Southern Iowa Speedway

 

 

 

THE EVENT

 

Note! 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

 

 

THURSDAY

 

 

Iowa – 100!

Tomorrow will be a special night. I’ll be seeing my 100th lifetime track in the state of Iowa. I have now seen 100 tracks or more in California, Michigan and Iowa. No other trackchaser can match that record.

 

 

Today I had no racing as part of the “Long and Arduous Mega-Trackchasing Summer Tour of 2015”. I couldn’t find any new tracks to see in the general area. What is the general area? Think of it as an 8-10 hour one-way driving range.

 

 

I might have done this a few years ago. Heck, I might do it next week!

I could have traveled from Iowa to New York for a county fair figure 8 race. In my younger days I probably would’ve done that! However with last night’s race in Iowa being on a Wednesday and now with another race in Iowa on Friday (tomorrow) heading out to New York in the middle of those two dates didn’t seem prudent.

 

 

I had a chance to go “racechasing”. Less than an hour away the famous Knoxville Raceway was holding a modified stock-car special tonight. The Knoxville raceway is arguably the most famous short track in America.

 

I find this somewhat amazing.

Some day try checking out the track lists of the top 10 or 20 trackchasers. You might be amazed that a number of them (most?) have never been to the Knoxville Raceway in their lives. Yes “track” chasing is about chasing tracks and not chasing races.

 

 

Nevertheless I decided not to attend the racing in Knoxville. I just didn’t feel like sitting through two hours of heat races in order to get to the really good stuff in the feature events.

 

Alternatives.

I had some alternatives. I was looking forward to seeing a baseball game. My first choice was to see the Cedar Rapids Kernels play at their home park. However upon reviewing the travel plan I decided a four-hour round trip drive to see a minor-league baseball game wasn’t worth it.

 

 

Although I still had no intention of going to the Knoxville Raceway tonight I did check their website to see if they were still racing. Last night it had rained long and hard. Nevertheless when I woke up at 8 a.m. this morning there was no rain and it didn’t rain for the rest of the day.

 

 

I was a bit surprised to see that the tonight’s racing at Knoxville was postponed because of last night’s rain. Knoxville is a very professional organization. I would think they could’ve gotten the track race ready in 12 hours or so.

 

I would simply go with the safe and easy option. I headed to Principal Park in Des Moines about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to see the Iowa Cubs play the Memphis Redbirds.

 

 

A few years ago Carol and I had seen an afternoon game at Principal Park. Tonight’s weather was steamy. The temperature was in the 90s with humidity to match and even exceed.

 

Don’t give seniors even more money.

You all know what I think about senior discounts. I don’t think seniors NEED discounts. Of course there are exceptions to this rule but in general I feel that is the case.

 

 

I went for the best seats available at the park’s ticket office. There were no tickets for the Iowa Cubs being offered on StubHub! or its affiliates. There were no scalpers selling tickets. However, of all places, the TICKET OFFICE had tickets. The “retail” price of my ticket was $13. However the senior discount was a whopping seven dollars netting out my ticket expense to just six bucks.

 

 

That seemed like a fantastic savings. Nevertheless when I completed seeing all 30 major league baseball parks last year I actually paid less than six dollars on several occasions to be big league games. My ticket price to a Colorado Rockies game was just two dollars. That meant the Iowa Cubs were selling their seats for THREE times what a major league baseball game would cost.

 

A hamburger for eight bucks?

I decided to invest my savings in other products and services being offered at the park. One of the products I was not interested in was the gluten-free hamburger. That was selling for eight dollars! At that point I longed for a NASCAR race. You won’t pay eight bucks for a hamburger at one of their tracks.

 

 

I had to pay five dollars to park for the game tonight. I chose a private lot about three blocks from Principal Park. Near the stadium parking was selling for eight dollars. When Carol and I go to a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim game we normally pay five dollars to park. We have a perfectly safe walk of about two blocks to reach the stadium. I always find it amazing that I can park and get into a major-league baseball game for cheaper than what people pay to go to minor league games. Does that seem right to you?

 

 

No almonds for you.

I love almonds. Carol always packs a couple of small plastic containers of these salty nuts for my trips. I figured I would take some almonds into the game tonight. However, I wasn’t thinking much about those almonds I guess. When I passed through the gate tonight I was carrying them in my right hand. The “let’s play by the rules” ticket taker asked me what I had in my hand. “Almonds” was my one-word honest reply. “Sorry, you can’t bring those in. You can sit then over by that wall and they’ll be there when you leave”. The ticket taker was right. I put them on the ground against the wall and picked them up after the game. Next time I will be more “discreet” with my almonds!

 

 

Investing my savings.

If you’re read many of my reports you will see that I generate a good deal of “savings” when I buy good stuff cheap. However, my deal is not to create savings and put them in my back pocket. I create savings so I can buy more good stuff. That’s a big philosophical difference in my thinking and some of the folks I know who are “tight”.

 

 

 

I had some “savings” in my pocket from the lower than normal parking and ticket expenses from tonight. I needed a souvenir. Soon I was walking out of the souvenir shop with a $25 Iowa Cubs T-shirt. The logo is a little more subtle then I might like but I think it’s going to work very well.

 

 

Editor’s note: I would rarely walk up to a stranger and comment about their t-shirt. Over the past several weeks I’ve had FOUR separate strangers comment about my Iowa Cubs shirt. They were all Midwestern baseball fans. I find that somewhat amazing but not surprising.

 

The minors ain’t the majors.

By the way there is a BIG difference in the play at the major league baseball level and the minors. That’s even true with tonight’s game and it was a AAA minor league baseball game. The pitchers don’t throw as fast. There are many more fielding errors. The batters don’t hit the ball all the well. I as surprised to see such a BIG difference in the quality of play of minor league games compared to the majors.

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY

 

I miss Trackchasing’s First Mother.

Because I forgot to wash one bag of laundry a few days ago it was time to do laundry again. On laundry day I really miss Trackchasing’s First Mother!

 

 

The busy plan of the day.

I had a busy day planned for today. First I would drive nearly an hour over to Knoxville, Iowa to visit the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum. I’ve been there a few times and always enjoy my visits.

 

Following my visit to the museum I would head over to Bogie’s Steak House in Albia, Iowa. It came highly recommended on Yelp! I was looking forward to a steak dinner with Iowa corn fed beef.

 

After my special dinner (that was a BIG steak) it would be a 30-minute drive over to Oskaloosa, Iowa. I hadn’t been to Oskaloosa for the racing since the 70s that I could recall.

 

 

Tonight I would be seeing figure 8 racing at the Mahaska County Fairgrounds in Oskaloosa. This is also where they hold the well attended and semi famous Wednesday night stock car races. My stepfather Bill and I used to make the drive over to “Osky” from Peoria on some Wednesday nights back in the late 60s.

 

 

Following tonight’s figure 8 racing I would drive over to my metro hometown of Peoria, Illinois. Google maps told me it would be a three hour and nine minute drive. I hoped that not too much of that drive would be on two lane highways. I don’t like two-lane highways and I especially don’t like ‘em on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

 

Being in Peoria on Friday night would have me well-positioned for a big day of trackchasing on Saturday. With these extra long trips I’m always looking a day or three ahead sometime much more.

 

Knoxville, Iowa.

With my laundry finished I headed over to Knoxville, Iowa. Some of you may know that Knoxville is the “Sprint car capital of the world. “

 

 

The little town (population 7,251) is home to the Knoxville Raceway and the Knoxville Sprint Car Hall of Fame. I’ve probably visited the hall of fame five or six times, maybe more. I have enjoyed myself on each visit.

 

 

The admission price at the museum is a more than reasonable four dollars for adults. It’s just three bucks for oldsters. I took about 100 photos inside the museum. I will organize those photos into one photo album that you will be able to enjoy. You can find it attached to the Knoxville Raceway page. Here’s a link to the “Hall of Fame” page of my website at www.randylewis.org.

 

 

Halls of Fame and Museums at www.randylewis.org

 

 

 

Nice to see Tom Schmeh.

I made a special point to say hello to Tom Schmeh. Tom is the curator at the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum.

 

 

He’s originally from upstate New York but has also lived in Milwaukee and I believe another Midwestern location. In addition to Iowa all of those locations are racing hotbeds.

 

 

Tom was telling me he’s been to Australia 11 times and New Zealand five times to see the racing. He’s like me. He enjoys all kinds of sightseeing activities in addition to the race tracks he visits when on vacation.

 

 

Tom has seen nearly 400 tracks. He adds a few new ones whenever he can. I’m glad I took the time to say hello. It was nice chatting with Tom Schmeh.

 

Where is America with tech?

After leaving the museum I stopped at McDonald’s for a large Diet Coke. It was a warm summer Iowa day. When I visit McDonald’s I almost exclusively use the drive-thru. Since I got my iPhone I also use the Apple Pay feature on virtually every visit to Mickey D’s.

 

 

I commonly ask the cashiers if Apple Pay is being used very much at their location. Today the young man told me it was the first time he had ever seen Apple Pay being used! I asked him how long he had been a cashier at the McDonald’s store. His answer was two years!

 

 

After the races tonight I stopped at Mickey D’s again at another location. This time I asked the cashier if the Apple Pay program was being used much at his place. He smiled and answered, “Not really”.

 

 

Iowa. Steak. Questions?

From Knoxville I headed over to Albia, Iowa. That’s a driving distance of about 40 miles. I was in search of an Iowa steakhouse.

 

 

Yelp had recommended a place called Bogey’s Steak House. Some of the reviewers did say the place was rather basic. I would agree with that assessment. 

 

 

They opened at 5 p.m. Folks eat “supper” early in the Midwest. Like my mother used to do I arrived early and waited for a few minutes in the parking lot. It was just a couple minutes past 5 p.m. when the doors were opened.

 

 

Not real impressed.

I wasn’t all that impressed with my server. She didn’t seem very knowledgeable. She also didn’t seem to have a very strong interest in her job performance.

 

 

The restaurant didn’t serve liquor so I ended up having a Diet Mountain Dew. When I asked which steak was most popular my server told me they all sold pretty well. What a copout for an answer.

 

I went with the sirloin steak but in hindsight I think I should’ve had the fillet mignon. I was attracted by the size of the sirloin. My server told me it weighed in at 28–32 ounces!

 

 

My steak came with one trip to the salad bar. The salad bar disappointingly had lots of wilted lettuce. That was surprising considering I was the first to use the salad bar this evening. My “sides” included a baked potato and Texas toast.

 

 

My steak was large. It hung over both sides of my plate. However it had lots of fat and gristle. It wasn’t all that warm either. I ended up taking a nice slab with me on a to go basis.

 

 

I knew that tonight’s hotel would have a refrigerator. I fancied eating the steak tomorrow morning for breakfast. However after I left the steak in the car for 3-4 hours while I went to the races I was concerned about my it. I didn’t know if the excessive heat had spoiled the steak or not. Acting on Carol’s advice during our nightly phone call I decided to toss the steak. As a Yelp! reviewer I would give Bogey’s only two stars.

 

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Mahaska County Fairgrounds – Oskaloosa, Iowa

 

 

It would be fun to return to Oskaloosa.

From Bogie’s Steak House it was about an hour’s drive over to Oskaloosa, Iowa. Oskaloosa a.k.a. “Osky” is a town and racetrack I first visited nearly 50 years ago.

 

 

How much has the place changed in 50 years? I couldn’t tell you. I don’t have a very clear remembrance of what it was like from that long ago!

 

 

Back in the day….with the Osky oval.

I will tell you this. When I was in high school my stepfather and I used to drive over to Oskaloosa, Iowa for their summer Wednesday night races all the time. It was better than a three-hour one-way drive from my hometown of East Peoria, Illinois.

 

 

We would end up getting home at 2-3 a.m. Then we would both be on the job the next morning by 7-8 a.m.

 

 

Back in those days I was “cutting weeds” for the city. There were no power tools for us. I cut weeds for three months a year for three years at a $1.80 an hour. My check each and every week for those three years was 72 bucks. By the way, we cut weeds in the heat and humidity of those Illinois summers with a scythe!

 

 

A Peoria area racer named Steve Lance would often make the drive to race at Oskaloosa. I don’t remember my favorite driver Darrell Dake racing much at Osky. During those times I was a major racechaser. Visiting a track just to be visiting a track never crossed my mind at the time. Oskaloosa was a fun place for good old dirt oval stock car racing.

 

 

Fast forward to 2015.

Two nights ago the area got 2 1/2 inches of rain. That amount of precipitation was still evident in the county fair parking lot of the Mahaska County Fairgrounds. I had to tip toe lightly with the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Avalon to make sure I didn’t get stuck. Some rather aggressive Iowa farm boys had trouble navigating the parking lot even with their pickup trucks.

 

 

My weather app told me the current temperature when I arrived was 91°. However, the “feels like” temperature was 109°! I had never seen such a large variance in the actual temperature and the feels like temperature. Was the humidity a problem? You betcha. You could cut it with a knife.

 

 

I had paid three dollars to park and five dollars to get into the grandstand to watch the races. The announcer made reference to this being Veterans Day at the fair with all veterans being admitted for free. I didn’t see any signs about this. Had I noticed I would’ve been able to get in with no charge.

 

 

Here’s the reason why.

There’s a reason I always say that Iowa along with Nebraska and Michigan has the best V-8 big car figure 8 racing in the United States. Why do I say that? Because it’s true.

 

 

Tonight racing was sort of a Jekyll and Hyde event. The race organization wasn’t very good but the actual racing itself was excellent.

 

 

The show was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. They started 20-30 minutes late. Then following the heat races for three classes of figure 8 cars they went to intermission. Intermission must have lasted a good 30 minutes.

 

 

There were 8-9 racers in each of the three feature events. The racing classes were named stocks, pro stocks and the open class.

 

 

We had already started nearly half an hour late. Then intermission lasted another half hour. Now they brought each one of the starting grids out onto the track and held up the program some more. They had all of the drivers get out of their cars. They introduced them separately. Then the crowd waited while they buckled up. I would guess they wasted nearly another 30 minutes with this process.

 

 

They were scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Despite all of the delays they still got done at 10 p.m. However, a properly run show should have last an hour and a half….not three hours.

 

 

Poor organization but real good figure 8 racing.

That being said I am recommend you watch the video from tonight’s racing. If you do you will see some of the best big car county fair figure 8 racing in the country. These Iowa boys and girls are hard on the gas.

 

 

Each of tonight’s races was begun from a standing start. I don’t see that very often in figure 8 racing. The PA system was very good. The announcer wasn’t as entertaining and informative as I had heard earlier this week.

 

 

The figure 8 track itself was entirely laid out on the front stretch of the big half-mile Oskaloosa dirt oval track. The cars raced around two markers which each consisted of three large tractor tires. However the tractor tires were not secured. From time to time, racecars hit the track markers. This put the marker tires into the racing groove. Each time this happened another delay was created to get the track markers back in place.

 

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

I had a good time at the races. It was fun to get back to Oskaloosa although I didn’t recognize a thing! However the management’s delaying techniques would end up costing me about an hour and a half of sleep. When the race was finished I had a bit more than three hours of driving to get to my hotel Peoria, Illinois.

 

 

I wouldn’t arrive until about 1:30 a.m. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have races scheduled for noon, 4 p.m. and about 8 p.m. There would be a lot of driving during a 95° day.

 

 

Today’s trackchasing day certainly had its share of good ideas and bad ones. It’s difficult to control the expected outcomes of these adventures. Nevertheless, it’s all enjoyable.

 

 

Good night

 

 

 

 

Iowa

 

 

The Hawkeye state

This evening I saw my 100th lifetime track in the Hawkeye state, yes the Hawkeye state. That’s only fitting since my third lifetime track was in Iowa. I grew up in Illinois. However the first out of state track I ever saw was in Iowa. My all-time favorite race driver is Darrell Dake. Darrell was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I have long contended that Iowa has the best short track dirt racing of any state in the country. They did when I first saw racing there in the 60s and they do to this day.

 

 

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

Iowa sayings: We do amazing things with corn

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,745 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #1

O’Hare International Airport – trip begins

London, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 766 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #2

Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins

Bedford, KY

Indianapolis International Airport – trip ends – 603 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #3

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins

Aitken, MN

Morten, Manitoba, Canada

LaGrange, IN

Manchester, IA

Oskaloosa, IA

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,124

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

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

 

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 the one-minute “Video Lite” production from the Mahaska County Fairgrounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day.  Double click on a photo to begin the slide show or watch the photos at your own pace.  Hover over a photo to read the caption.

 

Two days in Iowa….with the Iowa Cubs and figure 8 racing