The Dome at America’s Center

 

 

 

THE EVENT

 

 

My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. Each year I will visit 25-30 American states and several foreign countries.  Long ago I moved into the #1 trackchasing position in both the number of different racetracks seen as well as the number of countries where I’ve seen racing.  

 

 

Today’s adventure was one more of the 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:

 

 

Randy’s Complete Track List

 

 

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!

 

 

Randy on Facebook

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

FOREWORD

 

 

When I headed into the Dome at America’s Center tonight I wondered if any of these fans had flown into the United States from South Africa this morning. I looked around. I suspected not.

 

 

Yes, on Thursday evening I had boarded a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa bound for Atlanta, Georgia. Once in Atlanta I changed planes. Soon I was landing in St. Louis.

 

 

It was only 9 a.m. on this Friday morning. I was in the airport. Racing at the former Edward Jones Dome was not scheduled to begin until 3 p.m. I had some time to collect my thoughts and then my checked bags.

 

 

I am in airports virtually every week. Being able to relax in the comfort of an airline club is important to my planning success. I had several things I needed to get done so that the rest of this trip would be successful. I headed to the Admirals Club.

 

 

First, I would need a hotel for tonight. I would go to Priceline.com for that. I wasn’t planning to rent a car while I was in the “Gateway to the West”. That meant I would need a hotel with a shuttle bus service to the airport. Later I might use Uber to get from the hotel to the races.

 

 

Soon I was using my Priceline.com skills to get a reservation at the Renaissance Hotel located within a mile of the airport. Their best nightly rate for this evening was $94 U.S. plus taxes. I don’t pay regular prices. I just don’t. I got a room in the hotel tonight for just $51 U.S. plus taxes from Priceline.

 

 

I chatted with a very friendly shuttle bus driver as we rode over to the hotel. The check-in process would require my best negotiating skills. Why would that be you ask? Listen and learn.

 

 

When I checked in I simply said, “I know that I made this reservation on Priceline”. That’s another way of saying, “I didn’t want to pay your normal price so I went around the system and paid your company only about half of what it gets from other customers”.

 

 

Then I offered this thought, “Nevertheless, I am a platinum member of your hotel’s frequent stay program. I was hoping that might get me a better room”. Of course the translation here is, “I just wanted to be clear that you know I’m an important guest who has spent literally hundreds of thousands (no exaggeration here) of dollars with your hotel chain over the past 40+ years”. I think the desk clerk understood where I was coming from.

 

 

So what did all of this mean? It meant I would be in line for a series of perks that would seriously offset the amount of “out of pocket” expenses for me. Remember, I am retired. I don’t earn any money and haven’t for a long time. Still, I can afford to stay in upscale hotel properties like the Renaissance without a little “help”.

 

 

The clerk first offered me a $10 gift certificate for use in the hotel’s restaurant. I would use that to offset more than half of the cost of my lunch. Then she gave me a coupon for a complimentary breakfast for two for tomorrow morning. I didn’t have a car but I asked for free parking. That would save my buddy Paul Weisel some $10 U.S. or more in parking expense. Finally, she waived the hotel’s daily charge of $15 for high-speed internet usage. Check it out. I had paid $64.98, including taxes and fees for my room. Now I was getting that much and more back in “freebies”. Folks, that’s how I can afford to stay on the road!

 

 

I mentioned Paul Weisel. Paul is a good friend from up in rural Pennsylvania. He and I have joined up on a few trackchasing trip including trips to both England and New Zealand. Paul was making the 13-hour drive into Missouri from the Keystone state. He would meet me at the hotel this afternoon. We would use Paul’s “Urban Lamborghini” to move us around town.

 

 

Actually Paul’s Urban Lamborghini (not pictured above) harkens back to another time in life. Yes, a more difficult and cumbersome time. No, there were none of those fancy power windows. The crank windows were better for forearm development anyway right? The UL was born before the iPhone was even a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye. Maybe that why the car’s radio antenna blocks the view of some of my photos. You DO remember when cars had exterior radio antennas right?

 

 

Nevertheless, with the plan in place Paul and I headed to downtown St. Louis. This would be my last trackchasing trip of the 2016 season. This has been another great year. I’ve seen 106 tracks in 24 states and seven foreign countries. Anyone who is lucky enough to do that is….lucky enough.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Dome at America’s Center – St. Louis, Missouri

 

 

Today’s racing would be indoors. Thank goodness! The wind chill temperature in St. Louis this afternoon was about 20 degrees. It forced me to wear long pants for the first time in December!

 

 

The venue was the “Dome at America’s Center”. This is the former Edward Jones Dome. The place was built in 1995 and renovated in 2010. With various seating configurations the Dome can seat 70,000 people. It was home to the NCAA basketball Final Four in 2005.

 

 

Parking for the Dome is hard to come by. There are several private lots in the immediate vicinity. We found one charging just ten bucks and grabbed it.

 

 

It was a cold three-block walk to the ticket booth. That ticket booth was conveniently located OUTSIDE in the cold.

 

 

Tickets were priced at $25/$35/$45. I didn’t expect a huge crowd. I figured we could buy the cheapest tickets and sit pretty much wherever we wanted. That’s what I do at lots of stadia I visit. However, we were told the $25 seats were sold out. What? We went to option B, which meant we each paid $35 U.S. for our ticket to this afternoon’s racing…..plus three dollars in fees per ticket.

 

 

On the way in who should we see but trackchasing’s Gordon Killian sitting near the ticket booth. Gordon has been one of the hobby’s leading domestic trackchasers since the beginning. He had come all the way from his home in Pennsylvania to see the racing. Paul and I did not see any other trackchasers in the crowd today. Nevertheless, I suspected others were there.

 

 

Our seats were reserved. That was both good and bad. The good was that they were the perfect distance from the track. They were located just above the flag stand on the main straight.

 

 

However, there was significant “bad” with our seat location as well. How can I say this? Midwestern stock car fans are large people. Most of the crowd today was male.

 

 

Paul and I are not small folks. Nevertheless, if Vince Lombardi had to make a football team from today’s crowd Paul and I would be defensive backs! Get what I mean? When a fellow who must have gone 6’6” and weighed in at about 325 pounds poured himself into the seat next to me I knew an action plan was needed.

 

 

I recommended to Paul that we move down to the open seating area beyond turn one. We could spread out there. That was the best move of the day!

 

 

We weren’t exactly sure what the race schedule was going to be today. We didn’t want to be late. We also did not want to be too early. Sadly, we were early….way to early.

 

 

Today’s track was a temporary 1/5-mile slightly banked dirt oval. They would be racing late model stock cars and modifieds. The cars were pitted indoors but out of sight from us.

 

 

There were some SIGNICANT problems with today’s show. Significant! First of all, I didn’t care for the “bait and switch” ticket pricing policy. There were lots of seats available in the less preferred areas. Nevertheless, the $25 tickets, those were the lowest priced tickets were “sold out”? Give me a break promoters. Just give me a break!  You should be ashamed of yourselves.

 

 

We would be in the arena from 3 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Folks, if my math is correct, that is 7.5 hours. We had to endure one of the very worst P.A./announcing combinations I’ve ever experienced.

 

 

This went on non-stop for 7 ½ hours. I’ve got to think it was worse than water boarding. First, the P.A. was so load that Paul and I had a very difficult time even talking to each other in the grandstand. We would wait for the slightest pause in announcements to say what we had to say to each other.

 

 

 

The P.A. system was so bad that we could only understand about one word in then. What did that mean? We had one of the loudest P.A. systems ever and we couldn’t make heads or tails about most of what they were talking about.

 

 

What could make a very loud and non understandable P.A. system just about drive one over the edge? The announcers talked NON-STOP for the entire seven and one-half hours. They were of the radio “disk jockey” genre. That is not my favorite “genre” of racetrack announcing. They laughed and joked and never stopped talking over a very loud PA system. Unfortunately, we could only understand about one word in ten. This was the most annoying PA system/ announcing commentary I can ever remember hearing.

 

 

The late models brought nearly 90 cars to the event today. I’m guessing there were well over 80 modifieds on hand. That’s a huge field.  Was a huge field good?  Do you know what huge fields of racers can often mean?

 

 

Today there would be eight late model heat races. There were several consolation events for both classes and two feature races. We estimated there were 20 races on the schedule today.

 

 

I would CONSERVATIVELY estimate that each race averaged five caution flags. That’s a MINIMUM OF 100 caution periods. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone who was actually counting told me there were 150 yellow flags.  If each caution slowed the program down by 2-3 minutes you can do the math. In some races the caution flew nearly every lap.

 

 

Can you imagine going to a football game where there is a penalty flag after almost every play? That wouldn’t be much fun. That was what we faced this afternoon and well into the night.

 

 

Then there were delays to prep the track, almost between every race. These delays probably averaged 15 minutes or so. They took just over 40 minutes to re-work the track before the late model feature.

 

 

Paul thought they were letting too many cars race today.  Remember he’s a USAC guy.  I thought they should have had a one-spin, or at the very least two-spin rule and you’re out policy. The famous Boone Speedway in Iowa does very well with that policy.

 

 

About three or four hours into the program I looked over at Paul. Did he just give me the “nod”? I think he did. I asked for clarification. Yes! He did give me the nod. What did the nod mean? It meant, “Randy, it’s your call. I’m ready to leave when you are”.

 

 

When I first got the nod it was about 7 p.m. From 7 p.m. they were going to run the “B and C” mains followed by the “A” main feature events. I had just sat through four hours of yellow flags, unneeded in most cases track prep and a bunch of heat races and consies. What did I learn from all of that? We should have come at 7 p.m. and not 3 p.m.

 

 

I really wanted to stay and see at least one of the feature events. Legendary Scott Bloomquist was starting on the front row pole. He would likely lead every lap.  As a matter of fact he did lead all but the last lap or two when he got caught up in lapped traffic.  Bloomquist would finish fourth.

 

 

I acknowledged Paul’s nod and told him I really needed to see a feature race. Paul is very understanding in situations like this. We had a similar thing happen to us in New Zealand. I wanted to stay at the track we were visiting a little longer. When I finally gave the go ahead for our exit we headed to another track. Wouldn’t you know it. At the very last minute, with the track about 300 meters away, it rained. Yep. It rained us out! Had we shown up 2-3 minutes earlier we would have added another New Zealand track.

 

 

Tonight we both agreed the pointless delays between races were a big time waster. Luckily there was no dust and the air quality was good for an indoor show.

 

 

The racing, when they weren’t spinning out, was good. The 25-lap late model feature, with only two cautions, was one of the best races I’ve seen all year.  We didn’t want to risk staying for the the modified feature.  We had escaped death with only two cautions in the late model “A”.  I would not have been surprised if the mods had many more yellow flags than that.  

 

 

I reviewed from an on-line site, the late model entry list. Granted I don’t follow this group all that closely anymore. Nevertheless, I only recognized about ten of the nearly 90 racers. The biggest names were Scott Bloomquist, Bobby Pierce, Billy Moyer Jr. and Don O’Neil.

 

 

We couldn’t understand the announcers. They talked non-stop over a very loud P.A. system. There was no printed race program. The show took forever. What type of entertainment has a program that lasts for more than eight hours?

 

 

We made a mistake by arriving for the first of the racing at 3 p.m. The “opening ceremonies” were after the heat races and several of the consolation races. The national anthem was played at about 7 p.m.

 

 

From that point they ran the “B” and “C” consies for both classes and then the “A” features. We should have just come at 7 p.m. However, the on-line sources of information weren’t very clear on the race schedule.  

 

 

As I said when they got to the racing the racing was very good. The late model “A” feature was great. We didn’t stay for the modified feature. Folks, we had been in the grandstand for 7.5 hours!!!

 

 

Would I go to this race next year? No, I would not. However, I would not return to most shows I see for the first time. That’s a great part of trackchasing. You don’t have to go back to shows that aren’t worth seeing a second time.

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

When we exited the arena we encountered some very slick sidewalks. It had rained a bit and then immediately frozen. It was a treacherous walk back to the car.

 

 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a bite to eat at the Waffle House. I had purchased the only concession item between the two of us inside the dome. That was a seven-dollar large Diet Coke!  I can get that same drink at a NASCAR race for about half that price!

 

 

We were in bed by 1 a.m. Our wake-up call came early at 6 a.m. That meant we would be too early to use our complimentary breakfast coupons at the Renaissance.  Nevertheless, it was fun negotiating for them.

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

Paul dropped me off at the St. Louis airport at 7 a.m. My non-stop flight was leaving for Los Angeles at 8 a.m. I would be landing at about 1 p.m. Eastern time. Poor Paul. He and the “Urban Lamborghini” would not reach his frozen Orefield driveway until about midnight eastern time. What does that prove? It proves that a Boeing 767 can outrun an Urban Lamborghini.

 

 

However, if I have learned anything in life it is one should never “count their chickens before they are hatched”. I posted the following on Facebook:

 

 

“18 straight days on the road. Heading home this morning. Wake-up call 6 a.m. 8 a.m. flight. On the plane. I’ll be home for Christmas. Oops. Mechanical problem. Off the plane. Flight cancelled. Wait all day in airline club. Next best flight 5:55 p.m. On the plane. I’ll be home for Christmas. No way Jose. Pilots “timed out”. Off the plane. Flight cancelled. Wait for next flight at 7:20 p.m. On the plane. Connecting in Seattle for plane ride home. I’ll be home for Christmas. Oops. One hour 16 minute delay taking off. Won’t make the connection. I might NOT be home for Christmas. Sleeping in the airport tonight. Trying for 5 a.m. flight tomorrow morning. It’s overbooked. All the flights tomorrow are overbooked. I might NOT be home for Christmas. Can I go back to Zimbabwe and spend Christmas there?”

 

 

Folks, I almost never have a significant airplane delay or cancellation. Today I had TWO cancellations AFTER I was on the plane. That might be a record.

 

 

I spent much of the day hanging out in the American Airlines Admirals Club. It you’re going to have a delay that’s not a bad place to spend your time. I finally got a flight from St. Louis to Seattle. However, that flight was delayed leaving by an hour meaning I would not make the connection to get home tonight.

 

 

Not a problem at all. I would sleep overnight in the SeaTac airport and catch an early 5 a.m. flight tomorrow morning.  What are sometimes big problems for other folks are often just a bump in the road for me.  Remember, everyone gets the opportunity to choose how they will react to the situations they encounter.

 

 

I did have to wonder though. I wondered how many race fans in St. Louis today had flown in from Johannesburg, South Africa and slept overnight in Seattle, Washington? We all know the answer to that question don’t we.

 

 

Good night from Seattle, Washington.

 

 

 

SUNDAY

 

 

Nineteen days on the road! I loved every one of them. However, it was time to get back home.

 

 

I slept overnight in the SEATAX airport last night. They have some new padded seats near gate C18. Sleeping there rivaled a night on our Tempurpedic mattress. O.K., it really didn’t but it wasn’t all that bad either.

 

 

I’ve slept overnight in airports about ten times this year, maybe more. That’s a considerable savings to my travel budget. I’ll try to buy something really good with that money. Remember, I don’t do crazy things like (sleeping in airports) that to save money. I do it because it’s the best logistical idea at the time. However, when a good logistical idea also saves money I take that savings and re-invest it in good stuff. Make sense?

 

 

I had expected to get to my home about twelve hours before Paul Weisel got to his. In reality, Paul arrived in Orefield about twelve hours BEFORE I did. What does that mean? Maybe a Urban Lamborghini really is faster than a Boeing 767.

 

 

 

Missouri

 

 

The Show ME state

This afternoon/evening I saw my 61st lifetime track in the Show Me state, yes the Show Me state. I hold the #2 trackchasing spot in Missouri. I trail Ed Esser’s state leading total of 67 tracks here. I’ve seen 61 or more tracks in 13 separate states. No one comes close to matching that total.

 

 

 

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 definitions: Arch

 

 

What it means everywhere else: A curved shape, often associated with bridges, feet and McDonalds.

 

What it means in Missouri: The St. Louis Arch, standing tall as the “Gateway to the West” since 1965.

 

 

 

 

QUICK 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 565 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.

 

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,292

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 74

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.47

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Indoor stock car racing from St. Louis, Missouri