Rushmore Plaza Civic Center

Editor’s note #1:  It had been less than 48 hours since Carol and I returned from Moscow, Russia.  On that particular trip I was gone for 12 days and traveled more than 18,000 miles.  Why go back “out on the trail” again after being gone for so long?  It’s all about “production and efficiency”.

You see I have just 29 weekends reserved for trackchasing in 2013.  I don’t have a specific number of tracks I want or need to see this year.  I just want to see as many as I can over those 29 weekends.  Make sense?

By the end of this weekend I expect to have seen 14 tracks over five trips in this young season.  That’s an average of 2.8 tracks per trip.  Most of my fellow competitors see only a single track on each of their adventures.  That means I can travel half as often and see as many or more tracks than others.  Make sense?  Yes, some parts of trackchasing are all about “production and efficiency”.

Editor’s note #2:  Unless you’re new to my Trackchaser Reports you surely know what “NIMS” people are.  “NIMS” people are the folks who live in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.  That’s where the nicest people in American live.

Of course, that does not mean that folks who live in the other 46 states are not nice.  They’re just not as nice as “NIMS” people.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have never lived in any of these states.  Therefore I am not prone to showing favoritism to “NIMS” people.  However, I do hit about 35 states each and every year.  Over the course, of 2-3 years I will travel in every state.  You’ve just can’t beat “NIMS” people.

THE KEYS TO THE TRIP

Who was the first ever performer to appear at the brand new Rushmore Civic Plaza when it opened in 1977……………more in “Race Review”.

Butch brought me to South Dakota so I needed to bring him to Rapid City……………..more in “The Plan”.

It was time to sit down and drive and keep driving………..details in “The Trip”.

Easy or difficult? 

Trackchasing is really a rather simple hobby for simple people.  It just requires being in the right place at the right time right?  This trip had four objectives involving points A, B, C and D.  If I could be in each of those points at just the right time my trip would be perfect.  If I were an hour too late the trip would be a failure.  Oh, one more thing.  I had to accommodate some other people’s schedules and do this trip as economically as possible.

Here is exactly what I needed to do.  I needed to be in Rapid City, South Dakota at 8 p.m. on Friday night.  Then I would need to show up in Columbus, Ohio at 2 p.m. on Saturday.  From there I would move to Holland, New York on Sunday at 10 a.m.  Finally, I wanted to be home in San Clemente, California by midnight on Sunday.  Get out your trusty Road Atlas or Google Maps program to check me on this.  In your opinion would this be an easy or a difficult trip?

One #1 meets another #1.

I certainly had no plan to be trackchasing in South Dakota on the first day of March.  Why was that?  As far as I knew there was only one racetrack in all of South Dakota that I had never seen.  That was the Turner County Fairgrounds oval track.   They only race there one day each year in August.

South Dakota’s #1 trackchaser Butch Knouse.

This was before a fellow who goes by the moniker the “Mad Statter” contacted me.  Of course, the “Mad Statter” is none other than Mr. Butch Knouse.  Butch and I, along with Carol, first met at the Miller Speedway all the way back in 2006.  Butch saw me taking notes and pictures and wondered what I was doing.  Once I confirmed he wasn’t with the IRS, we struck up a conversation.  Since that first meeting we have stayed in touch for seven years.

Butch is South Dakota’s #1 trackchaser.  He has now seen 21 tracks in South Dakota.  Butch is not a trackchaser.  He is a racechaser.  He goes, where his limited budget will allow, based upon the quality of the racing he expects to see without regard to whether or not he would be seeing racing at a new track.

I have an extensive South Dakota racing resource list.

A few weeks ago Butch sent me a note from a South Dakota internet racing “board”.  There were rumblings that the Black Hills mini-sprints would be racing at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota.  I was aware they had raced at this venue back in 2009.  However, when I didn’t hear anything after that I re-classified the track as “inactive”.

With Butch’s information I contacted Doug Napier of the Black Hills racing group.  Doug is the group’s treasurer, PR guy and tonight their flagman.  He is also a former racer with the Black Hills group.  Doug confirmed they were racing at the Civic Center in 2013.

I have a rather extensive and impressive list of South Dakota contacts in addition to the above.  In addition to Butch and Doug, I contacted Jim Holland, sports writer for the Rapid City Journal and Rob Palmer, board member for the WISSOTA racing organization.  They’ve joined me on past South Dakota trackchasing trips.

My original plan called for me to travel to Rapid City by myself.

They say the “folks who travel fastest travel alone”.  I believe that to be true in most cases.  Even though Butch had first turned me onto this trip he was not part of my original trackchasing plan.  He had told me that if “you’re coming through Sioux Falls” he would love to ride along.

Folks, in South Dakota cities are far apart.  Sioux Falls in eastern South Dakota is 349 miles from Rapid City (where tonight’s race was being held) in Western South Dakota.  I had not planned to do all that much driving to get to Rapid City.

It was time for a NEW plan that included South Dakota’s #1 Trackchaser.

My original plan was to fly into Minneapolis from Los Angeles.  Then the next morning I would grab a flight to Rapid City. That would save me a good nine hours of driving.  Then I got to thinking.  I wouldn’t even be going in this direction if it weren’t for Butch Knouse.  Additionally, Butch IS South Dakota’s #1 trackchaser.

Change of plans!  I got in touch with Butch to tell him I COULD pick him up along the way.  This plan would call for an extra day of rental car and another nine hours of gasoline.  It would all be free for Butch Knouse.  I like to take care of my friends.

It was still technically winter in South Dakota.

Fly, drive, eat, sleep, repeat. 

I woke up on Thursday morning at home in San Clemente, California.  I went to bed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Then on Friday, which was race day, I woke up in Sioux Falls, and somewhat incredibly drove 600 miles after the Rapid City race so I could get back to Minneapolis in time for a 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning flight.  This is what this part of the trip looked like.

I do my very best to get rental cars with satellite radio.  It’s the ONLY way to go when I’m going to be putting a lot of miles on a rental car.  I would have the National Rental Car Hyundai Sonata for two days from National’s billing perspective.  During the time I would drive it nearly 1,200 miles.

Rental car companies normally turn their cars in (sell them) after about 20,000 miles.  If everyone drove their rental car as far as I did during this trip a brand new rental car would be turned “back” after about one month!!  Carol is always telling me “I’m surprised you’re not on some hit list of heavy rental car users”.

There was time to pick up Butch but not enough time to visit the famous Corn Palace.

Butch and I would meet up about in the middle of my nine-hour ride from Minneapolis to Rapid City.  That put our meeting spot in Mitchell, South Dakota.  I’ve been to Mitchell a few times.  It’s famous for having the world’s only “Corn Palace”.  If you find yourself in the area DO NOT MISS the Corn Palace.  Mitchell is also home to South Dakota Wesleyan and it’s most famous graduate, George McGovern.

I loved traveling with Butch.  I’m a big guy and he’s bigger.  I’m betting Butch could benefit from my yoga class (so can I!) as we tried to get in and out of the front seat of the Sonata.

Butch knows a lot about a lot of stuff especially racing trivia and history.  It was fun hearing him rattle off dates and results from races decades ago.  He’s a no nonsense, let’s speak specifically, kind of guy.  I like that.

One cannot live well if one does not dine well.

When I picked him up it was time for lunch.  I had already done some research using Yelp! for the most highly recommended places to eat in Mitchell.  Now don’t get me wrong with the following comment.  Also, remember that I spent the first 22 years of my life in Illinois in the middle of the Midwest.  Nevertheless, I would not say that most Midwesterners are on the cutting edge of cuisine.  More often than not they are “meat and taters” folks.  Nevertheless, Butch engaged me in my culinary pursuits and, I believe, enjoyed himself very much.  More on that in the “One cannot live well” section below.

If you come to South Dakota don’t miss the famous Wall Drug.

Always fun to come back.

Back in my college days, at the end of the summer, I would drive from Illinois to Wyoming to see my girlfriend, Carol.  That drive always took me through South Dakota.  I was impressed by all of the billboards advertising the attractions of the area.  We always stopped at Wall Drug.  You should too if you get the chance.

On this trip I was once again impressed with the billboards advertising Buffalo farms, the Corn Palace, Mt. Rushmore and of course Wall Drug.  My lifestyle is a long way from what they offer in South Dakota.  That’s why I like spending a day or two every year where some of the “NIMS” people call home.

ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL

Now that’s sizzlin’!

Corona Village Mexican Restaurant – Mitchell, South Dakota

Quick, convenient and good.

Today’s Mexican restaurant came with a robust 4.5 Yelp! star rating albeit with just 12 reviewers.  The place was located only half-mile from where I picked up Butch so it was perfect.

Southern California is one of the better places in the U.S. for Mexican food.  In San Clemente we’re just 74 miles from the Mexican border.  We can eat authentic Mexican food every night of the week at a different place and never be more than a mile or two from our front door.

As the Hispanic population fans out across the U.S. more and more places are gaining access to Mexican food.  Years ago, I was traveling with a Midwestern trackchaser.  He told me his favorite Mexican restaurant was Taco Bell.  I just about lost control of my rental car!  Folks, just to be clear Taco Bell does NOT serve Mexican food.

This place was good but not “best ever”.  However, “good is always good”.  We both ordered the fajitas (beef and shrimp).  You might be able to guess what the Midwesterner and the Californian chose.  A very friendly woman served the dishes.  The “sizzle” last for several seconds once the dishes hit our table.  Although the servings were good sized we didn’t have any trouble “cleaning our plates” a Midwestern phrase.

As Yelp! had mentioned our server brought each of us a special tortilla chip smothered in whipped cream and strawberry sauce for dessert and compliments of the house.  That was a very nice touch.

I was surprised at the low prices.  Shrimp fajitas go for about $14,95 in our better San Clemente Mexican restaurants.  Today they were just $8.95.  This place was a bargain.  If I were going to eat Mexican food I would return.

Firehouse Brewing Company – Rapid City, South Dakota

Gourmet.

Gourmet dining compliments of Mr. Butch Knouse.

We were turned on to the restaurant by their advertisements all along Interstate 90.  There were at least five major billboards with FULL-SIZED retired fire engine trucks at the foot of each ad.  That was impressive.  Additionally, a relative of Butch’s was part owner.

Yelp! gave the place just three stars.  However, the creativity of the ads and Butch’s recommendation made it a place we needed to try.  This eatery is located in downtown Rapid City on Main Street.  Although I have been in and around “Rapid” a few times I couldn’t ever recall being in downtown.  It reminded me how easy and convenient it is to get around small towns.

I ordered the Jambalaya for my main entrée.  It was delicious.  It was gourmet.  It was also spicy.  I love spicy.  If I say something was spicy then it was!

The serving size was enough to feed a family of five.  I got the “to go” box.  At about 5 a.m. the morning after the Rapid City race with the sun thinking about rising I was dining again on spicy jambalaya in my rental car.  I eat a large number of my meals each week in a car.  I love to multi-task.  Carol says you can’t do two things at once very well.  I tell her that most things in life don’t need to be done all that well!  A big part of the trackchasing trail for me is simply trying recommended local eateries.

Oops!  I almost forgot.  Butch treated me to dinner.  Excellent choice of restaurants and company.  Thanks Butch.

RUSHMORE PLAZA CIVIC CENTER – RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA

Monster trucks!

Monster trucks for most but not the two of us. 

Butch and I were possibly the only two people who came specifically to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center to see the Black Hills mini-sprints race.  The other 99.9% of the fans in the nearly sold out arena were here for MONSTER TRUCKS!

The entire scene reminded me that I have to get those two fantastic grandbabies of Carol and mine to a monster truck show as soon as possible.  The kids love those things.

Mini sprint racing on the concrete.

An exhibition but a race nonetheless.

In speaking with Doug Napier I knew about eight of the mini-sprints would show up for an “exhibition” race.  “Exhibition” races are countable as long as every car starts at the same time and races competitively for a set number of laps or time.  That’s the layman’s version of the rule.

The mini-sprints do most of their racing outdoors on smaller dirt ovals.  On those tracks they put on a great show.  Tonight the little cars would be racing on a flat concrete surface.  That surface had been “treated” with Coke (yes, Coca-Cola) fountain syrup.  That made the slick concrete surface “tackier” although it still looked to be slick.

Tonight’s overall program was to begin at 8 p.m.  At 6:30 p.m. fans could show up to “tour the pits”.  Butch and I arrived at about 6:30 p.m. following dinner in Rapid City.  We had two ticketing choices.  The first was a lower level reserved seat at $32 each, which included a pit pass.  The other option was a $22 general admission seat that could be upgraded (for six dollars more) to a pit pass.  In this circumstance we felt sitting higher was actually better.  This was one of those rare situations where the less expensive option was actually the best option.

With our ticket purchased we went to stand in the “pit pass entrance” line.  Wow!  We must have been about 500^th in line!  While we waited in line it gave me time to check out the photos of all the entertainment artists who have made their way through Rapid City.  Anybody who was anybody, especially country and western performers have played here.

The lowdown on the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

The Rushmore Plaza Civic Center opened in 1977.  They had a southern gospel singer booked for the grand opening.  You might remember this fellow.  His name was Elvis Presley.  Ya, THAT Elvis!

The Civic Center is the largest venue center in South Dakota with 150,000 square feet.  The place has been home to professional basketball, roller derby, ice hockey and tonight monster trucks.

Once in the pit area we made a beeline over to where the mini-sprints were pitted.  There we met up with Doug Napier.  Doug gave us the lowdown on tonight’s racing plan.  The Black Hills mini-sprints have raced here a few times before.  However, the group’s website doesn’t say too much about these non-points paying exhibition races.  However, to a trackchaser, this WAS a point-paying event.

Let’s do a quick Q&A for our South Dakota trackchasing fans.

Doug had sold his racing equipment recently.  Now he helps out the group in anyway he can.  He’s the group treasurer, PR contact on their website and tonight handled the flagging duties.  That sounds like a “Jack of all trades” to me.  Doug has also just begun a webcast promoting South Dakota racing.  You can check that out at www.BHRaceTalk.com.  Take a listen, I found their program very entertaining.

Doug sent me some questions he wanted me to answer about my trackchasing hobby.  I was more than likely to oblige.  Take a look at the “Quick Facts” section to see my responses.

Butch and I just wanted to enjoy the show at this point.

After we toured the smallish pit area we headed upstairs to get a good seat.  That was easy.  We spent the next hour or so just relaxing after our 300+ mile drive from Mitchell.  We were also anticipating the repeat of that 300-mile drive after tonight’s racing.  That would get Butch back home at about 3 a.m.  My trip was a bit longer.  When the races were finished I had a 600-MILE trek back to Minneapolis!

We were both disappointed when the show started some 25 minutes late.  There didn’t seem to be any good reason for that especially with the group’s target audience being smaller children.

When they finally did get started the five fully functioning (one other truck was only used for fan rides) monster trucks crushed some old cars, made some really loud noises and generally gave the crowd what they came to see.  Butch calls Monster Truck shows “auto-racing’s equivalent of professional wrestling”.  He’s right.

This is what we came for.

Next up were the mini-sprints.  They held two four-car heat races on the flat concrete surface.  I’m going to guess the nearly circular racing groove around the junk cars was about 1/20-mile.  It didn’t take long to run two heat races.

Then with some more monster truck activity we were at intermission.  There were also two motorcycle stunt riders on the program but they did not perform before the interlude.

Are we outta here?  Yes.

Butch looked at me and said something to the effect “Are we outta here?”.  Even though Butch is a racechaser he was getting the hang of trackchasing wasn’t he?  If I were staying overnight in Rapid City staying for the full show would have been a great idea.

However, when we left the building I would be facing possibly my longest after the races drive ever.  I had to cover nearly 600 miles.  On the way from Rapid City (Mountain Time) I would lose an hour getting to Minneapolis (Central Time).  That meant I had about 11 hours to cover my driving distance.  Luckily, the freeway speed limit in South Dakota is 75 M.P.H.  I always drive “five miles over” so we cruised along pretty good.  The temperate for most of the ride was about ten degrees.  By the time the sun was rising as I neared the Twin Cities the low was zero.

Is that a state cop?

It must have been well past midnight when we were cruising toward Butch’s drop off point in Mitchell, South Dakota.  It must have been a few minutes after that when Butch piped up, “Wasn’t that Mitchell we just passed?”.  In point of fact it was!

Then I did something I never do.  I made a U-turn back across the interstate to get us going in the right direction again.  There was no way those westbound headlights in the distance could be a state police officer right?  Nope.  We were home free.  I dropped Butch off near his Chrysler PT Cruiser.  Later I learned Butch made the one-hour drive north toward his home arriving at about 3 a.m.

Butch and I had a good time.  He reminded me this trip was really “about the journey not the event”.  How right he was.  Trackchasing for me is ALL ABOUT the journey.  Some trackchasers have a hard time wrapping their arms around that concept.  Too bad.

STATE COMPARISONS

South Dakota

The Rushmore State

This evening I saw my 17^th track in the Mount Rushmore state, yes the Mount Rushmore state.  I’ve still got a track or two to see in South Dakota.  I’m sure my South Dakota racing buddies will help me out whenever they can.

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

South Dakota sayings:  The best girls are from Sioux Falls.

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TRAVEL DETAILS

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 1,535 miles

RENTAL CAR #1 

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins

Rapid City, SD

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Rushmore Civic Center – $28 (includes $6 pit pass)

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 300 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,825

Total Trackchasing Countries

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

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 64

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.08

Q & A – Doug Napier – Black Hills Sprints

1.How many tracks as of today? 

The Rapid City Plaza Civic Center will forever be known as track #1,825 nestled nicely between the Moscow Central Hippodrome in Moscow, Russia (#1,824) and the O’Neil Building at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, Columbus, Ohio (#1,826)

2.How many countries? 

I’ve seen wheel to wheel racing in 64 countries.  By the way the rules of trackchasing call for wheel to wheel racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks with adult drivers in order for a track to count.  No demo derbies, drag races, motorcycles, boats, etc.

3.When did you start? 

I saw my first race at the Peoria Speedway in about 1955 at age six.  I saw my first out of state track, the Davenport Speedway, Davenport, Iowa in 1963.  By 1980, at age 31 I had seen racing at just 72 lifetime tracks.  During the 80s and early 90s I was more of a “racechaser” than a “trackchaser”.  A racechaser goes to the track for the quality of racing.  A trackchaser goes to the track for the experience of seeing a new venue regardless of what might be racing.  In 2002, I retired from the Procter & Gamble Company after a 30-year sales management career.  At that point I picked up my trackchasing pace.  On the day I retired I had seen racing at 581 tracks.  I have now been retired for going on eleven years.  During my retirement period I have added 1,246 tracks or an average of more than 100 tracks for every year I have been retired.  My all-time best year came in 2005 when I saw racing at 182 different and new tracks.

4.How often does your wife Carol travel with you? 

Sometimes I get the impression folks don’t think that Carol goes trackchasing very much.  Quite the contrary, as Carol has seen racing at 473 tracks.  She’s seen racing in all 50 states as well as in 32 different countries.  I will travel around 240,000 miles each year to trackchase.  Compared to my travel Carol “only” travels about 50,000 miles each year supporting my trackchasing hobby.  She has always traveled more miles up and down the trackchasing trail than any other woman in the hobby.  I save the best trips for her.  I can’t and don’t ask her to go on a trip like this one to Rapid City.  Why?  After tonight’s race I had a 600-mile overnight drive back to Minneapolis to catch a 10:30 a.m. flight.

5.When will enough be enough? 

I don’t really think of my hobby in those terms.  I don’t have an “end” goal for trackchasing.  I rarely plan my domestic trips out more than a week or two.  Often when I leave home I have 2-3 destinations in mind.  Foreign trips are planned 1-3 months in advance.  My only real goal is to simply get to the next new track.

6.What is your favorite class to watch?

I have seen racing at Daytona, Indianapolis, Monaco and just about everywhere in between.  Despite having seen racing at the biggest and most popular tracks, I still like racing on the little high-banked dirt bullrings.  They are my favorite.  Give me a good late model, modified, midget, sprint car (non-wing) race where the leader doesn’t win from the front row and I’m happy.

7.Do you still have the “love” of watching racing? I would be afraid all the travel and deadlines could turn into a “job”…. 

I know this is not like a job because I do it voluntarily!  My wife often tells me, “If someone else was making your schedule and you had to be there on their timing you would hate what you do”.  She’s right.  In some ways, my travel is just like when I used to travel for business every week, except when I land I don’t have to go to a business meeting!  I didn’t fly on my first airplane until I was twenty-one.  That trip tied in a visit to my girlfriend (now my wife of 41 years) and the Belaro Speedway in Billings, Montana.  However, since I began my business career at age 23 (following a tour with the U.S. Marine Corps) I have flown on a plane every week (several flights each week) for more than forty years.  I love flying because it let’s me cover lots of ground in a small amount of time.

My hobby is really about the journey and not so much the destination.  Trackchasing, for me, revolves around three things.  These include the mental exercise required for the logistical planning of getting from point A to B to C, etc.  This takes a good deal of creative thinking considering I am going, for the most part, only to tracks I have never seen.  After taking “1,800 dots off the map” the remaining locations seem to be further and further apart.

Secondly, it includes seeing the local sights.  The third part of my trackchasing triangle is the racing.  I love watching racing.  I watch every NASCAR Sprint Cup race from start to finish on TV and will see 1-2 of them live each year.  However, the racing only takes up about three hours of each day and I will trackchase anywhere from 75-125 days each year.  There’s a lot of time required to travel to the tracks especially since I start each trip just 74 miles from the U.S./Mexican border town of Tijuana.

8. How do you fund your hobby? Did you retire from business and this is a way to spend your savings? 

I often say, “I just charge all of my expenses and as far as I know Carol pays the bills every month”.  In point of fact, I fund my hobby from my retirement savings.  I figure, “I earned it, I saved a lot of it and now I’m spending most of it!”  I do have sponsors that pick up major portions of my airfare, rental car and hotel expenses. 

An important hobby of mine is financial planning.  I started thinking about retirement at about age thirty.  I wanted to retire by age forty but I bought too many expensive things that prevented that from happening.  I was able to retire early at age 53.  I love travel.  In any give year, I’ll spend about 125-150 nights on the road.  Carol will normally spend 50-60 nights or more traveling with me.  The difference is about the same number of nights I traveled overnight from home when I was working.  I still have time at home to be a single digit handicap golfer, see our grandkids regularly, be a season ticket holder for UCLA football and go to lots of UCLA basketball games and L.A. Angels baseball games.

Non-trackchasing travel accounts for maybe 40-60% of our nights away from home.  When we travel for trackchasing we are always on the lookout to visit the local attractions whether that is Yankee Stadium, Mt. Rushmore or the symphony in Moscow, Russia.

We’ve been blessed with good health, a great family, fantastic employment and an understanding of how to manage money.  We’ll keep traveling as long as we can. 

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