Reprinted with permission from my August 1, 2004 Trackchaser Report
GREETINGS FROM OAK HILL, OHIO
SPECIAL NOTE
This is my last track report of this trip. Remember, I will only send you one report maximum per day unless there are so many reports to send that they would overlap with the beginning of the next trip, which is the case this week. Check out the Ed Esser and P.J. Hollebrand updates. These two trackchasers rank just above and below me in the trackchaser standings. Also note my next trackchasing trip schedule. If all goes well with that trip, I will have a significant message regarding my trackchasing. You won’t want to miss it.
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
We took the Appalachian Highway from Cincinnati to Oak Hill, Ohio. We are in Appalachia. There is no poorer part of the United States that right here. The Ninety-Three Speedway fully typifies the economic climate that grips this area. As you will see in my racing news section, this speedway has tied the Glad Rag Speedway in Saratoga Springs, New York for my all-time worst racetrack.
This is NOT the sign we saw
As we drove down State Route 93, we noticed a small commercial sign mostly hidden in the weeds alerting us to the fact that we had reached the Ninety-Three Speedway. We made a right turn into a one-lane road that had an overhead canopy of tree limbs and leaves. We were about ready to move from civilization into the land of Deliverance.
This road winds its way for a mile and a half back to the “speedway”. I don’t believe Jeff Gordon or Steve Kinser could get their hauler back here. We passed a couple of “houses”. I took some of pictures against Carol’s advice. George, this looked more dangerous than attending that KKK rally in North Georgia.
Life is a little less formal down here. One of the mailboxes read simply, “Jessie and Alicia”. Actually, I thought the name Alicia was excessively sophisticated for this area. Just off to the right, we noticed the track’s water truck being filled at a nearby pond. Two young boys were fishing with cane polls and corks. The three houses we passed on the entrance road had a collection of bicycles, hot wheels, old cars and clothes drying in the wind. Most of the home’s windows were in place. Give me a KKK rally any day.
My Monday flight home took me from Chicago to San Diego. San Diego is where I went to Marine Corps boot camp some 33 summers ago. There were several future Marines on the flight. I’m sure some of them were going to California for the very first time, just as I did in 1971. You can identify these fellows quite easily. They’re flying into San Diego with large yellow manila envelopes. I talked to a few of the future jarheads. They have ABSOLUTELY no idea what lies ahead, especially in the next 24 hours.
I was seated next to an eccentric looking gentleman as we waited to board our plane. He was bald on the top and had long, stringy hair that ran down his back for a foot or more. He was wearing a very loud Hawaiian shirt and scribbling on a paper bag. We were both watching TV and he started asking me questions. Who was it? Gallagher, the comedian. I’ve seen his shows on two occasions and think he’s very funny.
RACING NEWS:
It’s very unusual for short track racing facilities to race on Sunday nights. There are probably only thirty or forty regular Sunday night tracks in the country. I’ve seen all but about 6-8 of those tracks. That’s why I was shocked to hear from P.J. Hollebrand that Jackson County Speedway in Jackson, Ohio had switched from Fridays to Sundays AND the Ninety-Three Speedway just 18 miles down the road was also racing on Sundays.
This meant I could get a Sunday night double of regularly scheduled Sunday tracks in a very remote section of the country. In the trackchasing world, this is highly unusual. I had called the Jackson County Speedway earlier in the week and was told that Jackson gets about 100 cars and Ninety-Three would get somewhere between four and twelve cars. The Jackson representative advised me that I would be best to avoid the Ninety-Three Speedway. I suspected he might have a conflict of interest.
The Ninety-Three Speedway was scheduled to start racing at 7 p.m. We arrived about 7:20 p.m. and noticed two cars racing each other. By the time we paid our $5 admission those two cars were off the track and the “road hog” class hit the dirt racing surface.
Before I get into the racing, I need to describe the grounds. Unless, you’ve seen a recent documentary on the coalmines in Appalachia, you may not get the true picture. The ticket booth and refreshment stand was located in an old forest green mobile home trailer. Various windows had crudely painted signs with the words, “Tickets”, “Order here” and “Pick Up”. This trailer was old and decrepit. The ticket window had a huge plastic sack of garbage, which had split open, sitting right under the window.
There was a huge, old beagle dog walking slowly over the grounds. None of the numerous children wore any shoes at all. A rusty swing set marked the children’s play area. The restroom facility consisted of two port potties. In a dramatic gesture of opulence, each porta-john actually had an electric light illuminating the business area of the unit. In all my years of visiting portable toilets, I have never seen one with a light! I guess they busted the budget with the lights because the toilets did not have any locks. The boards of the grandstands were warped and most without any paint whatsoever. The few that did have paint were peeling badly with what I can only assume was lead based paint.
The track itself was just as run down as the general grounds. The Ninety-Three Speedway is a one-half mile dirt oval. Allan, the track does have lights and actually turned them on after it got so dark the cars could not safely race. The pit area is located off of turns three and four. The announcer sits on a little perch near the track fence at the entrance to the first turn. He was as country as you would expect. His first comment was, “Nobody gave me a name list, but you all know who everybody is, so just scream your heads off for your favorite”.
The flagman was the worst. If a car exited the track under green he would throw the yellow. If a car got loose but saved it he would throw the yellow. If the front row cars on a start were more than three inches apart he would throw the yellow flag. Now let’s add one more level of frustration. When the cars went around the track under the caution flag, they went around slowly. They went around real slow. I timed one normal caution flag lap at 64 seconds!
There were three classes racing: bombers, road hogs and four cylinder front wheel cars. We saw the road hogs (6) and four cylinders (16) race their heat races. Their three heats took about 45 minutes. The track then went to a 30-minute intermission. The announcer sat in his folding chair on his perch in the first turn for the entire 30 minutes and did not move or talk. He just chain smoked cigarettes. No one else did anything either for 30 minutes. I wanted to leave at 9 p.m. Just before that hour they announced they were ending intermission and would be running the bomber feature. Since we had missed the bomber heat races, we decided to stay.
After a little more of a delay, the bomber class took to the track. Three cars! Yes, that’s right. We had waited through a 30 minutes plus intermission to see a feature that had three cars. After one lap, one of the cars dropped out. At lap three one of the two remaining cars spun out causing a yellow flag. Fortunately, the race was checkered at six laps.
Just like Glad Rag, the facility was a pigsty and everyone moves at a snail’s pace. Ninety-Three Speedway is fully deserving of tying the Glad Rag Speedway (when it was dirt) for the worst facility I have ever visited.
RACE TRACK FOOD:
We didn’t feel like testing the cooking temperature control capabilities of the food service at this track.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE:
We closed the windows on the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix. I would estimate that 50% of the other cars in the parking lot had their windows rolled down. That’s very unusual. Is the crime rate that low? Are the windows broken?
ED ESSER & P.J. HOLLEBRAND UPDATE:
As of August 2, 2004, the battle for positions 7-10 in the worldwide trackchaser standings is as follows:
- P.J. Hollebrand – 768
- John Moore – 757
- Randy Lewis – 753
- Ed Esser – 697
There’s been lots of action from the trackchasers fighting it out for who will hold the seventh position in the worldwide standings. P.J. Hollebrand has just taken over the position from John Moore. John lives in Tennessee and does not participate in our trackchaser email conference. Therefore, he doesn’t submit his track totals until the end of the year. Maybe trackchaser webmaster Will White could contact John to help insure an accurate track count from time to time. Nevertheless, P.J. is the new holder of 7th place. Traditional trackchasers have been slow to recognize P.J.’s achievement in the public forum. I don’t know why that is. It seems to me that it’s a big deal when one chaser moves up in the top 10 standings.
P.J. has even offered some advice for my trackchasing. Here it is:
“I have thought of some realistic goals for you to shoot at. Since you are pretty much known now as the leading trackchaser west of the Mississippi. I think it would be
more than fitting for you to attempt to be the leading trackchaser in each state West of the Mississippi. A lot of these states don’t have too many tracks, so I think you are very capable of this goal. Also, your wife will like it, since it will keep you a little bit closer to home.”
Of course, I appreciate P.J.’s advice, but if I did this I would never advance in the worldwide rankings or catch P.J. P.J., were you aware of this when you made this recommendation? I probably won’t catch you this year, but maybe next year. Of course, my P&G recruiting training has given me the ability to identify the good and the bad, the scam artists, the con men, and the imposters. P.J. is none of these and just a downright nice guy.
That takes care of who’s ahead of me but what about that pesky Ed Esser who ranks just one spot below me? It seems that Ed made a critical trackchasing mistake this past weekend. What would that be? He went back to tracks he likes to see rather than go to new tracks. Actually, this isn’t a mistake, it’s good judgment! I on the other hand bypassed the tracks I liked for some very questionable racing.
I saw 11 new tracks in five days. The Sportsdrome Speedway was probably the best track I went too in a very weak field. The Ionia figure 8 races were also entertaining. I was able to see both heats (where they were offered) and features at 8 of the 11 tracks I visited. I didn’t stay for the feature at three figure 8 venues. From my point of view a figure 8 heat race is almost identical to a figure 8 feature. They start about the same number of cars and run a similar number of laps.
Since my last update Ed has added three new tracks. He is now 56 tracks behind me. P.J. added two new tracks and is a shrinking 15 tracks ahead of me.
I’ve very proud to say that as of August 2, 2004, I have seen 71 new racetracks. That breaks my old record of 70 tracks in one season and I’ve got plenty more planned for the rest of the year. These 71 tracks now rank me #1 in the world of trackchasing for 2004. I’m proud of that. I don’t expect to hold the lead, but just being out in front this late in the season is a good feeling. Ed is now second in the 2004 world standings with 69 tracks.
CUMULATIVE DRIVING DISTANCES:
Chicago O’Hara Airport – trip begins
Grand Rapids, Michigan – 221 miles (Allan drove to Ionia, Munger & Auburn)
Roseville, Illinois – 629 miles
Madison, Illinois – 779 miles
Jeffersonville, Indiana – 999 miles
Jackson, Ohio – 1,403 miles
Oak Hill, Ohio – 1,421 miles
Chicago O’Hara Airport – trip ends – 1,991 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES (U.S. DOLLARS):
Ionia Fairgrounds – $10 ($5 parking)
Munger Fairgrounds – $0
Tri-City Speedway – $0
Warren County Fairgrounds – $7
Gateway Intl Raceway (road course) – $0
Sportsdrome Speedway – $10
Jackson County Speedway – $10
Ninety-Three Speedway – $5
Total race admissions – $42
Randy Lewis
That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average.
Racetracks visited in 2004 (** not the first time to visit this track)
- Ninety-Three Speedway, Oak Hill, Ohio, August 1
- Jackson County Speedway, Jackson, Ohio, August 1
- Sportsdrome Speedway, Jeffersonville, Indiana (figure 8), July 31
- Sportsdrome Speedway, Jeffersonville, Indiana (oval), July 31
- Gateway International Speedway – road course, Madison, Illinois, Illinois, July 31
- Warren County Fairgrounds (oval), Roseville, Illinois, July 30
- Warren County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Roseville, Illinois, July 30
- Tri-City Speedway (inner oval), Auburn, Michigan, July 29
- Tri-City Speedway (outer oval), Auburn, Michigan, July 29
- Munger Fairgrounds, Munger, Michigan, July 29
- Ionia Fairgrounds, Ionia, Michigan, July 28
- Thayer County Speedway, Deshler, Nebraska, July 18
- Heartland Park-Road Course, Topeka, Kansas, July 18
- Montgomery County Speedway, New Florence, Missouri, July 17
- Soggy Bottom Raceway, Greenup, Illinois, July 17
- Wayne County Speedway, Wayne City, Illinois, July 16
- Music City Motorplex, Nashville, Tennessee, July 15
- Clarksville Speedway, Clarksville, Tennessee, July 14
- Tri-State Speedway, Pocola, Oklahoma, July 13
- Tulsa Speedway, Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 12
- Park City Raceway, Valley Center, Kansas, July 11
- Heartland Park – Road Course, Topeka, Kansas, July 11
- Nevada Speedway, Nevada, Missouri, July 10
- Adrian Speedway, Adrian, Missouri, July 10
- Bolivar Speedway, Bolivar, Missouri, July 9
- Dallas County Speedway, Urbana, Missouri, July 9
- U.S. 30 Speedway (small oval), Columbus, Nebraska, July 8
- U.S. 30 Speedway (large oval), Columbus, Nebraska, July 8
- Butler County Speedway, Allison, Iowa, June 27
- Webster County Fairgrounds, Ft. Dodge, Iowa, June 27
- Dallas County Fairgrounds, Adel, Iowa, June 26
- Butler County Speedway, Rising City, Nebraska, June 25
- Hamilton County Fairgrounds, Aurora, Nebraska, June 25
- The Speed Bowl, Red Cloud, Nebraska, June 23
- Junction Motor Speedway, McCool Junction, Nebraska, June 22
- Belle-Clair Speedway, Belleville, Illinois June 13
- Charleston Speedway – Road Course, Charleston, Illinois June 13
**Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, June 12
- Doe Run Raceway, Doe Run, Missouri, June 11
- Fredericktown Raceway, Fredericktown, Missouri, June 11
- Highland Speedway, Highland, Illinois, June 8
- Pine Ridge Speedway, Baldwyn, Mississippi, May 29 (Carol’s #153)
- Memphis Motorsports Park-Road Course, Memphis, Tennessee, May 29 (Carol’s #152)
- Simpson County Speedway, Mendenhall, Mississippi, May 29 (Carol’s #151)
- Southern Speedway, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, May 28 (Carol’s #150)
**Charleston Speedway, Charleston, Illinois, May 22
- Coles County Speedway, Loxa, Illinois, May 22
- Lincoln Trail Motorsports Off Road Park, Casey, Illinois, May 22
- Warren County Speedway (oval track), Indianola, Iowa, May 21
- Warren County Speedway (Figure 8 track), Indianola, Iowa, May 21
- Firebird International Raceway – East Course, Chandler, Arizona, May 2 (Carol’s #149)
- Pagota Motorcycle Club, Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, April 25
- Mahoning Valley Speedway, Lehighton, Pennsylvania, April 24
- Shellhammer’s Speedway, Leesport, Pennsylvania, April 24
- Hill Valley Speedway, Orbisonia, Pennsylvania, April 24
- Thunder Alley Speedpark, Evans Mills, New York, April 22
- Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium, Belle Vue, United Kingdom, April 12
- Buxton Raceway, Buxton, United Kingdom, April 12
- Brampton Raceway, Brampton, United Kingdom, April 12
- York Autograss, York, United Kingdom, April 12
- Sheffield Stadium, Sheffield, United Kingdom, April 11
- Blyton Raceway, Blyton, United Kingdom, April 11
- Hunmanby Raceway, Hunmanby, United Kingdom, April 11
- Skegness Stadium, Skegness, United Kingdom, April 10
- Silverstone, Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, United Kingdom, April 10
- Mildenhall Stadium, Mendenhall, Suffock, United Kingdom, April 9
- Bovingdon Circuit, Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, April 9
- Sunshine Speedway (figure 8), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3
**Sunshine Speedway (oval), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3
- Lubbock Motor Speedway, Lubbock, Texas, March 21
- Thunderbird Speedway, Crandall, Texas, March 20
- Kennedale Speedway Park, Kennedale, Texas, March 20
- Texas World Spdwy (Road Course), College Station, Texas, March 20
- Heart O’ Texas Speedway, Waco, Texas, March 19
**Central Arizona Raceway, Casa Grande, Arizona, January 20
Planned new racetracks (on the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip)
9-Aug Figure 8 Butler Farm Show Butler, PA
10-Aug EMRA Road Racing Pocono Raceway-RC Pocono, PA
11-Aug Fair race Clinton Cty Speedway Loch Haven, PA
12-Aug Figure 8 Cuyahoga Cty Fair Berea, OH
13-Aug Regular program Motordrome Spdwy Smithton, PA
14-Aug SCCA Beaverrun Wampum, PA
14-Aug ASA Stock Cars Jennerstown Spdwy Jennerstown, PA
15-Aug Mini-Sprints Blanket Hill Spdwy Blanket Hill, PA
1 comment
If only I lived closer to 93 Speedway — I’d make it my Sunday night home track. You should buy that place and embark on a career in race promotion. I’d be glad to draw up the plans for a few improvements.