Greetings from Highlands, Texas
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Battleground Speedway
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #2,283
THE EVENT
Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link:
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!
ON THE WAY TO THE RACES
FOREWORD
This past Sunday I had wrapped up my trackchasing at the Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana. I wouldn’t be flying home to Los Angeles though. I was headed to Austin, Texas.
Carol and I were meeting in Austin on Monday. For the next nine days we would be in Texas living with our grandkids Mitch and Astrid. That’s going to be a whole lot of fun.
When the nonstop flight from St. Louis to Austin looked too full to risk waiting for I looked at a flight to Seattle. From Seattle I would grab another plane to Austin. My airline sponsorships allow me to do such things. It’s really a matter of how much patience you have. It turned out to be seven flying hours to make it from Missouri to Texas but it was well worth it.
Our daughter Kristy and her husband James were taking a well-deserved vacation/bicycle trip up in Washington for a few days. We would be managing the household in Austin, Texas. This included getting our second graders off to school each morning and picking them up each afternoon.
The kids have a long day. They’re up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for school and have breakfast. School begins at an early 7:30 a.m. There are no school busses. We drive them the short distance from home to school. Then at 2:57 p.m. we, along with all of the other parents, are there to pick up the kids. Heck, with this schedule I felt like I was in the second grade!
This was a lot different from what I remember about second grade. Please remember that I was in second grade nearly 60 years ago. What I am about to tell you may or may not be true but it is my memory.
I went to the Jefferson School in East Peoria, Illinois. That school is now closed for academics. It’s a church today. You can find it easily. It’s located just off of Pekin Avenue in East Peoria.
I lived two or three blocks from the school. We walked to school be it hell, high-water or heavy-duty snow. Yes, we had snow back in those days.
Jefferson school accommodated students from kindergarten through the sixth grade. I went to that school until I graduated from the sixth grade. All during that time the entire school had about 100 students in total. There were only four classrooms. One was for kindergarten. The other three housed a combination first and second grade class, third and fourth and finally fifth and sixth. That’s right. During my first seven years of schooling I did it all in four classrooms with four teachers.
The Midwest is big on sports. Despite Jefferson School having only four classrooms we had a large gymnasium with a full basketball court. Our grade school was one of eight in the district. We had formal softball and basketball programs.
Sports were big in the Midwest. They still are. Our school colors were green and white. Even back in the 1950s we had our own green satin school basketball uniforms. The school team was made up of fifth and sixth graders. We had just 10 sets (tops/bottoms no warm-ups) of basketball uniforms.
As a fourth-grader I was the only person to make the team. I remember the 5th and 6th grade teacher, Delmar Rhineholt handing out the uniforms. Mr. Rhineholt was also the school principal and the basketball coach. He paced around the class room after school at our basketball meeting. He went to the best player on the team and laid a uniform on his desk. He did this one player after another until he had just one uniform left to give out. He walked over to MY desk and gave me that 10th and final uniform. I was on cloud nine for the rest of the season. No one could remember a fourth grader every getting a uniform up to that time.
School has changed a lot now. Kids in Austin, Texas, and I am sure most other places, do lots of their homework on computer. The kids play educational video games for homework! A passerby wouldn’t know if a child was wiling away their time with a war games video game or getting their PhD! I’m pretty sure this is a faster better way to learn new information.
There was no trackchasing scheduled for this trip. I’ve seen most of the tracks in Texas anyway. However, I had noticed one major event in Texas being held at the Battleground Speedway. I would have to catch that next year. I had volunteered to take Mitch on a Cub Scout camping trip overnight. There would be no time for racing.
But wait! During the week I got a call from Kristy. The campout had been canceled for us. Wow! Carol, Astrid, Mitch and I were going to the races! We began planning to be at the Battleground Speedway Saturday night.
I got in touch with the track and race promoter. He was more than glad to hear from the World’s #1 Trackchaser. When I called him he was driving. Nevertheless, he pulled over to the side of the road to get my information. Soon he had posted a photograph of my website homepage on his promotional Facebook page. He told everyone that I would be coming to the Battleground Speedway for their big enduro race. I was happy to support their program.
Folks, I have been to 2,282 different race tracks in 72 countries. I’ve seen a lot of unusual things at all of those events. However, what I was about to see at the Battleground Speedway was going to be something I HAD NEVER SEEN after visits to more than 2,000 tracks!
They would be racing at Battleground on both Friday and Saturday nights. Each night they were scheduled to run 300 laps on the quarter-mile banked dirt oval. Can you imagine that? They were having back to back 300 laps races. I’m not sure that have ever been done in the more than 100-year history of auto racing!
Here’s the kicker. They would be starting well over 100 cars in each race! I had never seen that many cars starting at one event in one class ever!
I couldn’t believe my luck. They have had this race for a couple of years in Texas now. However, the track where they used to run, where I had already seen a race, has been “re-purposed”. I wasn’t sure what that meant but it was good news to me. Now they were going to hold the race at one of the few Texas tracks I had never visited.
Then I got even luckier when the cub scout campout was canceled. To top it all off we had been planning to come to Texas for months to be with Astrid and Mitch. Was I a lucky ducky or what?
SATURDAY
It was going to be a three-hour drive from Austin down to Highlands, Texas a suburb of Houston. In advance I had reserved a hotel with Priceline.com. I’ve told you in the past that when Carol comes along on the trip she gets to stay great places. That means I do too.
I have been known to sleep in my car when the occasion dictates. I have slept overnight in airports. I have stayed in some fairly low brow hotels and motels in my time.
However with Priceline.com I know I can routinely stay in Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt hotels. When Carol comes along I dial up the Priceline.com requirements just a bit. This guarantees we get just a little better place. Since she does all the work at home I feel it’s the least I can do when we hit the road.
For this trip we would stay overnight after the races. The kids love staying in hotels with us. Priceline.com gave us a beautiful fully branded Marriott hotel for the ungodly low price of just $50 for the night. I told the kids we would be VIPs at the Marriott. Who doesn’t want to be a VIP? O.K., at first Mitch said he didn’t want to be a VIP. However, when the perks began rolling his way he seemed good with it all.
We piled all of our stuff into the family Volvo SUV. Off we went on a ROAD trip! Who doesn’t like road trips?
Along the way we stopped at the Texas version of In N Out Burgers, which is Whataburger. I love Whataburger.
It was just our luck that when we walked into the Whataburger a school bus load of 60 high school kids, going to one of their weekend events, had just stopped. However we really like Whataburger. We weren’t going to let our timing deter us. We went to the back of the line and were served rather quickly. I love seeing the orange and white colors of Whataburger.
I must tell you that the three-hour drive down to Houston seemed much longer. There were no interstates to take. They did have a four-lane highway most of the way. We passed one rural cattle ranch after another.
We found the Marriott in Houston with ease using my Waze GPS app. However, I had to be careful with my GPS system today. The cigarette lighter power system doesn’t work in the Volvo. I would need to manage my iPhone’s battery life without any power from the car. That did add some stress to my life.
When we checked into the Marriott I had a delicate balance to manage. I reminded the desk clerk that yes we had paid via Priceline.com. Then I quickly mentioned I was also a platinum member of their frequent stay program. Despite paying such a low price of just $50 we were going to get the benefits of being a platinum member as if we had paid $200 a night.
What did those benefits include? First, it included an upgrade. We were being given a king suite room. This was a beautiful space with two separate rooms. Carol and I would have a king-sized bed in our room. The kids would have their own separate room with a beautiful sofa, flat screen TV and pull out hide a bed. The suite was perfect for our purposes.
Additionally we were given a complementary buffet breakfast certificate for four for Sunday morning. Finally I had to choose between a $10 gift certificate or additional points in the frequent stay program.
Getting a Marriott hotel from Priceline.com and then getting all of the perks that go along with my platinum status is just about the best possible hotel scenario. The hotel had a beautiful lobby area. On Saturday afternoon before the races I took the kids down to the swimming pool. We had a blast splashing around.
Soon it was going to be time to go to the races. Battleground Speedway was located about 30 miles from the hotel. With the grandkids this was going to be a grand adventure.
THE RACING
Battleground Speedway – Highlands, Texas
Racing was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. It was going to be like NASCAR in a way. How’s that? There was just one racing event on tonight’s race schedule. That was going to be 300-lap feature race.
I was running a little behind schedule. I didn’t have any idea if they would start on time or not. Most tracks don’t. Nevertheless, I certainly didn’t want to miss the green flag that would start a race with more than 100 cars in it.
When we arrived I could see the parking lot that was pretty full. They had a nice crowd on hand tonight. Despite being featured in the track’s publicity I had not asked for or been given any complementary admissions.
I was a bit surprised to see the track’s pricing policy. What do you think they would charge fans to watch such a large and expected to be an entertaining event? For gosh sakes they were going to start more than 100 cars for 300 laps of racing!
I was surprised. Folks 55 years of age and older were being admitted for free! I can only remember one other track where seniors were admitted free when others were charged. That was out in Claremore, Oklahoma at the Will Rogers Raceway. That was lifetime track #1,540.
Our eight year old kids were charged $10 to get into the race. I don’t come to the races very often with eight-year-old kids! Carol and I were getting in free and we were paying $20 for the kids. Overall the entire situation was still a tremendous value.
We were in! A sign at the admission window said that no videotaping was allowed. However, I had already received advance permission from the track promoter that I could video the event. I had agreed that I would not live video share any of the racing. The promoter thought that live video was cutting down on the size of his crowd.
I did see several people using their smart phones to video the action. In today’s world that’s going to be difficult to stop. I think you’re going to have a blast watching my video of more than 100 cars racing around this track tonight. Everyone in our group did.
We got settled into the grandstand at 6:53 p.m. We noticed that all of the cars were already lined up in rows of three halfway around the track. I didn’t get a chance for an accurate count. I never heard the announcer say but I’m pretty sure somewhere between 110 and 120 cars started this 300-lapper.
This weekend’s event was actually a two-day show. On Friday (last night) they were running the same cars for 300 laps. Then tonight the plan was to have a SECOND 300-lap race. Each of the two races would have it’s own winner. Then they would average the finishes for the overall winner for the weekend. Tonight the announcer told us that last night’s race was stopped after 150 laps. He didn’t elaborate on the reason why. I don’t think they had any weather problems.
As you know from reading my reports I almost always show up to the track very early to scope things out. The very LAST thing I wanted to do was to miss the start of a feature race with more than 100 cars in it! You will NOT want to miss my video of this race!
Going to the racetrack with two eight-year-olds presents its own set of challenges. No, I am not referring to attending any race events with Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers. I don’t do that.
As soon as we got settled and the race was underway for a few laps we made a trip down to the concession stand and the souvenir area. There we acquired such things as hamburgers, hotdogs, popcorn, soft drinks, checkered flags and various forms of candy.
Tonight’s racing created a good deal of dust. I hadn’t really known what to expect other than the fact that there would be 100 cars racing at one time.
I was expecting much more of a “junk car” race like most of the county fair enduro races that I have attended. That was not the case tonight. They were really all forms of racers on the track tonight. I didn’t know what the rules were for tonight’s competitors.
Overall I would classify the field as a group of street stock quality racers. There were some cars that looked like modifieds. A few resembled limited late-models. Others were more of the street stock appearing variety. Many carried flags. Some even had wings on their cars.
Unfortunately for us the slight breeze that there was blew directly into the grandstands. Even though this was early October south Texas is still very warm. Put 100 cars on a track, have the wind blow the warm Texas air into the grandstands and you can likely predict the result. When we left the Battleground Speedway we looked as if we had been with in a battle with the dirt and rubber dust and lost the war.
Early in the race there was also a trip down to the souvenir stand to pick up three pairs of yellow tinted goggles for my compatriots and ear plugs for the twins. Of course I had all of this gear sitting in a box at home. I even had my own set of race goggles conveniently located in my briefcase back at the hotel!
Considering the large number of cars in this race there were a phenomenally low amount of delays for cars stranded on the track. However, whenever cars did become disabled in one of the turns or even the straightaway they threw a red flag. It seemed as if a red flag came out of on average about every 20 laps. That was actually a godsend in a way. The red flags quieted the dust and the noise so that we could all converse with each other. This was one of the few races where I looked forward to a red flag.
The twins were having a blast. They don’t get to go to the races very often. Carol’s enthusiasm was dampened by the dust. She doesn’t like dust whatsoever. It’s just about the worst thing that could happen for her at a racetrack. Of course I was enthused just watching the three of them have fun.
In the center grandstand section located right behind the flagman was an individual scorer for every car. They had some of the best seats in the house. Each scorer had a large card where they wrote down the number on a running clock every time their driver passed the finish line. This is the way scoring for big races has been done since the 1930s.
I actually scored this way for Jody Ridley at a Florida Speed Weeks race in New Smyrna Beach, Florida many years ago. It’s not that much fun. You can’t really enjoy the race because you’re watching just your driver.
As the laps wore on drivers made pit stops. They were stopping for repairs, maybe fuel and even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some returned to the track and some did not. At about a lap 150 I would estimate that were about 70 cars on the track.
I was fully prepared to stay for the entire 300 laps. I figured I couldn’t get any dirtier. However Mitch, Astrid and especially Carol had varying degrees of enthusiasm at different points. I’ve got to give Astrid credit. She was up for staying all 300 laps. Mitch kind of vacillated on the idea of staying for the entire race. Carol would have been happy had we left after the first 25 laps. She’s had some lung problems in the past so I could understand her feelings. I was just trying to manage everyone else’s enjoyment.
During the red flag periods the announcer would ask the scorers to hold up their scorecards. This gave everyone a rough estimate of who was leading the race. The race has just passed the 200-lap mark when the red flag was displayed for yet another incident.
It was at this point that the Lewis contingent held a private meeting. We decided that it would be a good time to head for the exits. Our two eight-year-old grandbabies had seen two hours and 45 minutes of dirt stock-car racing with more than 100 cars in the race on a very dusty surface. That was actually longer than I expected them to be there. Nice job Mitch and Astrid!
A day or so after the race I got a text message from Brad, the race promoter. He asked me to call him and apologized for being so busy during the race that we couldn’t meet then.
That was a nice gesture. I can’t recall a promoter ever doing that. I gave Brad a call. He couldn’t have been nicer. He was sorry there was a problem with dust. However, let’s think about that. 300 laps. 100+ cars. A dirt racing surface. Texas heat. Any questions.
It was nice talking to Brad. He was able to answer lots of my questions about prize money, entry fees, race winners and the like.
He runs Big Race Promotions. You can find them at Big Race Promotions. They have a huge 400-lap enduro race coming up at the Ark-La-Tex Speedway in Vivian, Louisiana on New Year’s Eve. If I hadn’t already been to this track in 2008 (lifetime track #1,350) you can bet where you would find Carol and I on New Year’s Eve. If you want some really fun entertainment this New Year’s Eve this will be the place to be. These guys do things differently and it’s fun for the fan!
AFTER THE RACES
We celebrated with milkshakes at McDonald’s next-door and gassed up the family Volvo after the races. We were back at the hotel by about 11 p.m.
Overall, it had been a fantastic race outing. The kids had seen more than 100 cars race on a quarter-mile dirt track for nearly three hours. They had eaten their fill of racetrack food and spent their allocation of souvenir money. I had only one concern.
What was I going to do when I take them to the next race and they have to watch four cars race an eight-lap heat race with six yellow flags? Oh well. I’ll cross that bridge when it shows up.
Carol was most concerned about getting the twins cleaned up and ready to go for tomorrow’s return to Austin. That meant late night showers for everyone back at the hotel. I watched the last portion of the UCLA – Arizona State game. Want to know who won that game? Google it.
SUNDAY
I don’t want to get caught up in the gory details of finances but someone has to pay for all this right? We had stayed in a very upscale Marriott hotel in Houston, Texas. For four people those things can’t come cheap can they?
When we had checked into the hotel I mentioned my platinum status. This got us a nice upgrade to a “king suite” hotel room. Carol and I had our own separate room with a king-sized bed. The twins had their own separate connecting room with a huge pull out sofa and other amenities including their own flat screen TV.
When we checked they also gave us four complementary breakfast buffet coupons. That saved us another $48. Of course they included the high-speed Wi-Fi, which is six dollars a day at no charge.
The cash value of all of the things they gave us not counting the upgrade to a king suite room was greater than what I paid for the entire hotel stay! If you’re going to play in the system then you need to know how the system operates. I know how my system operates.
It was a pleasant drive back to Austin, Texas where we had come from originally. We stopped at the same Whataburger restaurant for lunch as we had yesterday on the way down. Everybody loves Whataburger. Mitch is a vegetarian. However, he can eat his weight in French fries and root beer shakes.
We needed to be back in Austin by 2 p.m. The twins have a birthday party to attend. Everyone was going to an indoor trampoline facility. I had never seen such a thing. It was gigantic. We were back in the second grade world now.
This was our eighth day of being with the twins during this trip. There’s been several activities every hour of the day except when they are sleeping. They are very active, intelligent and loving children. We couldn’t ask for anything more. Tonight we had big plans. We were headed to an old-fashioned outdoor movie theater. Everyone was looking forward to that.
I did survey the kids on their view of the racing last night. They both agreed it was very dusty. Nevertheless, they were happy to see the racing and very much enjoyed the souvenir stand and refreshment stand. I thought their evaluation was pretty complete.
We’ve still got a couple more days in Texas before we head home. It’s been a grand trip. Of course Carol has done most of the work but I did all the chauffeuring.
I have now seen 97 tracks during the 2016 season. There appears to be a good chance at this point that I will surpass 100 tracks in a single year for the 11th time. No one else comes close to those totals. I’d like to keep it that way.
Good evening from Highlands, Texas.
Texas
The Lone Star state
This evening I saw my 74th lifetime track in the Lone Star state, yes the Lone Star state. This was my only trackchasing visit to the state in 2016. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in Texas. I’ve seen 74 or more tracks in 11 separate states. No one beats that stat.
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 definitions: Fast food
In other states, this could mean a wide variety of greasy, fried foods served up in a matter of minutes, but here, we just mean our beloved Whataburger.
QUICK FACTS
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 575 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,283
Total Trackchasing Countries
There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 72
Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.47
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.
A family road trip to South Texas!