Greetings from Concordia, Kansas
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Concordia High Banks Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,637 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Folks, I’ve seen racing at more than 2,600 tracks around the world. People often tell me, “I didn’t know there WERE that many tracks.” Then they ask me if there are still more tracks left for me to see? My answer is there are more tracks to visit but the number is getting fewer and fewer. I AM A TRACKCHASER. Are you new to the hobby of trackchasing? If so, let me give you just a little bit of background. Before I go any further I will tell you that a lot of people get pretty enthused about what I’ve been doing with trackchasing. I will offer this warning. If you try it yourself it could become addictive. My name is Randy Lewis (trackchasing with my brother Mark). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing is a “collecting” hobby. Trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. It’s really not all that much different than when you were a kid and you collected stamps or beer cans or bottle caps. Trackchasing is all about visiting new auto racing tracks for the very first time. Believe it or not, trackchasing has “rules“ as to what kind of racetrack and race car and race driver count toward a chaser’s lifetime totals and which ones would not. In a nutshell, a trackchaser can count a track where adult drivers race cars or trucks at ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. That covers 98% of the rules. In addition to the racing part of trackchasing for me, I really enjoy seeing the local sights and sounds of whatever area I am visiting. I called these “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. If you go to my website at www.randylewis.org and click on the Trackchasing Tourist Attractions tab you’ll see where I’ve been all over the world. Here’s a link to that tab. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I also really enjoy the logistical part of the hobby. I have been retired for nearly 20 years. During that time I have not earned a single dime of work income. That means I have to manage my money pretty closely enable in order to be able to do what I do. Logistically I have to handle seven different categories of trackchasing expenses. Those expenses include airplanes, rental cars, hotels, airport parking, gasoline, food and race tickets. As an example, you can just imagine what traveling from Southern California out to the Midwest for four days of racing would cost. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles. I’ll stay in hotels 150-200 nights a year, rent 50-75 rental cars every year and buy a full tank of fuel about 100 days a year just for trackchasing. After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience. My stories are not just about what happened at the track but about my visit to the area and what exactly it took to make the trip happen. That’s where the racing, the touring and the logistical challenges come from. I told you that trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. Trackchasing is ultra-competitive as well. Lots of people don’t recognize that when they are initially exposed to this hobby. Trackchasing has had all of the political drama, cheating, accusing people of cheating and other aspects of poor personal behavior that any other competitive activity might have. This is why I am NOT a member of any organized trackchasing group. The management of these groups has been so poor over the years these groups are not something I want to be associated with whatsoever. As this is written I have seen racing in 85 different countries at more than 2,650 racetracks. During all this time I have never tried to benefit financially from my hobby. This is despite being interviewed by hundreds of track announcers, newspaper reporters and radio and TV outlets as well as doing a TV pilot. I’m a volunteer. I do this 100% for the fun of it. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,600 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. Yes, today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial 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! FOREWORD Sunday, August 9, 2020. Yesterday I went trackchasing up in Wisconsin at the famous Road America racetrack. Today I would be flying from Chicago down to Kansas City, Missouri. As I traveled through Chicago’s O’Hare airport it looked as if airline traffic might be picking up. For the last several months the coronavirus has dealt a death blow to the airline and travel industry. I am the only trackchaser that routinely flies to the race venues that I visit. I see a lot of people at the track and their common response is, “I would love to do what you do”. However, they only see me at the racetrack. They don’t see what it takes to get from point A to point B. It takes airplanes and rental cars and sometimes trains and buses and seaplanes to get from point A to point B in my world. Once I landed at the Kansas City International Airport it was going to be a three-hour and 23-minute drive covering 206 miles to get out to tonight‘s trackchasing location in Concordia, Kansas. When I’m on these trips a 3-4 hour ride is no big deal whatsoever. I strongly prefer renting Toyota Camry automobiles. Today I had to take a BMW. Most people might prefer the Beamer. Not me. I know where everything is at with the Camry! Sorry I wasn’t a big fan of this particular BMW. The main highlight of today’s trackchasing endeavor was that I was going to meet up with my nephew, Kyle Jecks. He’s a sophomore at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Kyle and I had never trackchased together but he was interested in seeing what one of these trips was going to be like. By the way, since Kyle and his family have lived in Illinois for most of his life, while we’ve been in California, we haven’t been able to get together as much as we might like. From my point of view, I find it most interesting to have seen Kyle grow up from a very young boy into an outstanding young man. Everyone in the family is justly proud of him. Kyla and I would meet up at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Saint Joseph, Missouri. That was sort of our central meeting point. From there we would continue the drive out to western Kansas where the Concordia Highbanks track is located. Belleville, Kansas is just a few minutes north of Concordia, Kansas. Belleville is a small Kansas town but famous for racing. Over the years they’ve had some really big midget races. They are also home to the Highbanks Hall of Fame National Midget Auto Racing Museum. Kyle and I stopped there today but unfortunately, the museum was closed. The hall of fame museum isn’t that big but I would have loved to have seen it. Everywhere I’ve gone on the trackchasing trail since COVID-19 began in early March has their own special COVID-19 admission requirements. Tonight the local health department required that everyone sign their name and provide their phone number and county and state location. They told us that refusal to sign the attendance book would be a reason for denying our entry to the races. There was also masks and hand sanitizer available but not mandated. When masks are not mandated at race tracks that means that masks are not worn at racetracks. That’s just how it works. The Concordia High Banks racetrack is located on the grounds of the Cloud County Fairgrounds. Can you believe they first held a race here all the way back in 1924? Then they raced on a 1/2-mile dirt oval from 1949-1955. They shortened the track to its current link of a small quarter-mile a long time ago and race on that today. We grabbed a seat in the top row of the grandstand. From there we settled in for a night of Sunday night small town racing action. We had a couple of beers, used the koozies they gave us and just kicked back. Kyle is new to racing. I enjoyed answering his questions and pointing out the nuances of what happens at these little tracks that I have visited literally thousands of times. Tonight I had a nice interview with the track announcer up in his announcing tower. I’ll share some of that audio with you in my YouTube video of the race action from Concordia Highbanks. The announcer was a fun guy and really interested in what I do as a trackchaser. There were several classes of racing at the track. The car counts were a little skinny. We stayed until the last feature of the night was completed. Once it got dark we snuck into the pits, as race fans are wont to do from time to time. If an uncle can’t be a good role model to his nephew then what can he do? We watched some of the racing from just outside the turn three and four crash wall. You can’t get that viewing location at a Lakers’ game. Heck, you can’t even get into a Laker’s game nowadays! There was just one problem with watching from the pit area. Actually let’s make that two problems. There was very little lighting in the pit area so it was difficult to navigate. Secondly, and most important was the pit area mosquitoes literally devoured me. They were so thick I was swatting them nonstop with my hands and arms. They got me pretty good. Several points on my body started to swell up from the mosquito venom. I had one particular bite on my ear. It made my ear and face swell up. Check out this photo where on one side of my head my ear is not seen and on the other side of my head, the ear that got bit makes me look like Howdy Doody. It was just nice that Kyle at age 19 was interested enough to want to come along on the trip. I think he had fun. We even agreed that later in the year he will fly out to California, his first visit to the Golden State ever, and spend some time with the family. We shared a room at the Fairfield Inn. The next morning Kyle hopped in his Honda and drove back to school. I drove south down to the Kansas City airport and caught a nonstop flight back to Los Angeles. This had been a solid trackchasing weekend. On Friday night Carol joined me and our Wyoming relatives, LeeAnn, James, Jack and Blair for a night of racing in western Nebraska. On Saturday afternoon I made my way to Road America up in northern Wisconsin. It was special seeing racing at my 100th track in Wisconsin. Then on Sunday night I joined an Iowa relative for the races out in rural Kansas. It’s a challenge logistically to see racing in far western Nebraska, then northern Wisconsin and finally get back out far western Kansas……in the space of about 60 hours. When I can do a weekend like that with Carol, as well as relatives in Wyoming and Iowa I think I’ve checked off a lot of boxes. The Concordia Highbanks race facility was the last permanent oval track that races on a weekly or semi-weekly basis for me to see in the state of Kansas. There are now quite a few states where I’ve seen every permanent weekly race track in the entire state. This means that my future trackchasing is going to take a different approach than going to the trusted Saturday night oval dirt track. I’m ready for the change. Good evening from Concordia Highbanks in Concordia, Kansas Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,637 tracks. Kansas The Sunflower State This evening I saw racing at my 42nd-lifetime track in the Sunflower State, yes, the Sunflower State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Kansas. Kansas ranks #19, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Kansas state trackchasing list. I have made 32 separate trips to Kansas seeing these tracks. 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 A direction best used to describe something on the opposite corner. “Her house is caddy corner to the QuikTrip.” JUST THE 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 770 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 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. Small town America trackchasing! 
Kansas sayings: “Caddy Corner.”
