Belleville High Banks

 

 

 

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:

 

 

Randy’s Complete Track List

 

 

If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report.  It’s very easy to do.  I’ll try my best to respond.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

I love the road.

Today is day #25 of my 56-day “Long and Arduous Mega Trackchasing Summer Tour of 2015. I’ve been on the road for 25 days. Am I tired yet? No way. I love the road.

 

 

Today is one of those rare on the road days. It’s where I end up staying in the same hotel for two consecutive nights. There are a lot of pluses to that arrangement. Compared to leaving the hotel each morning, driving long hours and checking into a different hotel each evening the “two night” arrangement is more comfortable.

 

 

I pay just half of what most people pay.

Priceline.com has been supplying me with most of my hotels. I’m paying about half the amount that a normal consumer pays. Maybe that’s the reason I can afford to do this. What do you think?

 

 

I thought I had slept in this morning. I figured I had missed breakfast, which ended at 9 a.m. However I was most pleasantly surprised to see it was only 8:15 a.m. when I woke up. I would not have been surprised if my iPhone clock had read am 11:15 a.m.

 

 

I’m staying at the Aksarben Suites Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. Until a couple of years ago this hotel carried the Embassy Suites brand name. If you know much about hotels you know the quality at the Embassy Suites is well above average.

 

I love powerwalking…and it’s good for you.

I had time for a powerwalk this morning. If you follow my annual trackchasing goals you know I’m trying to exercise on twice as many days as I end up trackchasing.

 

 

I can be a procrastinator when it comes to exercise. I’ll plan to exercise first thing in the morning but then one thing or another comes up and all of a sudden it’s late afternoon. I look up and I haven’t hit the exercise trail.

 

 

The hotel fitness center…today’s fallback position.

That happened today. By the time I got a break in the action it was 2 p.m. and 87° outside. I bagged the powerwalking idea and went down to the hotel’s fitness center. There I used their elliptical trainer. That worked out quite well.

 

 

Do you like to drive?

During the first 24 days of this trip I have driven about 9,200 miles. Today I would have nearly a three-hour drive down to Belleville, Kansas. Then after the races it would be another three-hour drive back to Omaha.

 

 

I guess I’m just getting my rental car warmed up. Tomorrow I head to Illinois followed by races in Indiana and Kentucky. The next race after the Midwestern tour might be in Pennsylvania followed by a drive all the way out to western South Dakota. Then I’ll drive back to Minneapolis, fly to Washington D.C. and begin a week of fun and frolicking with Trackchasing’s First Mother.

 

The Belleville High Banks.

But first things first. This afternoon at about 4:30 p.m. I left Omaha bound for the Belleville High Banks dirt oval in Belleville, Kansas.

 

 

This would not be my first visit to the Belleville High Banks. Back in 1994 my brother Mark and I took my stepfather to Belleville for their “Midget Nationals” event.

 

 

One of the biggest open-wheeled midget races anywhere.

The Belleville Nationals is one of the biggest races for midgets in the country. It might even be the biggest in terms of money and prestige. That title used to go to Ascot Park for their Thanksgiving night race promotion called “Turkey Night”.

 

 

I’ve been to the turkey night race around 15 times. Back when it was held in Ascot Park I really enjoyed it. Since Ascot closed I haven’t found the night race to be nearly as compelling at venues like Irwindale and Perris.

 

 

Is this hilarius or not?

That brings me to something about trackchasing and racechasing that I find somewhat amusing. The most famous short tracks in our country have had names like Ascot Park, Manzanita, Devils Bowl and the like.

 

 

There are tracks like Knoxville, Rockford, Winchester, Williams Grove, Five Flags and tonight’s track the Belleville High Banks. There are others with similar popularity because they’ve held the biggest and most popular short track racing events in the United States.

 

 

Let’s just imagine.

Let’s say a group of racing fans identified the 12 most famous and popular short tracks that have operated at any time within the last 25-30 years. Most of the names I mentioned above would likely be in this group.

 

 

I’ve told you many times in many forums that racechasers are not trackchasers and trackchasers are not racechasers. I started out as a racechaser and became a trackchaser.

 

 

You might expect that a racechaser would have been to most if not all of this mythical top dozen famous short tracks. On the other hand you might not expect a trackchaser, who focuses on inner ovals and novelty figure 8 mud bogs over quality short track racing to have attended that many of the big 12. If you thought that you would be right.

 

 

A trackchaser is not a racechaser.

If you were to look at a list of names of trackchasers who have seen 700-800 tracks or more you might very well be surprised about one thing. Most are not racechasers. Are they real racing fans? Or are they people who simply like to go someplace that they’ve never been too before?

 

 

Although I am a trackchaser I don’t shy away from the big events.

I believe I could say that I’ve been to every one of the top short track racing venues that have operated over the past 25-30 years. There are almost no other trackchasers that could make that claim. Possibly names like Esser, Killian and maybe Weisel could say they went to the top dozen tracks in the country just for the pure joy of being a race fan.

 

 

Importantly, I’ve been to these big tracks for their big events. I didn’t go to Knoxville for some regular Saturday night program. Imagine if you finally made it to Yankee Stadium…and it was on a night when the Manhattan Rotary Club had rented out the facility? That wouldn’t EXACTLY be like seeing a real game in Yankee Stadium. By the way I’ve been to BOTH Yankee Stadiums for regular season games and even to the World Series in Yankee Stadium.

 

 

Nearly all of those other trackchasers who have seen, let’s say 700 tracks or more, and that might be 15-20 people have probably seen less than half of the top dozen short tracks in popularity and reputation in the USA.

 

 

What’s it all mean?

What does this tell me? Trackchasers are not racechasers. A trackchaser is a different “kind” of racing fan. I would not call them a classic “true” racing fan. They are much more interested in the track than the racing. Some will TELL you they are a racing fan. However, when someone tells me something I commonly examine the data. The data doesn’t lie. No, the data does not lie.

 

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

Belleville High Banks – Belleville, Kansas

 

 

I was coming back to Bellevue and I would see the famous Belleville Nationals…again…however.

I wasn’t going to Belleville tonight to see the Midget Nationals. I had done back in ‘94. I was returning to Belleville, Kansas to see “cruiser” racing on their newly opened in inner oval. That makes me a trackchaser.

 

 

However, I had a racechaser side benefit.

However a nice side benefit to coming to see the cruiser racing was that I could catch opening night of the 38th annual Belleville Midget Nationals. About the only major remembrance I had of our first visit to Belleville was the heat wave Kansas was experiencing in late July 1994.

 

 

The fair was free but not the races.

Some 21 years later it’s still awfully hot in Kansas at the end of July. Tonight I parked for free and entered the fairgrounds for free. They advertise the Belleville Fair as a “free” fair and it really is.

 

 

No thanks…rip-off. 

I paid my $20 general admission price to get into the racing grandstands. I’m always trying to conserve my cash and would love to have paid by credit card. However they were charging a five-dollar fee to use a credit card. No thanks.

 

Wink.

I was buying a general admission ticket price for $20. The website said reserved grandstand seating was $25 and a pit pass was $30 U.S. However the ticket seller gave me a wink and said that I could probably sit anywhere in the grandstand I’m pleased. I smiled and walked into the grandstand.

 

 

The track’s website also told me racing was to begin at 7:30 p.m. What did they mean by racing? Was this hot laps, time trials or real racing?

 

 

When I arrived at about 7:40 p.m. the midgets, all 31 of them, were completing their time trials. When that was done they allowed the USAC Silver Crown cars to hot lap for a few minutes. The more powerful Silver Crown machines will be racing tomorrow night.

 

 

The first race did not hit the track until 8:43 p.m. I was expecting the first race to begin at 7:30 p.m. In my book the track was more than an hour behind schedule.

 

 

This is how the midgets did it.

Tonight the 31 midget racers would compete in four heat races. The top four from each heat race would transfer to the “A” main event. The cars that did not transfer to the “A” through the heats would move into a “B” feature. The top eight cars from the “B” would make it into the “A” main. That meant the “A” feature would start 24 cars.

 

 

All of the midget heat racing was run off without any yellow flags. Following the midget heats the cruisers, seven of them, ran a six-lap heat race on the inner oval.

 

It counts.

This meant track number 2,137 was now in the books. I had seen 1,998 racetracks since my first visit to the Belleville fairgrounds. That’s a lot of corn dogs under the bridge. Maybe that’s also why I didn’t have a lot of memories from my 1994 trip to Belleville. However, I did remember, with my brother’s help, that we went to a Kansas City Royals baseball game on that trip.

 

 

Not exactly compelling.

The racing on the inner oval was not all that compelling. While the cruisers competed in their race events on the smaller oval several pick up trucks circled the bigger oval packing down the cushion. I thought that was somewhat insulting to the cruiser race program.

 

 

The highlight of the evening was the 24-car midget “A” main event. I only recognized the names of a handful of the racers. That’s simply because I don’t follow midget auto racing all that much.

 

 

They did have racers with famous names such as Christopher Bell, Tracy Hines, Dave Darling and Rico Abreu. I would end up keeping an eye on these drivers and a few more during the race tonight.

 

 

From my last visit.

During my first visit to the Belleville Nationals we watched racing for three consecutive nights. The feature winners back then were Dan Drinan, Donnie Beechler and Kevin Doty.

 

Tonight I chose a seat down toward the entrance to turn one. It’s looked like a good place to film some of the racing action. However from this viewing position I got my share of mud balls. I don’t like being hit, without proper notice, by mud balls. Who would?

 

 

Didn’t show up for work?

There was a major crash with two drivers flipping on the first lap. The cleanup crew was extraordinarily slow. The track announcers told us that one of the tow truck drivers hadn’t shown up for work. They classified their situation as “being under resourced”.

 

 

The diminutive Rico Abreu started in fourth place and passed his way into second place. Then when the leader’s car failed Rico inherited the lead.

 

 

A rising star.

Rico is a “little person”. He’s the only little person I have ever seen race. Rico is young and an excellent racecar driver. He also seems like a real nice guy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him following in the footsteps of his good friend Kyle Larson. Kyle races in NASCAR Sprint Cup and there a good chance Rico might do the same thing some day. Good luck Rico.

 

 

31 + 7 = 3?

The entire racing program ended at a little past 10:30 p.m. I don’t think any race promotion needs three hours to have 31 midgets and seven cruisers run their race program. I like revisiting some of these famous short tracks. However I don’t care for it much when the program is dragged out like it was tonight. 

 

 

They had a decent sized crowd in the stands tonight at $20-$25 per person. This is only day one of the three-day event. I suspect the crowds will increase each day with Saturday night possibly being sold out.

 

 

A full field but not much more.

The announcer told the crowd that this year’s 31 entries was the most since the 2010 season. I believe the Belleville Nationals used to draw twice that many midgets or more in its heyday of popularity.

 

 

When the program ran long I knew I was going to get back to my hotel very late. My Waze GPS system estimated I would make it back to my room at just before 2 a.m. I had to be out the door no later than 9 a.m. tomorrow morning to make it to my planned activities in Illinois. Is it any wonder I have a hard time keeping my exercise program on track?

 

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

Rest in peace Don Bohlander.

Speaking of Illinois over the past couple of days I received some sad news. The Peoria (Illinois) Speedway’s best ever driver Don Bohlander had passed away. I saw Don win feature after feature, frequently hugging the inside lane with a hemi-powered Dodge Charger, over many summers during the 60s and early 70s.

 

 

About a dozen years ago Don was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He fought a valiant fight before passing this week at the age of 80. Rest in peace Don Bohlander.

 

 

This had never ever happened before.

On the way to the track tonight I had an experience that I couldn’t ever recall having. I was listening to satellite radio at a relatively high volume. I began to hear some sort of a hissing sound. I didn’t know if the sound was coming from the radio speakers or what.

 

 

To find out where the sound was coming from I turned the radio off. I could still hear that hissing sound and soon discovered the source.

 

 

I had a 20 ounce plastic bottle of 7-Up sitting in the passenger seat. I hadn’t opened the bottle yet. It had probably been in my car for four or five days.

 

 

However, with the hot summer temperatures, I’m guessing the interior of my car heats up to 140-150 degrees when I’m not inside it. Apparently those temperature extremes did a number on the plastic 7-Up bottle.

 

 

When I discovered the location of the hissing sound about a quarter of the bottle’s contents had already leaked out. This was one of the more amazing feats of carbonation I’ve ever seen!

 

 

No.

It was good to get back to Belleville tonight. Was the midget racing a “knock your socks off” show? Was the cruiser racing a “knock your socks off” program? The short answer was no.

 

 

Nevertheless I had a good time. As far as I knew this was the only track operating on a Thursday night in late July in the entire United States that I hadn’t already seen. That made my trip to Belleville a most productive one.

 

 

Good night.

 

 

 

Kansas

 

 

The Jayhawk state

This evening I saw my 34th lifetime track in the Jayhawk state, yes the Jayhawk state. I’ve seen 34 or more tracks in 18 different states. I’m not all that far away from grabbing the #1 trackchasing position in Kansas. It could happen in 2016.

 

 

 

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

Kansas sayings: Toto, I got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,745 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #1

O’Hare International Airport – trip begins

London, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 766 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #2

Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins

Bedford, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 603 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #3

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins

Aitken, MN

Morten, Manitoba, Canada

LaGrange, IN

Manchester, IA

Oskaloosa, IA

Bowling Green, IN

Buncombe, IL

Ionia, MI

Osgood, IN

Hemlock, NY

Taylorville, IL

Cambridge, MN

Mora, MN

Urbana, IL

Bedford, KY

Owenton, KY

LeMars, IA

Belleville, KS

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Laurel County Fairgrounds – $10 (not a trackchasing expense)

Trimble County Recreational Facility – $10

Aitken County Fairgrounds (oval) – complimentary admission

Aitken County Fairgrounds (RC) – $8

ALH Motor Speedway – complimentary admission

LaGrange County Fairgrounds – $10

Delaware County Fairgrounds – $10

Mahaska County Fairgrounds – $5

Sandstone – $15 (include pits)

HBR Raceway – $10 (included pits)

Ionia Free Fair – $13

Ripley County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission

Hemlock County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission

Christian County Fairgrounds – $8

Isanti County Fairgrounds – $12

Kanabec County Fairgrounds – $10

Champaign County Fairgrounds – $6

Dirty Turtle Off-Road Park – complimentary admission

Owenton County Fairgrounds – $10

Plymouth County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission

Belleville High Banks – $20

 

 

 

 

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,137

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Click on the link below to see the “Video Plus” production from the Belleville High Banks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day.  Double click on a photo to begin the slide show or watch the photos at your own pace.  Hover over a photo to read the caption.

 

 

Belleville, Kansas….the complete day