Greetings from Newton, Iowa
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Newton Kart Klub
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #2,339
THE EVENT I have had the opportunity to follow my trackchasing hobby all over the world. As this is written I have seen racing in 74 countries. My lifetime track total exceeds 2,300. Each and every year I will trackchase in 25-30 states. At track #1,040 I moved into the “World’s #1 Trackchasing” spot. Here’s the funny thing about that. I was perfectly content to remain in about seventh place in the worldwide trackchasing standings. Then I had rotator cuff surgery, which knocked me out of golf for about six months. With no golf and time on my hands I turned up my trackchasing by a notch or two. I discovered I liked MORE trackchasing and LESS golf. It didn’t take all that long to move up to the top of the world trackchasing standings at that point. I have wanted to see racing at the Newton Kart Klub for just about 10 years. They often raced on Friday nights and Friday night tracks have been hard to come by in recent years. However, the weather and other things prevented this from happening until now. My hobby is not only about racing. Trackchasing for me centers around three things. The racing part is pretty obvious. However of equal importance is the logistics of trackchasing and the opportunity to see the world. I live in Southern California. The vast majority of tracks are located in the Midwest and East. It takes a good deal of logistical planning to get from where I live to where the tracks are. For the past 15 years I have traveled about 175 nights each and every year. Surprisingly to some, more than half of those overnights were not part of trackchasing. Then there’s the travel just for the fun of seeing new things. You won’t want to miss my “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” page or my “Sports Spectating Resume” page on my website at www.randylewis.org. That will give you some understanding on how important seeing the world is with my hobby. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: 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 I’ve had the Newton Kart Klub racetrack in Newton, Iowa on my radar screen for well over 10 years. I must tell you that for most of that time they’ve had one of the most difficult to understand websites that I’ve ever seen. I could never really figure out when they were racing. In the past when they were racing it seemed like I always ran into weather problems. In the last year or so they’ve improved their website. They provide a much better handle on communicating scheduling information to the general public. It appears that now they have countable racing on various Friday, Saturday and Sundays from spring until early fall. That’s a great thing for me as a trackchaser. Yesterday I gave promoter Dave a phone call. I just wanted to confirm that what I was reading on their racing schedule was correct. We would be driving about nine hours from last night’s hotel location in Evansville, Indiana to make the Newton races. That’s the kind of drive you don’t want to make unless you’re sure they are going to race. Dave answered my call and confirmed all of my questions as well as their race plan. He even invited Carol and me to look him up when we arrived. Dave would make sure that we were fitted with complementary pit passes. Is Dave’s behavior unusual? No, it is not. Why is that? Iowans are some of the nicest people in the country. As a matter fact Iowans are part of the NIMS tribe. Never heard of the NIMS tribe? They are folks who live in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. I travel to 25-35 states every year. I average being in every one of the 50 states every two or three years. I’ve been doing that for years and years and years. After all this time I have found out where the nicest people in the United States live. That would be in Nebraska (N), Iowa (I), Minnesota (M) and South Dakota (S). I’ve come to calling these folks “NIMS” people. However, before we would darken the door of the Newton Kart Klub we had some traveling and family visiting to do. We would begin our morning with an hour and a half drive over to a place called Ozark, Illinois. What was in Ozark? Carol’s long-lost cousin Millie lives there with her husband Garry. Carol hadn’t seen Millie in approximately 45 years! We figured we were in the “area” so why not stop. I suspected that Ozark would be in a rural location. We would be meeting our extended family for breakfast at the Murphy’s General Store. We we arrived the pies were cooling on the stove in the back room. We would gain an hour in our morning drive from Evansville, Indiana, which is on Central standard time, over to Ozark, Illinois, which is on Central daylight savings time. Indiana never changes their time. Illinois does change their time once every six months or so. The rain followed us all the way. Last night it had rained most of the evening during the races in Corydon, Indiana. When we woke up this morning it was raining. It poured down rain for the entire drive over to Ozark. The rain chance today in Ozark was 100%. They were expecting 2-3 inches of rain everywhere in this part of the country. Carol mused, “That’s why everything is so green around here”. Other than the minor hassle of driving in the rain the precipitation was not going to be a problem for us. Eight hours to the north in Newton, Iowa, which is just down the street from Des Moines, the rain chances were only 10%. We could work with that. Having breakfast with Millie and Garry was a lot of fun. They really relish the small-town atmosphere. They’re into horses and often ride for five hours at a time several times a week. It was certainly fun be able to meet up with them after all these years. Equally enjoyable was experiencing a lifestyle that is so much different than ours. Murphy’s Ozark General Store used to be a gas station. When I went searching for the restroom I noticed the day’s pie production cooling on the stove. Everyone inside, all five people or so, seemed to know each other. Prices were low on a menu that included biscuits and gravy, bologna salad and pickle loaf with cheese sandwiches. Yes, this was much different than where we come from. When you’re traveling “different” is good. When breakfast was wrapped up we headed toward our destination, Iowa. It didn’t take us long to drive out of the rain in southern Illinois. Most of our drive up through Missouri was done under clear skies. I am not a big fan of our Infiniti QX70 rental vehicle. I should have stuck to my guns with National agent and waited for a Chrysler 300. The Infiniti is giving us about 23 MPG. The ride is rough over admittedly rough roads. It doesn’t look like we can pair our phones to the car’s audio system. The car key battery doesn’t work for remote entry. We have to close the car doors manually (that’s so 1980s) every time we leave it. I love the body design. Other than that the car is a big disappointment. On the other hand a pleasant surprise for this trip has been the addition of the McDonald’s iPhone app. I ran into a Mickey D customer in San Francisco last weekend. He recommended I get this app. At any given point in the day the app offers about 10 different “buy one get one free” opportunities or other types of savings at McDonalds. I eat at McDonalds often on these trips because the drive-thru is quick. They have lots of “meat and cheese” choices for my low-carb eating plan. Today we used one offer that gave us a free McDonald’s McDouble with the purchase of one. During the same stop we got a free order of medium French fries with a purchase of a large soft drink. In total with this order we got two double cheeseburgers, fries and a large soft drink for about $2.50. I don’t know how long the McDonald’s app has been available but it creates large savings when used properly. Of course, Carol had to eat the fries! THE RACING Newton Kart Klub – Newton, Iowa Tonight we pulled into the Newton Kart Klub at about 8 p.m. Dave, my track contact with the club told me that racing would begin at 8 p.m. It was a beautiful weather evening with no chance of rain. Temperatures would range from 65-70° with a 10-mile an hour wind. When we entered the track we were given a complementary pit admission. That was just the beginning of being treated very well by the staff at the Newton Kart Klub. Actually I have come to expect and fully appreciate the kindness and hospitality shown by Iowans. It permeates the state. The first thing on my agenda was to introduce myself to Dave. He told me I had full run of the place for picture/video production. Dave also mentioned they had 14 micro sprints in the pit area tonight. That was a great car account. They would also be racing a few classifications of quads tonight ridden by young kids as well as adults. For some reason the show did appear to get off to a slow start. I know that tracks sometimes start later than normal on Friday nights. People are working on most Friday. By the time they get out of work and make the trip from wherever they’re coming from a later start is better for them. Tonight each of the quad classes as well as the micro sprints would run one heat race for each competitor and a feature. The 14 micro sprints also qualified to determine their starting lineups. The track itself was most unusual. Let’s think about that comment for just a moment. Remember, I have seen racing at more than 2,300 racetracks. For me to say the track was “unusual” is a pretty strong statement. First of all, it was an oval. There’s nothing too unusual about that. The surface was dirt. In Iowa that means Iowa BLACK dirt. The track’s oval configuration was what made it so unusual. In reality the track was more like a circle than an oval. However, none of the above made it that much different from the nearly 2,000 oval tracks I had seen to this point. Then what DID make this track a “one of a kind”? The track was only about 1/6-mile in length. However, the backstretch was at an elevation a good 20-30 feet higher than the front stretch! Coming out of turns one and two the cars drove uphill. Coming out of turn three the cars made a strong left hand turn while driving straight downhill into turn number four. The track was fast….one of the fastest little tracks I’ve ever seen. You definitely don’t want to miss my video from this track. With practice and some of the delays the micro sprint races did not hit the track until about 10 p.m. They divided the 14 micros into three heat races. All of the micro sprint drivers for tonight would qualify for the feature, a 25-lapper. The amenities of the track, especially for a “kart” track were head and shoulders above most other similar tracks. They had a concession stand with a clearly painted menu sign. That way customers could decide what they wanted before they got to the window. You would be amazed that lots of tracks don’t off that. They had a few items that I don’t see that often at racetracks. Those included the walking taco, cotton candy, ice cream sandwiches and honey buns. Prices were reasonable. A hot dog sold for $2.50. I guess I could call the Newton Kart Klub a “kart” track. Tonight’s micro sprints were about the biggest type of racecar that competes here. That being the case I was pleasantly surprised to see they had a strong PA system. Most kart tracks only use their PA system to talk to the pits and ask the drivers to get on the track. That’s not the case at the Newton Kart Klub. They have an announcer. He covers the play by play of each race giving hometowns and the like. I was so impressed with track announcer, Craig Armstrong, I went up to say hello at intermission. Craig was one of the best announcers I’ve heard this year out of about 50 tracks visited. Craig was a personable guy who hails originally from Oregon. He used to run the now closed Portland Speedway in Portland, Oregon. I saw the Portland Speedway back in 1992 when they raced on an asphalt surface. That was lifetime track #209. Hard to believe that was more than 2,000 new track visits ago. Then I returned to the Portland Speedway in 2001 to see the track, now using a dirt surface, with Andy Hillenburg winning the sprint car feature. Back in 2001 I still hadn’t see all that many tracks. The dirt version of the Portland Speedway then was “only” lifetime track #514. I retired on June 30, 2002 from what most people would call traditional work with 581 lifetime tracks. With the Newton Kart Klub being lifetime track #2,339 I guess you could say I’ve had an active retirement. Craig’s racing background was likely as interesting or more than mine. Not only did he run the Portland Speedway but was also affiliated with the Portland International Raceway a 1.967-mile road course that opened in 1960. PIR was lifetime track #434 for me. I saw Gil de Ferren win a CART race there in 2000. Craig left Oregon for Iowa to open up the Iowa Speedway. That’s probably the biggest track in America that doesn’t have a NASCAR Cup race right now. NASCAR owns it. My new announcer friend now works for the city of Newton trying to bring new business their way. It was great meeting Craig. I met a lot of nice people in the pits. I guess that’s to be expected. I was in Iowa for gosh sakes. I don’t have all the names for the people I met. I’ll just thank everyone as a group for being helpful and welcoming to my wife and me as we visited the races tonight. By the way, the quads put on some excellent racing tonight. The final race of the night was the 25-lap feature race for the micros. All of the races were good tonight. The quads put on a good show on this track as well. The track stays tacky with mud balls still coming up into the grandstand at feature time. The lighting is well above average. Don’t miss my video! AFTER THE RACES We got out of the track at about 11:30 p.m. and made our way over to the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines. That was a little later than we expected. The actually racing part of the show took less than two hours. I’m not really sure why they started late. We’ll stay overnight in Des Moines. I’ve got some fun touring lined up in the capital city tomorrow including a stop in Story City, Iowa in the afternoon. Then we’ll head over to Wall Lake, Iowa for the 6 p.m. figure 8 racing start. I’ll close by telling you something you have likely already surmised. I was pleasantly surprised with the Newton Kart Klub experience. As mentioned I have been trying to see this track for probably more than 10 years. I had no idea the track was so unusually configured and provided such good racing. This was definitely one of my all-time best kart tracks. In a way it reminded me of the old El Toro Speedway in California. It was a fun little bullring. Good evening from Newton, Iowa. Iowa The Hawkeye state This evening I saw my 106th lifetime track in the Hawkeye state, yes the Hawkeye state. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in Iowa. I’ve seen 106 or more tracks in 4 separate states. This was just Carol’s 14th Iowa track. She’s seen about 25% as many tracks as I have in total. That would say she is under represented in Iowa tracks. What does that mean? She has missed out on her share of pork tenderloins! 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 Iowa offerings: Maidrite You can have your sloppy joe but here in Iowa we’re all about the Maidrite. The best part is you can make your Maidrite however you like. You can add ketchup, mustard, pickle, onion, or something a little crazier. A Maidrite is to a sandwich what a graveyard was to pop. The graveyard was the ultimate mixture of a variety of different kinds of pop. Yes, I said pop. QUICK 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 595 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 20 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 the video production from the racing action today. 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. The Newton Kart Club…a hidden little gem…plus more touring 
