Greetings from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Ste. Genevieve County Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,704 THE EVENT Editor’s note: When I can tie in a racetrack visit with a get-together will old friends that makes for a good day. That’s what Carol and I did in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri on this adventure. I travel this way so you don’t have to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. Fair enough? Now get out there and go somewhere. Covid is in the rearview mirror and getting smaller every day. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (sometimes trackchasing can be dirty – not talking about the Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers). I live in San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Sunday/Monday, June 6/7, 2021. SUNDAY An early morning wake-up call! After returning from the races in Pink, Oklahoma last night, we drove to Tulsa. Bad weather delayed Winding Creek Speedway’s racing by more than four hours last night. David Hardy, a good racing buddy, said he and his crew returned home at 3:45 a.m. They were only twenty minutes from the track! We walked into our Tulsa hotel at two a.m. We had to get up at five a.m. to make an early morning flight from Tulsa to St. Louis. It would’ve taken us about eight hours to drive rather than fly. Trackchasing strategy. At nine a.m., we landed in St. Louis and hung around the terminal for two hours. Why would we do that? Trackchasing strategy! I planned on picking up a rental car in St. Louis. We would have our rental car for eight days. If I picked the car up this morning at nine a.m., I would have to return it at nine a.m. on my final day of the trip. We had two hours to spare this morning. Therefore, picking the car up at eleven a.m. gives me an extra two hours to return it when the eight-day rental is complete. Trackchasing strategy! Free Italian food. As we hung around the terminal, Carol and I visited the Pasta House restaurant in St. Louis International Airport’s Southwest terminal. Carol and I are both Priority Pass members; thus, PP allows us both a twenty-eight-dollar credit at the Pasta House. That being the case, we dined on chicken wings and spaghetti Bolognese and waffles. Then, we got a pepperoni pizza and a dozen chicken wings to go. Our server was nice. She not only gave us a twenty-eight-dollar credit for each of our orders, but she didn’t charge us when we went over that amount. Moreover, we got about seventy dollars’ worth of food and drink on the Pasta House! Getting the right rental car is most important. Now, a very important aspect of the trip was about to occur. I needed to select the proper rental car. After all, I would be driving that car for more than 2000 miles over the next eight days. Bingo! I saw a Toyota Camry with Kansas license plates. So, I grabbed it. Today we arrived at the Saint Genovese County Fairgrounds in Saint Genovese, Missouri. We were going there to see go-kart racing. Saint Genovese is a go-kart track that offers all kinds of classes. Only one or two classes meet trackchasing’s goofy rules regarding go-karting. There was absolutely no guarantee that any cars that would count in the hobby of trackchasing, would be at the track. I always try to talk to someone live time from the track. The track promoter, Keith, and I had spoken a few times previously over the phone. He had been very helpful, having told me they normally get “three or four 250 and 450 caged carts.” Those were the only two classes that allowed me to count Ste. Genevieve as lifetime track 2704. So, off we went. We only barely avoided a rainout. We had a seventy-five-minute drive down to the track. Rain was in the area. As a matter of fact, it rained on us a couple of times and came as close as seven miles from the track. Still, it was dry when we pulled into the Ste. Genevieve County Fairgrounds. Meeting up with good friends. Today was going to be a special trackchasing day. Why so special? We were meeting up with our longtime friends: Ron and Sandy Otto. I first worked with Ron nearly fifty years ago. Both of us have stayed in touch all this time. We’ve met up on the golf course and played a few rounds of golf together as well. I always say, “You don’t really have a friend until you’ve eaten a meal with them or played a round of golf with them.” The fact that Ron and Sandy are from Ste. Genevieve made this day extra special. They are high school sweethearts and will celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary very soon. Carol and I pulled into the fairgrounds right behind Ron and Sandy. After paying our five-dollar general admission, we joined them and several of their family members in the small shaded grandstand. It had a perfect elevated view of the track. Canceled in two weeks? Drivers race about every two weeks at the Ste. Genevieve County Fairgrounds. When I bought our tickets, I noticed a sign saying the race in two weeks was canceled. I asked why. The ticket taker took a minute or two to explain the reason. The answer was “insurance”. Apparently, their insurance company had come to them only two days before this event. The insurance company was requiring an extra insurance premium of $551 for today’s event – and only today’s event. Since they couldn’t afford that extra cost in the future, they were having to cancel their upcoming race as a result. Their policy would be renewed, presumably under more favorable conditions on July 1. And so, the race that was scheduled after July 1 would go on as planned. We were very impressed with the physical layout of today’s racetrack. It was just a miniature version of a larger quarter mile or a half-mile traditional dirt oval track. You won’t want to miss the photos or the videos of today’s racing action. Did the racing begin on time? Racing was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Did it? The answer is no; it did not. I realize that doesn’t surprise you. Despite having seen racing at so many tracks, it still surprises me how gullible I can be with my expectations about tracks starting on time. Like most kart racetracks, they have a lot of classes. Overall, there are few participants in each class. Wouldn’t the racer have more fun if there were thirty karts in the pit area and three classes rather than 30 karts and ten classes? I’m thinking a kart racer would rather race with 8-10 other drivers rather than just one or two. I just don’t get it. Would today’s racing “count”? Today’s racing would offer flat karts, caged karts and lawnmowers. Of course, the flat carts and the racing lawnmowers would not count by trackchasing rules. Most of today’s caged kart racing wouldn’t count either, since those classes were limited to kids. Trackchasing’s Founding Fathers seemingly hated the little rugrats and banned them at every opportunity. Nevertheless, Keith told me that the 250 and 450 classes were both caged and open to adults. I breathed a major sigh of relief. It soon became apparent there were two – and only two – countable karts and drivers in the pit area today. I held my breath as they did their hot laps, hoping neither one of them would break before an official race began. This was more than scary. It was during the hot lap session that a very scary and nearly tragic thing happened. Somehow, one of the caged karts hit a woman in the inside lane of turns three and four. I only saw the incident after the woman was lying prone on the track. I don’t know if she was a spectator who was trying to cross the track, or if she was a corner worker. She might have ended up out on the track if the kart had driven too far into the infield and struck her from her infield position as a corner worker. I don’t know. For the next several minutes, on-site EMTs and an ambulance came. They took this woman to the hospital. No mention was made of the situation from that point forward. I always see something I’ve never seen before. Today’s racetrack had one usual feature which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. They had a large rectangle hole in the center of the track. I wondered what that could possibly be. As it turns out, it was the water supply. From what I could see, it went down several feet – sort of like a huge well. It’s interesting and creative that they built the track around the water supply! Today’s racing classes. I’m guessing there were ten or twelve heat races today in all the different divisions. Each race only had three or four competitors. There wasn’t much passing, since the preferred line was on the inside lane. They did have a father/daughter lawnmower racing combo! It was fun chatting with several people in our small grandstand. One lady knew just about everything about today’s racetrack. She further knew the racing classes and the drivers. This was helpful for enjoying the races. Self-conscious. I always feel self-conscious when non-racing friends join me at these racetracks. I can easily see where the racing might not be that entertaining for the non-racing fan. You either like it or you don’t. It was nice of Ron and Sandy to humor me. Once the two kart 450 class ran their heat race, I knew I needed to decide whether I should put Ron and Sandy out of their misery. I told them that we had seen what we had come to see. Now, we could go enjoy the rest of our day together…away from the track. They were in agreement with that. It was time to tour Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Since Ste. Genevieve’s was Ron and Sandy’s hometown, they took us on a driving tour to see the highlights. Ste. Genevieve is a small town with only 4,410 residents. Canadian settlers founded the town around 1740. The town was named for Saint Genevieve (who lived in the 5th century AD), the patron saint of Paris, the capital of France. As we drove around town I could see this was an upscale small town. It was a lot of fun to see where Ron and Sandy grew up. Afterward, we were off to supper. That’s what they call dinner back here in the Midwest. Ron and Sandy had picked out the Old Brick House restaurant in downtown Ste. Genevieve. The eatery was situated in an old brick building. The recommended items were the fried chicken, kettle beef and mashed potatoes. That’s good old Midwestern cuisine! Over the next two hours, the four of us reminisced over people with whom we had all been acquainted since starting our careers in the early 70s. Some have passed on and we remembered them fondly. It was a fun time with Sandy and Ron. There were lots of laughs and smiles. All too soon it was time to say her goodbyes. The one email that changed our plan for the next two days. Tonight, we were staying in Saint Robert, Missouri. This had us perfectly positioned for tomorrow’s softball game at the Women’s College World Series. All was going well with that plan until I received an email. Sunday’s games – today’s game – has been postponed by rain. Therefore, that game would now be played on Monday. Thus, the Monday game for which we had tickets would now be played on Tuesday. We couldn’t come back on Tuesday. Ultimately, because of the rain delays, we decided we wouldn’t be able to see the championship game of the tournament after all. This changed our plans. Carol would go home from her trip a day early, while I continued trackchasing. Rain was expected to be a problem for the entire upcoming week for me. We’ll see what happens. MONDAY With bad weather comes changes in the plan. Oklahoma City’s rainy weather, which led to our last-minute change, caused Carol and me not to stay over an extra night. Because of this, we were unable to attend the Women’s Softball World Series championship round. So, I listed my tickets online. If I sold the tickets, I might be able to get out of the financial liability of not attending the game. Carol was heading home but not before she did some touring. This afternoon, Carol will be standing by for a flight from St. Louis to Los Angeles. That left the morning open for some touring. But first, I had something special in mind for Carol. Last week, I went to what is known as the “World’s Largest Gift Store” – located in Phillipsburg, Missouri. Directly next door to the gift shop is the Candy Factory. I enjoyed both of those stops, and I was sure Carrol would as well during a quick stop today. It would an hour and a half out of our way to stop at these two locations. I didn’t focus on that aspect with Carol. I try to give her the information she needs to know and wants to know. I love trying to impress Carol! I would say Carol was impressed with the world’s largest gift store. She and I were both amazed at how many different SKUs the store offered. We wondered how they could keep track of how many units of merchandise were in the store. They were literally thousands of different items. I don’t know how you keep track of all that inventory. Meanwhile, you must make certain that a lot of that inventory doesn’t walk out the front door without being paid for by the customers…or employees. Bags packed 110% full? Carol started her trip with a pretty well-packed piece of luggage. Then, I added another four days of dirty clothes for her to take back home. Thus, my bag would be lighter for the remainder of my eight-day trip. Carol didn’t buy anything in the gift store, simply because her bag was already jammed full. Afterward, I took her over to the candy store. Carol is neither a sweets person nor is she a dessert person. Moreover, she is not an over-eating person. This is why she is in the best shape of anyone in the trackchasing hobby. Yes, I forced her to buy something. I had to force her to buy a small bag of popcorn that she believed to be overpriced at four dollars. Telling her that there wouldn’t be anything to eat on the plane, I insisted she had better have a snack. Of course, she didn’t select any of the sugary popcorns like caramel popcorn. Instead, she got one of the non-sugar non-salted popcorns. To me, that would be like eating cardboard. It was time for Carol to fly in a steel tube. From there, we were off to the St. Louis International Airport. There were two flights leaving St. Louis for Los Angeles this afternoon. Each one of them was fully booked regarding standby passengers. The only way Carol would get on one of these planes was if a paying passenger didn’t show up. Actually, that’s a fairly common circumstance. I fully expected Carol to get on one of the flights. We are constantly planning strategy and then trying to make that strategy work. These two flights were leaving one hour apart. There are two individual terminals at the St. Louis International Airport. They are about a half-mile or more apart. To ensure our strategic plan would be most effective, I dropped Carol off at one terminal. She ran in to get a boarding pass for the later flight. Then I took her to the other terminal, where she would standby for the first flight to Los Angeles. From there, I headed to the cell phone parking lot. The “cell phone parking lot” is a relatively new addition to airport parking. I’ve slept overnight a time or two in the cell phone parking lots. With today’s temperature in the mid-80s, I let my engine idle as the air conditioning ran. Then, I worked on research for upcoming trackchasing visits. No word from Carol? As time went on, I didn’t hear from Carol. I was thinking she wasn’t going to make the first flight back to Los Angeles. If she didn’t make it, I would swoop in and pick her up in one terminal and drive her over to the other terminal. If she missed the second flight, I would come back and get her. We would stay in St. Louis another night. This was in the original plan anyway. Sold! It was about this time that I received an email, which told me someone had purchased the two tickets we had for the Women’s Softball World Series championship final round. That was helpful. I’ll send out thanks to whoever bought those tickets. Good news. Right after getting the good news about our baseball tickets, I got a text from Carol. She was seated in seat 10F. She was on her way to the City of Angels. That was all good. Now that she was taken care of, I needed to develop a plan for the rest of my day. It was already four p.m. Filling the holes in my schedule. When I’m on the road during one of these trips and there are no races to see, I enjoy going to sporting events. It doesn’t really matter what sport it is. If it’s a professional sports league, I’ll go to it. I’ll also catch a college basketball game if it’s available. Since this is the middle of June, pretty much the only professional or college sporting activity in which I might be interested would be a baseball game. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve seen baseball played at every active major-league baseball park. There are thirty of them in all. I’ve also seen major league games in about ten or so parks that have been replaced by new stadia. These have now closed and have been replaced by the current version. I like checking out minor-league baseball games, too, since they’re normally in smaller markets. However, this was Monday. For the most part, minor-league baseball is not played on Mondays. I don’t really know why. If I had to guess, they save those days for rain dates or maybe travel. I couldn’t find a single minor-league baseball game within a driving distance, which would be played tonight. With this being the case I went on Priceline. There, I selected a Holiday Inn Express hotel in the St. Louis area. Then I went over and had a nice dinner at the Sonic Drive-In. It’s one of my favorites. I have never had a trip I didn’t enjoy. Carol had been with me on the first four days of the trip. For the remaining seven days, I would be on my own. I enjoy trips when Carol comes along, but I enjoy trips when I’m by myself. The bottom line is that I enjoy all my trips. You ain’t getting’ no loan from us buddy. While I was at dinner I called a mortgage guy from Bank of America. I was looking to refinance my mortgage. Our son J.J. had given me this fellow’s contact info. About three minutes into that conversation he told me there was no way I could get the loan from BoA. That was a bummer. However, his rejection simply gave me more resolve to find someone who WOULD give me that loan. Stay tuned. Positive news coming on that front. When I got to the hotel I spent most of the evening in my hotel room scouting out county fair trackchasing opportunities for this summer. I’m guessing I’ve been to 500 or more county fairs pursuing my hobby of trackchasing. There are still a few county fairs I haven’t been to yet, but not all that many. The rest are on my future radar screen. Trackchasing is like golf and it is like life. In closing, I think you can easily understand how a simple trip like this one can have so many “ups and downs”. I like that feature about these trips. This is so much like playing golf. Just when you think things are going great one thing or another falls off the rails! Good afternoon from the Ste. Genevieve County Fairgrounds in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Randy Lewis San Clemente, California Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,704 tracks. Missouri The Show Me State This afternoon I saw racing at my 78th-lifetime track in the Show Me State, yes, the Shoe Me State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Missouri. Missouri ranks #12, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Missouri state trackchasing list. I have made 53 separate trips to Missouri seeing these tracks. 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 Missouri sayings: Pennsylvania of the West JUST THE FACTS 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 830 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. See it in pictures! Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. A little adventure, a small town tour and our view at a nice little county fair racetrack 
