Rock County Speedway

What a nice feature in the Sioux Falls airport……………more in “The Details”.

I’m just gearing up for the big push…………..more in “The Details”.

One cannot sleep well if one has not dined well……………..more in “Attractions”

Is this the liability insurance talking? …………..details in “Race Review”.

I don’t get much sleep on these trips.

Today would be a long day of trackchasing.  I woke up at 1:30 a.m. in Champaign, Illinois.  I lost a time zone hour making a two-hour drive to Indianapolis.  Once in Indy I hopped on a 5:30 a.m. flight to Chicago.  Then I hung around Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for a couple of hours before flying onto Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  I arrived at 11:30 a.m. feeling as if I had already put in a full day!

Once in Sioux Falls, I needed to pick up my rental car from National Car Rental.  National is a full-time trackchasing sponsor of mine.  They allow me to get “one-way” car rentals for free or nearly free.  Logistically, being able to drive a car one-way and drop it off makes all the difference in the world to my trackchasing travel.  I often say, and it’s true, I couldn’t do this without my sponsors.

There were lots of travel details to check off.

Next up I needed a hotel. Hotels in this part of the country during the summer can be very expensive.  How expensive?  A Motel 6 in Sioux Falls was renting for $76 a night!  Holiday Inns and Hampton Inns were going for $130-140 per night.  Those prices were way out of my range for a rural trackchasing trip without Carol.

I checked Biddingfortravel.com to get an idea on how much hotels had been selling for on Priceline.com recently.  This is just one of my many strategies for buying “good stuff cheap”.  I ended getting a Ramada Inn in Sioux Falls for just $45 U.S. via Priceline.  Whenever I buy a hotel room on Priceline I always like to check the hotel website to see what they are charging “regular” people.  First of all, the Ramada website said they were sold out…but if they DID have a room it would sell for $112.  I routinely get fantastic savings using Priceline.  Who in their right mind wouldn’t use Priceline under these circumstances?

Doing more with less effort and less cost.

Everything in trackchasing, the way I do it, involves strategy.  Much of the hobby centers on how I can do more with less.  Because when I can do more with less I can do more.  Make sense?

What a nice feature.

The tiny Sioux Falls airport has a lavish business center.  That would be perfect for today.  Rental cars charge on a 24-hour basis.  If I waited to pick up my rental car in Sioux Falls later in the day then I wouldn’t have to drop it off as early tomorrow in Omaha.  It would be a three-hour drive from my Sioux Falls hotel to Omaha.  By doing some work for a few hours in the Sioux Falls airport I could afford to sleep a little bit later tomorrow morning.  Yep.  You gotta be thinking all the time or you’re going to create multiple inconveniences for yourself with this hobby of trackchasing.

I’m just gearing up for the big push.

Weather permitting I’ll be in the greater Nebraska/Kansas area for the next nine days wiping tracks off the map.  Google Maps tells me I will drive approximately 1,950 miles in 32 hours doing this.  That’s not too bad.  That plan only requires me to drive about four hours a day, which in my world is like sitting on the porch.

Since I knew I would be in Omaha tomorrow night I grabbed a Priceline hotel a day ahead of time for that overnight.  How did I do?  I was able to reserve the Marriott hotel for just $55 for the night.  What was the very best rate on Marriott’s website?  $199!  Need I say more?

Where was the general manager of this place?

Checking into my Ramada Inn was a treat.  The lobby had two most interesting things.  First, there was a sign advertising church services nearby by.  Just beyond that sign was a door leading to a room that sold convenience items and beer from 7 a.m.-2 a.m. daily!

My room wasn’t cleaned by the best cleaning person in all of the Midwest.  The pillows were smashed and the bed’s dust cover in some disarray.  Had the hotel staff been taking a break?

ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL

Phnom Penh Asian Restaurant – Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I was in the market for some Asian cuisine.  Folks I will tell you this.  Twenty years ago you took your taste buds in your own hands if you tried to eat Asian or Mexican food in the Midwest.  Things have changed!  Now with the migration of minorities all over the U.S. “eating ethnic” can work just about anywhere.

I use Yelp! religiously to help me find businesses that come highly recommended.  I used Yelp! just the other day to find someone to do gutter repair at our home.  However, I mostly use Yelp! to help me find good places to eat when I’m on the road.

Today Yelp! recommended the Phnom Penh Restaurant.  Who would have thought there would be excellent Vietnamese food in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  There is!

Yelp! even provided a coupon, redeemable on my cell phone, for a free egg drop soup.  My lunch was delicious.  Like other Yelp! users I highly recommend this place.

ROCK COUNTY SPEEDWAY – LUVERNE, MINNESOTA

I like enduro racing but not tonight’s enduro racing.

I normally very much enjoy small town enduro stock car racing.  What is enduro stock car racing?  Essentially it’s full-sized low dollar American stock cars racing a long distance race.  Races might commonly be 200 laps or two hours whichever comes first.

Enduro stock racing has been around for a long time.  Years back it would feature 50 or even 100 or more enduro racers for one of these events.  Lately, car counts for enduros has declined a good deal.  Now an enduro might be just 20-40 cars.

Another element of enduro stock car racing seems to be disappearing as well.  Back in the day (about 10-15 years ago) enduro meant no race stoppages unless a car was on fire or turned over or a driver was hurt.

Is it the liability insurance talking?

Now, including today, if a car stops anywhere on the track for just about any reason a red flag is thrown.  That stops the race until the disabled racer can be removed from the track.  Maybe it’s the insurance companies that are responsible for these delays in the program.

Nevertheless, an enduro is much less entertaining if they have to stop the race every few laps to remove stopped race cars.  Today’s program suffered a great deal from red flag stoppages.  After one hour of racing only 18 laps of today’s event had been completed!  Honestly, that’s a terrible result.

This might have been the most boring enduro I have ever seen.  To compound the problem of having the cars stopped every five laps was  the wheel fence.  A wheel fence separates the cars from the fans in the grandstand.

Today’s wheel fence looked to be brand new.  What’s the problem with that?  The fence was so shiny it was difficult to see through especially when viewed at an angle.  What could be worse than having the cars stop every few laps and then not being able to see them well when they WERE racing?

The crowd liked it.

Nevertheless, a good crowd was on hand in the brand new aluminum bleachers.  Most of these folks probably don’t go to the races all that often this being a once a year event.  They probably didn’t know what they were missing.

Research tells me they started racing at the Luverne Fairgrounds all the way back in 1938.  I’m not sure if that’s the same place as today’s fairgrounds or not.  The track definitely looked as if it has held “regular” races at some point in time.

STATE COMPARISONS

Minnesota

The Gopher State

This evening I saw my 66th lifetime track in the Gopher state, yes the Gopher state.  I find myself up in Minnesota a great deal.  I like it 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

Minnesota sayings:  Minnesota: One Day It’s Warm, the Rest of the Year It’s Cold

QUICK FACTS

TRAVEL ITINERARY

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,232 miles

Dallas, TX (DFW) – Nashville, TN – 630 miles

RENTAL CAR #1

Nashville International Airport – trip begins

Bowling Green, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – 315 miles

RENTAL CAR #2

Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins

Rossburg, OH

Peoria, IL

Urbana, IL

Indianapolis International Airport – 778 miles

AIRPLANE

Indianapolis, IN (IND) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 177 miles

Chicago, IL (ORD) – Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) – 461 miles

RENTAL CAR #3

Sioux Falls Regional Airport – trip begins

Luverne, MN

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds – $13

Eldora Speedway – $40 (not trackchasing expense)

Peoria Speedway – $13 (not trackchasing expense)

Champaign County Fairgrounds – Complimentary

Rock County Speedway – $9

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 350 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,872

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report