Greetings from Rossburg, Ohio
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Eldora Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #77 – re-visited many times THE EVENT Editor’s note: I will tell you that Eldora Speedway easily sits in the top 5 of the well over 2,700 racetracks where I’ve seen racing. It felt a bit weird not being here with my good buddy Jim Sabo. I’ll tell you all about that and more as we go along. I travel this way so you don’t have to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. Fair enough? Now get out there and go somewhere. Covid is in the rearview mirror and getting smaller every day. I AM A TRACKCHASER. L-R, Randy, Jim Sabo, Pete Kreyling, John Kane. On one of our many visits to Eldora and the World 100. My name is Randy Lewis (above at one of my first World 100s). I live in San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions 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 on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. 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 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. 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 Thursday, June 10, 2021. THURSDAY My favorite racing class? Depending upon how long you’ve been following my trackchasing you may or may not know what kinds of racing I liked best before I actually became a trackchaser. I’ll cut the chase. My preferred class is the late model stock car even when “late models” were 55 Chevies. That’s late models on dirt tracks. My favorite track? Every race fan has their all-time favorite track. For me, maybe as much for nostalgic reasons as any other, my favorite track has always been the Peoria Speedway. I grew up nearby and the Peoria Speedway was my boyhood track. Actually, the Peoria speedway came in two versions. The Peoria Speedway at the Mount Holly airport started my interest in auto racing when I was about five in 1954. Then 10 years later that track closed and the new Peoria Speedway out on Farmington Road, which still exists today, opened up and became my favorite track. Tonight, I was headed to the famous Eldora Speedway in tiny Rossburg, Ohio. If someone is a dirt track racing fan in the United States, they know all about Eldora. Maybe they’ve been there and if they haven’t been there, they want to go to Eldora. I live in California. It’s a 2,213 mile, 33-hour drive from our modest seaside cottage in San Clemente, California to the front door of the Eldora Speedway in Ohio. You wouldn’t think that a fella from California would show up at Eldora all that often, would you? Eldora – 37 times! In point of fact, tonight was going to be my 37th visit to the ½-mile dirt oval called the Eldora Speedway. As I look back on where I’ve seen racing, I can only think of four tracks where I’ve seen more race dates than Eldora. Those four tracks would be the aforementioned Peoria Speedway (both) to begin with. I’ve also seen racing well over 50 times at Santa Fe Speedway in Illinois and Rockford Speedway (above a rare appearance by my all-time favorite driver, Darrell Dake at Rockord) in Illinois. The fourth and final track where I’ve got more than 50 visits would be the now closed Ascot Park located in Gardena, California where “the 110, the 405 and the 91 freeways collide!” I would say to the regional or even to the national racing fan that Ascot Park, Rockford Speedway, Santa Fe Speedway and Eldora Speedway are all pretty well-known. The Peoria speedway is likely the lesser known of these tracks but over the years offered as good racing on a consistent basis as I’ve ever seen anywhere else. Yes, tonight I was returning to the Eldora Speedway for the 37th time. Because of COVID-19, Eldora didn’t run a single race in front of fans during the 2020 season. I’m happy to report they are making up for that now. The Eldora Million! Eldora has big events for both stock cars and winged sprint cars. Usually, the purse they pay is huge. I once went to one of their races called the “Eldora Million”. I went there in November to see a race that paid $1 million to win to a late model dirt stock car race. That’s unheard of. That race was rained out but I came back the next year to see Donny Moran (above) cash in on the million-dollar prize. Tickets to that race were 85 bucks. I ran the numbers and the promoter, Earl Baltes should’ve made out like a complete bandit. Good for him. He took the risk. Below is a list of the races and winners I’ve seen at Eldora. I haven’t been there all that much recently. I’ve been trackchasing and when I’m trackchasing I usually don’t want to take more time on the road for “racechasing”. All of my Eldora visits since 1984 have been while I was living in California. Date Race Winner Jun 10, 2021 Dream Brandon Overton Jul 24, 2013 NASCAR Trucks Austin Dillon Jun 12, 2004 Dream Scott Bloomquist Jun 7, 2003 Dream Darrell Lanigan Jun 8, 2002 Dream Scott Bloomquist Sep 8, 2001 World 100 Scott Bloomquist Jun 9, 2001 Dream Donnie Moran Jun 6, 2000 Dream Freddie Smith Jun 12, 1999 Dream Rick Eckert Sep 12, 1998 World 100 Billy Moyer Jr. Jun 6, 1998 Dream Billy Moyer Jr. Sep 6, 1997 World 100 Donnie Moran Jun 7, 1997 Dream Jimmy Mars Sep 7, 1996 World 100 Donnie Moran Jun 8, 1996 Dream Donnie Moran Sep 9, 1995 World 100 Jack Boggs Aug 12, 1995 Historical Big One Steve Kinser Jul 22, 1995 Kings Royal Dave Blaney Jun 3, 1995 Dream Scott Bloomquist Sep 10, 1994 World 100 Billy Moyer Jr. Jul 23, 1994 Historical Big One Jac Haundenschild Jun 4, 1994 Dream Freddie Smith Sep 11, 1993 World 100 Billy Moyer Jr. Sep 6, 1986 World 100 Jeff Purvis Sep 8, 1985 World 100 Larry Moore Sep 9, 1984 World 100 Jeff Purvis Jul 28, 1984 Kings Royal Steve Kinser Sep 11, 1983 World 100 Jeff Purvis Jul 23, 1983 Kings Royal Steve Kinser Sep 12, 1982 World 100 Mike Duvall Sep 13, 1981 World 100 Larry Moore Aug 30, 1980 World of Outlaws Doug Wolfgang Aug 31, 1980 World of Outlaws Doug Wolfgang Aug 8, 1980 World of Outlaws Sammy Swindell Sep 6, 1980 World 100 – Fast time Tom Helfrich Sep 7, 1980 World 100 Charlie Schwartz Apr 27, 1980 Rained out after heats Jim Sabo, my #1 racing buddy. I have a friend, Jim Sabo (above at Richmond, Virginia), who was a big-time race fan. Jim and I probably went to Eldora together for the majority of the times that I made it to the track. Carol and I and the family moved to California in 1983. My first visit to Eldora was in 1980 when we were living in the greater Chicagoland area. I would guess that about 90% of my visits to the Eldora Speedway were after we moved to California. During most of those trips, Jim Sabo lived in somewhat nearby Cleveland, Ohio. It was pretty easy for him to come down and meet me at Eldora. Back in 1985, I began recording in one of my Excel spreadsheets which friends joined me at the track. I came to find out that Jim Sabo was with me at more than 75 races and probably another thirty or forty before I started keeping track of such a thing in 1985. For the anal-retentive among us here’s a list of the tracks that Jim and I went to together. Mar 29, 2021 Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol, TN Dec 29, 2014 Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, FL Feb 24, 2014 Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, FL Feb 23, 2014 Volusia Speedway Park Barberville, FL Jul 24, 2013 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Feb 19, 2013 Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, FL Oct 25, 2009 Martinsville Speedway Martinsville, VA Apr 4, 2008 Screven Motor Speedway Sylvania, GA Apr 3, 2008 Swainsboro Raceway Swainsboro, GA Jan 6, 2006 Watermelon Capital Speedway Cordele, GA Jun 12, 2004 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 8, 2002 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Oct 4, 2001 Allegany County Speedway Cumberland, MD Sep 8, 2001 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 30, 2001 Painesville Speedway Painesville, OH Jun 30, 2001 Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland, OH Jun 10, 2001 Eriez Speedway Erie, PA Jun 9, 2001 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 8, 2001 Barberton Speedway Barberton, OH Sep 9, 2000 Boone Speedway Boone, IA Sep 7, 2000 Boone Speedway Boone, IA Jun 10, 2000 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 10, 2000 Michigan Speedway Brooklyn, MI Jun 9, 2000 Spartan Speedway Lansing, MI Jun 8, 2000 Auto City Speedway Flint, MI Jun 11, 1999 Boone Speedway Boone, IA Jun 10, 1999 Boone Speedway Boone, IA Jun 9, 1999 Boone Speedway Boone, IA Aug 12, 1999 Grandview Speedway Bechtelsville, PA Aug 11, 1999 Fairgrounds at Kutztown Kutztown, PA Jun 13, 1999 Mansfield Motor Speedway Mansfield, OH Jun 12, 1999 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 11, 1999 Gas City I-69 Speedway Gas City, IN Sep 13, 1998 Lorain County Speedway South Amherst, OH Sep 12, 1998 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 11, 1998 Midway Speedway Crooksville, OH Aug 15, 1998 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Aug 15, 1998 Iowa State Fair Raceway Des Moines, IA Aug 14, 1998 Chateau Speedway Lansing, MI Aug 13, 1998 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Sep 7, 1997 Flag City Motorsports Park Findlay, OH Sep 6, 1997 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 6, 1997 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, OH Sep 5, 1997 Lakeville Speedway Lakeville, OH Jun 7, 1997 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 6, 1997 Skyline Speedway Stewart, OH Sep 7, 1996 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 8, 1996 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 9, 1995 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 8, 1995 Kil-kare Speedway Xenia, OH Aug 19, 1995 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Aug 19, 1995 Iowa State Fair Raceway Des Moines, IA Aug 18, 1995 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Aug 17, 1995 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Aug 16, 1995 Knoxville Raceway Knoxville, IA Jun 3, 1995 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 10, 1994 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 9, 1994 Indianapolis Speedrome Indianapolis, IN Jul 23, 1994 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 4, 1994 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 3, 1994 Limaland Speedway Lima, OH Sep 11, 1993 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Sep 10, 1993 Indianapolis Speedrome Indianapolis, IN May 27, 1993 Williams Grove Speedway Mechanicsburg, PA May 21, 1993 Attica Raceway Park Attica, OH Sep 7, 1991 Richmond International Raceway Richmond, VA Sep 30, 1990 North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro, NC Sep 29, 1990 Friendship Speedway Elkin, NC Aug 9, 1989 Kokomo Speedway Kokomo, IN May 13, 1987 Kokomo Speedway Kokomo, IN Sep 6, 1986 Eldora Speedway Rossburg, OH Jun 18, 1986 Columbus Motor Speedway Columbus, OH Apr 27, 1986 Martinsville Speedway Martinsville, VA Apr 26, 1986 311 Speedway Madison, NC Apr 26, 1986 Martinsville Speedway Martinsville, VA Bottom, Jim Sabo, Paul Weisel. Top, Randy, Greg Robbins. The very first Eldora NASCAR truck race. The last time Jim and I went to the Eldora Speedway was in 2013 for the NASCAR truck race. Buddies Paul Weisel and Greg Robbins joined us. We had a great time. By 2013, Jim and his wife Jane had moved to Florida. First time NASCAR Cup race on the dirt at Bristol. At the end of March this year, March 29 to be exact, Jim and I met for the NASCAR Cup race in Bristol, Tennessee for their race on dirt. It was great seeing Jim after not having seen him too much over the past few years. Just a month later it was with great sadness that I received the news that Jim had died suddenly of a heart attack. That was a tough one to take. I hope that wherever Jim is at today he’s got a great view of whatever race he wants to see! Without his background and having a free Thursday night I headed over to the Eldora Speedway to see what they call “The Dream”. This is an early June late model race that Eldora has every year. They pay a huge purse. Tonight’s “Dream” was going to be the 2021 version and pay an astounding $127,000 to the winner. Back when I first started following “big time” stock car racing in the Midwest a purse that paid $1,000 to win was considered pretty good. Of course, this isn’t 1966! I’m sold on tech! I ordered my ticket online the first day tickets became available from the track. That was only a few weeks ago. The Eldora website was very much up to speed. I was able to get an electronic ticket that I saved in my Apple wallet on my smartphone. Yes, we’ve come a long way since 1980 and my first visit to Eldora. This is Rossburg! Eldora Speedway resides in the small town of Rossburg, Ohio. Did I say “small town”? Rossburg has a population of just 201 people! The track routinely gets 20,000-30,000 fans for its big shows. According to the United States Census Bureau Rossburg’s land area, Rossburg is ALL land, is just 0.14 square miles. Would the Eldora Speedway even fit in 0.14 square miles of space? I know that in the past Jim Sabo and I had some real challenges finding good places to park at Eldora. A lot of our early visits were pre-GPS. It seemed as if we drove into Eldora from a different direction every time we went to the track. We had to be very creative in order to get a good parking space that would allow us to exit the track easily when the races were over. Parking the car was half the fun back in the day. Tonight, I pulled into the north parking lot and parking was a breeze. There’s no charge to park at the Eldora Speedway. I found an open space that was within 100 yards of the entry gate. I was surprised by that. Meeting up with a friend, Tom Deery. As I walked into the track, I saw a fellow riding down one of the side roads in a golf cart. I recognized this gentleman to be none other than Tom Deery. Tom is a member of the famous Deery racing family that has operated the Rockford Speedway in Illinois from probably somewhere in the 1950s all the way up until today. I was surprised to see Tom at Eldora. I knew his racing management background over the years had linked him to Rockford Speedway, NASCAR and the World of Outlaws. What was Tom doing at Eldora for the Dream race? It seems as if his expertise was called upon to help the current promoters with the weekend’s race promotion. I flagged Tom down and he recognized me. I had first met Tom Deery at Tim Frost’s annual get-together at the PRI trade show in Indianapolis. Tom and I were on a speaker’s panel together at the show. We had the chance to spend several minutes talking. I was happy to hear that Tom enjoys reading the reports I share in my newsletter. I think what he likes about it is that my experiences with travel and racing are pretty similar to a lot of the experiences he’s had doing the same thing. Of course, I’ve only been a fan whereas he’s been the person managing the tracks. Nevertheless, it seems as if we have a lot of similarities in what our interests have been over the years. I would love to someday be able to sit down and just talk with Tom and hear about all of his experiences. I’m pretty good with personal finance but I will tell you that I don’t really understand how “race track finance” works. It looks to me like it’s difficult to make money in the race management business. Anyway, a highlight of my visit to Eldora was spending some time with Tom. With all of the travel I do I’ve run into a number of people that I know at the airport. What are the chances that two people who know each other are going to be in a huge airport on a single day and just happen to run into each other when there are literally thousands of people in the airport? I’ve had that happen to me in airports more than ten times! What were the chances that I would be walking along at the Eldora speedway just at the moment Tom Deery was motoring past in a golf cart? There had to be about a 10 or 15-second crossing opportunity. I find that pretty amazing. Tom, if you’re reading this it was great being able to run into you and I can’t wait until we have the opportunity to chat sometime in the future. Tonight’s crowd was not as big as I’ve seen in the past. I wondered how they could pay a purse that had $127 thousand dollars on the top and still make a profit. I think I paid 40 bucks for my race ticket. For the entertainment that I got tonight that was a great value. Back in 2004, my how time flies, NASCAR driving star Tony Stewart bought the track from the Eldora Speedway founders, Earl and Bernice Baltes. I had heard that Stewart and his staff had made a number of upgrades to the track. As a fan, I thought the track looked very much like it did when it was run by Earl Baltes. Don’t get me wrong. I know they’ve done a lot to the track and made many many improvements which I’m sure cost a lot of money. Earl likes the young ladies! Here’s something you may not have known. Did you know that my wife Carol and Eldora Promoter Earl Baltes were good buddies? Strange, but true! One practical and beautiful addition to the improvements at Eldora was the huge video screen they have beyond turns one and two. This serves as a lap counter, a video of the racing action and a scoreboard that lists the top 10 drivers. I also noticed the restrooms were vastly improved. Eldora has always been known for offering ultra-inexpensive refreshments. Maybe that’s why they sell so much. I know this. I could easily live off the profit they make on refreshments during just one of their big event weekends. You can eat and drink good and cheap at Eldora. Tonight, a can of beer was two bucks. A can of soda was a dollar. I had an excellent cocktail of Jack Daniels and 7-Up for four dollars. I don’t know of any place from any kind of business that sells their refreshments that inexpensively. Jim Sabo and I would always indulge ourselves with the track’s “pizza burgers”. We would normally have one or two when we arrived and maybe another sometime during the race program and maybe even have one to go. We both scarfed down our share of pizza burgers in our time. Did the pizza burgers taste as good as I remember them tonight? I’ve got to be honest with you. Those pizza burgers didn’t taste as good as when I was eating them with my friend, Jim Sabo. I could show you those pix…but maybe I better not. Since we are walking down Eldora’s memory lane, I remember one night the crowd at the bar was getting a little rowdy, maybe a lot rowdy. The “gentlemen” were asking the ladies to “show us your Tit$” and the ladies were cooperating. About that time Earl came around and shut that stuff down in a microsecond! That brings up a memory from the Rockford Speedway that is somewhat similar. The legendary Rockford Speedway promoter Hugh Deery was just about the best promoter of auto racing I’ve ever seen. Hugh was Tom Deery’s dad. Back in the very early 70s a couple of inebriated fans were causing a bit of a ruckus in the stands at the Rockford Speedway. Hugh Deery walked up to those characters and escorted them to the exits all by himself. That was impressive! There really aren’t all that many memorable track promoters when you consider how many short tracks (thousands) that our country has had over the past 50 years. The Earl of Eldora. As I mentioned the Eldora Speedway was founded in 1954 by Earl and Bernice Baltes. I never saw Earl in anything other than blue jeans, work boots and a turned-up baseball hat. He took pretending to be a “good old country boy” to the next level. He would commonly say to the crowd that “if we sell one more hot dog we’ll break even”. Bernice did her part too. She worked inside the concession stands frying burgers and doing whatever needed to be done. More than once, into her 80s, I saw her working in tight spandex shorts, with pantyhose, when the temperature and humidity exceeded 90 degrees/90 percent. They were quite the couple. They’ve made some money at Eldora. I commonly did some “back of the napkin” figuring the financials of a big weekend show at Eldora. When he got 25,000 fans at $25/day for a two-day show ($1.25 million) and paid a $150,000 purse he was making a million bucks a weekend…in cash! That didn’t count sponsorship money, entry fees or concessions that probably added another $200,000 for the weekend to the till. Earl and Bernice probably made more cash in a weekend than Pablo Escobar! Earl and Bernice Baltes. I saw a story just recently that said 2021 would have been the year of Earl’s 100th birthday. I think he passed at age 92 or so. Just a few months ago Earl’s wife Bernice died at the age of 96. I’ve happy to see they lived long lives. What a couple. The speedway has built a beautiful bronze statue of Earl and Bernice. Well done! It’s the Dream! Tonight’s racing action was interesting and plentiful. I got to see six 15-lap heat races that started about a dozen cars in each race. Then there would be two “B” mains for the people who didn’t finish in the top three of the heat races. The top three from the heats transferred directly into the “A” main. Ultimately the system called for 28 starters in the 100-lap main event. During the second heat race, there was a slight rain delay. The rain was very light but it made the track unraceable and created a delay of about 45 minutes. I looked at my weather radar. I could see that once that small shower passed us, we were in the clear. NASCAR star Kyle Larson was in the field tonight. He might be the best and most talented driver going nowadays…maybe ever. Coming into tonight he had won his last two sprint car races as well as his last two NASCAR cup races. This was only his fourth ever start in a dirt late-model but Kyle has already won one big event racing these kinds of cars. I was excited to see him race. The 100-lap race had a lot of drivers coming and going. I brought my racing radio and noise-canceling headset. This protected my hearing. Surprisingly, despite attending as many races as I have, I have never had any hearing degradation. I listened in at channel 454.500 to tonight’s track announcers. I thought the announcers were excellent in calling the race. I knew about half of the drivers compared to back in the day when I would know every driver because I was following this part of the sport much more closely. Definitely listening to the two track announcers over my headset made the race more enjoyable. I also used MyRacePass smartphone app. This kept me up-to-date on which drivers were in which cars and in what position. During one of the breaks in the action, I went back to relax in the open space behind the grandstands. One fella noticed my World’s #1 Trackchaser t-shirt and asked if he could take a picture of the back of the shirt. He then went on to explain that he had seen racing at 100 tracks or so and was anxious to see more as he considered retirement. It was fun meeting this fellow from Connecticut. My shirt does attract people who may or may not know me or know about my hobby of trackchasing. A guy by the name of Dave Casey (above) came up to say hello. He reminded me that we had met and sat next to each other at the East Bay Raceway a couple of winters ago. I thought back and remembered Dave and the fact that he was from my boyhood state of Illinois. We had enjoyed talking about racing and trackchasing on that evening just outside of Tampa, Florida. I was glad Dave came up to say hello. Tonight’s racing was run efficiently. The rain delay did slow things down just a little bit. The racing ended a little past midnight. I needed to drive more than two hours back to my hotel in Indianapolis. It rained pretty hard on that drive back to Indy. I pulled into the hotel at about 3:30 in the morning. I used to do a lot of that late-night stuff when I was a racechaser. Come to think of it I do a lot of late-night race stuff as a trackchaser as well! A young driver from Georgia, Brandon Overton was tonight’s winner. It was an exciting race with lots of high-speed driving. Several drivers moved from the back of the pack into the top five or six. That’s sort of unusual with most short-track racing nowadays. I recommend you take a peek at my YouTube video. You’ll see some video clips of exactly what late-model stock car racing looks like at the Eldora Speedway. Later I would learn that Brandon Overton also won the 2020 makeup race of the Dream on Saturday night. That’s more than $250,000 in prize money racing a stock car on dirt in two nights. Well done, Brandon! I will tell you that when the racing was finished, I took a collective sigh of relief and just sat in my seat as the crowd filed out. Then it was a casual walk out to the car and easy departure from the Eldora Speedway. I think I was benefiting from a smaller crowd than they normally have for these big events as well as a much more organized exit strategy to get fans out of the track after the races. I took mainly rural two-lane roads back toward Indianapolis. I’m not a big fan of driving at night on two-lane roads. But because of Eldora Speedway’s very rural location I didn’t have any choice. You can drive a long way without stopping for gas with a Toyota Camry. I did have to stop for gas with the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. I had driven 668 miles on a single tank of fuel. That’s not my all-time record, which is a little bit more than 700 miles, but I’d say it’s pretty good. I paid $3.09 a gallon for fuel. I filled the car’s tank until it almost began to overflow. My bill was a bit more than 50 bucks. I haven’t paid more than $50 for a fill-up it doesn’t seem like in years. Of course, at home, because I have a Tesla Model X electric automobile, I don’t pay anything for gas! It was about 2 a.m. when I pulled into the gas station and walked into the convenience store. The store was well lit but was “manned” only by an older woman. I made the somewhat awkward comment that “she must be pretty brave to work in the store all by yourself this late at night”. I got a case cutter. She had a pretty quick comeback that frightened me just a little bit. She said something about religion and then said that “If you attacked me, I have a case cutter and you might kill me but your DNA would be all over my body”. I can tell you this. Her comment scared me! I told her I wasn’t her enemy and I was just making social conversation. She called me honey a few times then gave me another Bible verse and recommended that I watch out for deer because “they are everywhere, honey”. Folks, I couldn’t make experiences like this up! I just love meeting and talking to people from all walks of life as I run around the country pursuing my hobby. When I pulled into the airport hotel parking lot at 3:36 a.m. it was raining so hard that I didn’t wanna get out of the car at just that moment. I should be able to sleep in until about noon tomorrow. Then I’ll begin heading down toward the other side of St. Louis for a county fair race. Trackchasing can take me to a county fair one night, a UTV race in the woods the next day and maybe a $127,000 to win late model stock car race the next night. The best thing about trackchasing is if I don’t like the show I never have to come back. I will say this. I’ve had a lot of fun over the years at the Eldora Speedway. I’ve been there a lot. When I first went to Eldora in 1980, I was 31 years old and the Eldora Speedway was just the 77th track where I had seen racing. Tonight, I was sad that my friend Jim Sabo wasn’t gonna be able to join me. Rest in peace, good buddy. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,705 tracks. Ohio The Buckeye State This evening I saw racing at the Eldora Speedway for the 37th time. When I first went to Eldora it became the 77th track where I had seen racing. In total, I have seen racing at 89 tracks in the Buckeye State, yes, the Buckeye State. I hold the #6 trackchasing ranking in Ohio. Ohio ranks #9, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Ohio state trackchasing list. I have made 62 separate trips to Ohio to see 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 Ohio sayings: “You’re fine,” means “No problem” or “No worries.” 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 840 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. 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. $127,000 to win a dirt stock car race! It’s the 2021 Eldora Dream!
The NASCAR Truck Race – 2013…it’s racing baby! The NASCAR Truck Race – 2013…one step at a time See it in pictures! 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 real big day of racechasing at one of my favorite tracks…Eldora Speedway 
1 comment
Randy is the winner of the Best Smile in this pic……for sure!!!!!
Keep Smilin’!!!