Greetings from New Castle, Delaware
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From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Airport Speedway – Track #767
15 to go! PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS The weather forecast for the entire weekend was laced with rain. I had originally planned to go to Millville, Pennsylvania. However, their weather forecast for the evening was a 40-50% chance of showers. I had another opportunity to the south of Nazareth where the rain probability was just 0-10%. That would be where I would end up, New Castle, Delaware. Coming into tonight, I had only seen one Delaware track, Dover International Speedway (above). That was 24 years ago back in 1980. Maybe seeing two tracks in Delaware will increase my Delaware state ranking as well as increase my National Geographic Diversity (NGD) points. By the way, I will have a special announcement coming soon regarding the National Geographic Diversity awards program. Recall that Allan Brown won the first ever career NGD award after the 2003 season. The NGD rankings reward each trackchaser based upon their trackchasing rank within a state. A trackchaser gets one point if they rank first in a state, two points in they rank second in a state, etc. If a trackchaser is not ranked in the top 10 within a state, they are saddled with 15 points. Like golf, low score wins. Allan Brown’s total average score of 6.88 was the winning career number this year. Keep reading these reports for the upcoming “2004 National Geographic Diversity” award winner and see what prize the winner will collect. If any trackchaser knows if Greenwood Valley ran on Saturday night, please let me know. In hindsight getting the Airport Speedway probably gives me more flexibility for future trackchasing trips than if I had gone to Greenwood. RACE TRACK NEWS: The Airport Speedway is my 767th lifetime track to meet or exceed all trackchaser rules. It is my 85th track of the season. Only 15 to go to reach the century mark. I would say this track provided the best racing of any I saw during the entire trackchasing trip. The “senior” general admission rate was $5, a one-dollar saving over regular general admission rate. Drivers with a track license were charged $15 and those without a license were charged $20. They race micro sprints at Airport Speedway. They had four classes, the 250 open, 125 stocks, 250 stock and 600s. The numbers represent the cc size of the car’s motorcycle engine. They ran about 11 heat races of 8-10 cars each at 10 laps. The track is a miniaturized dirt oval measuring in at about one-eighth of a mile. The surface stayed moist and tacky the entire night, reminiscent of Ascot Park. The track is located in a heavily wooded area that reminded me of the old Santa Fe Speedway near Chicago. The track is in the middle of a very modern corporate business park. Everything around it is new and the track looks old. The one and only time I’ve seen a track in a business park was the Temecula Speedway. That track lasted just one year. Can the Airport Speedway last in this environment? Tonight they had mosquitoes as well. The track was extremely well run. They had few spins and when they did, the race restarted quickly. They even had two flips in the first micro sprint feature. They were racing after each flip in less than five minutes. That’s very good. The 300 modifieds were a guest racing class tonight. They brought 10 cars. I couldn’t tell if adults were racing these cars or not. When are we going to eliminate the rule regarding age limits of race drivers? The mod winner told the crowd in the feature victory lane that this was his first ever main event win. He said, he “just about puked” before the race when he knew he would be starting on the front row. I also learned the 300s would be 600s next season. The track did something at intermission that I’ve never seen before. They opened up the gates to the pit area and virtually everyone in the 11-row high wooden grandstand got up and went into the pits. Yes, I’m talking about every man, woman and child and ever their dogs. Very, strange! I had a nice interview with the announcer down in front of the flag stand following intermission. He asked the crowd how many tracks they thought I might have. Some uneducated, yahoo yelled out “167”. He was only off by 600 tracks. After a rousing ovation, I returned to my seat to the handshakes of the top row of fans seated near the fourth turn. They peppered me with questions until I had to leave after two feature races. After my change in plans because of the weather, I now had six hours of driving ahead of me rather than the original plan of just four hours. This would lead to another one of those “motel stories” which will come in the next track report. RACE TRACK FOOD: Chicken strips and Diet Coke, a trackchaser staple. I wanted to try the root beer float but I happened to glance down at my waistline and decided against it. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Hertz Rental Car Racing Ford Taurus is a good car but not as nice as the Pontiac Grand Prix. ED ESSER & P.J. HOLLEBRAND (far right) UPDATE: As of August 22, 2004, the battle for positions 7-10 in the worldwide trackchaser standings is as follows: P.J. added just one track to his total since the last update. If I know P.J. he’ll add a few more before the snow flies and possibly even after the snow flies. I can’t catch him with my upcoming trip but I can get close. P.J., glad you are out of jail and hope you made some good bucks. Ed added three new tracks since the August 16 update. He has 79 tracks for the season and I have 81. I hope you enjoyed the drive from Jeffersonville to Salem! CUMULATIVE DRIVING DISTANCES: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Airport – trip begins Farmington, Pennsylvania – 95 miles Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania – 394 miles Nazareth, Pennsylvania – 567 miles New Castle, Delaware – 701 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES (U.S. DOLLARS): Farmington V.F.D. Speedway – $5 Selinsgrove Raceway Park – $5 Nazareth Speedway – $25 Airport Speedway – $5 Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. 28-Aug SCCA Nelson Ledges R.C. Southington, OH 28-Aug Regular program Blanket Hill Speedway Kittanning, PA 28-Aug Regular program Dog Hollow Speedway Strongstown, PA **Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, June 12 **Charleston Speedway, Charleston, Illinois, May 22 **Sunshine Speedway (oval), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3 **Central Arizona Raceway, Casa Grande, Arizona, January 20 You might have remembrances of the Airport Speedway. 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.
GREETINGS FROM NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE,
Planned new racetracks (on the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip)
Racetracks visited in 2004 (** not the first time to visit this track)
