Greetings from Le Mars, Iowa
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Plymouth County Fairgrounds
Dirt figure 8
Lifetime Track #2,136
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 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. I’ll try my best to respond. Thanks! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES I was about to experience the highlight of my entire “Long and Arduous Mega Trackchasing Summer Tour”. SUNDAY This was a BIG miss. Often times that type of forecast will change a time or two as we get closer to the actual date. I’ve had a lot of 50% chance of rain predictions five days in advance turn into a reasonable weather day with no rain whatsoever on the actual day itself. However that was not the case for today. I had some good support from my friends. I had some Illinois friends helping me with today’s race track planning. One texted with his concern about the morning weather. Of course I had seen the rain on the forecast and I shared that concern. A couple of days ago I had used a relatively new service that is a real benefit to the race fan. The information comes from www.rainedout.com. Race tracks sign up with rainout.com to help alert their fans when they have to postpone a program because of bad weather. Oops. U-turn! I don’t see much rain at home or on the road. Near St. Louis? No tracks means more fun this time. When I got the rain out news I instantly changed my destination from the greater St. Louis area to Peoria, Illinois. I had a Priceline reserved hotel there. Peoria would be a good repositioning point to what I had planned for tomorrow Monday and then Tuesday as well. I’m planning on seeing some old friends who live in the Midwest that I haven’t seen in some cases for a little while and in some cases for a very long time. I’ll tell you more about that on Monday and Tuesday. How about the Brickyard 400? I love NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. I’m not nearly as big a fan of their two lesser divisions. Don’t get me wrong I am a major dirt late-model and dirt modified fan as well. I like just about anything racing on our nation’s dirt oval short tracks. IMS sucks. The IMS museum is great. However when I went to the Indy 500 as a fan, and we had great seats, watching the race was terrible. The cars raced past our position so quickly I couldn’t even read their numbers. I had to memorize all of the driver’s color combinations on the fly simply to have some understanding of who was driving past. It takes an IndyCar about 40 seconds to make a lap at the speedway. Even though we had a fantastic seats we could see the cars for only about 10 seconds after they came into our view and before they left our vantage point. This meant that for a full three quarters of the lap we couldn’t see the cars at all. Who wants to go to any entertainment activity where for three quarters of the program you can’t see what you came to see? Not me. Not me. I pressed the accelerator a little harder when I entered Indianapolis. What to do in Peoria? About half the time when I check a team’s schedule they are not playing a game at their home venue. That makes some sense doesn’t it? Each team plays the same number of games at home as they do away. Therefore you might reasonably expect that about 50% of the time when I check a team’s schedule they won’t be playing at home! However I was in luck. The Chiefs were playing the Kane County Cougars at 6:30 p.m. That was perfect. I was going to arrive into Peoria 2-3 hours before the game would begin. However the weather that had knocked me out of trackchasing near St. Louis was also going to affect Peoria and their baseball game. Maybe there was something ELSE to do. Going back in time. I still have friends from high school in these areas. I haven’t been as good as I should have been in keeping in contact with my old friends. I’m trying to correct that as I go along. The highlight of this long trip. Hello is this Walt? I tried the phone number I had for him but of course after such a long time it wasn’t a working number any longer. Then I did a Google search for his construction business. That search came up with a good phone number. Who? Of course I wouldn’t impose. I already had accommodations reserved. Nevertheless Walt, Mary and I went out for a lovely dinner and talked until they closed the place. I was really glad I took the initiative to reestablish contact. Walt and I go all the way back to junior high basketball. MONDAY Memory lane was just beginning. My long-time ago best friend. As a boy I was always over to his house playing board games with Larry and his parents. When we were in the fifth and sixth grade Larry’s parents would take us to our high school’s varsity basketball games. Back in those days the varsity basketball game was as big as any NBA game I’ve ever watched. Larry and I were two of the better athletes in our high school. However I think Larry was just a little bit better than me. He ended up going to college (Northern Arizona) on a football scholarship. Larry was a member of our wedding party when Carol and I were wed more than 43 years ago. Hard to imagine. It was with some trepidation that I made a phone call to Larry in the hopes we could get together. Larry’s ex-wife Bev, a reader of my Trackchaser Reports, had given me his phone number. Larry didn’t have any idea who was calling when he answered the phone and I began speaking. However as soon as he recognized it was me we were both glad I had made the phone call. Let’s have lunch. Larry was nice enough to bring his sons Rich and T.J. over to join us for lunch. At age 32 and 27 what great boys. All three of these guys are huge sports fans. We spent the next three hours talking about old times and sports. It was a great meeting and I’ll do it again as soon as I can. Things happen in threes right? Stan and I communicate once in a while on email. I send him postcards all the time from our international trips. Stan and I figured we had not seen each other in about 10 years. I couldn’t believe it was that long. Time certainly does fly. Stan and I had dinner at a local Yelp! recommended steakhouse. After dinner we both drove out to the old Sterling Speedbowl Park to see if we could see the remnants of the place we used to visit in the late 60s. We couldn’t get that close to the racetrack property itself. That meant we couldn’t tell for sure if we were seeing the old track or not. I saw some very good racing with Darrell Dake my all-time favorite race driver winning more than his share at Sterling. I have a lot of friends in the Midwest. TUESDAY My only round of golf on the entire trip. However when the weather forecast called for temperatures in the low 90s, rain and heavy humidity I recommended we play tomorrow morning rather than this afternoon. Price was agreeable. I’ve got to keep my trackchasing equipment well maintained. I relaxed in my hotel room for most of the afternoon. There won’t be many downtimes in this 56-day trip. I needed to take advantage of any relaxation periods when I can. The All-American family. WEDNESDAY I will only play golf about a dozen times in 2015. We made a good decision to play this morning rather than yesterday afternoon. Yesterday the temperature was in the low 90s with dripping wet humidity. It was a most uncomfortable day. Today’s temperature was in the high 70s with humidity that was hardly noticeable. The course was in excellent condition. I was playing my first round of golf in more than 2 1/2 months. Pryce ended up shooting a quality 78 while I coasted in with a smooth 90. This was a long ball hitter’s course. Pryce is a very LONG ball hitter. I am not. For me the course, because of its length, played to about an 80-82 par. That’s how many greens I couldn’t reach in regulation. I was surprised I hit the ball so well. My short game was a little rusty. However, my expectations were not that great given how infrequently I now play golf. The Hungry Hobo. Following lunch I said goodbye to Pryce knowing that I would likely see him in October when his family comes to California to vacation. Then I was off on a 5 1/2 hour drive from the Quad cities up to Northwest Iowa. My destination was the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in Le Mars, Iowa. The long drive over to the fairgrounds was uneventful but time-consuming. I have now driven my current rental car about 7,800 miles. Combined with my two previous rentals I used on this trip I’m now up to about 9,100 miles in 24 days. THE RACING Plymouth County Fairgrounds – Le Mars, Iowa It’s always good to touch base. A surprising phone call. Last year I finally made it to the Primghar Jaycees promoted figure 8 racing in Primghar, Iowa. They put on an excellent show as you can see by the report I shared from last year’s visit. Here’s the link in case you missed it: Primghar Racetrack – Primghar, Iowa – Lifetime track #1,981 It turns out the Primghar JC’s crew operates the racing I was seeing tonight. That makes a lot of sense since Primghar is only 41 miles from Le Mars. Brandon, tonight’s promoter, had spent a few minutes perusing my trackchasing website. There he discovered last year’s Trackchaser Report along with photos and videos from Primghar. He told me he had shared my work with other Primghar race officials. They had never seen it. I guess I didn’t take the time to send them a link after visiting them last year. Brandon told me over the phone the Primghar people were anxious to meet the World’s #1 Trackchaser. I would love to meet them too. This was a big county fair. I was surprised at how many cars were parked at the fairgrounds. It was one of the largest contingents of visitors I could ever recall seeing at a county fair. This was especially true given the fact that Le Mars, Iowa is located in a very rural location. The population of LeMars is just 9,826 people. Just as Brandon had promised my name was on the list for complementary visitors when I signed in at the pit shack. This shaved $10 off my trackchasing expenses. I very much appreciated the gesture. They built this track for just one day of use. Most figure 8 dirt tracks don’t offer any banking. Tonight’s banking was a good 20° or so. It really made the racing a lot better. What was the announcer saying? He seemed to imply although he never said it in so many words that possibly the trucks and a stock car class would be racing on an oval configuration. Iowa commonly runs a “cruiser division” with their figure eights. The cruiser division in Iowa always races on an oval configuration. Sugarplums. Chop in a glove? Granted I have now seen racing at 2,136 tracks. Nevertheless I have never in my life heard of anything called a “chop in a glove” at any eatery I have visited. So what WAS a “chop in a glove”? It was a huge Iowa pork chop. It had to be more than an inch in thickness. Any restaurant serving pork chops would’ve charged $15 or more for this item. Tonight they were selling them at the fair for five dollars. This huge grilled pork chop was served with a work glove. My server told me that you’re supposed to use the work glove to hold the pork chop when you eat it! OMG! What will they think of next? First I watched the racing from the pit area. My complementary pit pass was also good for admission over in the spectator grandstand as well as to the fair itself. I watched the last several races from the main grandstand. I think you’re going to see some highly competitive and high-quality Iowa figure 8 racing. Where is the best big car figure 8 racing? Car of the year? I must tell you the ’61 Chevy was not a popular short track racing machine. It seems drivers and car owners moved from the ’55-57 Chevy up to about the 1969 Chevelle with not a lot of other models being used in the interim period. However Peoria Speedway’s Don Bitner had good luck running a ’61 Chevrolet. I can’t ever recall another driver running as high of a racing line as he did and SIDEWAYS to boot. He set many a fast time with that driving style. An efficient program meant some time to see the fair. AFTER THE RACES The past few days. After a two hour drive I would reach my Omaha-based hotel at about midnight. That would put me in a good position to easily make it for tomorrow night’s racing in Belleville, Kansas. Then I’ll stay in the same Omaha hotel after the Kansas race. That will put me in a good position to get back to Illinois for Friday nights racing! Any questions on that? Don’t miss tonight’s racing video. Good night. Iowa Iowa The Hawkeye state Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE RENTAL CAR #1 RENTAL CAR #2 RENTAL CAR #3 TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS Total lifetime tracks seen Total Lifetime Tracks 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,136 Total Trackchasing Countries 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 70 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.88 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report
Click on the link below to see 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. Plymouth County Fairgrounds – photo album
Today’s race would take place on a Wednesday. My last trackchasing effort was this past Saturday. That meant I had Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to do some very interesting things. You can read all about it…now.
My plan today was to go trackchasing in Illinois somewhat near St. Louis, Missouri today. However the forecast for the day had called for a 50-60% chance of rain today for most of the past week.
I was just leaving my Louisville, Kentucky hotel bound for the greater St. Louis, Missouri area when I received a text from rainedout.com. They were confirming that due to rainstorms and more predicted storms to come this afternoon today’s racing was canceled. They hoped to reschedule later in the year.
I don’t get rained out very often. As a matter of fact this was my first rainout of 2015 after 61 successful trackchasing days. Had I known today’s track was going to rain out for sure I would’ve headed up to Detroit for a race they were having their in relatively good weather conditions. However I really wanted to see the race near St. Louis. Once it was rained out there was no time to make it to Detroit.
By the way I cannot identify the track I was planning to see today. Why? Competitive reasons. We all know my stance on sharing race track data. Once I’ve seen a race I share more information on that track visit via YouTube videos, photo albums and my 5-star reviews than any other trackchaser by a factor of many… yes that’s right many.
I don’t have any trackchasing activity planned for tomorrow Monday or Tuesday either. Why? I simply can’t find any tracks that I haven’t already seen. It is no magnanimous gesture on my part to do something other than trackchasing. There just aren’t any new tracks to see.
I would be passing through Indianapolis on my way to Peoria from Louisville. It just so happened that the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was racing in Indianapolis this afternoon for the Brickyard 400.
However if I had to rank all of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup tracks in my order of enjoyment I fear Indianapolis would be at the very bottom. They will be celebrating the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016. I was there in 1991 for the 75th running of the Indianapolis 500. One racechasing visit was enough there.
The track certainly has a lot of tradition. I’ve been to their infield racing Museum a few times. It’s fantastic. I’ve even taken their offered van ride around the speedway itself. I loved that.
Even though the timing was perfect and I was passing through Indianapolis at exactly the correct time and I knew I could get a ticket on the cheap I chose to bypass the Brickyard 400. I had recorded the race for viewing later when I returned home from this long trip. However, I don’t even like watching NASCAR racing from Indy on TV.
So what could I do on my way to Peoria or in Peoria today? I considered going to a minor league baseball game. The Peoria Chiefs have been Peoria’s team on and off since the 1950s.
I went to high school in East Peoria, Illinois. My hometown is located in Tazewell County. It’s just across the Illinois River from the more well-known city Peoria, Illinois, which happens to be in another county, Peoria County.
This is a 56-day trackchasing trip. I believe the next 24 hours are going to be HIGHLIGHT of the trip. I’ll know for sure in 24 hours!
First off on the drive up from Louisville to Peoria I gave my old high school buddy Walter Arnold a call. I know the names of my friends won’t be important to you. They are to me. However imagine calling up a friend you haven’t seen or been in contact with for 25 years. I hadn’t seen Walt in that amount of time. I was thinking the last time we had seen each other was when Walt and his wife Mary came by San Clemente for a short visit….25 years ago.
Walt answered the phone and couldn’t believe it was me calling. In no time we were agreeing to a dinner planned later on this evening with he and his beautiful wife Mary. Here I was a friend who had not been in contact with another friend for 25 years. Now my newly contacted friend was inviting me to stay over at his house for the evening on four hours notice!
Today was going to be a huge day, possibly the biggest day of the 56-day trip. Was I seeing three tracks in a single day? Was I adding a new something or another to my trackchasing statistics? Nope. Yes, today would be the biggest day of the 56–day trackchaser trip.
Today I was going to see my best friend from about the fifth grade up through high school. Larry Hallam and I had met playing sports for competing great schools all the way back in the fifth grade.
However a couple of things got out of whack and he and I parted ways some 35 years ago. Can you imagine having a best friend who was part of your wedding party, and I was the best man in his wedding, and then not seeing each other for 35 years?
During my entire 30-year business career friendships were forged over breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings. It’s very common for me to say to a friend “Let’s have lunch or let’s go to dinner” so that we can talk about the events of the day. In today’s case Larry and I had a lot of catching up to do.
My nostalgic meetings weren’t finished. From Peoria I was headed up to Dixon, Illinois to meet with my good friend and former college roommate Stan Logan. Stan is also a reader of my Trackchaser Reports.
From Dixon I drove over to spend the night in Davenport, Iowa. No one could have wiped the smile off my face. It has been such a grand time seeing Walt, Larry and Stan and their families. I certainly learned that going that long without contact wasn’t a good idea.
This afternoon was reserved for golf with good buddy Pryce Boeye who resides in the Quad cities area. Yes I was seeing a lot of current and old friends as I traveled through my old stomping grounds in the Midwest.
I took the opportunity this morning to visit a local driving range and try to develop a golf game so I won’t be embarrassed when I play with Pryce. Then I went over to an OfficeMax store to replace my computer bag, which has been all over the world but is starting to show it’s age.
In the evening I joined Pryce his lovely wife Margie and their sons P.T. and Eli for a tasty Mexican dinner in Moline Illinois. When we get together for these dinners we tell stories and laugh and have a great time as we did tonight. America couldn’t be touched if every family was like the Boeye’s.
Today would turn out to be a great day on all fronts. First Pryce and I would have a chance to play a round of golf at the famous Oakwood Country Club. Oakwood has played host to PGA tour events. Tiger Woods played here a few times during the early part of his career.
Following golf Pryce and I headed over to a local Hungry Hobo restaurant. There we had a nice lunch and laughed and told stories about what we’ve been up to lately. I am both amazed and grateful that all of the friends I’ve seen over the past couple days have been able to free up their schedules and spend some time with an old friend with very little notice.
I talked to the fellow who organizes the figure 8 racing at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds a couple days ago. I usually try to touch base with the promoters just to make sure I’ve got all of the trip and racing specifics down pat. Normally, to justify the detailed questions I often ask, I will explain my trackchasing hobby to whomever I am talking to. I did that with Brandon the Plymouth race organizer today.
That being the case I was somewhat surprised to get a phone call from Brandon today. He wanted to offer me a complementary admission to tonight’s racing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I was in Iowa home of the “NIMS” people. I fully expect, but always appreciate, NIMS people to behave in such a generous manner.
Tonight racing was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. I didn’t pull into the gates of the second largest county fair in Iowa until 7:15 p.m. They were already racing when I arrived.
Brandon told me that later on tonight they would tear down the figure 8 track for a tractor pull event tomorrow night. Then that track would be changed over for demolition derby on the last day of the fair. I was surprised to see they had built a very high-banked black dirt figure 8 track.
Tonight there were three classes of racecars. These included the trucks, the stock class and the figure 8 class. The announcer made it sound like possibly the figure 8 class was the only class racing on the figure 8 track itself.
I had visions of trackchasing sugarplums of the trackchasing double variety dancing in my head. However all three classes would end up competing on the figure 8 track tonight.
Even though I wasn’t all that hungry I couldn’t pass up the Iowa pork producers food tent. There I got a pork chop sandwich. It was excellent. Then I couldn’t resist the “chop in a glove” entrée.
I watched the first few races from the pit area. However in order to do that I had to stare into a strong setting sun. That wasn’t going to make my videos or photos look very good.
Tonight’s racing only reaffirmed my contention that Iowa, Nebraska and Michigan have the best big car figure 8 racing of anywhere in the country. They really do a good job with it. In this environment figure 8 racing truly is a “race” and not simply a novelty event.
When I had seen the Primghar figure 8 racing they had a driver running a ’57 Chevy. That’s always fun to see. Tonight’s favorite car, and a favorite for ‘car of the year’ for my 2015 trackchasing was a ’61 Chevy. When was the last time you saw a 1961 Chevy racing in a figure 8 event or anywhere for that matter?
The racing ended a few minutes after 9 p.m. This gave me the opportunity to walk the fairgrounds. I spent most of my time exploring the commercial buildings as well as the animal barns. The highlight was being able to walk inside to an old schoolhouse that had been renovated at the fairgrounds.
This past Sunday I was rained out. Then on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday morning I spent time with old friends. Now I was back on the trackchasing trail in earnest. I’ll be seeing tracks until I meet Carol in Washington D.C. in another eight days or so.
This evening I saw my 101st lifetime track in the Hawkeye state, yes the Hawkeye state. I’ve seen 101 or more tracks in three separate states. No one in the hobby of trackchasing can lay claim to that statistic.
World’s #1 Trackchaser
Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member
Iowa sayings: Welcome to the land where you can get sunburn and frostbite in the same week.
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,745 miles
O’Hare International Airport – trip begins
London, KY
Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 766 miles
Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins
Bedford, KY
Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 603 miles
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins
Aitken, MN
Morten, Manitoba, Canada
LaGrange, IN
Manchester, IA
Oskaloosa, IA
Bowling Green, IN
Buncombe, IL
Ionia, MI
Osgood, IN
Hemlock, NY
Taylorville, IL
Cambridge, MN
Mora, MN
Urbana, IL
Bedford, KY
Owenton, KY
LeMars, IA
Laurel County Fairgrounds – $10 (not a trackchasing expense)
Trimble County Recreational Facility – $10
Aitken County Fairgrounds (oval) – complimentary admission
Aitken County Fairgrounds (RC) – $8
ALH Motor Speedway – complimentary admission
LaGrange County Fairgrounds – $10
Delaware County Fairgrounds – $10
Mahaska County Fairgrounds – $5
Sandstone – $15 (include pits)
HBR Raceway – $10 (included pits)
Ionia Free Fair – $13
Ripley County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission
Hemlock County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission
Christian County Fairgrounds – $8
Isanti County Fairgrounds – $12
Kanabec County Fairgrounds – $10
Champaign County Fairgrounds – $6
Dirty Turtle Off-Road Park – complimentary admission
Owenton County Fairgrounds – $10
Plymouth County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission
The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are:
Total “trackchasing countries” seen
Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results
There are no trackchasers currently within 500 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.
There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.
Click on the link below to see the one-minute “Video Lite” production from the Plymouth County Fairgrounds.
