Greetings from Owendale, Michigan
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Silver Bullet Speedway – Track #1,903
Today’s trackchasing was ‘easy’ and most productive……………more in “The Details”. Here’s an example of the benefits of having a flexible mindset……………more in “The Details”. What were the chances of having TWO great gourmet hot dog restaurants in this small city?……………more in “Attractions”. Understanding promoter speak.………..details in “Race Review”. Junk car racing currency spends just as well as the most exotic racing machines ever created.………..details in “Race Review”. Say WHAT?……..details in “Race Review”. The current state of the art………..details in “Race Review”. 39 out of 40….who does this?………..details in “Race Review”. 454 days and counting………..details in “Race Review”. Today’s trackchasing was ‘easy’ and most productive. We woke up this morning in Lakeville, Minnesota. We went to bed in Bay City, Michigan. This is what today looked like. I don’t want to make the trackchasing hobby seem easy because most of the time it is not. It is always fun but not always easy. However, today did have some “easy” aspects. Efficiency is important. As mentioned Carol and I woke up just south of Minneapolis. Following last night’s track #1,900 we had just two hours of sleep. No we were not out celebrating. Sometimes the schedule just calls for just two hours of overnight slumber. I’m pretty proud that it took us just 106 minutes from the moment our hotel wake-up call came to the time we were clearing airport security. Carol is a bit more “deliberate” than me when it comes to getting ready. She’s not as slow as some but she definitely has a “multi-step” readyment process. After more than 40 years of wedded bliss I don’t mind at all as long as I plan for it. What a beautiful place for an overnight slumber. I did have the chance to show Carol where I like to sleep overnight in the Minneapolis airport a time or two each year. It’s a beautiful place that plays classical music all-night, has bathrooms and a drinking photo nearby and even foamed pads to make everyone comfortable. She was not overly impressed. To be honest, with only two hours available for sleep last night, had I been on my own I would have opted for my special overnight sleeping place in the MSP airport. However, with Carol tagging along on this trip, I felt obligated to get a hotel even if it was for just two hours. Call me soft-hearted just don’t call me late for dinner. Assassins in the most positive sense of the word. Nevertheless, we like to think of ourselves as “Trackchasing assassins”. We move into one town get the job done and then quickly and quietly get going on our next assignment. It pays to have a flexible mindset. If there is one thing that supports my level of trackchasing success it is having a flexible mindset. I truly will change whatever plan I have on 30 seconds notice when a better plan surfaces. Most folks won’t or can’t do that. Of course I will have to be convinced the new plan IS a better one first. Once that convincing is complete I’m on board immediately with the new plan. Here’s an example of the benefits of having a flexible mindset. We were planning to fly standby from Minneapolis to Detroit this morning. When we went to bed the availability of that flight was good. By the time we got to the airport today it was not good. That meant we needed a change and we needed it immediately. When I left California 26 days ago my plan was to trackchase in Ohio this weekend. However, rainy weather made that a bad idea now. Earlier on this trip I got a message from Rob Palmer. Rob knows more about Minnesota racing that anybody. On this occasion he had information on a new track in South Dakota racing tonight. I would have loved to have gone to that track. It was actually a part of our plan until a bad rain forecast scared us off. This left Michigan as the place with the best weather for tonight. We just needed a way to get to Michigan and the easiest choice, Detroit, was now out. I looked at eight different Michigan cities that were receiving flights from Minneapolis. While I checked the flights to eight cities Carol gleefully went about her business. For the most part we have learned to fully delegate chores where one or the other has the greatest expertise. It turned out the best flying choice today, based on our ability to get on the plane flying standby, was Grand Rapids. Then Grand Rapids it would be. That would mean revised rental car plans and a new hotel situation. A great city for gourmet hot dogs. We landed in Grand Rapids in time for lunch. What do I do when I’m in a city foreign to me and it’s time to eat? I check Yelp! For some reason Grand Rapids is home to a number of gourmet hot dog eateries. I don’t know why that is but it is. Check out what’s behind the “Attractions” tab for a fantastic place for gourmet hot dog eating. Following lunch we had a three-hour drive over toward Bay City, Michigan. Once in the area Priceline.com came to our rescue with a Fairfield Inn by Marriott property. Now it was time to think about trackchasing. Follow me to the “Race Review” tab to see how that went. ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL Yesterdog – Grand Rapids, Michigan What were the chances of having TWO great gourmet hot dog restaurants in this small city? Once we landed in Grand Rapids I used Yelp to pick out a gourmet hot dog location. This was not my first Grand Rapids gourmet hot dog restaurant to visit. For some reason Grand Rapids is home to this type of culinary offering. We soon found a place called Yesterdog. We would have an early lunch there. We waited five minutes for them to open for the day. We were the first customers in. Above the bar was a picture of President Obama visiting Yesterdog. That will immediately encourage some folks to come here as soon as they can and others never to come. That’s politics for you. That’s also why I HATE politics. Nevertheless, it must be a pretty cool place to hose a president of the United States. There were photos of other celebrities who had visited previously as well. Yesterdog offers some 6-7 choices of hot dogs all with gourmet toppings. Their slogan is “Regular hot dogs don’t exist”. The décor is funky with all kinds of metal signs from the past. Of course, those metal signs depicting brands from more than 50 years ago were probably printed in the last ten years. Oh well, it’s a commercial business and not an antique store. I recommend this place for its uniqueness if nothing else. Silver Bullet Speedway – Owendale, Michigan My plans are only ‘guidelines’. Today’s trackchasing plan was to go to a racetrack in Elkton in the late afternoon and then over to another track in Fairgrove, Michigan in the evening. Fairgrove was having their annual “Bean Festival” race. Never been to a bean festival? Don’t knock it unless you have tried it. I’d like to give you an idea about how uncertain my travel plans can be despite putting a good deal of effort into the planning process. Tonight’s track in Elkton had only been discovered YESTERDAY. I was doing some Googling and discovered that Elkton was having a race just 40 miles from Fairgrove. This would make a beautiful “Day/Night” doubleheader. Elkton was the “new” part of that trackchasing double plan. However, on the way to Elkton the Fairgrove Bean Festival track (the old part of this plan) got bumped by a better opportunity. I have learned not to put anything in the record books until I actually see the green flag fall to start a race. Understanding promoter speak. I contacted the Elkton promoter and asked him how many cars they normally get for the event he was running. He told me last time they raced there were 10 cars and 10 trucks. I know what that means in “promoter speak”. They would definitely have less than 20 racers. They would probably be lucky to have ten. On the drive out to Elkton from Bay City we passed through the town of Owendale, Michigan. What did we see as we drove through Owendale? A race track is what we saw! The track facility was sitting there as plain as day on the right side of the highway. This was the recently renamed Silver Bullet Speedway (formerly the Owendale Speedway). Wouldn’t you know it? This was a track I had never visited and they were racing tonight. I am sometimes truly a “lucky duck”. We would stop by the Silver Bullet Speedway after the Elkton racing was finished. We would have to see the Fairgrove Bean Festival another time. Neither of the facilities we would visit today was even on my trackchasing schedule yesterday morning! I had been so totally focused on special county fair shows that I had completely forgotten to check our “normal” tracks. They say that sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. That was certainly true when it came time to considering the Silver Bullet Speedway. Just think…it we hadn’t driven past the dang thing on the way to Elkton we would have been at a bean festival and not the Silver Bullet Speedway. Supplementing our retirement savings. The track was offering a one dollar senior discount on tonight’s admission. I don’t know why the do that. Seniors don’t need the discount young families do. Nevertheless, we accepted the discount and sent our senior savings over to Vanguard to bolster our meager retirement fund. What’s to eat? Next up it was time to have our “second supper” also called our “last supper” of the night anyway. The Silver Bullet Speedway’s track menu was written on a white board in what was hopefully an erasable marker. The menu had everything from popsicles to pickles. They pointed out that all of their beef was “freshly ground”. They also mentioned that all of their French fries and brats were homemade. They make their own brats? Impressive. The current state of the art. For some reason I didn’t find their racing to be all that entertaining. The track and grandstands were nice enough. It’s just that the fields of cars were small. Just a few cars in each race on a full-sized oval normally doesn’t provide much entertainment. Here’s the situation on small car counts. By the way, if I had to guess, the average car count for every class I will see at every track I will see in 2013 would probably be about ten racers. That means if the class runs two heat races they will have just five cars in a heat. Then by the time feature time comes one or two cars has dropped out following the preliminary events. Then by the time that feature race is finished another 2-3 cars have dropped out due to mechanical failure or racetrack wrecks. This does not make for entertaining race action. It’s another one of the reasons short track racing often has very small crowds. I fear that racing at oval tracks, in way too many cases, is going the way of amateur road racing and go-kart racing. Those are participant sports not spectator sports. I’m generalizing here. If I had to generalize, and why not, I would say that most people who own and race cars on small tracks are on the lower end on the income spectrum. They’re not at the bottom but a long ways from the top. Racing for them is a hobby. The don’t make money doing it. As a matter of fact they spend a LOT of money on their racing fix. Engines, tires, gasoline are just a few of those expenses and those are just the expenses for the tow vehicle! It’s not surprising that car counts have dropped over the years. Each car might bring 4-6 people with it i.e., mechanics, spouses, children and friends. When one car drops out of racing it takes several paying people with it. If the night’s car count drops from sixty to thirty you can imagine the financial impact on the track. Short track racing, in more places than not, if really on the downswing. I don’t think it will ever come back. However, such as it is, it’s here for now. What did this mean for today? Yes, what did all of this mean for today? It meant that we had attended three tracks today that weren’t even on the radar screen yesterday morning. Nevertheless, it was all fun. What trackchaser doesn’t have fun when they see three tracks in one day all located within 10 miles of each other? Nevertheless, by the time we got back to the Fairfield Inn we were a couple of tired puppies. Carol was still recuperating from her fall at the Washington Nationals game two nights ago. We were both recuperating from a serious lack of sleep from the previous past couple of nights. 39 out of 40….who does this? Today was day #25 of this 28-day trip. Counting the trip previous to this one I had been gone for 39 of the last 40 nights. Is there a reason those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” can’t keep up? Yep. Only three more days to go on this trip. It doesn’t look like the remaining days will be affected by weather. The tracks still left for this trip will race rain or shine. That means I will have gone through the entire months of July and August without a rain out. 454 days and counting. That means my “rainout free” trackchasing streak now stands at 454 days. During that time I’ve seen racing at 245 tracks for the first time. Heck, I have not been rained out since the middle of 2011! I’ve had some pretty incredible stats while competing in this hobby. I think my rain-free trackchasing streak tops ‘em all. STATE COMPARISONS Michigan The Wolverine State This afternoon and evening I saw my 103rd, 104th and 105th lifetime tracks in the Wolverine state, yes the Wolverine state. I have a special prize for the reader who can tell me the significance of those three numbers as they relate to the Peoria Speedway. I’ve got another Michigan track scheduled for tomorrow night. After that I think I’ll leave Michigan alone for the rest of the year. The state deserves a rest. 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 Michigan sayings: The state with the upper hand.
QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,745 miles Chicago, IL (ORD) – Detroit, MI (DTW) – 234 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Detroit Metro Airport – trip begins Belleville, MI Butler, PA Urbana, OH Union, KY East Moline, IL Marshall, MI Armada, MI West Branch, MI Midland, MI Detroit Metro Airport – 2,378 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Detroit Metro Airport – trip begins Greenland, MI Escanaba, MI Escanaba, MI (again!) Hudsonville, MI Greensburg, PA Abingdon, IL Brooklyn, MI Onekama, MI Detroit Metro Airport – 3,429 miles RENTAL CAR #3 LaGuardia (New York) International Airport – trip begins Oreville, PA LaGuardia (New York) International Airport – trip ends – 314 miles AIRPLANE Detroit, MI (DTW) – New York, NY (LGA)– 500 miles New York, NY (LGA) – Montreal, Quebec, Canada (YUL) – 324 miles RENTAL CAR #4 Dorval (Montreal) International Airport – trip begins Essex Junction, VT Brockville, Ontario, Canada Dorval (Montreal) International Airport – trip ends – 482 miles AIRPLANE Montreal, Quebec, Canada (YUL) – Washington, D.C. (IAD) – 489 miles RENTAL CAR #5 Dulles (Washington, D.C.) International Airport – trip begins Reagan (Washington, D.C.) National Airport – trip ends – 110 miles AIRPLANE Reagan (Washington, D.C.) National Airport (DCA) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 929 miles RENTAL CAR #6 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins Jackson, MN Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip ends – 366 miles AIRPLANE Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – Grand Rapids, MI (GRR) – 374 miles RENTAL CAR #7 Gerald R. Ford (Grand Rapids) International Airport – trip begins Elkton, MI Owendale, MI TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Wayne County Fairgrounds – $10 Butler Farm Show – $12 (not trackchasing expense) Champaign County Fairgrounds – $12 Florence Speedway – Complimentary admission Quad Cities Speedway – $8 ($2 senior discount – not trackchasing expense) Calhoun County Fairgrounds – $10 Armada County Fairgrounds – $8 Ogemaw County Fairgrounds – $8 Midland County Fairgrounds – $10 Adventure Mountain Raceway – $8 Upper Peninsula International Raceway – $8 Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds – $5 Hudsonville County Fairgrounds – $9 Westmoreland County Fairgrounds – $8 Abingdon Fairgrounds – $10 Michigan International Speedway – $20 Manistee County Fairgrounds – 13 Oreville Kart Club – No charge Champlain Valley Expo – $16 Brockville Ontario Speedway – $5 Canadian Jackson Speedway – $25 Elkton Autumnfest – $10 Silver Bullet Speedway – $11 ($1 senior discount) 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 350 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,903 Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
