Michigan

All-Time Favorite Michigan Track:

Silverdome – Pontiac

Current lifetime trackchasing state rank: 3

Best Memories:

The state of Michigan is unique in one regard. They have more county fair once a year racing than any other state by far! I’ve seen racing at close to 100 county fairs/festivals in the Wolverine state. My records show I have more than 80 locations, mostly fairs, that have raced in the recent past that I still haven’t seen.

I scored the race from the press box at the Armada County Fairgrounds. Do I remember doing that? Absolutely not! However, I do keep meticulous records. Carol saw her 200th-lifetime track at the Bay County Fair Derby Arena. I saw NASCAR’s Bobby Labonte compete at the Berlin Raceway. I sat in one of the most steeply pitched grandstands at the Butler Motor Speedway (above).

I stopped off at the Chippewa Lake Ice Track returning from a Mexican Riviera cruise. The Coopersville Festival Grounds provided one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. I saw indoor arena racing at the DeltaPlex Arena. I got free tickets to the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and still couldn’t see a thing! The Eastern Michigan Fairgrounds was the “worst track ever” according to my racing mate that night, P.J. Hollebrand (above). At the Galesburg Speedway figure, 8 school bus race passengers rode in the bus during the race!! I had never ever seen that.

The Gingerman Raceway and Grattan Raceway Park road courses were scenic reminding me of California’s Napa Valley and Road America. Excellent flat track F8 racing at the Marion County Fairgrounds. I found a flyer in a grocery store announcing the racing, beginning about an hour after I saw the flyer, for the Orleans Raceway. Wild racing from the Posen (above) Summer Slam! The U.S. 13-14-year-old national girl’s softball team appeared before the figure 8 race at the Sanilac County Fairgrounds.

The Spartan Speedway provided maybe the fastest and the best F8 racing I’ve ever seen. I left Standish Asphalt Raceway with the comment, “The biggest disaster of a track I have ever seen that’s still active”. The Winston Motor Speedway was one of the best tracks I saw in all of 2007. I’ve seen a lot of really bad shows with small car counts in Michigan. On the other hand, the Unique Motorsports and USA Derby groups have entertained me all over the state. At the Manchester County Fairgrounds, I got to wish Sonny Hall (above) of USA Derby a happy retirement. As you can see he was wearing a “Reader Rest” to hold his glasses. I do too!

Racing indoors with the ASA stock cars at the Silverdome provided the ingredients for my all-time favorite track in Michigan. I got to talk with and get my picture with Dick Trickle. He told me he had to “take what the track would give him”. Butch Miller won that race.

If you see a track link in the above list simply click on it to be transferred to my Trackchaser Report. Here you will be able to read about my adventure at this particular track. Not only will you learn about my time at the track but you’ll hear about all of the interesting people, places and things I encountered during the entire trip, coming and going, to that speedway. Most of my Trackchaser Reports will also include a photo album and YouTube video. Check it all out. Don’t be afraid to use the “search” box in the upper right corner of my website’s home page. Just type in the track name or whatever and you’ll be directed to the place you want to be.     Below is a key to surface types and track configurations so you can understand the above list just a little bit easier.     Surface types:  D-dirt; P-paved; M-mixed   Configuration types:  O-oval; RC-road course; F8-figure 8 track