Greetings from Owensville, Missouri
And then Cowley, Kansas
And finally, Williamston, Kentucky
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Gasconade County Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,732 Cowley County Fairgrounds Dirt figure 8 Lifetime Track #2,733 Grant County Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,734 THE EVENT Editor’s note: This is county fair racing season. County fairs race almost every night of the week during the middle of the summer. Two of the three fairs I cover in this report had never ever had a trackchaser visit. Why? I don’t know. You had best ask my fellow competitors. 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. My name is Randy Lewis (with my bros on a recent trip to South Dakota). 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 Wednesday/Sunday, July 28 – August 1, 2021. I live in Southern California. Most of the races I see are in the Midwest or the east. That means, with time changes, I sometimes have to leave the day before in order to get to the race on time. I don’t like to do that. It’s the trackchasing penalty for living in such a beautiful place. Today I wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Kansas City. There were three nonstop flights that covered this route. The first flight left at 11:30 a.m., then 2 p.m. and lastly 7:30 p.m. Of course, the first two flights were sold out but the last flight had 25 open unsold seats. I would be flying standby. I had an early morning appointment about halfway toward LAX. With LAX being 65 miles north of where I live in San Clemente, I figured I might as well make my appointment and then try for the first flight even though the odds of my making it work were not very good. I received some very good news during that first appointment of the day. What was the news? I can’t tell you but I can tell you it was excellent news. From there I motored up to the Los Angeles International Airport which is starting to show the positive effects of their five-year rehabilitation plan. The flight I wanted to make had four open seats. It looked like I was #8 and the last person on the standby list. I am almost always last on the standby list! Somehow, I ended up getting the very last seat on the plane. I’ve done that before. That was my second set of good news of the day. I was flying on Southwest Airlines. You don’t get a reserved seat on Southwest. It’s first come first served. I was the last person on the plane. However, when I asked if I could take the middle seat that was open the young man sitting in the aisle seat told me I could have the aisle and he would sit next to his girlfriend in the middle. This was my lucky day! The flight to Kansas City was uneventful. Those are the best kind. I watched episodes of the miniseries “Ozark” on my iPad. I had heard a lot of good things about this show. After watching four episodes I like it…very much. I must tell you the Kansas City airport is the worst in the country for service and convenience. I think it was built in the 70s. Most airports have a terminal that has one security entrance and then 20-30 individual gates. Kansas City isn’t like that. They have one security checkpoint for every three or four gates. I’m sure somebody thought that was a good idea but I don’t think so. Each of the passenger seating areas for the two or three gates is behind a single security checkpoint. This seating area is small. While you’re waiting for your plane, you’re in a cooped-up area with virtually no services like restaurants. The restroom is a two-seater for what can sometimes be 100 passengers or more. This is a very poor design. I know they have a new terminal under construction. I hope it incorporates the style that virtually every other airport in the country has. Please! I landed without a hotel reservation for the evening. No problem I simply used my smartphone app, Priceline. Soon I had a nearby Fairfield Inn and Suites reserved. I got a smoking hot deal on the price. I would not be renting a car until tomorrow. When I used Priceline, I selected the filter for hotels that offered a shuttle from the airport. I was getting a great price on the quality hotel. I was not incurring a rental car expense for the first day of the trip. I have never had the big financial budgets of the trackchasing teams that operate in the east. Nevertheless, I have smoked those people. I arrived just in time to walk from the hotel to a nearby ribs restaurant. I’m talking about Scott’s Kitchen and Catering at Hangar 29. There I had ribs, baked beans and mac and cheese. The place was decent and within easy walking distance of many of the MCI airport hotels I use. I relaxed all evening doing computer “paperwork” and watching another episode of Ozark. The weather in Kansas City is horrendous. When I arrived, the temperature was 97° with matching humidity. The shuttle driver told me it was only gonna get worse tomorrow with temperatures reaching 101° with the same humidity. These are just about the most stifling weather conditions one could expect. Lots of people think these Midwestern and eastern cities only have bad weather in the winter. That is not correct. Their summers can offer dreadful heat and humidity. The falls and springs can deposit those 40-degree days with rain and 15 mph winds. I think those days are often worse than ten below and a foot of snow. The trackchasing trip calls for a visit first to Missouri and then Kansas and then on Saturday to Kentucky. I’ll do quite a bit of driving. I’ll actually fly in the midst of this trip before heading home on Sunday from Nashville, Tennessee. We’ll see how all that works out. THURSDAY I woke up this morning at the Fairfield Inn and Suites Hotel at the Kansas City International Airport. I had to come in last night because I live in California. Today’s race was going to be in Owensville, Missouri. I can’t leave Southern California in the morning and get to a race on time that afternoon in Missouri most of the time. In order to make sure that I got to tonight’s race, I had to leave Southern California yesterday. Owensville, Missouri was going to be a three-hour drive from Kansas City. Racing wasn’t scheduled to begin until 7:30 p.m. That meant I could both sleep in and find a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction somewhere around Kansas City. I’m already done quite a bit of touring in Kansas City in the past. I’ve seen the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. I’ve been to a Kansas City Royals’ game and Kansas City Monarchs’ game. I’ve toured the Harley Davidson Kansas City manufacturing plant. Yes, I’ve seen a lot in Kansas City…for a guy from California. Today with a little bit of searching I came up with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I hadn’t been there. I checked things out and they were open. The art museum would be my TTA for the day. The Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art is a big-time art museum. They have more than 42,000 pieces. A big plus is that they offer free admission although parking in their underground parking garage was 12 bucks. It all seemed reasonable enough for me. I am not a huge art museum person. However, I can spend an hour or two in an art museum with the best of them. I took a lot of photographs. You won’t want to miss them. If you take a look, the experience will be almost as if you were right by my side at the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art. From there I made a long drive over to Owensville, Missouri. Just getting to the fairgrounds offered up a couple of very unusual circumstances. I had a little bit of a hard time finding the fairgrounds. That’s when I saw a group of people standing outside a small building. I figured I would stop and ask those folks for some help. It just turned out that this was a bunch of policemen with their wives and girlfriends and a couple of small children. When I pulled up, they looked a little apprehensive. I guess that comes from being a cop. They gave me some good general directions. Just before I got to the fairgrounds, I turned down a residential street. That’s when I observed a major domestic dispute between what looked like the Hatfields and McCoys. I saw one young woman run over to another young woman who was parked in her car and began to assault her with profane language and some less than Mike Tyson blows. Folks, I’m not creative enough to make this stuff up. Welcome to rural Missouri. I’ve seen racing at more than 500 county fairs. Most Fairgrounds offer a number of similarities. Today’s Fairgrounds, the Gasconade County Fairgrounds was built on a hillside. That was unusual and made for some difficult walking. I paid my $12 general admission fee and walked into the fair. I concluded it would be better to see the fair after the race and after dark. The weather conditions were humbling. The high temperature today and reached 101° with super heavy-duty humidity. I had two options for where I wanted to sit. The best seating option was a tall aluminum grandstand that minorly faced into the sun. If I wanted to have the sun at my back the grandstand was about half as big as the aluminum ground stand. With the sun going behind some trees in about 30 minutes I elected to sit high up in the aluminum van stand. I think that was a good choice. Who was the first person that I ran into tonight that I knew? His name was “Chen”. I had met Chen at the enduro race in Union, Missouri a couple of weeks ago. He takes videos, primarily of demolition derbies and posts them on his YouTube channel. He’s also big into posting videos of him riding on public buses. I’ve never known anyone to do that! When I saw him, I surprised him by yelling out his name “Chen, Chen”. He looked at me and squinted into the sun. “Randy?” I had remembered him and he had remembered me. You might want to check out his YouTube channel. I am a subscriber. His channel name is ChenChillaX! Tonight’s enduro racing was going to be part of a demolition derby program. The same promotion group that ran the race is in Union, Missouri was running them tonight. The good thing about their program is that they run the Enduro race first and the demolition derby follows. At the Union race, they only had five cars. Tonight, they had about 15 cars racing. They decided to break up that group of cars into two heat races with the top five from each race moving into the feature event. I mentioned there was a $12 fee to get into the fair tonight. There was no additional charge to watch the race. This helped fill the grandstands to near capacity. People were out in these hot and humid weather conditions to enjoy their local county fair. It doesn’t get much more American than that. I mentioned that I’ve seen racing at more than 500 county fairs. How many county fairs have racing? I don’t know but there are a lot of counties in our 50 states. Do I wish that every county fair going offered an auto race? No! Not in my wildest dreams. It would suit me perfectly well that no other county fairs who don’t currently offer auto racing ever offered it in the future. I don’t want to be chasing up and down our nation’s highways going from one county fair to the next. I’ve already done that a lot. If you are a promoter at a county fair considering an auto racing event and you’ve never done such a thing, I recommend for my own personal well-being that you do not. It’s at this point in my narrative that I suggest that you look at my YouTube video and SmugMug photo album to check out the racing scene tonight. There was quite a bit of action in the racing. I didn’t stay for the demolition derby. I decided to try to be a mountain goat and scale the hillside to check out what was happening with the fair. This was a rural fair. The barns were rural. The cows were rural and the people were rural. That’s what rural is. I did hang around a religious-themed musical concert for a few minutes. When I had seen all of the racing that I wanted to see and when I had seen all of the fair that I wanted to see I knew it was time to leave. How did I know that? Because I do this for fun. When the amount of fun begins to diminish to the point where it is no longer enjoyable then it is time to move on to the next bit of stimulation. I would motor on down to Saint Robert, Missouri and grab a hotel room there. Carol and I stayed in Saint Robert, a couple of weeks ago. This would be a good stopping off point for tomorrow’s journey to Winfield, Kansas. FRIDAY I woke up this morning in Saint Robert, Missouri. If you haven’t noticed there is some repetitiveness to my hobby of trackchasing. As noted just a couple of weeks ago Carol and I had stayed in Saint Robert, Missouri. Carol calls my hobby “Groundhog Day”. People often ask me how I choose the tracks that I’m going to attend. In some ways, the answer to that question is pretty basic. I select the next track I will visit from a list of tracks that race and that I have never visited before. That in a nutshell is the nature of trackchasing. As this is written I have seen racing at 2,732 racetracks in 85 countries. I would say that a track needs to be somewhat off the beaten path in order to have escaped my attention up to now. Wouldn’t you agree? Tonight, I will be seeing racing at my 62nd new track of the 2021 trackchasing season. An incredible 40 of those 62 tracks have never ever been seen by any other trackchaser. Does that tell you my 2021 track locations are off the beaten path? If I haven’t seen a track, you can just about bet that no one else has seen it either. At this stage in my trackchasing career, I am not looking for a new track visit in Daytona, Indianapolis or at the Eldora Speedway or Knoxville Raceway. Those are some of the best tracks in the country. I first went to those tracks long long ago and have been to each of them several times. First-time visits to tracks where I have never seen racing are, in general, difficult to find. At these types of tracks confirming their race dates is challenging. Usually, they’re out in the middle of nowhere. That was the case with the Cowley County Fairgrounds in Winfield, Kansas. If you’ve got a minute go onto Google Maps. Check to see exactly where Winfield, Kansas is located. I live in Southern California. In order for me to visit a racetrack in Winfield, Kansas I have to fly somewhere and then drive somewhere. Trust me Winfield, Kansas may not be out in the middle of nowhere but you can see the middle of nowhere from Winfield. Today is July 30. You might expect that the weather is hot and humid in the middle west of America. How hot and humid? Today’s high temperature would be 100° with humidity to match. It was a dreadful weather day. This part of the country gets some dreadful weather in the heat of the summer. The lifeblood of my trackchasing hobby is the Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. When I’m driving from point A to point B to point C I often pass some interesting sites and attractions. If I stop to check things out that location becomes a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. A sign that read “Missouri Sports Hall of Fame” caught my attention on the drive through Springfield, Missouri. I also considered going to “Fantastic Caverns”. They spend a lot of money on billboards! However, I wasn’t feeling perfectly well today so I figured a self-guided tour through a sports Hall of Fame might be my best choice. I pulled into the very modern HoF building to find no one else visiting the museum. Only one man inside was handling the administrative chores. He told me the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame was a 501C corporation. That type of legal arrangement allows some folks to skate on income taxes and such. Pretty clever. One of the best things about the museum and Hall of Fame was that it was air-conditioned! The building and displays were modern. One could see that they had enlisted the help of a professional curator. Outside the building, they had a huge wall of names of Missouri race drivers of note. I was a little surprised at that because a lot of sports Halls of Fames don’t give a lot of credit toward auto racing. They seem to focus mainly on stick and ball sports. Once inside, and somewhat to my amazement, I was reminded of all of the famous names of my long-ago sports heroes. So many had come from Missouri or become famous for playing one sport or another in Missouri. This included names like Bob Petit, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Joe Garagiola, Harry Caray, Bill Weber, Bob Costas, Stan Musial and many many more. For admission of just four bucks and for a student of sports like I am this was a great way to spend an hour. I liked this place very much. If you love to be reminded of sports stars from the past you do NOT want to miss my photo album linked to this Trackchaser Report. From Springfield, Missouri I just kept driving west until I finally reached Winfield, Kansas. The Cowley County fair was going on. I pulled onto the fairgrounds and parked under a shade tree. It was the only shade tree in the entire parking lot. I took about a 40-minute nap. On these trips, I nap when I can because I don’t know when I’m going to get my next opportunity to sleep. They have a huge covered grandstand at the fairgrounds. I’m going to guess it seats two or three thousand people. Tonight, the grandstand was packed for figure 8 racing. I normally carry some cash in a very microscopic money clip. That money clip includes my driver’s license, a couple of credit cards, my Costco card (since replaced by the Costco app) and a personal check. I will replenish the cash in my money clip from time to time from my leather computer case. There was no charge to park or to enter the fair. That is common at some of these rural Midwestern fairs. I figured I had better grab some food and drink so I wouldn’t have to make any more trips out of the grandstand than I needed to. I selected an angus burger for five bucks and a bottle of water for a dollar and a hotdog for two dollars. I anguished over the hotdog purchase. Why? I only had eight dollars in cash on me. My car was parked quite a long way from the midway at the fair. I was going to have to live and die on eight dollars in addition to the $15 I paid for my entry into the grandstand tonight. As a “single” it was easy for me to find a great seat to watch tonight’s racing. The announcer reminded the crowd that it had been two years since they had gotten together for this event. Of course, the 2020 fair was canceled because of Covid. Tonight, there were fifty-eight figure 8 cars in the pit area. That’s a very large car count by today’s standards. All of the racers except one were big V-8 rear-wheel drive cars. You won’t see that very much in 2021. Nevertheless, the one and only four-cylinder front-wheel drive car was really fast. He could keep up with the V-8’s on this type of a track. The program called for seven heat races. Each heat race would be for 10 laps. After the first race, the dust was really bad. They watered the track and that kept the dust down a good deal. Watching a figure 8 racing program can be somewhat repetitive. What do I mean by that? When seven cars come out for a 10-lap heat race that heat race isn’t a heck of a lot different than the next heat race and the next. The weather in the grandstand and on every inch of the fairgrounds was terrible. It was more than terrible for a guy who lives in Southern California where our temperatures are always in the 70s. We don’t have any humidity or bugs or tornadoes. Just saying. When the program was finished for me, I trudged back toward where my car was parked. I didn’t even have the energy to look at much of what was happening at the fair. I did notice an old bald fat guy doing a fantastic rendition of Johnny Cash. I need to invite that guy to my next party! I debated whether or not I should use the Kansas tollway to take me back to Kansas City or use the free roads. Ultimately, I chose the toll road and paid an extra 10 bucks for the privilege. The good thing about the toll road was it was a four-lane highway with good cell phone service throughout the drive. I was going to be driving from Winfield, Kansas to the Kansas City International Airport a driving distance of 224 miles. That was going to take the better part of four hours. I needed to be at the airport by 6 a.m. to return my car and standby for a 7 a.m. flight. I made it as far as Lawrence, Kansas. There the toll road offered a plaza with food, drink and gas. I filled the tank of the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. Then I pulled into a secluded spot and slept for about three hours. I will sleep in my car a few days each year while track chasing. I will sleep overnight on an airplane a few days each year doing the same thing. I will sleep for a few nights inside an airport as well. Just a few years ago I ended up sleeping in my car or in an airport or on an airplane for 43 nights. In your wildest dreams have you ever known anyone to do something like that? I know. You haven’t. I’ll be back to you tomorrow morning when I wake up from the Hotel Toyota. SATURDAY I trackchased last night in Winfield, Kansas. After the races, I drove along the Kansas Turnpike as long as I could. Finally, I stopped at a highway rest area. I would sleep overnight there in the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. Some people think that I sleep overnight in my car from time to time to save money. Wrong. Saving money is an outcome of this decision but it’s not the primary motivation of that decision. If I can’t get at least seven or eight hours of sleep in a hotel room it just doesn’t make sense to get a hotel room. Today I had a 7 a.m. flight departing from Kansas City to Nashville. The drive from last night’s race over to the Kansas City airport was about four hours. The best I could do was possibly be in a hotel room for three hours and that just wasn’t going to work. I would sleep in my car. This morning I was standing by for a flight from Kansas City to Nashville. I ended up getting the very last seat on the airplane as a standby passenger. That was exactly what happened to begin this trip when I flew from Nashville to Kansas City. I’ve gotten the very last seat in the past. I just can’t ever recall getting the very last seat on the plane for two consecutive flights. That was my good fortune. I landed in Nashville at about 8:30 a.m. I had some decisions to make. First, I would have to figure out tonight’s hotel plan. I would use a special hotel strategy that I have used many times in the past after sleeping overnight in my car or flying overnight on an airplane. When I land early in the morning like I did today I will find a hotel room that will accommodate me with an early check-in. If I can check in by 10 a.m. or so I can often sleep for three or four hours and then continue with the evening’s trackchasing plan. Then following the race I’ll sleep in the hotel a second time. I feel as if I’m getting two hotel rooms for the price of one. Clever? I figured I would grab a hotel near the Nashville airport to implement this strategy. However, when I checked out the prices for hotel rooms on Priceline.com I soon discovered I would not be staying in Nashville tonight. Apparently, there were a series of concerts, including one by Garth Brooks. This had driven the price of hotels sky high. These were Super Bowl sky-high prices! As an example, an Extended Stay America room was going for more than $400 and that was on Priceline. I normally buy rooms at Extended Stay America hotels for $50-$75 a night. Nope, I needed an alternative to Nashville. I quickly looked at a map. Of course, that would be an electronic map. I haven’t used paper maps in the 21st-century. I know there are people who still do but not me. I scanned my route between Nashville and Williamston, Kentucky tonight’s destination. About one hour into the drive was the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky. It’s kind of funny. I had been in Bowling Green for a race just about 10 days ago. Priceline told me that I could stay in a Sure Stay Hotel by Best Western for just 77 bucks. That was going to have to work. The hotel’s location was an excellent logistically acceptable spot. From the hotel, it would be a three-hour drive one-way up and back to the racetrack. Then tomorrow morning I would have to drive just one hour to the Nashville airport where I hoped to be standing by for a flight back home to Los Angeles. There’s one thing that I’m noticing in our nation’s airports which I’ve never seen before. The airport bathrooms are now standing room only with lines. I know the traveling public is back in business after the Covid layoff. But even in past boom times for travel, I’ve never seen lines at virtually every man’s bathroom I try to use at the airport. Very unusual. Of course, I stopped at a Waffle House. If you’re in the south you can’t pass up a Waffle House. One of my motivations is I had a coupon for a free waffle that was expiring today, July 31. I think a lot of people think of a Waffle House as kind of a country laid-back and inexpensive eating alternative. It may be most of that but it’s not inexpensive. Today I ordered a cheesesteak sandwich which comes on two square pieces of Texas toast, a waffle and a Diet Coke. With my coupon, there was no charge for the waffle. My bill still came to $11.75 and because I am always generous with my tipping when I’ve got a free waffle on my order my bill for breakfast/lunch came to $17.75. I could have eaten at McDonald’s for less than 1/3 of that. The Waffle House is not an inexpensive option. I checked into my hotel in a little past 11 a.m. I would relax and sleep for the next three hours. Then I was off to the Grant County Fairgrounds in Williamston, Kentucky. Today I would be seeing a race organized and sanctioned by Top Dog Promotions. I know the guy that runs Top Dog. His name is John Peck. I have met up with John several times. He’s a good guy and runs a super show. If he wasn’t so good at what he does there wouldn’t be such large car counts at so many fairs year after year. An interesting item about today’s race location was that it was in a different time zone from where my hotel was located. I was staying overnight in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The race was being held at the Grant County Fairgrounds in Williamston, Kentucky. Same state for both locations. Bowling Green is in the central time zone. Williamstown is in the eastern time zone. I would never want to live in a location near a time zone and constantly be confused about which time was being talked about. I pulled into the Grant County Fairgrounds at about 7:15 p.m. Rain was in the forecast but not heavy rain. Even if we did get some of the wet stuff, I fully expected tonight’s program to continue. Usually, when I go to a race at a county fair there are three potential expense components. That would be parking, admission to the fair and admission to the racing event. Not every fair charges for each of these three categories but some do. Tonight, things were pretty simple. When I pulled into the fairgrounds, I joined a short line and paid $10 to the ticket taker. That ten spot would cover my parking, admission to the fair and admission to see tonight’s “circle track” and demolition derby racing. That was a great value. Another item that I liked about going to the Grant County Fair was that all but about the last mile of driving from my hotel location in Bowling Green, Kentucky was done on the interstate. That makes life a little simpler and a little safer. I consider Top Dog Promotions as a promotional group to be “demo guys”. I think they started circle track racing as kind of a diversion from demo. As you know the rules of trackchasing support circle track racing but not demolition derby. If you’re a demo fan please don’t blame me. I had nothing to do with the original trackchasing rules whatsoever. When I parked an older woman who was directing the parking operation told me that unless I had four-wheel drive I shouldn’t park in the rolling hills section of the parking lot. She told me doing that would “destroy my car”. I looked over and saw the mostly gentle rolling hills she was referring to. In my mind, I questioned her decision. Nevertheless, I made the turn to go over to where the parking surface was flat. This was apparently a location where folks prefer not to have their car damaged at a county fair parking lot. This was also a location that took me even further away from where tonight’s race track was located. I didn’t mind. I always enjoy getting my steps in. Top Dog Promotions is owned and operated by a fellow by the name of John Peck. I’ve known John for a few years now. He’s a good promoter. He is well respected. How do I know that? Here’s how I know that. Every year he seems to run more events and more big events than he has done in the past. A bad promoter would never be able to do that. So many racing organizations come into and go out of business because their management doesn’t quite have it together. With a growing business, I know that the competitors and the fans like what John Peck is doing and like what Top Dog Promotions is doing. Well done on them. It was probably a half-mile walk or longer to get from my parking location to the race track. I hoped it wouldn’t start pouring down rain at any point in time. If it did, I would be a long way from the shelter of my car. My timing this evening was outstanding. I arrived about five minutes before the national anthem was to be played. The track announcer was a down-home country feller. This is what he had to say when the national anthem was about ready to be played. He told the crowd that he wanted everyone to stand as a measure of respect for the United States and the national anthem. He said that if you couldn’t stand, he understood. He also said that if you didn’t want to stand you might want to leave the grounds right now in the same way that you came in. That got a lot loud round of support from the crowd. Fans were mainly seated in lawn chairs on the hillside that overlooked the track. I have been to some of these demo derby events where you never exactly know when the very few “car races” are going to be held amongst the demo derby events. These are demo derby crowds in general. They come to watch demo derby. Figure 8 racing or oval track racing or tonight’s “circle track racing” are sideshows compared to the demo portion of the event. My timing was excellent. The circle track racing heats would be the first events of the day. They started out with several of these races as well as the feature event for the youth class of circle track racing. Trackchasing’s founding fathers established the initial rules so that “kids” racing wouldn’t count. I always wondered if they came up with that idea because most of these people were not married? I don’t think any of them had children of their own. That’s just a guess on my part. Tonight, while the “youth” circle track racing was going on a woman next to me was videotaping the action on her phone. She was screaming and yelling in support of her son. When the race was finished, I asked her what the age limit on Top Dog Promotion youth circle track racing actually was. She told me the youth racing was for drivers aged 14-19 years of age. In some cases, they allowed younger drivers to compete. This was excellent news. In order for a trackchaser to count a track the racing class seen must be open to drivers 18 years of age or older. Over the years a number of new trackchasers have entered the hobby. Quite often these Trackchasers don’t have much history with the organization. They don’t know why this rule was in place or if that policy existed in the past. This is kind of like when a person born outside the U.S. enters the U.S. without much knowledge of the traditions and mores of the country they have just entered. I suspect that very few trackchasers really know how the minimum age requirement was established in trackchasing. I will tell you how it came down. At the time Will White was the trackchasing commissioner. He ruled with a pleasant dictatorship management style. For the longest time trackchasing rules simply said that trackchasers needed to see a class that was open to “adult” racers. However, everyone seemed to have a little different idea of what an “adult” was age-wise. I badgered Mr. White and then I pestered Mr. White. When I was finished doing that I badgered and pestered him some more. Finally, just to keep me quiet he established an executive order if you will that established 18 years as the trackchasing definition of an adult. Any class that was open to drivers 18 years of age or older could be counted by a trackchaser as regards the driver component. Of course, the various track, car and race types still needed to be sorted out. There didn’t have to be any drivers in the race that were 18 years or older. The class just needed to be OPEN to drivers 18 years age or older. That folks, is how the “18-year-old age requirement” came into trackchasing. If you are a trackchaser and are reading this for the first time, did you know how this all came down? I roamed around the hillside all night taking photos and videos of tonight’s circle track racing. I tried to find John Peck but in the end I couldn’t. I was bummed about that. Later we texted and agreed to meet up the next time I get a chance to visit Top Dog Promotions. I still proudly wear the TDP t-shirt John gave me a couple of years ago. As always, I strongly recommend you take some time to see my photo album and YouTube video from the racing tonight. I especially like watching the racing from the top of the bowl with the racing taking place in the bottom of that bowl. It did begin to rain but unless it was going to be a downpour the wet stuff wouldn’t affect this kind of racing. SUNDAY Today was Sunday. It had been a good trip. Back in the old days, I would have been trackchasing somewhere on Sunday. However, today I was headed home. Why? I couldn’t find a single track in all of the United States where I could trackchase today. I am running out of tracks to see for the first time. The Pennsylvania trackchasing group continues to conduct a “census”. The objective is to identify every racing operation that holds a trackchasing “countable” race in the U.S. and Canada. Why not Mexico? I have no friggin’ idea. Maybe it’s because nearly every trackchaser would be afraid to cross the border? That’s one theory. I’ve seen racing at eleven Mexican tracks in six Mexican states plus the Federal District. A countable event can be any wheel to wheel type of race on a road course, oval or figure 8 track. Additionally, the right type of racers, drivers and starting procedure must be present. I would say that the overall quantity of tracks is trending in a negative direction. Through the end of July 2021, 1,237 individual tracks have held a racing event in 2021. Another 124 tracks held a race in 2020, the year of Covid’s beginning, but have not scheduled their event for 2021. There are 143 track locations that ran in 2020 but have not scheduled an event for this year. Today is August 1, 2021. If a track hasn’t scheduled an event for 2021 by now there’s a good chance that most of them will not. Finally, there are 197 tracks that have a scheduled event for 2021 and have not raced yet this year. This seems to mean that nearly 200 tracks are going to hold their first race of the season sometime after August 1? In reality, my expectation would be that the vast majority of those tracks would not race at all this year. So, what do we have here? My guess is that we have some 1,400-1,600 race tracks that will hold at least one event this year at their facility/location. It is true that a very large number of these tracks will hold one race event all year. What perspective can I provide around the number “1,400 or 1,600”? During the time that I’ve been in trackchasing I have seen racing at 2,734 race tracks. Nearly 2,500 of those tracks were seen in the United States and Canada which is the geography the trackchasing census covers. Let’s say you were a brand new trackchaser. You want to make an impact on the hobby. Let’s say that you could see racing at 100 tracks each year. It would take you 15 or 16 years to see every track in the United States and Canada that is listed in the trackchasing census. However, by the time you got to the 15th year or so quite a few of the tracks that were originally listed in the census in 2021 would have gone away. Certainly, other new tracks would have been added to the list during this time as well. However, the trend is for the overall track total to reduce just a little bit each and every year. How many of the current, let’s call that number 1,600 tracks, are what would be called “permanent tracks”? These are tracks that are in a fixed location and race each and every year on a weekly basis or maybe every other week basis. I haven’t done an exact study but I would guess there may be 500 or 600 permanent tracks. These are mostly ovals but some road courses and very few figure 8 tracks that race weekly or every other week. That number is definitely declining. A large number of tracks, again I’m going to guess that number to be 300-500 but that’s just a guess race once a year. They are part of a county fair type operation. There are quite a few go-kart tracks that are on this census list too. These kart track race some form of “approved” trackchasing class of racing machines. Quite a few UTV promoted tracks the race just once a year. There are also several figure 8 racing organizations that run a show here and there. These are not always part of a county fair but also only race at that location once or maybe twice a year. As a new trackchaser could you actually see racing at 100 tracks a year for a long period of time? Maybe. There are hundreds of trackchasers who have sent their track lists into the Pennsylvania group over the years. Maybe about ten of those people have ever seen racing at 100 tracks in a single year. Only a handful have done that more than once. Some of the biggest “names” in trackchasing have never EVER seen racing at 100 tracks in even one year. I have averaged seeing more than 100 tracks in each and every trackchasing season for the last 24 years. If I had to guess I would say the next leading trackchaser in this category has done the “century” about five times. Should aspiring young trackchasers, still wet behind the ears metaphorically, simply bury their head in the sand and give up? I don’t think so. I hope not. Trackchasing is still a lot of fun even though the number and quality of tracks have gone down dramatically in the past 10-20 years. I thought you might enjoy my summary of the current tracks available where trackchasers can see racing. As I mentioned I’ve seen racing at more than 2,700 tracks. Almost 2,500 of those tracks were seen in the United States and Canada. There are now currently about 1,500-1,600 tracks remaining to visit according to the Pennsylvania based trackchasing census. These numbers might show you what I’m up against as well. How many of those 1,500-1,600 tracks that seem to exist have I not been to? I’m not really sure what that number is. Based upon my research I think I have about 250 track locations yet to see but that number might be smaller. I do know this. There are only 15-20 “permanent” ovals and road courses in the U.S. that I haven’t seen! With the close of this weekend, I have seen racing at 63 new tracks in 2021. That’s a pretty strong total considering I went into the year haven’t seen as many tracks as I have. There is one number that is part of the “63” number that I think is noteworthy. Forty of the 63 new tracks that I’ve seen this year were extra special to me. At each of those 40 tracks, I was the first trackchaser ever to see racing there! On a few occasions, other trackchasers were in attendance with me at those tracks. The majority of those 40 tracks were unknown to me as recently as one year ago. This gives me some minor encouragement. The Randy Lewis Racing research department is the foremost research department in all of trackchasing. If there were 40 tracks that have eluded me as recently as a year ago maybe there are 40 tracks that have eluded me as of right now that will be available to see next year. Who knows? This had been an exciting weekend. I did a lot of driving, more than 1,400 miles in three days of rental car use. Why so much driving? That’s because the remaining tracks that I have to see are located further and further from each other. I saw racing at track locations that compete only once or maybe twice a year. For the most part, I’ve seen virtually every one of the regularly scheduled tracks in the United States and Canada. Nevertheless, trackchasing is still a fun hobby for me. How do I know that? I’m a volunteer and I wouldn’t volunteer if I didn’t love it. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,734 tracks. Missouri The Show Me State This evening I saw racing at my 79th lifetime track in the Show Me, yes, the Show Me State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Missouri. Missouri ranks #12, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Missouri state trackchasing list. I have made 51 separate trips to Missouri to see these tracks. Kansas The Sunflower State This evening I saw racing at my 48th lifetime track in the Sunflower, yes, the Sunflower State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Kansas. Kansas ranks #16, 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 38 separate trips to Kansas to see these tracks. Kentucky The Bluegrass State This evening I saw racing at my 58th lifetime track in the Bluegrass, yes, the Bluegrass State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Kentucky. Kentucky ranks #15, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Kentucky state trackchasing list. I have made 41 separate trips to Kentucky 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 Missouri sayings: “I’ll have a concrete.” Beyond just being the material we walk on, concrete is also the word we use for our thick and creamy frozen custard treats. Find the classic concrete at Ted Drewes in St. Louis. Kansas sayings: Stupid is the New Smart Kentucky sayings: Fewer oxy overdoses every year 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 855 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. County fair enduro stock car racing…two people to a car! Johnny Cash! Kansas county fair figure 8 racing and more! Circle track racing from Kentucky…PLUS the cattle auction. 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. Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” All photo albums are fully captioned. A major art museum visit and another county fair trackchasing opportunity A trip to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and more county fair trackchasing Trackchasing in Kentucky with a little bit of SoCal thrown in at the end 
