Greetings from Leesville, Louisiana
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Leesville 171 Speedway – Dirt Oval
Lifetime Track #2,073
THE EVENT BEFORE THE RACING It’s been a long time since my last Louisiana trackchasing trip. I woke up this in Greenville, Texas. I went to bed in Bossier City, Louisiana. I spent the early morning and then the afternoon trackchasing before I made it to Louisiana. If you would like to read about my 10 a.m. visit to the Texas Motor Speedway click on this link: If your interest runs toward SXS racing click this link for my afternoon visit to the Mud Creek Off-Road Park in Jacksonville, Texas: This is all about what happened this evening down in the Bayou. Leesville is a town of about 6,600 residents. It’s the parish seat of Vernon parish, Louisiana, United States. Leesville is the home of the Fort Polk U.S. Army installation. When I crossed into Louisiana from Texas I could definitely see the scenery change. I was in the “Bayou”. They are pretty laid back down here. It was a long drive over to Bayou country. I was fortunate that today’s racing in Jacksonville, Texas on the Mud Creek dirt road course lasted only about an hour. That allowed me to make the longish 163-mile drive to tonight’s racing location in Leesville, Louisiana. That drive took nearly three hours. Big Zach’s! I was hoping to eat some Louisiana seafood for dinner. I was in luck. I crossed into Louisiana from Texas at Logansport, Louisiana. I hadn’t driven a block before I came upon “Big Zach’s” seafood restaurant. I love Cajun/Creole food. I’ve been eating it since my first visit to New Orleans back in 1972. By the way my very first week of work was spent in meetings during the day but walking up and down and all around the French Quarter in New Orleans. Where did you spend you first week of work? Boiled crawfish! Big Zach’s was advertising boiled crawfish. I didn’t think I was up for crawfish but I figured some grilled shrimp would be delicious. I walked into the place and the folks couldn’t have been nicer. They immediately switched their flat screen TV to the NCAA basketball game featuring Wisconsin and Arizona. I was rooting for Wisconsin. I always root against Arizona. I am happy to report the Wisconsin Badgers prevailed. I’m trying to dramatically reduce my carbohydrates. That led me to the grilled shrimp salad. It was excellent. However, with tip a simple grilled shrimp salad (with seven huge shrimp) and Diet Coke still set me back about 18 bucks. Big Zach takes care of his customers. I was never formally introduced to big Zach. However I believe there was only one person in the restaurant, that was heavily staffed, who looked like a fellow named big Zach. He was a friendly fellow. The big guy stopped by my table more than once to confirm everything was going well. I would love to have had some of their jambalaya, fried catfish or shrimp Po boy sandwiches. However, that’s not part of my current plan. It will be someday in the future. The restaurant’s bathroom was unique. It was a relatively small room with a toilet and a SHOWER! I don’t get down here nearly as much as I would like. I have not trackchased all that much in Louisiana. I have only seen 11 Bayou tracks. That’s one of my lower state totals. I have double digit track totals in 44 states. No other trackchaser comes close to those numbers. Here’s how it works at ‘traditional’ tracks. Traditional oval tracks have heat races and feature races. If one racing division has 15 cars in total they might have five cars race in three heats. The heats would probably race 6-10 laps. Then all of the cars that were still mechanically capable of racing would be in a feature race. The feature might be 15-25 laps. The typical short track itinerary. The feature race is normally much more entertaining than the heat races. A typical race program might begin at 7:30 p.m. However, the typical short track normally starts 15-30 minutes late. Then all of the heat races, there can be 10-20 of them, will take another 1-2 hours. Usually an intermission is taken following the heat racing. The tardy start, heat racing and intermission normally puts the feature racing back to 9:30-10:00 p.m. What does all of this mean? It means the race fan is going to sit on a board, with dust blowing in their face in both cold and very hot conditions for 2-3 hours BEFORE a feature race ever hits the track. Stay with me. Let’s think about this some more. The majority of fans who watch races at short tracks are male. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. Could you get your girlfriend or wife to watch a sporting event in these conditions? If you got her to come once would you be able to get her to come on a regular basis. The butts in the seats say no. This is how big league sports does it. I very much enjoy seeing major league sporting events. By “major league” I’m including big-time college football and basketball. If I were to go to big-time college basketball game I could count on a few things. First, the game will start on time. Secondly, I’ll be watching the game in room temperatures. Finally, I’ll be heading toward the exit about two hours after the game started…on time. Is it any wonder that short tracks continue to be challenged with small crowds? Not everybody can afford to go to major league sports. I get that. Some folks are relegated to “minor league” efforts. However, no one likes to be taken advantage of with late starts, uncomfortable viewing positions and long drawn out programs. Yes, of course, there is the hard core racing fan. They have come to expect the racing to start 15-30 minutes late or more. They bring goggles and sometimes face masks so they can tolerate the dusty conditions. They are willing to sit on a board for 4-5 hours or more. However, look around the next time you visit a track. The “hard core” element is an older male fan. Older males are dying off. Crowds at short tracks are dying off. They’ve been doing that for years. There just aren’t all that many younger people replacing them. Don’t take this the wrong way. Please don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to “pick on” short tracks. However, I am a very direct person. I don’t mind mentioning the facts even when the facts make some folks uncomfortable. Look at what I have written. Do you see any major factual distortions? Do you see any gross exaggerations? No, you do not. The above is an accurate depiction of today’s short track racing world. I’m sorry to report the facts but it’s true. In a normal four-hour show the first two hours or so might be mostly heat racing. The last two hours of the program would probably be almost all feature racing. Feature racing is generally more entertaining than heat racing. If I could only be at the track for two hours, or if I only WANTED to be at the track for two hours I would rather be there for the feature events. Sometimes it’s just better to enjoy life. Tonight’s weather was perfectly clear. By having a sit down dinner with a quality meal I missed the first few races. I wasn’t too concerned about arriving late. There would be no weather-related cancellations. My butt and gut thanked me for this decision. THE RACING Leesville 171 Speedway – Leesville, Louisiana You only get one chance to make a good first impression. The Leesville 171 speedway is named for the highway that fronts the property. They could definitely do a little better job with lighting their highway track sign. In the dark it was hardly recognizable. Remember you only get one chance to make a good first impression! How about the cat fish platter or the shrimp po’boy sandwich? I paid a $10 general admission price. This was a two dollar senior discount over the regular price. I didn’t buy anything from the food concessions. They did have some unique items that you won’t find it very many tracks. If I had not eaten a nice dinner before arriving I might have tried the catfish platter for eight dollars or the shrimp Po boy sandwich for seven. They also had a thriving kettle corn concession. I almost broke down to buy some of the kettle corn but the line was so long and slow I gave up. Tonight’s racing. In the past couple of years I’ve seen a lot of racing that is not like what I grew up on. As a boy and young man my racing diet was seeing stock cars on ovals Tonight’s racing was about as generic as anyone could expect. They had a nice large grandstand with a relatively good crowd on hand. The lighting of the track was outstanding. However the lights behind the grandstand were almost nonexistent. That could be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Who’s the most important employee at the racetrack? I’ve mentioned more than once that I think the track announcer is the most important employee at the track. The announcer is the entertainment link between the racing and the fans. A good announcer creates drama and fans want drama from their racing. However tonight’s PA system went in and out with some regularity. A good deal of time it wasn’t working at all. When it was working the announcer didn’t tell the crowd much. I had a hard time knowing which classes were racing and how long the race might be. Heck, after intermission I wasn’t even certain if I might be watching more qualifier races or a feature event. I used to some clues to tell me that I was seeing feature racing. First of all these races followed intermission. That usually means features. Secondly the pit crews were bringing spare tires and jacks into the pit area aboard their four wheelers. They don’t normally do that unless it’s the longer distance feature racing. There were a lot of classes. They had factory stocks, street stocks, modifieds, mini stocks and the like. During intermission they even had one winged sprint car take a few hot laps. However, I didn’t see any sprint car heat or feature racing. I watched five feature events. I’m not sure I saw all the classes but I think I might have. The 22-car factory stock feature race might’ve been the best. So what does video from a traditional generic oval track look like? I took video from several different angles at the Leesville 171 Speedway. All of my video and photographic production for this trip will come from my Apple iPhone 6. It takes really good video clips and isn’t bad in low light either. Carrying my iPhone is a lot more convenient than lugging around my Panasonic Lumix 35mm camera too. AFTER THE RACING Up to this point I had driven well over 1,000 miles in about 50 hours. This was my third track of the day. I figured seeing five features was enough to give me a good feeling for this Louisiana track. Tomorrow: Oklahoma. Tomorrow’s destination is Longdale, Oklahoma. Longdale is a nine-hour drive from tonight’s Louisiana track. At the track I used my iPhone’s Google Maps app to look at the driving route up to Oklahoma. I figured I could drive a couple of hours tonight so that tomorrow’s drive time would be only seven hours up and over to Oklahoma. Google maps told me that I would be near Shreveport, Louisiana if I drove two hours from the track tonight. With that information I called Motel 6 from the track. Luckily they had a room available in the Shreveport suburb of Bossier City. I made a reservation was good to go. Carol and my current 2015 trip summary. I often call Carol after the races. I hope that Carol can come with me on one major trip every month. I make 3-4 major trips every month. I’ve already had separate trackchasing trips to Nebraska/Minnesota, Arizona, Oklahoma, Quebec/New Hampshire, Quebec, Minnesota/Manitoba, Wisconsin, Texas/Oklahoma & California, Northern California and this weekend’s trip to Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Trackchasing in Morocco With all of that trackchasing how much of it involved Carol? Just one trip! She joined me for the Minnesota/Manitoba trip. Remember I would like her to come with me on one major flying trip every month. She’s only made one trackchasing trip. However, during the first quarter, she and I made a 8-day trip to Austin, Texas to babysit our grandbabies. Then we went on an 8-day Mexican luxury cruise. Next weekend she and I will go to Maui, Hawaii for ten days to just kick back. Carol gets to choose. Carol is a smart cookie. She’s invited to go on ALL of my trackchasing trips. However, a trip like this one that covers nearly 2,000 miles in three days of driving with overnights in Motel 6 does not compete well with babysitting grandkids, cruising or lying on the beach in Hawaii. I get it! The trip met my expectations and more. Today had been an excellent day of trackchasing. It had been a most mediocre day of racechasing. That didn’t bother me in the least. At this stage of my fandom career I am a trackchaser and not a racechaser. Whenever I can see three tracks in a single day in three different places I’m happy. It looks like I’m going to be able to see one more tomorrow giving me six new tracks in three days. That’s unbelievable production considering I’m closing in on 2,100 lifetime tracks. When a chaser takes 2,100 “pins” off the map the remaining pins are all just a little further from the next. See you tomorrow in Oklahoma. Louisiana The Bayou state This evening I saw my 11th lifetime track in the Bayou state, yes the Bayou state. 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 Louisiana sayings: We’re not all drunken Cajun wackos, but that’s our tourism campaign QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,235 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport – trip begins Jacksonville, TX Corley, TX Ft. Wayne, TX Jacksonville, TX Leesville, LA TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Mud Creek Off-Road Park – oval – Press Pass Timberline Speedway – $10 Texas Motor Speedway – Ft. Worth, TX – No charge Mud Creek Off-Road Park – dirt road course – Press Pass Leesville 171 Speedway – $10 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 450 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of 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 what today’s trackchasing experience looked like: Racing from Leesville 171 Speedway 
