Adventure Off Road Park

 

 

 

THE EVENT

 

Editor’s note:  Often times I will visit two or more tracks in a single day.  That’s called a “trackchasing double”.  Because the trips are linked so strongly, frequently, but not always I will tell you about the tracks in a single Trackchaser Report.  That is the case today.  

 

 

You can click on the appropriate links to see what things were like at each track. Each individual track link offers the video and photo album that is unique to that track.  I hope you enjoy everything you read and see.  As always don’t miss the videos and photos.  As they say “A picture is worth more than 900 words”.

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

Luxury is in the eye of the beholder.

I woke up this morning in Athens, Tennessee. Had I stayed in a luxurious hotel? Nope! I slept in my car at an I-75 interstate highway rest area. Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do to make it happen. Somewhat incredibility I slept overnight in my car for a second consecutive night this evening in Nashville, Tennessee. In all my days of trackchasing I can never recall sleeping in my car for two straight nights. This is how the day turned out.

 

 

You’ll never guess where this Tennessee town got its name.

South Pittsburgh, Tennessee sight of today’s morning racing is a town of just 2,992 folks. Somewhat incredibly the town was named after the industrial town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A town on the Tennessee/Georgia border was named after Pittsburgh? Really?

 

 

Yes, I woke up this morning in the front seat of my National Car Rental Racing Hyundai Sonata. I slept for about four hours in the Athens, Tennessee interstate rest area.

 

 

Today would be a big trackchasing day.

I was hoping for a big day of trackchasing today. I would begin with a morning race at the Adventure Off-Road Park in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. 

 

ECORS.

I was going to see a race sanctioned by “ECORS”, the East Coast Off-Road Racing Series. It did seem odd that many of the races for ECORS are contested in Kentucky and Tennessee by a group called “East Coast Off-Road Racing”.

 

 

After talking to the ECORS owner I learned why that is the case. Ownership of the group had changed and the geography of the race locations changed too. Currently it was just too much administrative hassle to change the group’s name.

 

 

Earlier in the week I had contacted ECORS owner Travis Wilson. Travis patiently answered all of my questions about starting formats, race times, classes of racers etc. Sometimes I feel I am pushing my luck by asking what some might consider such “lame” questions. However, most of the time the folks I talk too are very patient and willing to answer my questions. Travis was one of those people.

 

 

It’s unusual for a race to start this early.

This morning’s race was scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. I don’t go to very many races where they start that early.

 

I woke up early. There’s really no reason to linger when you are sleeping in the driver’s seat of your rental car. From the rest stop I motored on over to breakfast at the Waffle House. Waffle Houses are not quite as exciting if one is looking for a low-carb meal as I am these days.

 

 

I had a street address for the Adventure Off-Road Park. Considering the park’s rural location having a “street address” seemed a little odd. Nevertheless, that address helped me find the place.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

Adventure Off-Road Park – South Pittsburgh, Tennessee

 

The Adventure Off-Road Park (AOP) is a very sophisticated operation. Check out their website at http://www.adventureoffroadpark.com. I did.

 

 

How many “race tracks” have a privacy policy? How many racetracks have a complete line of “gear” for sale? I think you will find their website to be one of the most complete I’ve seen while chasing this hobby.

 

 

I was paid up and ready to trackchase.

I paid my $20 pit pass fee and went about looking to introduce myself to Travis Wilson. It didn’t take me long to find him. The first thing Travis asked me was if I had paid to get in. I told him I had. He said me “we couldn’t have that” and that he would refund my money, which he did.

 

 

Travis gave me lots of background information about the day’s activities. There would be two races on two different tracks. The first race would be on a traditional dirt road course layout (MX track) with many turns and several jumps. This track would be the one I would count for the day.

 

 

The second race, in the afternoon, would be “in the woods”. I would have stayed for that but they would not use a mass start for that event. When a track winds through the woods the trail is rarely wide enough for a mass start.

 

I’m still getting used to the classes that come with off-road racing.

Four different classes with “car” counts of 4-7 would have three different 30-minute races. They utilized land rush starts, which made this track countable within the trackchasing hobby.

 

Were these cars or trucks or something else?

In the trackchasing hobby “acceptable” racing machines are either cars or trucks. Today I was seeing UTV racing which is commonly known as Side by side (SXS) racing. For simplicity’s purpose I call both UTV and SXS racers cars.

 

 

Go anywhere you want.

As a press member I was given an orange fluorescent vest. Travis told me I could go anywhere I wanted. That was good enough for me.

 

 

Sometimes I will visit a track using my press credentials. I find it a little amusing when the often inexperienced track employee gives me lots of specific safety directions. I’ve seen racing at more than 2,000 tracks for gosh sakes. I’ve seen racing at more tracks than most people in America have seen weekends! Today, Travis simply said, “You know what to do be safe”.  

 

 

This didn’t look all that safe for a person on foot, especially a California guy wearing deck shoes.

However, when I looked around the course there were no safety barriers for a youngish journalist like myself to stand behind. Initially I didn’t fancy standing out in an open field taking pictures with the wild and crazy UTV machines whizzing past. However, as time went on I got a little braver. I ended up getting shots from everywhere on the course for your viewing enjoyment.

 

Meeting the racers.

I had plenty of time to speak to the competitors. There were two interesting guys that had driven six hours from Virginia to race their 4 x 4 today.

 

 

They had driven all that way and in the first five minutes of racing their engine malfunctioned. I also spent some time with the fellow who runs Hammer Down Productions. He was videotaping the event. You might enjoy checking out his YouTube channel. It’s got some interesting UTV hill climb footage and much more. Here’s the link:

 

Hammer Down Productions

 

 

I like to go to the top of the food chain whenever I can.

It was a pleasure to meet track owner Thomas Pickett. Tom told me he had purchased 500 acres so that he could build the Adventure Off-Road Park. They have only been in business since March, 2013. This was the first event for ECORS at AOP.

 

 

Tom owns “Tom’s 4×4 Superstore” in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In doing some research on the track I found the reason Tom built his track. Here’s what he said,

 

“The park was born from the simple idea of offering the offroad experience to all levels of offroad vehicles. After visiting many offroad parks I realized that most parks offered two things…..gravel roads or something that required a competent offroad vehicle to navigate. My goal is to offer the experience of offroading to all….. no matter what level of experience or what level of 4×4 you own…..Adventure Offroad Park has you covered. From the most basic stock 4×4 to the most extreme rig you can build or buy…..we will challenge you. Our goal is to make Adventure Offroad Park a premiere offroad park to be enjoyed by many for years to come. As a businessman involved directly in the offroad industry I felt the need to offer something of this caliber to all levels of 4×4 vehicles. Toms 4×4 Superstore was born from this basic idea. When I saw our public lands and areas drying up I knew I had to step up and I feel we stepped up in a big way with the addition of this park.”  

 

 

Don’t miss the photos and videos. This was not your father’s dirt oval.

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

A couple of travel surprises.

It was a nice day and traffic was light. That was to be expected. I was in rural areas. I had been surprised when I woke up in Tennessee this morning. My morning race was in Tennessee as well. That’s why I was surprised on a few counts. First I didn’t know I would be moving from the Eastern time zone into the Central time zone during the drive. That screwed up the chronological order of my iPhone photos! Secondly, I passed through the state of Georgia briefly on the drive. That seemed weird. To add insult to injury (note: I was neither insulted or injured) the Tennessee track was located just a few minutes from the Alabama state line!

 

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

Wartburg speedway

 

 

I’m not writing to tell you about the mysterious “middle” track.

In the late afternoon I called the Wartburg Speedway to find out what their racing plan was for tonight. I was told hot laps would begin at seven with racing at 7:30 p.m. It would only be a 127-mile drive if I drove directly from South Pittsburgh up to Wartburg, Tennessee. I had plenty of time to make that trip.

 

 

However there was another Tennessee track I might be able to mash in between the middle of my visit to AOP and the Wartburg Speedway. Trying for this “middle” track would 90 miles of driving to my rental car odometer. Folks, 90 miles in my world is about like nine miles in most everybody else’s world. Off I went.

 

However I was not successful. How do you know that? Because I am not writing to tell you about the experience. What track had not worked out? Sorry. Can’t publish that. Prying eyes of my fellow competitors read these words. I can’t help the competition. Hint: If you view the Wartburg Speedway photos you might discover the identity of this mystery track.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

Wartburg Speedway – Wartburg, Tennessee

 

I was ready to watch. They were not ready to race.

I pulled into the Wartburg Speedway at about 7 p.m. The idea of seeing stock car racing on a dirt oval almost seemed foreign to me. Recently so much of my trackchasing has been with formats much different than oval track racing with stock cars.

 

 

There was only one car making slow laps around the damp racing surface when I arrived. It didn’t look like they were going to start on time. I was shocked!

 

 

I really like this feature.

The Wartburg Speedway has something that I like but don’t see very often. That’s tier parking. The track today sat down in a bowl like situation. Spectators could park high up on the surrounding hills to view the race action. They also had traditional grandstand seating built into the side of a hill on the front stretch.

 

Three pricing options.

General admission was $10 tonight. Tier parking was $15 and a pit pass was $25. I went with the tier parking area. I parked high above turns one and two.  As you can see my view wasn’t bad.

 

 

They would not be starting on time tonight at the scheduled time of 7:30 p.m. At 7:34 p.m. they asked for more cars to come out and pack the track. Where have I heard that before?

 

 

I have learned to deal with the foibles of short track auto racing.

I couldn’t do much about their delay. I leaned the seat back and entertained myself with information from my phone. The iPhone and it’s many apps is just perfect for using some down time to get more information about a myriad of topics. I knew that when I left the track tonight I would be sleeping in my car. With the track’s delay I would just be sleeping in my car for a shorter period of time!

 

 

I figured I would leave the racing at about 10 p.m. or so. The Wartburg speedway was a little bit more than two hours from the Nashville International Airport.  I was planning for a flight tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. That meant I had to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m. at the latest.

 

 

So why wasn’t Carol on this trip?

I wouldn’t get into the Nashville airport area until approaching 1 a.m. Just 3 1/2 hours later I had to be clearing airport security! Some of these trackchasing trips are not for the timid or the late sleeper. Is it becoming clear to you why I cannot invite Carol on everyone of these trips?

 

 

We were racing albeit a little later than I had expected.

Hot lapping finished at 8:23 p.m. Then they went to qualifying. That didn’t take all that long. The actual racing started at nearly 9 p.m. They were only an hour and a half behind schedule. Imagine if you showed up at your local movie theatre and the movie started an hour and a half late. Whoops. Sorry. I’m asking you to imagine something that would never ever happen.

 

OMG.

It didn’t take them long to run about five lower level heat races with a maximum of five cars in each of those races. Then the track went to intermission. OMG.

 

 

The announcer told everyone we would be back to racing at 9:45 p.m. for the national anthem invocation and feature racing! They do stuff a lot differently than the where I grew up at the Peoria Speedway.

 

 

Wartburg, Tennessee is right on the edge of the central and Eastern Time zones. Wartburg is in the Eastern Time zone. This would be a benefit to me later on tonight when I returned to the Nashville airport area and “gained” an hour.

 

Light car counts. How light?

Car counts were light tonight. How light? Real light. However, the benefit to that was there would be very few yellow flag delays. There was almost nobody to crash into!

 

Despite looking at a very early wake-up call I stayed for all of the feature races. I think being able to relax in my car while watching the races allowed that to happen. Here were the car counts by class.

 

 

Pony stocks – five cars

 

Sportsman – four cars

 

Dwarf/mod lights – five cars… These guys put on a fantastic race with the second-place car flipping at the start/ finish line on the last lap!

 

Open wheel modifieds – Eight cars one crashed on the hot laps before the feature event

 

Thunder cars – four cars

 

Late models – eight cars

 

Extremes – five cars

 

 

 

These were small car counts indeed. I estimate the average car count per class for all oval tracks I see in a given year is about 10.

 

 

A nice little place.

The Wartburg Speedway is actually a racy little quarter-mile track. The dirt oval is highly banked all the way around. It’s probably closer to a circle than it is an oval. It would be a good track to see top-notch dirt late model or sprint car racing action. 

 

 

Tonight the top divisions meaning late models and open wheeled modifieds only raced a feature event plus time trials. That’s unusual when the rest of the divisions raced heats and features.

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

Just wondering.

Do you think you might like to have a hobby that required/encouraged you to sleep overnight in your car? I was just wondering. How many hobbies might encourage that?

 

 

Nevertheless, I found a suitable Wal-Mart parking lot in Nashville and slept for about three hours. Then I was up and at ‘em catching a 5:30 a.m. flight to Florida of all places. Check out my next Trackchaser Report to see what might attract me to the Sunshine state. 

 

 

Tennessee

 

 

The Volunteer state

This morning and evening I saw my 30^th and 31st lifetime tracks in the Volunteer state, yes the Volunteer state. At 31 tracks Tennessee currently ranks 20^th on my all-state list.

 

 

 

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

Tennessee sayings: Bless your heart

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU) – 2,236 miles

 

RENTAL CAR #1

Douglas (Charlotte) International Airport – trip begins

Shelby, NC

South Pittsburgh, TN

Wartburg, TN

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway – $11

Adventure Off-Road Park – Complimentary admission

Wartburg Speedway $15 ($5 extra for tier parking)

 

 

 

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,094

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 70

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.88

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Stock car racing from the Wartburg Speedway

 

 

Adventure Off Road Park…the trailer

 

Adventure Off Road Park….the full monty

 

 

 

Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day: 

 

An interesting day on the MX track at the Adventure Off-Road Park

 

Stock car racing from the Wartburg Speedway