Saratoga Lake Ice Racing
Yes! There’s a video from today’s Wyoming ice racing. Click on this link to see it.
People are always asking me how I know when and where the races are being held at some of the remote spots that I visit. The information comes in from all types of sources. I have friends all around the world who help me. Today’s heads up about the ice racing in tiny Saratoga, Wyoming came to me in a very unusual manner.
A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law Neal passed away unexpectedly. Carol and I traveled to Saratoga, Wyoming for the funeral. Although the occasion was sad, it gave us the opportunity to visit with so many of our relatives who are spread out primarily in the far west.
Saratoga is a town of just 1,690 people who live at an elevation of 6,791 feet. The downtown area might be two or three blocks square. Carol and I decided to stay at the Riviera Motel in Saratoga.
One morning I was going out for my daily power walk in some pretty cold and windy temperatures. When I passed by the hotel lobby, I saw a flyer attached to a bulletin board that caught my attention. The flyer told me that little Saratoga would be having some ice racing on Saratoga Lake. They would be racing UTVs and motorcycles. They had two race dates on their 2023 ice racing calendar. One in January and one in February.
Did you know that track visits were first reported in the trackchasing hobby all the way back in 1928? During all that time only about 20 trackchasers have ever come to Wyoming to see a race. No one has ever come to Wyoming to see a race on ice. Carol and I were going to be first in line for that.
Up to this point, I have seen ice racing in 24 different states, Canadian provinces and countries. Earlier this winter, I had planned to go to a European country to see some ice racing (country not mentioned here for competitive reasons). However, due to the lack of cold weather and ice they canceled that event. I’ll try to get there in 2024. This would now make Wyoming the 25th state, Canadian province, and/or country where I would be able to see some ice racing. Here’s that list.
| Alaska |
| Alberta |
| Andorra |
| Belarus |
| British Columbia |
| Finland |
| France |
| Iowa |
| Italy |
| Maine |
| Manitoba |
| Massachusetts |
| Michigan |
| Minnesota |
| New Hampshire |
| New York |
| Ontario |
| Quebec |
| Russia |
| Saskatchewan |
| South Dakota |
| Sweden |
| Vermont |
| Wisconsin |
| Wyoming |
We wanted to go back to Saratoga to visit Carol’s sister Patty following last month’s trip. The ice race would fit neatly into our weekend visit. Spending a little bit of time outdoors in the middle of the ice-racing Wyoming winter would be fun. With this as background, we began this wintertime adventure.
Friday, January February 10, 2023
Carol and I were up bright and early and out the door at 6:30 a.m. so we could make a flight from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado. When the weather is good, it’s going to be a 4-5 hour drive from Denver to Saratoga, Wyoming.
The weather is not always good. When we came up here two weeks ago, Interstate 80 was closed with high winds and blowing snow. It was a white-knuckle drive on two-lane state highways during those weather conditions and we did it at night.
This time the weather was much better with no road closures. When Carol and I go on a trackchasing trip I am always going to be on the lookout for something sort of “special” in addition to seeing the racing. I want us to experience what the local area has to offer. These special stops are called “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”.
I did a little research and came up with the idea of seeing a basketball game at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It just turned out that on this Friday night, the Air Force Academy Falcons were playing at the #24 ranked New Mexico Lobos in Clune Arena.
Driving south to the Air Force Academy from Denver was going to take us pretty far out of the way for getting up to Saratoga, Wyoming. That’s not a problem for me. I like driving. I also like sleeping. More driving almost always means less sleeping.
I ended up buying tickets online for the game ahead of time. We got some fantastic seats. Carol and I were located at mid-court just 12 rows up. Clune Arena isn’t that big. It only seats 5,858 people. Clune Arena is inside the Cadet Field House which is also home to the Cadet Ice Arena for their hockey team. The Cadet Field House was built in 1968 at a cost of $5.6 million then.
Although the Air Force Academy was a six-point underdog to New Mexico, they were ahead by 20 points with three minutes to go! I have never seen a basketball game where one team executed so flawlessly as did AF. I would guess that Air Force had 15 uncontested layoffs because of their sharp passing. They were a well-oiled machine.
We happened to be seated near several New Mexico fans. They had driven up to Colorado Springs from Albuquerque a driving distance of 378 miles. It did seem like they were reasonably obnoxious. They kept blaming the refs for different calls. I almost NEVER blame a ref for a call. I absolutely despise “homer” fans who seem to think EVERY call goes against their team. Geez. With three minutes to go New Mexico was down by 20 points. Is that because of the refs or because the Lobos allowed so many uncontested layups in a half-court offense? Sorry but now I am going to have to put New Mexico in the penalty box with usc, Arizona, and UNLV as having the most obnoxious fans that I’ve seen. When UCLA moves into the Big Ten in 2024 what schools are likely to join this foursome?
Carol loved the game. She was amazed at Air Force, having such great passing capability, and loved our VIP-type seats. After the game, we paid the piper just a little bit by having to make a two-hour drive up to Laramie, Wyoming.
That pain was eased some when the Marriott hotel in Laramie upgraded us to a nice suite. However, by the time we got to bed, it was about 1 a.m. We needed to be dressed and ready to hit the road by no later than 8 a.m.
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Today’s racing on the ice at Saratoga Lake was being organized by the 307 GoFast On Ice club. This year 2022 was their first-ever for ice racing. They held their first show last month. Today was their second and last ice racing event for the year.
Over the years, up until today, I had seen racing at 15 tracks in Wyoming. Those totals were helped just a little bit when I was dating Carol in college. Her family lived in Dayton, Wyoming and operated the Foothills Motel and Campground. This is my Wyoming track list.
| Interstate Speedway | Sheridan | Wyoming |
| Sweetwater Speedway | Rock Springs | Wyoming |
| Casper Speedway | Casper | Wyoming |
| Big County Speedway | Cheyenne | Wyoming |
| Ripple Ridge Raceway | Rawlins | Wyoming |
| Sheridan Speedway | Sheridan | Wyoming |
| Teton County Fairgrounds | Jackson | Wyoming |
| Sweetwater Events Complex | Rock Springs | Wyoming |
| Valentine Speedway | Glenrock | Wyoming |
| Gillette Thunder Speedway | Gillette | Wyoming |
| Newcastle Speedway | Newcastle | Wyoming |
| Park County Fairgrounds – road course | Powell | Wyoming |
| Park County Fairgrounds – figure 8 | Powell | Wyoming |
| The Arena at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds | Casper | Wyoming |
| Fremont County Fairgrounds | Riverton | Wyoming |
I mentioned that trackchasers don’t come to Wyoming very often to see racing. My nearest fellow trackchasing competitor has seen racing at just nine tracks in the Cowboy State.
Today’s weather was perfect for watching ice racing. It was sunny with a high temperature of nearly 40° and no wind. I ended up getting a suntan from being out on the ice and snow! On a sunny day, the sun really reflects off of the white stuff and you can get a tan/sunburn pretty quickly.
I was using my Google Maps GPS to get us to Saratoga Lake. That worked pretty well except we were directed to the backside of the track. It looked as if a couple of four-wheel-drive vehicles had made their own path across the frozen tundra to where spectators and racers were located. But with about 6 inches of snow on the ground that didn’t look like that would be a good idea for us.
We asked some locals who were watching from this backside location, which was a good distance from the track, what our best bet was to get to the “other side” of Saratoga Lake. Those directions took us back to downtown Saratoga and then past the Old Baldy Club. With those directions, we were soon where we needed to be and paying our $10 per person admission. I gave the ticket seller another 10 bucks so that when Carol’s sister Patty joined up with us she would get in for “free”.
Mostly pick-up trucks were parked along the main stretch of today’s ice racing oval. They had a clear view of the racing action. Although we were not early, the guy in charge of parking put us right in the front row. Then another guy came up and told us we couldn’t park there. I referred the second guy to the first guy and never heard any more about it. It probably didn’t help that I was wearing a UCLA sweatshirt and driving a car with Washington plates!
During the day we would meet all kinds of nice people. In advance of the race, I had talked with Tyler Roy whose name and phone number were on the flyer that I first saw back at the Riviera Motel. I didn’t get to meet Tyler today because he was out on the track running the show.
One of the first people I met at the track was a gal named Brenda. She was in charge of the racing order and line-ups. Brenda was happy to answer all of my questions and very welcoming. Then I met up with a guy named Jeremiah Johnson. Can you imagine being named Jeremiah Johnson and living in the mountains of Wyoming? J.J. was a great guy. He drives demo cars. Jeremiah won $5,000 demoing last year up in Rawlins, Wyoming. He and his two sons were at the track today to provide some “halftime” entertainment between the heats and main events.
The racing started on time with UTVs racing on the ice oval. The entire program, including who was racing in what race was posted on a large board. The most UTVs in any one race was four. They did a good job of keeping the program going. As soon as one race was finished the next one was hitting the track. Motorcycles were racing today as well.
There were a couple of UTV flips. They were easy rolls into the snow. Several of the competitors had four people in their SXS including the driver. That must have been a wild ride to flip and land on your top!
Today’s ice track was flat primarily because water seeks its own level! I’m going to guess the track was somewhere around a quarter mile in length. I walked all over the place getting pictures of today’s competitors.
It was nice to have a food trailer on the lake and a couple of porta-potties. Carol and Patty dined on hotdogs and French fries. I begged off some of their food and drank hot chocolate. I had my heart set on trying a “hot snocklet” but when I got there they didn’t have any!
Carol and sister Patty enjoyed the day. It was nice having them out on the ice. Carol was seeing racing at her 680th lifetime track in 52 countries.
I’ve been doing this trackchasing thing for quite some time. Today I was seeing my 2,859th-lifetime track. I’ve seen those tracks in 86 countries. I’ve never heard of anyone in Wyoming doing any racing with four-wheel vehicles on ice. When I did find out about it, it was purely by luck. However, being lucky is always a good thing, isn’t it?
At this point, I always recommend that the folks reading about these adventures take a look at my YouTube video. If you see that you will be viewing the first ever trackchaser visit to an ice race in the Equality State of Wyoming. Yes, I was pretty happy about that.
Later in the day, Carol, Patty, and I made it over to the Hotel Wolf in downtown Saratoga. The Wolf has a restaurant and hotel that opened all the way back in 1893. The brick Victorian-style building is a landmark in Saratoga.
The Wolf restaurant is a steakhouse. I’ve eaten there a time or two in the past. Their food and service have always been good. On this night the service was a bit off but the food and drink were fantastic. It was just nice dining with Patty and Carol after an afternoon of being at Saratoga Lake. I’ve known both of these ladies for more than 50 years! When we got back to the house Patty and I stayed up talking until 2:30 a.m.!
Sunday, February 12, 2023.
This was just a kickback day in Saratoga for us. The ladies went to church and I spent some of the morning getting my daily four miles of walking in around town. Deer roam freely in the downtown area.
Next, we had breakfast in downtown Saratoga at a place called the “Grumpy Italian”. One of Patty’s Wyoming friends, Nancy, joined us for our meal.
I’m going to say I might be just a little too aggressive for small-town Wyoming folks. The menu this morning said, “No substitutions!!!!!!”. How many exclamation marks did it take for me to really believe I couldn’t make a substitution? More than were on the menu!
I ordered the breakfast burrito and asked the waitress to add some garlic. You would have thought I insulted her. She began to tremble. Then she said, “I’ll ask him if he will do that”. I could tell she didn’t really want to bring my “substitution” request to the chef. My philosophy is that I am the customer. Shouldn’t the restaurant do its very best to meet the customer’s requests?
Soon the chef came to our table. He smiled and told me he would add garlic to my burrito but the “garlic” he used was really his aftershave! I told him he had a nice smile. Then he came back with, “Remember, this is the GRUMPY Italian restaurant not the HAPPY Italian restaurant.” We were all good.
Later the chef saw me taking a picture of my burrito. Doesn’t everybody take a picture of their food? If you have ever dined with me that is very average behavior on my part. I think the chef liked my asking for a substitution! Later we ordered a slice of their chocolate cream pie for the table. Best ever! Took a picture! The chef loved me now!
The rest of the day was spent watching the Super Bowl, playing ball with Patty’s dog, Miss Rainy and eating prime rib leftovers from the Wolf! Oh yeah. We had to visit Patty’s chickens as well. No doubt about it we are city slickers!
Monday, February 13, 2023
All too soon it was time to leave Saratoga. Carol and I had a great time visiting Patty. We always do. Now Patty needs to start planning her trip to visit us in Southern California.
Carol’s and my main objective today was to get back to San Clemente from Saratoga. This would require a five-hour drive which included a closure along Interstate 25. I’m not sure if that closure was for the weather or for some other problem.
Just outside Denver, there is a truck stop called, “Johnson’s Corner”. They are famous for their cinnamon rolls. Carol and I have been going there since we first met in college. We had to stop today. We hadn’t been to Johnson’s Corner in a few years. Of course, we bought a couple of cinnamon rolls. Then we saw their donuts! These were the largest donuts I’ve ever seen. Compare this donut to the size of Carol’s hand. Oh my. Calorically I’ll be eating nothing but green beans for a while when I get back home.
For the second time this weekend we stopped at the SweetWater Mountain Taphouse restaurant inside the Denver airport. This place is part of the Priority Pass program. I’m a member of PP. The program gives me a $28 food and drink credit at many airport restaurants all over the world. The program isn’t as strong as it was before the pandemic. But at airports where they have PP participating restaurants it’s great.
When I bring a guest the food and drink credit doubles to $56. There is no minimum. You can order anything you want. If your bill is less than $56 you pay nothing. In the past month we have stopped at SweetWater four times. That’s $224 in free food and drink. Each time we order whatever sandwiches and drink we like. Then with the amount of credit we still have remaining we buy their chocolate chip cookies. In the past month that’s 24 large cookies. We take them home and freeze them. The year before the pandemic began I “earned” just over $10,000 in free food, drink, and airline club stays!
We made it back to the Denver airport and attempted to catch an earlier flight. We made the flight. The plane left the terminal and headed for the runway. Then the pilot came over the intercom to tell us we were returning to the terminal gate. He wasn’t very specific as to why we were doing that.
When we arrived at the gate, a couple of police came on the plane. They escorted a young man from the back of the plane OFF the plane. At the same time, another adult man grabbed all of his luggage and followed these folks off the aircraft. I don’t have any real idea what the issue was. I suspect the guy in the back was causing some people some problems.
When Covid was raging I was still flying virtually every week. On two different occasions, passengers did not want to wear face masks when that was required. They put up quite a fuss over this requirement.
In each of these two circumstances when the plane landed, all of the passengers were required to stay seated. Then the two troublemakers were escorted off the plane by the police. Regardless of your position on wearing a mask or not wearing a mask, I can’t imagine a person getting on a plane during the middle of Covid, and then not wearing a mask and expecting that to turn out well. Some people!
From there, our trip was reasonably uneventful. We pulled into the driveway of our modest seaside cottage at a reasonable hour after being gone for four days.
It was fun seeing Patty, meeting several of her friends at the race track and then eating at Saratoga’s local restaurants.
Living in Wyoming compared to where we live in Southern California is about as far apart, geographically culturally, socially and any other method of comparison as you can imagine.
If you survey the typical person living in Wyoming and ask if they might like to live in Southern California, you would get a very low acceptance rate. That equation would be similar when asking people in Southern California to move to Wyoming.
I do a lot of traveling. I spend a lot of time asking people questions about where they are from. In almost every case people like where they live. They are not looking forward to living somewhere else. That makes all the sense in the world to me.
That’s it from Wyoming. Next weekend I will begin a foreign odyssey adventure to a faraway land. I will be flying more than 17,000 miles round-trip. I’m sure some very unique experiences will come from that trip. Stay tuned. Don’t miss it.
Randy Lewis
First-ever Wyoming ice race trackchaser