Twin City Raceway

Greetings from Kenai, Alaska

From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”

Twin City Raceway

Lifetime track #262

The Twin City Raceway is officially listed as my 262nd lifetime racetrack to see.  This venue was the first track I ever saw in Alaska.  I was there on a Saturday afternoon in early August, 1995.  A fellow by the name of Eldon McGann driving the #74 was the day’s feature winner.

I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #400.  Therefore all I have to go on is my memory of the afternoon and evening activity.  I also didn’t begin doing much in the way of photos or videos at that time either.  It was “pre-technology time”.

Our family (Kristy in the middle) has also stayed pretty active. This was our family bike ride down Haleakola in Maui. 

My daughter Kristy and I made the long trek up to Alaska.  The trip was a high school graduation present of sorts.  For the most part our children have never had much of an interest in racing.  However, with all of the activities they enjoyed in school, i.e. sports, theatre and the like as well as a constant family travel schedule we were never at a loss for something to do as a family.  I would say that Kristy has shown the most interest in racing.  She and I have made a couple of long distance trackchasing trips together and had a great time.

Daughter Kristy  

We were up in Alaska for four days.  When I make these kinds of trips I’m always on the lookout for non-racing things to do.  As our good fortune would have it we were just in time for the last day of the salmon fishing season on the Kenai River.  I chartered a boat for Kristy and I to go Salmon fishing.  It was just our guide the two of us and one other local person.

The weather was cloudy and cool.  Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before Kristy was hauling in a 55-pound king salmon!  Now THAT was a fish.  The local who was fishing with us said he had never caught a king salmon in his life.  I snagged a 12-pound silver salmon.  All of this happened rather quickly.  At that point the weather was beginning to get much worse from a strong north wind.  Our fishing licenses allowed us to eat catch one king salmon.  The guide asked me if I wanted to keep fishing in hopes of landing a king.

My answer was an emphatic “No”.  My day was made when Kristy caught her fish.  We headed back to shore with the biggest catch of the day.  Of course, Alaskans are ready for people like us from California.  They offered to filet and even smoke the fish so we could be eating salmon for a good long time.  This was a trophy fish.  I paid for the entire thing to be processed and packed for us to take back home.  We ate salmon for nearly a year after that.  I must also report that this was easily the most expensive fish I had ever eaten.  However, as is often the case, the main highlight of the trip was a non-racing activity.

Recently, I asked Kristy what her primary remembrances of the trip were other than catching a 55-pound salmon.  She said that “Paying $5 to sit in the pits on top of the tow truck with a guy named ‘Tiny’ was a highlight as well as having dinner on the bank of a river at nearly midnight with it still being light out.  It is trips like this that make a great life of memories.

In 2014 the Twin City Raceway advertises itself as the “Fastest Dirt Track in Alaska”.  The schedule runs from early June through mid-September.

You might have remembrances about the Twin City Raceway.  If so, please feel free to share 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.