Liberal Fairgrounds Speedway

 

 

This didn’t look good and it wasn’t……………more in “One Close Call”.

 

Visibility 30 feet; Visibility 0 feet……………..more in “One Close Call”

 

I was returning to Greensburg, Kansas site of the first ever EF5 tornado on May 4, 2007………..details in “One Close Call”.

 

Was this motel clerk looking to get clocked?……………..more in “The Details”

 

They acted like they had all night.  They didn’t……………..more in “Race Review”

 

I’ve been very fortunate.

I live in Southern California.  That’s a long way from where most of the racetracks I visit are located.  To get to these remote locations first I must jump on an airplane.  Then I need to rent a car.  I often end up driving very long distances to reach my ultimate destination.

 

 

I’ve been driving rental cars some 25,000-30,000 miles per year for a very long time.  Knock on wood I’ve never had an accident where I was at fault.  I’ve had a guy run into us in Cannes, France.  After a trip to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan the rental car company wanted to charge me for hail damage.  They later rescinded that claim when I used the Canadian Weather Service data against them.  With probably a million miles in the rearview mirror with rental cars I’ve been very fortunate.  That nearly came to an end this past Monday.

I had all day to get there.

Very few people know in advance the day they are going to die.  No one really likes to think about that do they?  However, today I came as close as I ever have to “buying the farm” as we used to say back on the block.  Let me tell you how it all came about.

 

 

I woke up this morning in Omaha, Nebraska.  I was lucky enough to go to sleep this evening in Liberal, Kansas.  I had 492 miles of driving to complete before I reached Liberal.  However, I had all day to get there and Google Maps told me, at highway speeds, the drive would take about eight hours.

 

 

It was raining in Omaha when I left on the trip.  My iPhone weather app showed it raining nearly all the way.  However, it looked as if the last hour of my drive would be clear.  Although the weather would be hot in Liberal, Kansas upon my arrival I really wasn’t concerned about being rained out.

 

 

Much of my drive would be along two-lane rural highways.  I’d prefer divided highway travel but in this part of the country you take what you can get.  My drive took me across the border into Kansas.  I passed through cities like Concordia, Salina and Hutchinson.

This didn’t look good and it wasn’t.

All the while I was looking at the weather radar on my iPhone.  During my drive I wasn’t so much concerned with the weather on the way to my destination in Liberal, Kansas.  I was just thinking about what the weather would be like IN Liberal.  From all indications things looked fine there.  The weather had moved through and was well east of tonight’s track location.

 

 

When the weather radar indicates rain it will normally show up in the color green.  When the rain is a bit more severe radar color turns to yellow and then to orange.  In the most severe storms radar maps will glow RED.  I took a couple of screen shots of the weather as I traveled along Kansas state highway 61.  It seemed as if the bad weather was perfectly overlaid onto the highway as I traveled southwest.  There was a good deal of “RED” on the radar I was seeing.

 

 

K-61 was commissioned in 1932.  It’s 80 miles long.  This Kansas state highway is your typical rural highway.  The shoulders are narrow and in many places large drop-offs lead to drainage ditches just beyond the highway shoulders.

 

 

Traffic wasn’t heavy but it was consistent.  There were just about as many trucks as there were cars.  It seems as if much of the truck traffic was farm related carrying crops back and forth.  I didn’t pay much attention until the rains began to pick up.

I usually avoid the rain but not today.

I don’t drive that much in the rain.  Where I live in California it rarely rains.  When I’m on the road with trackchasing I don’t see much rain either.  Given the choice I will always choose the area where rain is least expected so I don’t get rained out.  Over the years I’ve become pretty good at avoiding rain.

 

 

However, tonight I would be attending a racing show on a Monday night.  There isn’t much racing on Mondays.  I felt lucky to have found a race on a Monday night.  The rain wasn’t going to bother my destination.  Therefore I didn’t give much thought to the rain I would be driving through on the way to the racetrack.

Maybe I missed the key signs.

However, after I stopped to get gas in Hutchinson, Kansas the rain began to get worse.  I didn’t think too much about it and continued on with my trip.  I rarely, if ever, stop when the rains come down hard.  I always figure the really hard rain can’t continue much longer.  Often there isn’t a good place to pull over too anyway.

 

 

When I was about ten miles east of Preston, Kansas the rain really began to come down.  I had noted there was a good deal of semi-truck traffic in this area.  I was surprised by how fast those trucks were driving in such bad weather.  I still hadn’t given much thought to pulling over and waiting the storm out.

Visibility 30 feet;  Visibility 0 feet!

It was at this point that the rain picked up with such velocity that visibility was down to about 30 feet.  By know my speed had slowed to 20 M.P.H. or so.  I was straining to see the pavement.

 

 

Then the heaviest rain I have ever experienced began.  I grew up in Illinois and I’ve seen a few “gushers” in the past.  This was a “gusher plus” at this point.

 

 

I had now slowed to about 10 M.P.H.  I wanted to go faster fearing a fast moving truck would hit me from behind but I didn’t dare.  Then the very worst happened.

 

 

The rain had become so strong my visibility was zero.  Have you ever been in a carwash and the water rushes over the windshield.  For a few moments you can’t see a thing?  That’s where I was on Kansas state highway 61.

 

 

For a period of thirty seconds or more I could not see anything ahead of me.  I was fighting to keep my car on the narrow two-lane highway.  At one point I caught a glimpse of the dirt road shoulder on my right.  I instinctively jerked the wheel to the left.

 

 

It wasn’t long after that move that I noticed I was about ready to drive off the highway on the left side of the road with my rental car.  Just before that happened I jammed on the brakes fearing I would go over the side of the highway and into the rain-swollen ditch a few feet below the highway’s grade.

First a sigh of relief and then….panic.

Now I had the car stopped entirely.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t driven my car off the highway.  I still couldn’t see anything ahead of me in this downpour.  At that point severe panic set in!  To the best of my reckoning I was now PARKED on the highway and sitting at a dead stop in the wrong lane of Kansas highway 61!

 

 

In an instant I expected a huge semi-truck carrying a summer’s worth of harvest to be barreling down the lane I was parked in at a high rate of speed.  It was raining so hard I wasn’t sure which way to turn at this point.  I was totally disoriented.  I also worried that if I were to pull back into my own lane another huge truck or speeding car would ram into me from behind.

 

 

I’m not sure how long I sat in the car with it parked in the wrong lane of the highway during this massive rainstorm.  I’m suspecting it was somewhere between 5-10 seconds.  It was definitely long enough for on oncoming vehicle to take me out if that’s how God wanted to end things.

Yes, I admit it….I was shaking.

About this time the rain let up just enough for me to see a little.  I was able to get my car going, slowly, in the right direction.  I was shaking.  It was still pouring down rain.  I needed to get off this highway and get parked to ride this one out.  However, there was no place to pull over.

 

 

I drove on for nearly a mile until I came across a side road.  I couldn’t get off the highway fast enough.  This side road crossed a set of railroad tracks just 75 feet or so from the main highway.  The train tracks were slightly elevated by 3-5 feet.  On the other side of the tracks I could see a huge water puddle that stretched for a few hundred yards.  I was glad I didn’t have to cross those tracks because my car would have floated away.

I just sat there.

It was at this point that I parked the car and JUST SAT THERE.  You’ll see and hear the strength of the wind in my video.  The gusts had to be well over 50 M.P.H.  Cars and trucks were still passing by on the highway.  It continued raining hard and those vehicles were traveling way too fast for conditions.

 

 

I will tell you this.  It’s a very bad feeling to have no visibility whatsoever and being sitting crossways on a fairly busy rural highway.  Who wants to buy the farm on a Monday afternoon in Kansas?  Not me.  Don’t miss the pictures, which back up a good deal of what I’ve just described.

This small town was under water.

After about 30 minutes I got back on highway 61.  In less than ten miles I passed through the 160-person town of Preston, Kansas.  The entire place was under water.  Don’t miss the photos and video of Preston!  I continued on to Pratt, Kansas about 20 miles west of where the hardest rains had hit.  Pratt was nearly dry!  It hadn’t really rained much at all there.  I grabbed a sandwich.

 

 

Just 31 more miles down the road I drove through Greensburg, Kansas.  Greensburg is home to a tornado that hit on May 4, 2007.  That tornado ranks in Kansas’ all-time top ten storms.  If your tornado makes that list in a place like Kansas you’ve had a bad storm.

 

Late in 2007, just as the sun had set, I drove eastward through Greensburg, Kansas.  In the low light I could see the devastation that storm had strewn.  The Greensburg storm has the distinction of being the FIRST EF5 tornado ever reported on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with wind speeds of 205 M.P.H.

 

 

Today as I drove through Greensburg, again just after sunset but westward this time I could see the effect of the storm that hit seven years ago.  Kansas can get some more than tough weather.  I experienced that today and lived to tell about it.  You can bet that I’ll try to get off the road a little quicker if I get the chance in the future.

 

 

I’ve included a short piece, from the National Weather Service, describing the 2007 tornado that pretty much eliminated Greensburg, Kansas.  Kansas has had more E5/EF5 tornados since 1950 than any other state.  Weather in this area is not to be messed with.

 

 

Counties Affected: Comanche, Kiowa; Length: 26 Miles; Maximum Width: 1¾ Miles; Killed: 11; Injured: 63; Damage: $250 million

 

“This terrifying tornado started in Comanche County and entered Kiowa County at 903 PM. It curved north, then northwest, then made a complete loop 2 miles northwest of Greensburg as it dissipated. This tornado, which drew, and continues to draw, national attention, leveled or destroyed 95% of Greensburg. So powerful was the twister that, despite adequate warning, 11 people were killed, some of whom were in basements. In all, 961 homes and businesses were destroyed, 216 sustained major damage and 307 received minor damage. Several oil storage tanks were destroyed, no doubt causing environmental concerns. Some debris hadn’t been cleaned up as late as July 26th and Highway 54, which runs through town, was closed for a month. This monstrous vortex went down in history as the first tornado to be rated EF5 on the new Enhanced Fujita Scale with windspeeds that were estimated at 205 mph. It was also the first magnitude F5/EF5 tornado to occur since the Moore, Oklahoma F5 Tornado of May 3, 1999; an incredible twister that contained speeds of around 315 mph.”

 

 

My day had a leisurely beginning.

My morning began with a 45-minute powerwalk in the rain.  However, the temperature was warm enough that the wet weather felt comfortable.  Then I was back in the Marriott enjoying their complimentary hot buffet breakfast on the private concierge level.

 

It’s hard to believe I can buy rooms on Priceline.com at deeply discounted rates and still get all of the amenities the guest who paid full price gets.  To max out you simply need to know how the system works and then work the system.

 

 

I had eight hours of driving ahead of me and all day to do it.  So off I went from Omaha, Nebraska to Liberal, Kansas.  Liberal is a town of 20,000 people in the far southwest corner of Kansas.

Don’t miss the “One Close Call” tab.

During the trip I would need to stop for gas.  That’s when the heavier rain began (detailed in “One Close Call”).  When I made this stop I also had a visit to the connected convenience store.  I’ll be out on this trip for about 14 days.  That will require that I do laundry one time.  That sounds like a chore and everyone knows I DON’T like chores.  But when I’m on the road I have to learn to be self-sufficient right.  When I get home I will act like an invalid again so Carol will take care of everything.  This works for me.

 

 

This meant I had to pick up a mini-package of Tide detergent.  Of course “my” company Procter & Gamble makes Tide.  I try to support the company in any way I can.  I feel it’s good karma as long as I need the company’s stock price to increase so my stock options will be more valuable when exercised.

Lunch?

I also picked up lunch.  What was lunch today?  A can of Vienna sausages.  You’ve heard me many times tell you how poor we were when I was growing up.  Please should never mistake that as a criticism but as an observation.  We didn’t KNOW we didn’t have anything or at least I didn’t.  We routinely ate SPAM, fried bologna, fried chicken and Vienna sausages.  Even to this day, I’ve been known to stop at a convenience store at 11 o’clock at night and pick up a can of SPAM or Armour’s Vienna sausages.  That would be enough to get me to Liberal, Kansas.

 

 

During my drive I passed first the Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska and then the Minneapolis Raceway in Minneapolis, Kansas.  The Minneapolis Raceway, a very nice facility, ran only a couple of years and then closed about three years ago.  I haven’t been there yet.  However, the place is nice enough that someone will take it over and then I’ll get to see some racing there.  Today’s trip also took me through Belleville, Kansas home to the famous “Belleville Nationals”.

Greensburg has had some horrific luck.

After clearing Greensburg, Kansas and before I arrived in Liberal I stopped at probably the worst highway rest area I have ever seen.  This place was filthy with graffiti on the walls.  It was a real bad place.

 

 

In this same general area was a junkyard (auto recycler?) easily visible from the highway.  Junkyards used to be easy to spot everywhere.  Then, in what might have been a federal law, junkyards operators were required to put up fencing to block the blight from the highway view.  Today’s yard must have been exempt from that law.  I always enjoyed driving past junkyards in the hopes of seeing some old retired racecars.

 

Every motel should do this.

Following the races I checked into the Super 8 Motel in Liberal, Kansas.  There were not a lot of upscale choices in town.  The Super 8 seems about as nice as any.

 

 

Just inside the lobby door was a sign titled “What to see in Liberal”.  Options included the Mid-American Air Museum, Dorothy’s House – Follow the Yellow Brick Road and the Coronado Museum.  I wish every motel offered suggestions like this.  I queried the front desk clerk and decided I would visit the air museum tomorrow.

Was this desk clerk looking to get clocked?

The clerk was busy talking to her friend when I came along to check in.  Without too much attention to me she gave me my key and directed me to my second floor room.  I always ask for top floor rooms so I don’t have people tromping on my ceiling all night.

 

 

Of course, after I trudged up a steep flight of stairs with all of my luggage my key didn’t work.  I half suspected that someone was already in the room.  I returned to the front desk, explained the problem, and was given another room key and directed to try again.  I did and got the same result.

 

 

Now I was standing in front of the desk clerk for the third time in ten minutes.  She couldn’t believe my key wouldn’t work.  She insisted we go up to the second floor (for my third time) and she would get to the bottom of this.  When she tried the key it wouldn’t work.  “I think there’s somebody in that room” she said.  It was all I could do to keep from clocking her as we used to say back on the block.

 

 

Soon I was standing at the check-in desk for the FOURTH time in 12 minutes.  I was being given a key to another room on the second floor, which was about a five-minute walk from the front desk.  I tried the key and fortunately, for the desk clerk, it worked.  Only my fellow “road warriors” can truly appreciate all of this stuff that doesn’t go just right on the road.

 

 

Liberal Fairgrounds Speedway – Liberal, Kansas

 

 

I don’t see very many Monday night races.

Seeing a race on a non-holiday Monday night is most unusual.  However, luckily for me, they would be racing as part of their county fair.  It was also a good strategic idea to knock out such a remotely located track like this one on a Monday night.

 

At race time this evening the temperature was 91 degrees under what had been mostly sunny skies.  This was such a change from the cool and wet weather that had been part of most of my drive today.  The hot weather was typical of Kansas at this time of year.

Pancake Blvd??

The main drag in Liberal is called Pancake Boulevard.  Is that because tornados can knock everything down as flat as a pancake.  It was easy to find the fairgrounds.  However, the walk from the parking area to the ticket office was long.  Admission was $10 U.S.

 

 

I tried sitting in the top of the covered grandstand.  It was just too hot up there with no breeze whatsoever.  I relocated down toward the fourth turn.  Here there was a nice set of bleachers and not very many people.  With just the sky overhead it was as cool as it was going to get under these conditions.

What?  A curfew?

I was using my race scanner tonight.  That was most helpful, as it always is, in getting that “behind the scenes” good to know info.  I picked up one good piece of information.  The track had an 11 p.m. curfew.  Initially that didn’t seem like much of a problem but later I would find out it was.

 

 

Tonight there were six classes of racecars.  The best way to see what was racing tonight is to view my YouTube video.  Once it gets dark it’s difficult to get good still pictures of the racing.  There were about 15 sprint cars, just five hornets, two classes of IMCA modifieds and some other lower level stock cars.

They acted like they had all night; they didn’t.

All of the divisions, except the hornets, offered good racing.  However, the track was a little too large (1/2-mile dirt oval) for my tastes and dusty.  They took way too long with their intermission.  They were having bike giveaways for the kids and then some races for the children.  They acted as if they had all night…and they didn’t.

 

 

By feature time the track was getting really dusty.  During the features they had to water the track more than once.  You won’t see that very often.  Some of the feature racing was cut short because of the curfew.  With the lap reductions they just made it by 11 p.m.

Dusty?…today?  You’re kidding right?

This had to be one of the dustiest race events of 2013.  What made that so unusual was that I had driven through seven hours of rain, some torrential, to get to this dust bowl.  Want to see how dusty it was.  Check out my pictures as part of my Picasa photo album attached to this Trackchaser Report.

 

 

 

 

STATE COMPARISONS

Kansas

 

The Sunflower State

This evening I saw my 30th lifetime track in the Sunflower state, no not the Jayhawk state.  I have now seen thirty or more tracks in 18 different states.  None of the regional trackchasers can come anywhere close to that mark.

 

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

Kansas sayings:  Halfway to everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL ITINERARY

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,232 miles

Dallas, TX (DFW) – Nashville, TN – 630 miles

 

RENTAL CAR #1

Nashville International Airport – trip begins

Bowling Green, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – 315 miles

 

RENTAL CAR #2

Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins

Rossburg, OH

Peoria, IL

Urbana, IL

Indianapolis International Airport – 778 miles

 

AIRPLANE

Indianapolis, IN (IND) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 177 miles

Chicago, IL (ORD) – Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) – 461 miles

 

RENTAL CAR #3

Sioux Falls Regional Airport – trip begins

Luverne, MN

Eppley Field (Omaha) – 252 miles

 

RENTAL CAR #4

Eppley Field (Omaha) – trip begins

Arlington, NE

Liberal, KS

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds – $13

Eldora Speedway – $40 (not trackchasing expense)

Peoria Speedway – $13 (not trackchasing expense)

Champaign County Fairgrounds – Complimentary

Rock County Speedway – $9

Washington County Fairgrounds – $9

Liberal Fairgrounds 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 350 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,874

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10

 

 

 

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report