Greetings from Toledo, Ohio
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From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Toledo Speedway
Asphalt outer oval
Lifetime Track #337
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Toledo Speedway
Asphalt inner oval
Lifetime Track #564
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Toledo Speedway
Asphalt figure 8
Lifetime Track #565
. . I first visited the Toledo Speedway in 1997. On that day I saw Chuck Roumell in the #0 win the feature event on the 1/2-mile asphalt oval. This was my 337th lifetime track to see. I did not begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had seen about 430 tracks. Therefore I have only a few notes to go on. I did see a lawnmower race. That reminded me they have been racing lawnmowers for at least twenty years! The track was fast but for the most part one groove. My Sunday visit to Toledo in 1997 was part of a three-day racechasing/trackchasing trip. On Friday I saw racing at the Skyline Speedway in Stewart, Ohio. Todd Kane #99 was the main event winner. Then the next night I ventured over to the famous Eldora Speedway to see Jimmy Mars #28 win $100,000 in the famous “Dream” race. Good buddy Jim Sabo joined me for Friday and Saturday night’s racing. . . I returned to the Toledo Speedway five years later. I came back to see racing on their 1/4-mile inner oval asphalt track as well as their figure 8 layout. I often see more than one track at a single location. However, most of the time I have to go back two or more times to see each track configuration offered on a single property. During my 2002 trackchasing trip I ended up seeing five tracks in three days. On Friday I saw the regular program at the 151 Speedway in Columbus, Wisconsin. Then on Saturday I ventured over to Michigan for visits to Kalamazoo Speedway and the Galesburg Speedway. From separate tabs in this post you can read about my adventures at the Toledo Speedway. Reprinted with permission from my May 19, 2002 Trackchaser Report. . . . Greetings from Toledo, Ohio, This morning I was awakened by the hotels maid’s loud wrap on the door at 11 a.m. (remember that’s only 8 a.m. California time!) Today’s ride is only a couple of hours from Kalamazoo to Toledo, Ohio. Before I departed I called each track I’m planning to see today from my cell phone. Since I have free long distance it’s an easy and cheap way to confirm events and save the hassle of driving hours out of the way for a cancelled show. This new technology saved me today. The call to Spartan Speedway in Lansing, Michigan revealed the news that their figure 8 race for Sunday evening was a no go. The weather was too cold. This was in May for gosh sakes. This prompted a change in plans. A quick look at my Rand McNally electronic map showed I could go to the inaugural event at Stateline Speedway in Edon, Ohio if they started on time at 1 p.m. With a little bit of a late start I arrived at the track at 1:40 p.m. They had just completed hot laps but were planning to work the track and run more hot laps. The ticket lady said they might get started about 3 p.m. I was planning to go too Toledo’s 2 p.m. show following Stateline. Toledo was about 75 minutes from Stateline. If I stayed at Stateline I might miss the two-track opportunity at Toledo. Since Stateline is on my schedule to see the day after Eldora’s Dream race I decided to bag Stateline and head for Toledo. There will be no triple today just a double at Toledo Speedway. The route to Toledo was across the I-80/90 Ohio Turnpike. I’ve never seen so many rude, aggressive maniacal drivers in my life. They tailgate cars and change lanes like they’re making a 90-degree turn. Like I’ve always said, “the drivers who go slower than I do are morons and the one who go faster than I do are idiots”. Carol can tell you what I say about the women drivers. Part of the trip was along Interstate 69. I hope your fillings are in good shape. If not, they may all shaken out of your mouth by the time you go very far. In racing there’s a strategy called “Short pitting”. Simply put, when you are at point A and you’re going to point B you know how many pit stops it will take to get there. The only question is when you make your stops. I have the same strategy with gasoline stops. Usually I drive the tank down until the orange light goes on. Of course, this drives Carol crazy and she’s just waiting for the time I really do run out of gas. I sometimes deviate from the “run it til it’s dry” mantra when special circumstances dictate. What are special circumstances? Maybe extremely low gas prices, maybe the need to use the facilities. Today the short pitting strategy was driven by the need to use the facilities. Why is it when I stop at a small town gas station and they have a “one holer” (ask your Grandpa!) that I get behind some hairy ape type guy wearing a tank top and a mullet haircut who came to do some SERIOUS business? Here I am standing on my left leg, then standing on my right leg, then reading the back of the canned cat food for nutritional information and trying to look like I don’t really have to visit the men’s room. In my opinion, if you need to do this type of SERIOUS business it should be done in the privacy of one’s own home. Of course I carry multiple computers, Palm Pilots, etc but I don’t carry a gas mask. Save it for home, big fella! The one-quarter mile oval at Toledo Speedway in my 564th track. This track ties me with the legendary Pappy Hough (pictured) for 11th place in the worldwide standings. Pappy was a racecar driver in the 30s and 40s. The Eastern trackchasers know a lot more about Pappy than I do. At one time his 564 tracks ranked him as the #1 chaser in the world. Pappy, now deceased, was the original trackchaser. URGENT: Just prior to the submission of this update I learned that Pappy Hough is being credited with one more racetrack giving him a total of 565. Talk about being retroactive!! Anyway, since he’s been dead for years hopefully he won’t get more than 50-100 more tracks this way. Toledo Speedway has three countable tracks. They are: 1) one-half mile asphalt oval, 2) one-quarter mile (probably shorter) asphalt oval and 3) a traditional figure 8 track attached to the quarter mile track. I had seen races previously on the large oval. As a matter of fact, I was scheduled to see the two smaller tracks a couple of weeks ago while Carol and I were in Ann Arbor but rain and cold cancelled the show. It’s still cold here and it did rain on me about 10 minutes before I got to the track but the show did go on. General admission was $10. That’s not bad for a regular show with racing on all three tracks. Today’s program also included races from at least two or maybe three earlier in the season rainouts. Even though I got there slightly after 3 p.m. for the 2 p.m. start they were just throwing heat races and features at the crowd at a frenzied pace. For all I know they may have rerun a rained out feature from the 1984 season. Toledo Speedway is a quality facility. They’ve got a great PA system and announcer although he did not publicly acknowledge the #1 trackchaser living West of the Mississippi’s presence. TRACK FOOD: I went for the cheeseburger, fries and private label diet coke, although Barb, I didn’t eat it all in deference to the Body for Life program! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Avis racing Chevy Malibu is doing its job in a basic way. TRACK RADIO FREQUENCY: Good reception from both the track and the late model class. Note: URLs were active in 2002; You’re on your own now!! Toledo Speedway (figure 8), Toledo, OH Irwindale Speedway (figure 8), Irwindale, CA Lafayette County Fairgrounds, Darlington, WI . . . You might have remembrances of the Toledo Speedway. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here. Reprinted with permission from my May 19, 2002 Trackchaser Report. . . . . Greetings from Toledo (figure 8 track), Ohio, I hope you never lose your sense of wonder, You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger, May you never take one single breath for granted, God forbid love ever leaves you empty handed, I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens, And promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance…… I hope you dance……..I hope you dance……… I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for the path of least resistance, Livin’ might mean taking chances but they’re worth takin’ Lovin’ might be a mistake but it’s worth makin’ Don’t let some heavy heart leave you bitter, When you come close to selling out reconsider, Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance…… I hope you dance……..I hope you dance……… I think the words to this song have some real meaning. If you have time reread the lines a time or two. Are you “dancing” in life? I hope so. It’s definitely a challenge to live up to the words of this song. There are so many things to do with your life and so very little time to do it. I want to do more all the time. I have several friends that are practicing the lyrics in their own lives. One friend, who’s around 60, just rode his bike through all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Another, is his late 50s, is moving permanently with his wife to France to pursue a dream of painting pictures and still another, in his mid 30s, has just purchased a 15 stores restaurant chain after being in the corporate world all his life. Life is too short to keep doing the same old stuff if you don’t like it. How many people keep working at a job just for the bucks? Everyone thinks they’re dancing and, maybe they are. Only you know for sure. I’ll keep my loves and interests that focus on my wife and children as well as my hobbies of travel, golf, trackchasing and financial planning. I’ll continue to exercise in the hope that it will provide good health which is the most important thing of all. Without it, as they say, you’re dead. I’ll also be on the lookout to add “new doors to open”. One of those new doors is the completion of our new house that is under construction. It will be more than two years from the time we started designing the house until its completion. To put it mildly it hasn’t been easy. How hard could it be? For starters my construction supervisor committed suicide. I won’t bore you with the other details. Some have questioned why I would want the hassle of new construction, why I want to move from the nice house we have now? I believe it’s called “dancing” as opposed to “sitting it out”. In just 25 more workdays I’ll voluntarily leave a job that has paid me a lot of money for the last several years. Leaving that job is a pretty serious commitment to “dancing”, at least to a different tune. Although that’s pretty good money, if you don’t enjoy the work, then, in my opinion, you’re may be just “taking the path of least resistance”. I subscribe to the theory that there are an infinite number of things you can spend your time on. If your activity and/or occupation is in the top 5 of this infinite list then keep doing it. If it’s way down on that list maybe you should try something else. Of course, if you’re just a short time away from that vested defined benefit pension plan you’d better hang in there! Too be honest I didn’t get the courage to get out of the corporate business world until I thought I had enough bucks to last the rest of my life. Now only if the World of Outlaws could keep their ticket prices down!!….and while I’m wishing maybe someone would actually pass another car for the lead that would be a good thing. I think I’ll also spend some time is some form of financial planning. I seem to be pretty good at it and most people don’t spend virtually anytime on this important activity. Those people will work longer and have fewer options in life because of this lack of attention. If your life ended today, and one day it will, don’t have any regrets for not spending enough time “dancing”. Special thanks to Jim Sabo (center) for recognizing that I love this song and customizing a CD with 5 versions of it for me. I’ve run that CD through the Avis Racing Chevy Malibu CD player for about 6 hours now and still love it. The figure 8 track at Toledo Speedway is my 565th track and moves me past Pappy Hough and into a tie (as this is being written) with Norm Wagner for 10th place in the worldwide standings. You might recall that I passed Norm two weeks ago with my 560th track but he came up with a six bagger to pass me back. Urgent: After this report was written I learned that Pappy is being credited with his 565th track. That sucker is still “dancing” from the grave! There’s really not too much to say about the races. They had 11 cars, ran two heats and a 20-lap feature event. The cars are “professional” figure 8 cars like they run at the Indianapolis Speedrome. The track is a traditional figure 8 inside the quarter mile oval. The Toledo Speedway is a great place to go to get a traditional triple. There’s lot of seating and all the seats provide a great view. Today’s racing included rained out races from at least two and maybe three previous rainouts. I got there at 3:15 p.m. and they just kept running races on all three tracks. I left at 5:45 p.m. after seeing about 15 races. The track personnel did do something pretty innovative that I’ve never seen before. The Late Model division was racing on the one half mile track. They started 24 cars and had two major crashes that took a long time to clean up. While we were waiting the figure 8 cars were lined up on the quarter mile waiting their turn. After the third late model crash they parked the late models on the one half mile and while clean up continued ran the figure 8 heat races. I’ve never seen a race within a race on a track within a track before. TRACK FOOD: The track was selling private label canned diet soda for $1.50 per can. How dumb do they think people are? When I left at 5:45 p.m. they were still manning the ticket window which was nearly four hours after the program started. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Trying to be frugal I stayed in a Motel 6 in South Bend, Indiana. On the getaway morning I went for a 4 mile run under the shadow of the Golden Dome on the University of Notre Dame’s campus. I then hopped in the Avis Racing Chevy Malibu (may have incorrectly called it a Monte Carlo previously) for the trip into Chicago. I finished up with 1,074 miles on it and I got 29.8 miles per gallon. TRACK RADIO FREQUENCY: The track used several radio frequencies during the day. The late model division also ran with radios and I heard some interesting pit road coaching. These URLs were active in 2002; You’re on your own now!! Irwindale Speedway (figure 8), Irwindale, CA Lafayette County Fairgrounds, Darlington, WI You might have remembrances of the Toledo Speedway. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here. 
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
RACING NEWS
New racetracks visited in 2002
563. Galesburg Speedway, Galesburg, MI (http://www.galesburgspeedway.com/)
Upcoming events for May, 2002
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
I Hope You Dance!
RACING NEWS
New racetracks visited in 2002
563. Galesburg Speedway, Galesburg, MI (http://www.galesburgspeedway.com/)
Upcoming events for May, 2002