Greetings from Santa Maria, California
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Santa Maria Speedway – Outer Dirt Oval – Lifetime track #145
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Santa Maria Speedway – Inner Dirt Oval – Lifetime track #1,543
My Santa Maria Speedway spectating history.
I have a long history of “racechasing” at the Santa Maria Speedway. Remember I started out as a “racechaser”. A racechaser is NOT a “trackchaser”. As a racechaser I went to the races where the best drivers were competing. I didn’t care if I was going back to the same track ten times or one hundred times. I was going to the races to see good racing. On some of those trips I was driving our Family Wagon customized 1987 Ford van.
During the period of 1984-1989 I went to the Santa Maria Speedway TEN times. Everyone of those visits was for a World of Outlaws sprint car race. Look at the names listed below. Those drivers won the ten shows I saw. However, during the 1990s I moved from racechasing to trackchasing. Somewhere during that period I decided it was more fun to go somewhere for the FIRST time rather than the TENTH time. There have been periods where I have questioned that strategy. However, I must be comfortable with that decision because I continue to do a good deal more trackchasing than racechasing.
World of Outlaws Feature Winners.
Bobby Davis Jr. (3)
Brad Doty
Tim Green
Jimmy Sills
Steve Kinser (2)
Sammy Swindell
Jeff Swindell
What made those trips so much fun was that we would camp in Santa Maria over the weekend. There was a KOA campground not too far from the track. We had a Starcraft popup camper we used. Carol and the kids joined me on these trips. Stanley Logan a good friend from college (pictured above with Jim and Kristy), who was living in San Francisco, came along from time to time as well.
Somewhere along the line Santa Maria Speedway lost touch with the World of Outlaws sprint car series. I did too. I never returned for a race on their big track since my last trip in 1989. However, during the 2010 trackchasing season I re-visited the Santa Maria Speedway. No, the World of Outlaws had not returned. I went there to see QRC kart racing on their much smaller dirt inner oval.
On that trip I met Santa Maria promoter Chris Kearns. Chris had heard a “little” about the trackchasing hobby. His understanding was that a fellow named “Guy Smith” was the World’s #1 Trackchaser. I can understand Chris’ confusion. Guy Smith writes a column about trackchasing in the Area Auto Racing News racing trade paper. However he rarely, O.K. almost never mentions trackchasers higher than him in the world rankings. In point of fact Guy Smith has NEVER been the World’s #1 Trackchaser. So yes I CAN understand Chris’s confusion. Once we got that straightened out Chris welcomed the REAL World’s #1 Trackchaser to the kart racing at Santa Maria Speedway.
Do you have any experience with auto racing at the Santa Maria Speedway?
By the way you might have remembrances about this track. If so, please feel free to share them in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here.
You can read all about my Santa Maria kart racing experience in the Trackchaser Report I prepared on May 23, 2010.
GREETINGS FROM SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Getting from Point A to Point B on this trip took some doing. …………..details in “The Objective”.
Are Area Auto Racing News subscribers being shortchanged?………………more in “The People”.
Getting to know the track promoters puts an entirely new slant on things. …………..details in “The People”.
Ever had Pupusas? Next time you want them, you’ll know where to get ‘em..…………..details in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”.
PHOTOS
By the way don’t miss the photos from my 2010 trip to Santa Maria. Click on the link below.
Santa Maria Speedway – kart racing
THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE
The Objective
Being first is not always easy.
In the world of trackchasing one of the more gratifying achievements is to see a track before any other trackchaser can get there. This would be the case with the Santa Maria Speedway inner oval track. They just started racing on this track in 2010 with an eight-race schedule. The track wasn’t even listed at www.autoracingrecords.com yet. That means it’s really new.
My plan with each and every track I see is to make the travel process as simple as possible. Sometimes that is easier said than done. I had a plan in place to see the inner oval at the Santa Maria Speedway in early June. For that trip, I wouldn’t even have to leave California. I was looking forward to a nearly travel free weekend.
However, our grandbaby twins decided to have their second birthday party a week earlier that I was planning on. No problem with that here. Family trumps trackchasing when there are two events and only one date. The SMS inner oval 2010 schedule is winding down. If I was going to see the QRC karts run at Santa Maria it would have to be this weekend.
The trip wouldn’t be easy. But, if it was going to happen it had better be this weekend. Checkout the “Trip” section and decide for yourself if you would like to have been “along for the ride”.
The Trip
I go no matter how rough the ride.
I have a simple philosophy when it comes to trackchasing travel. If I can physically move my body from Point A to Point B in time to get to the next track then I go. It doesn’t much matter to me how much wear and tear it might take. I just go.
Mind you, leaving from Greenbush, Minnesota (9:15 p.m. Saturday night) in order to get to Santa Maria, California (1 p.m. Sunday afternoon) was pushing the limits of my travel strategy. I had 18 hours to get there. Even by gaining two hours with the time change, there was no way I could ever drive the 2,169-mile distance. I would have to fly. Now, flying that far in 18 hours is a piece of cake. However, I don’t have the services of a private jet. Alas, I must use scheduled commercial airlines.
Technology sets the parameters.
In order to get an airplane ride I had to drive 353 miles overnight from the track in Greenbush to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. This is where “Garth” my faithful GPS unit comes in. Garth provides an estimated “ETA” or “Estimated Time of Arrival” to each destination. My flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles was leaving at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. I figured I had to be at the airport in time to return my rental car and clear airport security by 6:15 a.m.
My estimated arrival time, if I didn’t stop anywhere along the line was 3:57 a.m. These ETAs are remarkably accurate as long as I can travel the posted speed limit. Garth even shows me the local speed limit for anywhere I’m traveling as I drive along. This is most helpful when I’m out in the middle of nowhere and haven’t seen a speed limit sign in a while. There wasn’t going to be any traffic tonight. I also had to stay within about five miles of the speed limit or my “ETA” might be “extended” by the local authorities if you know what I mean.
I wanted to be at the airport by 6:15 a.m. My ETA without stops was 3:57 a.m. This gave me two hours and 15 minutes of “extra” time. I used most of that for two naps along the road. I stopped once for 30 minutes and another time for forty. Whenever I stop I set two alarms. I certainly wouldn’t want to “sleep through” a stop and miss the next track!
Getting out of Minnesota was just the first step.
My flight in Minneapolis to Los Angeles was wide open. The flying miles on this leg amounted to 1,535. I got a little shuteye on the flight back to LAX. Once in LAX, I had a two primary options for getting to Santa Maria, California.
Yes, I had two options.
I could drive. The distance was 159 miles. I didn’t like that idea for three reasons. First, I don’t like to wear out my car with “trackchasing miles”. Secondly, I didn’t have much time and leaving the airport itself to get my car would add another 30-45 minutes to the journey. Finally, as you might imagine, driving another 159 miles on top of the 700+ miles (round-trip) I had just done in getting up to Greenbush didn’t seem very appealing. Then I would have another 223 miles to cover to get back home from Santa Maria after the races in heavy Sunday night “coming back into town” traffic. I preferred to fly!
Living in a large metro area gives me plenty of transportation choices.
Luckily, there are commercial flights from Los Angeles to Santa Maria. There are four each day. I never would have guessed that. The planes used for this service are 30-passenger “prop jets”. This would be perfect. I used my iPhone to check how likely I was to get a seat by flying standby. The “availability” looked good.
However, when I got to the airport “things had changed”. What I like about most major airports, especially with the airline sponsors I use, is the information they provide standby passengers at the airline gate. You may have noticed the big flat screen TVs near the check-in gate. They flash all kinds of things including weather, departure times etc. They also let “stand-by” passengers know what their chances are for getting on the flight. Check it out the next time you fly.
Today, the big screen had bad news. They were asking for “volunteers”. In civilian speak that means they have sold more tickets than they have seats. They are asking for people to “volunteer” to take a later flight in exchange for some form of “compensation”. What did that mean for me? As a “standby” passenger I wasn’t going to get on. However, that word wasn’t final. We would have to wait and see if they really needed volunteers. Sometimes passengers with tickets miss a connection, sleep in or whatever.
Now I would need to “re-visit” my travel options. I could still drive. However, as time was passing by even this option might not get me to the track in time. I hurriedly searched my iPhone. Have I told you what a valuable piece of equipment this is. Well, I guess I have a time or two!
My “flight track” app showed a flight to Santa Barbara, California. I made a quick reservation and then used my “carrentals.com” app to reserve a car. This option was cutting it close. It would be a 63-mile drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Maria. By the time I messed with rental cars and airport transfers this option might be cutting it close on time as well.
It pays to never give up.
I decided to stick with the flight directly into Santa Maria. Even though they were asking for “volunteers” that changes sometimes. Today it did. I was the only standby passenger for this short 134-mile flight. Not everybody showed up. The flight went off with six empty seats….and me.
After driving all night, flying more than 1,600 miles and being out in the sun at the Santa Maria Speedway for five hours, it had been a long day. Little did I know it would get even longer.
What can go wrong….sometimes does.
My flight back to LAX from Santa Maria was scheduled to leave at 7:44 p.m. As “bad luck” would have it, the flight was delayed. Apparently, the plane “hit a bird” on the way up and had to make an unscheduled aka “emergency landing”. We ended up leaving San Maria at past 9 p.m. That got me into LAX at nearly 11 p.m. Then I had to make the 65-mile drive back to San Clemente arriving at just about midnight. I have to admit it. I was one tired puppy, but I had knocked off a track that no other trackchasers had ever seen. It was worth it to me.
The People
My best trips are when I meet people at the track.
I enjoy meeting with track promoters. While I’m visiting most tracks on a lark, the promoters earn their income from the track. It’s interesting to hear their comments and concerns about racing from a business point of view.
I had been in email contact with Chris Kearns, the Santa Maria promoter, for the past year and a half or so. Chris was always very prompt in answering my emails. Many promoters are not. He referred me to Gary (sorry, I didn’t get Gary’s last name). Gary was responsible for the Sunday afternoon go-kart program.
My “go-to” guy for kart racing today.
Gary was most helpful as well. I always have a hard time explaining to go-kart track promoters the “trackchasing position” on go-karts. Our “founding fathers” (this did not include me) chose to ignore “flat” karts in the initial trackchasing rules. Only karts with cages, driven by adults are allowed to count for trackchasing purposes in the go-kart arena.
I have never agreed with this rule. However, at this point in time, I think it would be “unfair” to begin counting flat karts. Why is that? It wouldn’t be fair to the trackchasers who are no longer active in the hobby. How could I compare my totals if I could add many, many “flat” kart tracks when the trackchasers who have phased out of the hobby, one way or the other, didn’t have that chance. No, the “horse has left the barn” on this one.
Often times I feel I am “disrespecting” kart tracks and promoters when I tell them that “trackchasers don’t count flat karts”. They don’t know the background on the issue. It makes me uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Gary confirmed there would be caged karts racing with adults. That’s all I needed to hear. I made my plans to get up to Santa Maria.
If all short track promoters were like this guy the industry would be miles ahead.
Today the first person I met at the track was Santa Maria Speedway promoter, Chris Kearns. We got off to a rocky start. Let me explain. I introduced myself and gave him a brief explanation on what I was doing at his track with the trackchasing hobby.
He looked at me when I asked if he had ever hear of trackchasing. Chris said, “Guy Smith. I read what Guy Smith has to say. He doesn’t like tracks that start late or have small car counts. I get it”. Say what? I would have expected this kind of reaction from an East coast promoter as Mr. Smith writes a column for the eastern based Area Auto Racing News racing paper.
However, Chris Kearns is a WEST coast promoter. What was he doing listening to the east coaster, Guy Smith. Chris was also familiar with Guy’s track total. Chris told me, “He’s somewhere in the high 1,200s. He’s #1 right?”
Editor’s note: Guy Smith is currently credited with 1,264 tracks per www.autoracingrecords.com as of today. However, I think those stats may not be up to date and Guy has seen at least 1,270 tracks.
Are AARN readers only getting half the story?
It appears that Guy Smith has not been completely informing his readers. After listening to Chris, it sounded as if Guy had made no mention of Ed Esser (2nd place world ranking) or me (first place world ranking). Hopefully, Guy will correct this glaring omission so his readers are kept up to date on the trackchasing world rankings.
There are always two sides to the story.
Talking to promoter Kearns was most interesting. We spent several minutes “comparing notes”. Chris had been the promoter at SMS for the past two seasons. The more I watched Chris this afternoon, the more I noticed that he seems to have a full case of “Adult A.D.D.”. I say that in the most complimentary fashion. Chris seems to be everywhere doing everything. He never stops!
I asked Chris several questions about the racing business and the promotion business. I asked him what his biggest challenge running the track was. He replied, “Employees”. The Santa Maria Speedway is a 1/3-mile dirt oval track. They race once a week. Any guesses on how many employees Chris has. Sixty-two!! I probably wouldn’t have guessed half that many. He told me he has two people walking around “picking up cigarette butts” each night!
Chris also went on to explain how much he had to pay for ambulance services, fuel used to prepare the track, insurance, etc. etc. The numbers were high. Many tracks in the west, as well as all over, are suffering from shrinking car counts. Chris tells me he averages 15-30 cars for each of his four divisions. That’s fantastic.
Chris is a former racer. He knows all the leading late model drivers who race on the major dirt late model circuits. He’s good friends with C.J. Rayburn and many others. Billy Moyer recently rented the SMS for six hours just to test his car for this past winter’s big Arizona races. Chris told me, “Everyone of the drivers ‘back there’ (meaning the Midwest) is a great guy except one and he’s not bad when he’s drinking.” When he told me the name of that person, it didn’t surprise me!
Chris is a huge fan of Illinois dirt short tracks. He’s been to most of them. I agree that Illinois dirt racing is some of the most entertaining in the country. Chris’ favorite is the Macon Speedway. That’s a great track. I’ve only been there once back in 1994. I made a note to try to re-visit the Macon Speedway. That little 1/5-mile bullring provides very exciting racing.
Chris and I discussed the dilemmas facing the short track promoter. He told me that because he is a former racer he works extra hard to keep his racers happy. I told him that I believe short track racing tries to serve two masters, the race fan and the racing competitor. What is good for the fan is not always good for the racer and vice versa.
Chris made in interesting comment. He said, I can hold a race program with nobody in the stands, but I can’t hold an event with nobody in the pits. I had never heard it explained that way. It is definitely a balancing act for the promoter.
At the driver’s meeting Chris introduced me as being a special fan that had made a great effort to get to the track today. The competitors in attendance gave me a nice welcome. Several came up to say hello. I always appreciate that.
It was the very best meeting the folks at SMS today.
I had a chance to speak to many people at the track today. Unfortunately, I didn’t get most of their names. One couple was planning a Midwestern racing trip for this summer. They would be hitting many of the tracks on the UMP stock car tour. Another engine builder (Gerry Wilson – Briggs Engine Building – 805-937-9537) took the time to tell me about the engine’s he builds for the karters. One of the QRC kart drivers came up to tell me he had seen photos of his racecar from my visit to Chowchilla, California. Others came up to say hello and tell me how remarkable my trackchasing efforts were. For everyone who came up to say hi, I say thank you. It’s always great to be welcomed to the track I’m visiting.
TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION
I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home.
I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day.
Los Comadres – Santa Maria, California
It’s not often when a restaurant qualifies for both a Randy Lewis Racing Money Back Guarantee AND a “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”.
First, let me tell you why this was a “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. When I’m on the road I want to see and experience things that are unique to the area and something I won’t see at home. I grew up in a town of just 13,000 people in central Illinois. For us, going out to “dinner” after church on Sunday frequently meant a visit to the local Steak n Shake. On rare occasions we went to a local buffet. However, because I was such a picky eater, my family soon recognized that a buffet was a waste of “time and money” on me.
Times have changed. Now I eat almost exclusively in ethnic restaurants when I’m with family and friends. Yes, Waffle Houses are considered “Southern Ethnic!”. We dine mostly in Mexican, Chinese and Italian restaurants. Rarely do we get the chance to eat “Salvadorian”.
I had a good three hours after leaving today’s track until I had to be at the airport. My Apple iPhone’s “Yelp” app made recommendations on where I should eat “supper”. The best bet was going to be the Los Comadres Salvadorian restaurant on Main Street in downtown Santa Maria.
The food was great. That’s why this restaurant gets the prestigious Randy Lewis Racing Money Back Guarantee. What allows the Los Comadres to also get a “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction” was the ethnicity experience.
There are many areas of California where people like me (read that, white folks) are in the minority, often a distinct minority. Although that feeling is minorly strange because it’s somewhat unusual I like it. It’s the feeling I often get when I trackchase internationally.
There weren’t any folks who looked like me anywhere near the Los Comadres restaurant. When I walked inside my fellow diners looked up as if to say, “He doesn’t look like us and then they went back to enjoying their meal”. The waiter came over and seemed to be thinking, “This guy probably didn’t do very well in Spanish class (that would be true) so I’m going to handle him with kid gloves to make sure he enjoys his Salvadorian dining experience”. Because I was from “out of town” so to speak, the restaurant staff couldn’t do enough for me. It felt like I was staying at my grandma’s house.
I began to study the menu. Fortunately, the menu was in both Spanish (pollo frito) and English (fried chicken). The “Yelp” restaurant reviews had raved about the “Pupusas”. I had to have those. These were stuffed tortillas (not the Taco Bell kind). They were stuffed with beans, cheese and pork. I also had a tamale and some fried bananas. I washed it all down with the Salvadorian beer, “Pilsener 100”. Everything was delicious. When you go to the Santa Maria Speedway I highly recommend a stop here for dinner. If you go there, you’ll forget you’re in Santa Maria for the moment and feel like you’re in El Salvador.
Check out these reviews of the restaurant.
From Yelp!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/las-comadres-santa-maria
From Urban Spoon
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/280/1227734/restaurant/Las-Comadres-Salvadorean-Santa-Maria
RACE REVIEW
SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY (INNER OVAL), SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA
One of the more beautiful short track locations.
I’m going to call today’s track a 1/8-mile banked dirt oval. It sits entirely inside the large 1/3-mile dirt outer oval. Spectators have a great view of the track from the regular grandstand. Spectators also have a super view of the California hills that sit beyond the backstretch. This is one of the better views in all of short track racing. Highway 101 runs parallel to the backstretch as well. I see the track every time we make a visit up into central or northern California.
Today’s program was supposed to begin at 1 p.m. I think. They didn’t get the first race moving until 2:30 p.m. It took then some time to get the racing surface the way it needed to be. There were eight classes racing today. The only trackchasing countable group was the QRC karts. There were five of them in total. I think one might have been a 250cc while the others were 500cc powered.
Each division ran two ten lap heats and a twenty lap feature. There were a large number of spins that created yellow flags. I’m not sure who was the biggest yellow flag offenders, the adults or the kids. It might have been the adults!
Where have all the cars gone?
I stayed for two complete sets of heats for each of the classes. Only one class, the “Mod Pros”, had enough for two heats in each round. Considering ONLY the trackchasing countable classes that raced over the past three days of racing than I’ve seen, NONE of these classes brought enough cars for more than one heat. That’s not a good sign for car counts.
The regular Santa Maria Speedway concession stand was open for the 50-75 spectators sitting in the main grandstand. There was also a food concession in the pit area. I was surprised to hear an announcer speaking over a quality sound system when the first race started. Rarely, if ever, does a kart racing facility have an announcer. That was a nice touch.
Watching the second heats was entertaining. I soon began to know which drivers were going forward and which one weren’t. The high temperature was only expected to reach 61 degrees in Santa Maria. However, it was a beautifully clear and sunny day, like the ones California is so famous for.
Meeting the people was the best.
The highlight of my trackchasing day was meeting and chatting with so many people. Many of them were very familiar with the Midwest and Florida racing. It seemed like they acknowledged that California might be a little behind those places in the overall quality of racing offered. I think that’s true.
I was intrigued by Chris Kearns’ comments about his main Saturday night program. He told me they start at 6 p.m. and shoot for getting finished by 9 p.m. I don’t know of any track in the country, with lights, that tries to finish that early. I’m going to have to check that out.
I was able to get some great photos of today’s action. Please don’t miss them. I think you’ll get the feeling of actually being at the track. You can see those pictures right now by clicking on this link:
STATE COMPARISONS
California
This afternoon’s track was the 114th lifetime track for me to see in California. The late Gary Jacobs leads in the Golden state with 149 tracks. Ron Rodda sits in a distance third with 83 tracks out here.
By my count I have just four tracks in California where I have not seen race. None of these tracks race on a regular basis. As far as I know there are only three firm race dates in 2010 from these tracks.
Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features!
Trackchasing politics revealed….they’re about ready to kill each other.
Has a conspiracy been committed in the international tracks “counting world”?
I’ll soon be introducing two new promotional ideas to the hobby of trackchasing. Neither has ever been offered by any trackchaser in the hobby.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser
California saying: I was furloughed by the state of California and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA, (LAX) – Tulsa, OK (TUL), – 1,237 miles
RENTAL CAR #1
Tulsa International Airport – trip begins
Tulsa, OK – 35 miles
Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport – 138 miles – trip ends
AIRPLANE
Fayetteville, AR (XNA) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 598 miles
RENTAL CAR #2
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins
Greenbush, MN – 353 miles
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – 707 miles – trip ends
AIRPLANE
Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 1,535 miles
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Santa Maria, CA (SMX) – 134 miles
RENTAL CAR #3
Santa Maria Public Airport – trip begins
Santa Maria, CA – 10 miles
Santa Maria Public Airport – 27 miles – trip ends
AIRPLANE
Santa Maria, CA (SMX) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 134 miles
Total Air miles – 3,638 (5 flights)
Total Rental Car miles – 872 (3 cars)
Total miles traveled on this trip – 4,510 miles
TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:
Will Rogers Raceway – Free!
Greenbush Race Park – $12
Santa Maria Speedway – $5
Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $17
COMPARISONS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS
There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total.
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,543
- Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 1,283
- Guy “The Kid” Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,270
Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report