Greetings from Tazewell, Virginia
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Tazewell County Fair Speedway
Dirt figure 8
Lifetime Track #2,144
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: 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 Not much experience here. We would spend the day in Roanoke, Virginia. I don’t have a lot of previous memories of Roanoke as I do from other cities. I never worked in Roanoke. But what happened at that Wendy’s in Roanoke? However, I recall sleeping overnight in a Roanoke Wendy’s parking lot a few years ago. It was wintertime. The temps got down into the teens. Who sleeps overnight in a Wendy’s parking lot in the middle of winter? It was one of those nights when I only had 4-5 hours to kill overnight. I had arrived into Roanoke late and my flight was leaving at zero dark thirty as we used to say in the Marine Corps. I’ve found it’s not that bad to just “do what you gotta do” and move on down the road. I’ve trying not to confuse you. Today’s visit was done under more pleasant circumstances. Let me tell you about it. I will try not to confuse you. Let’s go back in history. Back in 1963, when I was fourteen my mother re-married. She would be married to my stepfather Bill for 35 years until her death in 1997. Bill was a great guy. He was a race fan. He and I went to more than 100 different tracks together. About five years after my mother’s death Bill re-married a woman by the name of Betty. My mother’s name was also Betty. Betty #2 and Bill lived happily in Florida for about ten years. Then about five years ago my stepfather passed away at the age of 80. His wife Betty moved to Roanoke, Virginia where her kinfolk resided. We try our best to stay in touch. We had stayed in touch with Betty. Today would be our first chance to visit her in Roanoke. We had a nice time visiting. We took Betty to lunch. After lunch we visited an assisted living home where Betty plans to move to from her private apartment in town. Not a lot of people get this experience. One of the reasons I hit the long and dusty trackchasing trail is to experience things. That being the case I had a most unexpected time at the assisted living facility. Betty was interested in seeing the type of apartment she was on a waiting list for. None were vacant but a current resident agreed to let us all look at her living quarters. While Carol, Betty and the home’s director toured the apartment I sat down on the sofa and talked with the lady letting us see her place. She was 96 years old and totally with it. She was anxiously awaiting a pickup from her daughter for the weekend at the daughter’s home. She was more than excited to tell me all about most of the people pictured in her home. This meeting gave me a wonderful insight into what it might be like to live alone, at age 96, in a facility like this. How many people get the chance to spend time in a 96 year old’s home when they are not related? I’m going to guess my experience was most unique. Lunch. We followed this visit with lunch at the Red Lobster with Betty. I’ve eaten in my share of fine seafood restaurants. I’ve always sort of looked down on the Red Lobster as not offering a quality dining experience. However, both Carol and I were surprised at the quality of food at Red Lobster. We’ll probably be back. I respect my elders. I have always had a ton of respect for my elders since I was a young boy. I still do. I think that’s why I can relate to older people (remember I’m 66!….but think I’m 35) that I meet along both the world trail and the trackchasing trail. We bade Betty farewell following our late lunch. She was sad to see us go. We were happy we had stopped and hope to again the next time we’re in the area. A side benefit of the trackchasing hobby. I will tell you this. Living in California we live far from many of our relatives and friends we’ve made over the years. Remember we lived in several states in the West, Southwest, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and East during my corporate career. My trackchasing hobby makes it easy to see so many of those faraway people so often especially considering we live so far away. This is Appalachia or darned close to it. Soon we were driving through the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel on the way to tonight’s racing activity. The tunnel runs under the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. I marvel at the old houses so often seen in the east. I have little experience with living in an old house. The oldest house I ever bought was about 22 years old. As soon as I bought the property we tore the house down and built a new one. The east coast houses are built so close to the road. THE RACING Tazewell County Fair Speedway – Tazewell, Virginia There is always room for one more…. It was a wet and cloudy day. When we arrived at the fairgrounds it looked as if we might have to park a long way from the fairgrounds and walk. However, I subscribe to the theory, “There’s always room for one more at the inn”. We kept driving and found a spot just across from the fair’s entrance. Just our luck. Admission to the fair was five dollars for the first week of the fair. Wouldn’t you know it? Tonight’s admission was ten bucks. 360-degree seating! This was a smallish fair. However the Tazewell County Fair “Speedway” was most unique. The track had seating some 360-degrees around the concrete block enclosed track. Figure 8 – never rained out – ever. By race time some beautiful blue skies were beginning to peek through the clouds. However, the dirt racing surface was a quagmire from the rain today. If this had been a traditional oval track they would have easily rained out. However, we were here for figure 8 racing. I can never ever recall being rained out of a trackchasing day by wet grounds at a figure 8 track. Oops. Sorry, that’s confidential. I spent some time talking to the folks running tonight’s event. They turned me onto some upcoming tracks I didn’t even know existed. Where were those tracks? Sorry. Can’t tell you that. My fellow competitors read these reports. If and when I do attend these new tracks I will provide a detailed summary of the racing action. Anyone and everyone will see the words, pictures and videos from any track I visit. This way I can 100% personally vouch for the credibility and countability of a track before any fellow competitor might waste their time visiting one of these venues. Fair enough? The South begins in Virginia. Tonight a mixture of cars and trucks sloshed through the mud in a figure 8 configuration. Some of the cars proudly displayed rebel flags atop their cars. Remember, the “South begins in Virginia”. We had a nice time at the fair today. We were just happy they didn’t cancel because of wet grounds. As I say a permanent weekly racing operation never would have raced after the rain this area received. AFTER THE RACES Back up the hard road. Where I grew up we had generic names for the types of roads we traversed. My grandparents lived on Pekin Avenue. We lived next door to their house but our 660 square foot home faced Doering Street. Doering Street was forever known as the “back street”. As I left my house, I took one last look at sunny San Clemente. It takes a lot to leave a beautiful place like this. Currently Carol and I reside in a modest seaside cottage overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Our living room goes about 660 square feet. For the first 15 years of my life my ENTIRE house was 660 square feet. Want to check it out? Go to Zillow.com and search the address of 411 Doering, East Peoria, Illinois. You know….I never ever felt cramped in our house on Doering. We often drove over dirt roads and gravel roads. By the way we didn’t live on a farm but we lived a rural lower class lifestyle. More than once we stood as high up on the swing set as possible while my grandfather slaughtered chickens. We screamed and yelled as we literally watched, “chickens run around with their heads cut off”. My grandmother made the best ever fried chicken. Wait! I thought we were talking about roads. Paved roads were called “hard” roads when I was a kid. Great plans for each and every day. From the fairgrounds we had a three-hour drive back to our Sheraton Hotel in Roanoke, Virginia. We have great plans for Trackchasing Tourist Attractions beginning tomorrow. See you there. Good night. Virginia The Old Dominion state This evening I saw my 23rd lifetime track in the Old Dominion state, yes the Old Dominion state. I’m surprised I’ve seen nearly three times as many tracks in Virginia as I have in West Virginia. I’ve see 23 or more tracks in 24 different states. 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 Virginia sayings: Bless your delusional little heart. 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 Bowling Green, IN Buncombe, IL Ionia, MI Osgood, IN Hemlock, NY Taylorville, IL Cambridge, MN Mora, MN Urbana, IL Bedford, KY Owenton, KY LeMars, IA Belleville, KS Grayslake, IL Brazil, IN La Grange, KY Grayslake, IL Sturgis, SD Martinsburg, WV Tazewell, VA 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 Sandstone – $15 (include pits) HBR Raceway – $10 (included pits) Ionia Free Fair – $13 Ripley County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission Hemlock County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission Christian County Fairgrounds – $8 Isanti County Fairgrounds – $12 Kanabec County Fairgrounds – $10 Champaign County Fairgrounds – $6 Dirty Turtle Off-Road Park – complimentary admission Owenton County Fairgrounds – $10 Plymouth County Fairgrounds – complimentary admission Belleville High Banks – $20 Lake County Fairgrounds – $8 Staunton MX – $15 Oldham County Fairgrounds – $10 Lake County Fairgrounds – $10 Buffalo Chip – $20 Berkeley County Youth Fairgrounds – $10 Tazewell County Fair Speedway – $10 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 500 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of 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 Plus” production from the Tazewell County Fair Speedway. Photos from today’s trip. 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. A muddy but fun night at the races in Virginia 
