Mooney’s Pub – Home to the Peoria Oldtimers Racing                Club Hall of Fame

Other than the very first track I saw, the Peoria Speedway at the Mt. Hawley Airport the Freedom Raceway might have been the most significant track I ever saw.  Why?  Freedom Raceway was my 500th lifetime track to see.  Although as this is written I have seen nearly 2,000 different tracks #500 was a big deal.  I was still somewhat of a rookie trackchaser.  Not that long before I had seen a racing article penned by noted trackchaser Guy Smith.  He was asking anyone who thought they had seen a lot of tracks to submit their track list to him.  I spent an entire day getting my list together.  I couldn’t recall how many I had at the time, maybe 200-400.  I paid the better part of a dollar to mail it off to somewhere in Pennsylvania.  Then I waited.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I gathered from that the hobby of trackchasing was limited to Easterners.  Even if I couldn’t be in trackchasing’s “inner circle” I could at least go to tracks in the Eastern part of the United States.

I was very excited to attend my 500th track.  Visiting the Freedom Raceway was part of a productive trip “out east”.  During that trip I saw these tracks:

498   THR   26-Jul  Oval track                          Holland Speedway (oval)               Holland, NY

499   THR   26-Jul  Figure 8                             Holland Speedway (figure 8)          Holland, NY

500   FRI     27-Jul  Regular program               Freedom Speedway                       Delevan NY

501   SAT    28-Jul  Regular Program 4 p.m.    Allegheny Mountain Spdwy           La Mont, PA

502   SAT    28-Jul  Regular program               McKean County Raceway             East Smethport, PA

503   SUN   29-Jul  Regular program                Bradford Speedway                       Bradford, PA

Although this track was seen a long time ago I was talking about many of the same things I talk about today after seeing a new track.  Here are a couple of excerpts from my July 27, 2001 visit:

“Tonight was a major milestone in my trackchasing hobby.  500 tracks!  It’s been a goal of mine for a while to reach this level and the Freedom Raceway in Delevan, NY was the track where it happened.  With 500 different racetracks behind me I feel I’ve reached an elite level of trackchasing.  Below are the tracks where other numerical milestones were achieved.

# 100 Red River Valley Speedway, West Fargo, ND

# 200 Sumter Rebel Speedway, Sumter, SC

# 300 Brownstown Speedway, Brownstown, IN

# 400 Barren County Speedway, Glasgow, KY

# 500 Freedom Raceway, Delevan, NY

I passed along my trackchasing note to the announcer.  He invited me to come up to the booth for an interview that I am always glad to do.  While we waited for a break in the action I did a short interview with the Gator Racing News.  The announcer was a friendly fellow with a good interest in trackchasing.  He wanted to know how he could get a job like mine that allows the time for trackchasing.  I get that a lot!  The announcer also works at McKean County Speedway which is my planned Saturday night track.  He invited me to join him in the booth at McKean.

I’ve been looking forward to getting my 500^th track for a while now.  I guess my next goal is to catch Pappy Hough in 2002 and possibly get into the world top 10 next season. 

After watching two of five feature races at Freedom I decided to go to the drive-in.  It would have been more fun going with Carol (she’s on a LONGABERGER basket trip to Ohio this weekend) but I couldn’t pass up this bit of nostalgia, for me at least.  I very much enjoy living in Southern California.  But, even though the weather is perfect and living in Orange County is sort of like an adult Disneyland I do like to see how the rest of America is living.  That’s where trackchasing comes in.  Seeing races is fun but I don’t think it’s the number one reason I enjoy this hobby.  The real reason is to see people and things that aren’t exactly like me and the people and things where I live.  Trackchasing meets this need.”

Don’t miss my Trackchaser Report reprinted from back in the day, July 27, 2001.  My reports have evolved over time but still give you a pretty good sense of what it was like to be on the road  and free to go in whatever direction the trackchasing winds wanted to take me.

You might have remembrances about the Freedom Raceway.  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 Delevan, New York

TRAVEL/PEOPLE NEWS

The Freedom Raceway is just about 5 miles from Ben’s Nichols Brook Motel.  The entire area is like a step back in time.  No internet connections at the Nichols Brook.  Just down the road is a drive-in movie.  When was the last time you were at a drive-in?  Can you even remember?  Even the girls sit in the middle seat of the pickup truck right next to their boyfriends.  Ah yes….when life was a bit simplar.

After watching two of five feature races at Freedom I decided to go to the drive-in.  It would have been more fun going with Carol (she’s on a LONGABERGER basket trip to Ohio this weekend) but I couldn’t pass up this bit of nostalgia, for me at least.  I very much enjoy living in Southern California.  But, even though the weather is perfect and living in Orange County is sort of like an adult Disneyland I do like to see how the rest of America is living.  That’s where trackchasing comes in.  Seeing races is fun but I don’t think it’s the number one reason I enjoy this hobby.  The real reason is to see people and things that aren’t exactly like me and the people and things where I live.  Trackchasing meets this need.

The drive-in movie was fun.  It was $5 to get in.  When I pulled into my parking spot I had a hard time getting my headlights to go off.  Since the movie (Scary Movie 2) had already started this was a bit of an issue.  My Alamo Malibu had automatic headlights that go on when it gets dark.  Getting them to turn off was a little bit of a chore.  As I struggled with all the buttons and gadgets to get those lights off a big guy from the car next door got out and came over and asked in a nice way for me to turn the lights off now.  I told him I was working fast and furiously on it!  This seemed to satisfy him and he went back to his car.  Sometimes I don’t want to see the people and things up too close when I’m a long way from home!

Stereo sound to the movie was provided by my car radio.  You could tune in a designated AM or FM radio channel and hear the movie great.  I can’t recall the last time I’ve been to a drive-in movie and don’t know the next time I’ll get to one.  The Wall Street Journal says there are less than 200 of them remaining in the U.S.  If you have the chance catch this piece of Americana before it totally disappears.

RACING NEWS

Tonight was a major milestone in my trackchasing hobby.  500 tracks!  It’s been a goal of mine for a while to reach this level and the Freedom Raceway in Delevan, NY was the track where it happened.  With 500 different racetracks behind me I feel I’ve reached an elite level of trackchasing.  Below are the tracks where other numerical milestones were achieved.

# 100 Red River Valley Speedway, West Fargo, ND

# 200 Sumter Rebel Speedway, Sumter, SC

# 300 Brownstown Speedway, Brownstown, IN

# 400 Barren County Speedway, Glasgow, KY

# 500 Freedom Raceway, Delevan, NY

Freedom will be a great 500^th track.  It’s a rural track that attracts a rural crowd.  The general admission price was 10 bucks.  They had a large crowd that filled most of the grandstand.  Dinner would be at the track concession stand.  They had double bacon cheeseburgers but that didn’t seem very healthy.  I chose the wingdings aka chicken wings and salt potatoes.  Sale potatoes are mainly an Eastern U.S. delicacy.  They’re small red potatoes served whole with 6 or 7 to a cup.  They are served with about two inches of liquid butter in the bottom of the cup.  Add a little ranch dressing to the wingdings and you can get all the cholesterol you need for a month.

Uniquely all sodas were served from a vending machine.  One dollar a bottle.  Also, unique was the rubber surgical gloves the cashiers/servers were wearing.  Since they handled BOTH the food AND the money who were they trying to protect??  Maybe they just wanted to keep their hands clean.

The track also had food signs attached to the racetrack fencing to entice their patrons to visit the concession stand.  Here are the first 10 signs I saw:

1)    Onion rings

2)    Pop corn

3)    Salt potatoes

4)    Fried dough

5)    Cotton candy

6)    Mozzarella sticks

7)    Wing dings

8)    Fresh pizza

9)    French fries

10)  Funnel cakes

If you can’t find something you like out of this list you’re on a diet.

The wind blew the U.S. and Canadian (we’re less than 50 miles from Canada) flags directly at the grandstand.  This would be a bad sign as the temps were dropping and the track was dry and gritty.  It was loud too.  This is what a 500^th track should be like.  Dirty, loud and with tons of fried food!

I was prepared for anything the track might dish out.  I have the best pair of goggles you can get.  I’ve got a good pair of earplugs.  I say bring it on!  The dirtier and louder the better.  At intermission I saw fans going to their cars to get heavy coats and GLOVES.  Gloves…..come on it’s July already!

Just in front of me were two folks who appeared to be grandfather and grandson.  The boy was about 5 or 6 years old.  You could see the enjoyment grandpa was getting out of the boy watching the races.  The boy was going through popcorn, cotton candy and other refreshments.  Soon the grandson began to get bothered by the dust.  Grandpa, showing how handy he was, fashioned a face and eye shield out of the cotton candy bag.  Auto racing is a family sport.

Freedom Raceway ran several classes of cars including super stocks, winged sprint cars, mini stocks, modifieds and street stocks.  They had about 15-20 cars in each class.  The races started promptly at 7:30 p.m. and all heat races were over by 8:35 p.m.  They held a 10-15 minute intermission and began to race the feature events.

The track has a scoreboard and lap counter.  The PA system can be heard well.  The pit area is located to the left of the main grandstand just off the fourth turn.  Grandstands are wooden bleachers and 11 rows high.  There are several refreshment areas each selling different items.  They made my wingdings to order and it looked like they were cooking all sandwiches after they were ordered.

I passed along my trackchasing note to the announcer.  He invited me to come up to the booth for an interview that I am always glad to do.  While we waited for a break in the action I did a short interview with the Gator Racing News.  The announcer was a friendly fellow with a good interest in trackchasing.  He wanted to know how he could get a job like mine that allows the time for trackchasing.  I get that a lot!  The announcer also works at McKean County Speedway which is my planned Saturday night track.  He invited me to join him in the booth at McKean.

I’ve been looking forward to getting my 500^th track for a while now.  I guess my next goal is to catch Pappy Hough in 2002 and possibly get into the world top 10 next season.  We’ll see how it goes.  Looking forward to meeting Will White at Allegheny Mountain Speedway tomorrow afternoon.

Restaurants of the day:  Lunch at Earl’s in Sardinia, NY.   Dinner at the track.

Weather:  Slight cloud cover and breezy.  Bank sign on the way home from the track says 58 degrees.

Current rental car mileage:  My Alamo Chevy Malibu had 122 miles on it when it rested for the second night at Ben’s Nichols Brooke Motel in Sardinia, NY.  If you’re going to Holland and Freedom this hotel is right in the center of the two less than 5 miles from each.  Tell them Randy sent you!