that I might have a very special track known only to me, I waited and I waited. Then when I found out I could pair up the newly discovered Silver Dollar Speedway with the equally “unknown” Cedar Hill Raceway in Ovalo, Texas I had a trackchasing weekend. It was with this knowledge and plan that Carol and I went forward on the last trackchasing weekend of September 2020. When Carol (above with nephew Jack) comes along on a trackchasing trip things are just a little bit “easier”. There are no 12-hour drives. There is no sleeping overnight in the car or anything like that. Today we left at a very reasonable 10:30 a.m. for a 1:30 p.m. flight that would take us to Dallas, Texas. Along the way, we stopped at In-N-Out Burgers, a Southern California institution. We’re big In-N-Out fans. There’s only one drawback to In-N-Out. The demand for their product is so high that you can sometimes wait 15-20 minutes or more to get served through the drive-through lane. In-N-Out is efficient. They just have so many customers to serve. Our flight on Spirit Airlines was uneventful. The flight had 92 open seats so every person pretty much got an entire row to themselves as we did. When we landed I picked up a National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. I try to do that on every rental. The car rides good enough and it gets fantastic mileage. I was a little surprised to see that this Camry had 42,000 miles on it. It looked nearly brand new so I went with it. Over the past couple of weekends, I have slept overnight in my car on three different occasions. I only do that because there isn’t enough time from when the races end at night until either my airplane or my rental car needs to head on to the next track the next morning. I told you that Carol gets the very best trips. I like to say when she comes along I get upgraded. On this Thursday evening in Dallas I reserved a room at the Westin Hotel. Of course, Westin Hotels are upscale properties. When we checked in we were upgraded to a suite and given several other amenities for a very reasonable price. Friday This morning we needed to drive out to Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo is 364 miles from Dallas. The drive was going to take us five hours. Racing tonight at the Silver Dollar Speedway was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. All of this meant we could sleep in to a very reasonable hour, take our time driving over to Amarillo and still be on time for the racing. As I planned this trip it seemed as if I was somehow thinking that tonight’s racing was going to be in Lubbock, Texas not Amarillo. I nearly made a nonrefundable Priceline hotel reservation in Lubbock. Just before I did that I came to my senses and realized we were going to Amarillo this afternoon. Eating is a big part of trackchasing. I had my heart set on dining at a Whataburger somewhere along our drive. However, as we continued to get closer to Amarillo the towns got further and further apart. None of them had a Whataburger. We settled for a Sonic Drive-in which is one of my favorites as well. All along the way, we saw a huge billboard advertising 72-ounce steaks at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. If you order their 72-ounce steak and can eat it all including the side orders within one hour it’s free. Otherwise, if you try to do that and don’t make it, it will cost you $72. Our plan was to stop at that restaurant, not to eat the 72-ounce steak, but to enjoy a steak of a different size sometime before we left Amarillo. Another top Trackchasing Tourist Attraction in Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch visit. I went there a couple of months ago. Now Carol was going to get her first opportunity at spray painting a bunch of old Cadillacs. We checked into our Town Suites by Marriott property in Amarillo about a half-hour before race time. I love these “suite” properties. They have so much space and offer a refrigerator, and often times a stove and microwave. This is the kind of place where you could live for a long time if you needed to. Tonight’s racing at the Silver Dollar Speedway was the first night of a two-day show called the Silver Dollar Shootout. Tonight each class was going to race one heat race. Then tomorrow morning, Saturday, at 9:30 a.m. all the cars would come back and race one more heat race. The racers would take off a few hours for the lunch break and complete the program with feature events Saturday afternoon/evening. We entertained the idea of coming in on Friday rather than Thursday for this trip. If we did that we could drive out from Dallas on Friday night into Amarillo and see the races at Silver Dollar Speedway on Saturday morning. Then we could still get to the Cedar Hill Raceway on Saturday evening. However, we decided that was cutting it just a little bit close. We would come in on Thursday and see the racing at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night When we arrived at the track we followed the signposts that directed us to the pit area even though we were trying to get into the grandstand spectating area. It was then that I saw a sign that read, “Tri-State Speedway”. This sign concerned me. I was firmly convinced that the track’s official name was the Silver Dollar Speedway. I had seen the “SDS” moniker on the track’s website and Facebook page. When I drove down the dirt road toward the pit area just looking at the fencing caused me to raise an eyebrow. Hmmm. Soon we did find the spectating area. The high-temperature today in Amarillo was about 100°. Since we were early we sat in the car waiting for the racing to begin. When it did the temperatures were still in the high 90s. There was something that didn’t feel just right about this experience. I had that eerie feeling that I had been here before. I don’t have to remind you the trackchasing hobby is all about seeing racing at a track for the very first time. There was one way I could check things out. Using my iPhone 12 I went to www.randylewis.org, the official site of my trackchasing list. By the way, there are other websites that purport to share my track list. They aren’t even close! I was hoping that I wouldn’t see anything about the Tri-State Speedway in Amarillo on my Texas state list. I was hoping. Unfortunately, I did. My website told me this. I went trackchasing at the Tri-State Speedway all the way back in 2009. Dang. Double dang! There was one minor silver lining to this dark cloud. Carol was not with me on that night eleven years ago. At least her visit to the Silver Dollar Speedway this evening would be a brand new track for her. This would further solidify our “World’s #1 Trackchasing Couple” leadership position. Tonight’s Racing was supposed to begin at 6 p.m. Did they start on time? Does a bear shit in the woods? Six o’clock came and went, as it often does, without a racing wheel being put on the dirt oval track. In point of fact, they did not begin racing until about 7 p.m. We had a choice. We could sit out in 95° temperatures with about a 15-mile an hour wind blowing into our faces. Or, we could pull our car up to the fence and see the racing action, although with a unobstructed view, from inside the car. We chose the latter option. Carol is not a fan of dust when it comes to watching racing. I’m not a big fan of it either but I can tolerate it. Inside the air-conditioned comfort of the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry, we had a dust-free environment. We would also save an eight-dollar per person admission charge. That wasn’t the primary motivation for watching the racing from inside the car but it was a benefit. Had I been by myself and returned to a track that I had already seen by mistake I probably just would’ve made a U-turn and headed on down the road. However, Carol was trackchasing! She was here to see her racing. I’m going to guess that we saw seven or eight different classes race tonight. There were one or two flat cart classes. The rest were caged and some were racing with wings. Here’s the problem. This is a problem that I have seen at most of the tracks I have visited over the last three or four years. The car counts in each class were anemic. Each class had only 3-4 competitors except for one class that brought about seven cars. We watched all of the heats which was a complete program for this evening. The entire racing program was finished in just one hour and 15 minutes after beginning at 7 p.m. There’s no doubt about it. I was disappointed that I was not seeing a new track tonight. We had driven 364 miles from the DFW airport. I don’t really have any specific trackchasing goals in terms of quantity. It’s not critical to add another track to my lifetime totals. It’s not critical to add a track to my annual totals or my state totals. In the past adding that one more track to move up a position in an individual state or add to this number or that number was pretty important. The situation now is simply that I have blown away the competition in every category where I can be competitive. Now I’m just trackchasing to keep busy. When we got out of the track at a little past 8 p.m. we had a decision to make. We could make a late-night stop at the Texan Steakhouse although finishing up eating a large steak at 10 p.m. or so wasn’t exactly ideal. The other choice would be to check out the Waffle House, the same chain where we had supper last night. We chose the Waffle House with the idea that we will catch the Texas steakhouse tomorrow for lunch. So, in summary, I had returned to a track that I had seen 11 years ago. I had seen that track 1,231 tracks ago. That’s a long time and a lot of tracks ago! I didn’t catch the idea when the folks at the Texas Amarillo Sports Hall of Fame told me that a place called the Silver Dollar Speedway might be a track I had seen in the past under a different name. That was on me. I am attaching my Trackchaser Report from that visit to Amarillo in 2009. It was an interesting visit for no other reason than I was meeting a very special person the next night over in New Mexico. Tri-State Speedway – Amarillo, Texas – 2009 visit I had trackchased in Tocancipa, Colombia in 2009. Colombia was the 28th-lifetime country where I had seen racing. As this is written I have seen racing in 85 countries. At that Colombia race, I met one Juan Alvarez. I actually did an interview with him and his girlfriend/wife in the car on the way to the track. I thought I would include the audio of that radio interview Juan was visiting the United States from Colombia on a business trip. It just turned out that we could meet up again in New Mexico to see a race at the Uranium Capital Speedway track in Milan. That was a fun night. Saturday Today was going to be a fun day. I would be incorporating several parts of the trackchasing hobby, which will show you why I do this in the first place. First, we had a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction or two scheduled for the day. Secondly, we were going to eat at a very famous restaurant. Finally, for our evening entertainment, we would be trackchasing at a location that not a single trackchaser in the history of the hobby had ever seen. What a special day! This morning’s first stop was to the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. I had visited here just a couple of months ago after wanting to stop for years. It’s just that my normal travel plans that take me from point A to point B don’t take me past Amarillo very often. By the way, during this trip, we also stopped to view the world’s largest sneaker and the world’s largest Rubik’s Cube. Yep. If it’s out there we try to see it! This is what Wikipedia has to say about the Cadillac Ranch. “Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, USA. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. The installation consists of ten Cadillacs (1949-1963) buried nose-first in the ground. Installed in 1974, the cars were either older running, used or junk cars — together spanning the successive generations of the car line — and the defining evolution of their tailfins.” So if I came here a couple of months ago why was I returning today? I wanted Carol to see the Cadillac Ranch! When I have fun somewhere and Carol isn’t with me I can’t wait to return and show her something special. By the way, back in 1980, we purchased a brand new Cadillac Sedan Deville. It was our first…and last Cadillac. What a disaster! I paid $700 extra to get the car with a diesel engine. Big mistake. During the first three years of ownership the first two engines blew up and I was working on my third diesel engine from Cadillac. I think the car was just meant to be a problem child. We bought it when we relocated from California to Connecticut for a job promotion. I ordered the car over the phone (pre-internet) from a car contact I had in New Jersey. I picked the car’s color from a new car brochure that included small squares of the available colors. I thought I chose a maroon color. However, when I picked the car up in Jersey it was nearly a fire engine red! It was too late to change. Then just three weeks after I had the car I parked it at New York’s LaGuardia airport for a work trip. When I returned from my trip I found the car had been broken into and the radio ripped out. It took a long time to get the car repaired. At the time I was driving this big red Cadillac to the office. My boss, the V.P. of Sales, drove a beat-up 10-year old Honda hatchback. I guess I wasn’t being very politically correct. Our son took over the reins of that car when he turned sixteen. In about 1990 we finally pawned the car off on someone else. No more Caddies for me! The main “activity” at the Cadillac Ranch is to pick up a can of spray paint and paint the ten Cadillacs on scene. Some people bring their own spray paint and others just pick up discarded cans on the ground. Today a lady gave us two cans of spray paint that she had just paid about fifteen dollars. We didn’t a little spraying just to say we did. Now it was about time for lunch. We had a special place in mind called the Big Texas Steakhouse. If you are anywhere within a few hundred miles of Amarillo you will see tons of their advertising billboards. The advertising, in large letters shouted, “Free 72 oz. Steak”. In smaller letters, they follow with “if eaten within one hour”. Like the Cadillac Ranch, I had driven past the steakhouse many times but never had time to stop. Today Carol and I did pull in for lunch. We were not going to try to eat the 72 oz. steak. We just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Wow! What a great place for lunch and a little entertainment. First, our meal was fantastic. The steak, the bread, the onion rings and the dessert would all get a rating of ten. I was surprised by that. The next time I am anywhere close I will stop at the Big Texan Steakhouse. This place was outstanding. While we were there we watched three big guys try to eat the 72 oz. steak. They all failed. It’s not just the steak but the sides that must be eaten as well. This includes three jumbo shrimp, a salad, some bread, and a baked potato. The “contestants” are seated on a small stage for all to see. There is a time clock. Customers are encouraged to go up to the stage and take pictures and meet the big eaters. Even if you can’t eat everything (the 72 oz. steak has no fat and looks like a huge roast that could serve 15-20) you can take leftover with you all for the cost I think of about 60 bucks. Folks get a free t-shirt as well. The food was great and watching these guys try to eat those steaks (roasts!) was fun as well. From here we were off to the Cedar Hill Raceway in Ovalo, Texas. Up until a few weeks ago I had never heard of the place! I’m guessing there are more than 1,000 go-kart tracks that race…but don’t race any type of kart that meets the somewhat stringent yet capricious rules of trackchasing. I can’t be blamed for that. As you might imagine no fellow trackchaser had ever been to Cedar Hill. That being the case Carol and I might as well be the first. Why were we coming to the Cedar Hill Raceway? They were having a special event. This event was called the 2020 Mega 12K Karting Series. The series would include a little bit of flat kart racing. Most of the entries were caged karts but most of those entries were for children’s divisions. As I mentioned I had never heard of the Cedar Hill Raceway. This was a rural track. The lighting was poor but the pits were packed. Exactly how many more tracks are “out there” that might pop up in the future like Cedar Hill did this weekend. I believe tracks will always be popping up frequently enough to keep me out on the long and dusty trackchasing trail for as long as I want. That is a good thing. We paid a somewhat steep $15 for admission to the pit area. That was our only option. This gave us the right to sit in a very small grandstand where the view wasn’t that great. Later we stood at the fence around turns three and four to watch the racing. The mosquitos were a force tonight! By the way, Carol lost her seat cushion walking from the track’s entrance through the pits to the stands. This was a distance of roughly 100 yards. I simply retraced her steps and found the cushion. I was Carol’s hero. As always I recommend you view my SmugMug photo album and watch my YouTube video to get the best idea about what tonight’s racing action looked like. If you do that you will get an entirely different understanding compared to only reading about the adventure. Never tried that? Let me know what you think after you do. From Cedar Hill, we drove from Ovalo, Texas down to Austin, Texas. That was a distance of 216 miles. We were headed to the Texas capital city to see son Jim, his Krista and their three beautiful daughters. Sunday This morning there was enough time for a power walk. Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. They are growing so fast they have outpaced their infrastructure. We stopped in a nearby HEB grocery store to pick up some flowers for our visit. Just across the parking lot was a large homeless encampment. I see these things much more often than Carol does. She was definitely freaked out. The image does say that not everyone is winning in America. We had a wonderful time visiting Jim and Krista and the kids in their new home. It’s beautiful. Then they treated us to a Texas BBQ dinner at the famous eatery, “The Salt Lick BBQ”. Deeeeelicious. Monday It was now time to return home from a trip that began on Thursday. Talk about a great trip! We visited a very cool Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. We ate in some of the best restaurants in Texas. Red meat baby! We saw some racing at new places. Finally, we spent some time with family. What a great combo trip. Good evening from Ovalo, Texas Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,655 tracks. Texas The Lone Star State This evening I saw racing at my 85th-lifetime track in the Lone Star State, yes, the Lone Star State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Texas. Texas ranks #10, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Texas state trackchasing list. I have made 57 separate trips to Texas seeing these tracks. 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 Texas sayings: Bigger’n Dallas You’d use this expression when you want to say something is immediately noticeable. “Look at him up there bigger’n Dallas!” 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 780 tracks of my lifetime total. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to 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. Seeing, eating and watching some real great Texas stuff! 
JUST THE FACTS
