Washington State Fairgrounds

 

 

 

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:

 

 

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.  I’ll try my best to respond.  Thanks!

 

 

I often see two or more tracks in a single day or in a single weekend. Sometimes when that happens I will combine my observations from multiple tracks into a single Trackchaser Report. That is the case today.

 

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

Friday

 

 

And now for the “real” trackchasing season.

It always seems like my “real” trackchasing season begins after we return from our spring trip to Maui, Hawaii. Just a couple days ago we wrapped up our ten-day trip to Maui. Now it’s time to get back to trackchasing.

 

 

It is true that I saw 17 new tracks during the first quarter of the year. Several of those were ice races, some were indoors and a few took me all the way out to the United Kingdom and back.

 

 

Washington…and maybe even Texas.

This weekend’s trip will have me travelling to Washington state and possibly even to Texas. The Texas idea is on hold right now pending the outcome of an iffy weather forecast.

 

 

My Washington state trackchasing plan includes two tracks. Just one year ago I didn’t even know these tracks existed. Sometimes I wonder how many tracks are out there that have escaped the Randy Lewis Racing Research department up to now? If the future is like the past there are a lot of them!

 

 

First, UTV racing.

On Saturday morning I’ll be seeing the UTV race promoted by the Quadcross Northwest group. I saw one of their races last year in Albany, Oregon. They primarily focus on quads as lots of groups do. However, they also have “Motos” for UTVs. The UTV class would make this a countable track.

 

 

Then, figure 8 racing.

In the evening I plan to go over to the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington. Somewhere along the line I discovered they were having figure 8 races at their spring state fair. Figure 8 racing is quite common at fairs in the Midwest and East. However, they rarely if ever occur in the far western states at a fair of any sort.

 

 

Getting there from Southern California always requires some commitment.

Of course I would have to get from Los Angeles to Seattle to begin the trip. My airline sponsors were helping me out but I was still flying standby. I wonder how many people would like to plan their vacations based upon standby flying? It might sound like a good idea to the novice traveler.  However, I don’t think they would like it. On the other hand I love it. Honestly I would rather fly standby than have a confirmed ticket. Standby flying just allows for so much more flexibility.

 

 

I could take some time to tell you how difficult it was to catch a flight today. I’ll simply cut to the chase and say that it was difficult but doable. I’ve been doing this for a long time. When I run into obstacles I simply walk around to the other side of those roadblocks and keep on going.

 

 

 

Another racing hobbyist.

I did encounter a couple from Southern California that I found interesting. They were traveling with their two children up to the Arenacross races at the Tacoma Dome this weekend. Their 10-year-old son was racing motorcycles. They invited me to join them on Sunday. I don’t know if that will fit my schedule but then you never know.

 

 

Good things cheap.

When I went to get my rental car I asked if they had any Toyota Avalon’s available. Recall I rented an Avalon for 27 days during my 66-day summer trackchasing trip last year. It’s a great car.

 

 

I was happy to see they did have a Toyota Avalon. However, it was reserved for VIP customers, which is actually one step up from my status with National Car Rental. Nevertheless the agent told me the car “wasn’t rented tonight “and I could have it. Nice guy. Thanks.

 

 

Last year I drove rental cars 49,000 miles.

I drive long distances in rental cars. Tonight it was a four hour drive. from Seattle to Richland, Washington. Richland is home to the Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex. The old Tri-City Raceway used to be located in West Richland but it’s long gone now. That track was #433 for me. Wow! That was nearly 1,700 tracks ago.

 

 

Richland is also home to the Red Lion Inn, which is where I had my hotel reservation for the evening. I paid a grand total of $55 for my Priceline.com generated room. The going rate for a room tonight at the Red Lion Inn was $129 for “normal” people. Remember there is a reason that I get upscale and quality accommodations and travel programs at discount prices. I hope you can take some of the ideas that I use routinely and use them to your advantage.

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

 

 

 

A well located hotel.

I woke up this morning in Richland, Washington. This must have been a fine hotel in the 70s. However, time has passed it by. I did utilize the elliptical trainer so I can stay on top of my trackchasing/exercise goals.  It was nice that my hotel was just 5 miles from the track.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex – Richland, Washington

 

 

 

I go to the top.

I had contacted the race promoter, “Bing”. I always try to do that so I can get any last minute details confirmed. He told me the first race would begin at about 10 a.m. The UTV racing aka SXS (side-by-side) racing would start at about 11:45 a.m. Of course all of this schedule info was a “guesstimate”. You know how that goes.

 

 

There’s the track….er’ no that’s not the track.

I found the track easily… or so I thought. I had taken a turn at the sign reading “Horn Rapids ORV Park”. In less than a mile I found a series of motorcycles racing around an asphalt road course.

 

 

That was funny. I had never known the Quadcross Northwest group to race on a paved track. They are famous for racing on off-road dirt courses. Nevertheless there it was right in front of me just as advertised, a paved asphalt road course.

 

 

I pulled into the parking lot. I soon discovered a couple of things. The asphalt track, which featured motorcycles and flat karts, was not the track I was looking for. However from the asphalt track parking lot I could look down on the Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex. There I saw a vast expanse of dirt road course racing. 

 

 

THAT was the track I was looking for. However I couldn’t get there from the asphalt road course racing parking lot! I quickly asked for directions. I would need to go back out to the highway and do some more maneuvering. Then I reached the ticket booth of the Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex.

 

 

Time for some horse trading.

That’s when I discovered that the admission charge would be $10 per day with apparently a $20 minimum covering both days. However I wasn’t going to be here for Sunday’s racing only for Saturday’s activity. I explained my dilemma to the ticket seller. She was most sympathetic.

 

 

However, she explained that she couldn’t just sell me a ticket for $10. There was camping inside. What if I went inside today, Saturday morning, and decided to stay over for the races all the way through Sunday? Of course there was no way I would be doing that.

 

 

She made a good point. However I’m not sure she knew who she was talking too. I wasn’t going to give up.

 

 

I told her I only planned to be at the races for a couple of hours. She had a solution. I would pay her $20 now. If I returned to the ticket booth anytime today on Saturday I would get a $10 refund for the time that I wouldn’t be spending at the track on Sunday. That seemed fair enough to me. Now all I have to do was remember to stop on my way out to get my 10 bucks back!

 

 

The first race of the season.

Today was the first race of the season for Quadcross Northwest. I had seen them race previously in Albany, Oregon. They also race on two other Washington state tracks that I have already visited. Finally, they have one upcoming race on a track in Washington I have yet to see any action on. Maybe I’ll get there in the future.

 

 

When I arrived at nearly 10:30 a.m. they were still practicing. That wasn’t a good sign for my timetable. When practice was completed they would spend another several minutes with the driver’s meeting.

 

 

Given that this was the first event of the season there were lots of dos and don’ts to go over at this meeting. They also took a group photograph. If you see that anywhere on their social media look for me in the front row center. I’m wearing an orange Syracuse University shirt.

 

 

There would be a wait for the UTV racing.

Following the drivers meeting I scanned the printed race itinerary that was posted nearby. There were just two trackchasing countable classes (UTVs) racing today. Quads don’t count in trackchasing. Why? I don’t know for sure. I’m guessing it’s because they are driven with handlebars and not a steering wheel. Remember, I did not make the trackchasing rules.

 

 

They had a big turnout of 143 competitors. For all of the races I see featuring this kind of action that’s a very large competitor count.

 

 

The quad racing was divided into several groups based upon driver experience, engine size and the like. In total there would be 18 motos during the first half of the day. In this type of racing a “moto” simply means race.

 

 

The races were short just five laps in duration. Each class would race a moto in the morning and then in the afternoon. They would do that on both Saturday and Sunday. That meant a racer would have four motos for the weekend.

 

 

I had anticipated being out of the track by about noon or so. That would work well with my evening racing activity in Puyallup, Washington a suburb of Seattle. It would be a four hour drive from the UTV racing site over to the Washington State Fairgrounds.

 

 

The two trackchasing countable classes were going to race later in the program. There were 18 different classes. The UTVs would race in the 15^th and 17^th motos. That would give me plenty of time to explore.

 

 

UTVs and Senior Champ Karts…the similarities.

UTVs have a lot of similarities to senior champ kart racing in trackchasing. How’s that? Quad racing is much more popular than UTV racing. Flat kart racing is much more popular than senior champ kart competition. 

 

 

In kart racing it seems like the senior champs always race near the end of the program. The same thing happens with quads and UTVs. The UTVs often race near the end of the program. That means I need to hang around for lots of races that are not benefiting my trackchasing effort. However, I don’t mind that too much. Quads and flat karts put on some excellent racing most of the time.

 

 

Good weather and efficient racing.

The weather conditions were ideal for spectating. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 65-70° range. Richland is in southeastern Washington. The weather is much more friendly than the soggy Northwest part of the state.

 

 

Although they started about an hour and a half late once they got going they ran the program efficiently. As mentioned the races were short. There were almost no yellow or red flag delays. The soonest one race group was on the last lap of their event and clear of the starting line they started the next race. You can’t beat that.

 

 

The track itself was about a mile in length maybe a little bit more. The entire racing surface was dirt with several jumps and “whoops”. You won’t want to miss the racing video I produced or the photos.

 

 

By the time it was all said and done the racing that I had expected to be finished by about noon was actually completed by 2:30 p.m. That was OK. I looked at things a little closer. The racetrack in Richland was just a little bit more than three hours from tonight’s event in Puyallup. Originally I thought it was four hours. Everything was going to work out just fine.

 

 

Trackchasing “doubles” have been a key factor in my trackchasing success.

Most UTV racing occurs in the afternoon. Getting afternoon racing dates works perfectly with any track that’s within 3-4 hours driving time that might be competing in the evening. It’s just that I don’t have all that many tracks that race on a regularly scheduled basis in the evening left to see!

 

 

It was pure coincidence when I discovered figure 8 racing at the Washington State Fair would be this weekend. What was the coincidence? That once a year figure 8 race date was on the same day of the afternoon UTV racing today. I was a lucky duck.

 

 

 

SATURDAY EVENING

 

 

 

Yes demo; probably figure 8.

As is my normal practice I had called in advance to get details about the racing action at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Their ads seemed to focus mainly on demo derby events with a brief mention a figure 8 race.

 

 

When I called I got a helpful receptionist. Nevertheless she had to call to ask her boss about the figure 8 racing aspect of the promotion. It reminded me of my sales days when it was difficult to get past the receptionist and talk to the real decision-maker.

 

 

Yes!

However to her credit she got back to me and confirmed there would indeed be figure 8 racing. Nevertheless, she cautioned me (it sounded as if her boss had put these words into her mouth), “It’s not going to be real racing,” she told me. It would just be 8-10 cars and lots of the program would be demolition derby and other novelty acts. She didn’t want me to think I was going to see 3-4 hours of constant racing action. I told her that her description was just fine with me. I only needed to see one figure 8 race in order to count this track. We both left the conversation pleased.

 

 

Whoa!

I did notice that ticket prices were a little on the steep side. All seats were reserved. The only seating option for adults was going to cost $22 per person. In addition to that there was a $10 gate fee per person to get into the fair. I don’t think I have ever heard of figure 8 fair racing fans being charged $32 each.

 

 

However there were a few ways to get around these robust charges. Isn’t there always! First of all if I bought my ticket in advance I could say five bucks. I did that online but then they added back $3.50 in administrative fees. I wasn’t very much ahead of that game. However people who bought their tickets in advance also saved the $10 gate fee. That meant I had knocked down my expense from $32 to about $21. Every dollar counts when you are a retired pensioner like me.

 

 

Can I be perfectly clear with you?

By the way let me make a couple of things perfectly clear. The cost of a race ticket is the least of my worries on these trips. Of the seven expense categories that I track race tickets account for the smallest part of my trackchasing budget.

 

 

I see my fellow trackchasing competitors complain about the high cost of refreshments or whatever. Please! When the cost of travel dwarfs the costs at the racetrack please don’t complain. What if a hamburger is six bucks? You’ve likely paid hundreds just to get to the track. A “normal” priced hamburger would be $3-4 U.S. So in reality for something that is higher priced you’re only paying a couple of dollars more right? Don’t be cheap.

 

 

It’s the same thing with “high” gas prices. When gas prices in the U.S. were four dollars and more some of the trackchasers howled. However, I never once saw a trackchaser cutting back his trackchasing travel because of the price of gas. Please! Even now that gas is “low” in the U.S. it’s still $5-6 U.S. per gallon in Europe.

 

 

I had my race ticket and was ready to go….or was I?

I had printed out both my gate admission ticket and my grandstand admission ticket on one sheet of paper. I use that printing feature a lot to save paper and trees. By the way this drives Carol crazy. She’s not much for conservation. It’s a political thing.

 

 

However, on the way to the race track I noticed that they recommended that both the gate ticket and the grandstand ticket be printed separately. That made me a little nervous. I needed to try to find a place where I could get an copy made of what I had printed. I didn’t want to show it with one piece of paper when I needed two.

 

 

My first visit to a smoke shop.

I stopped to get gas just a few miles from the fairgrounds. There I discovered a “smoke shop”. I thought I might be able to get a copy made of my previously printed race ticket.

 

 

I’ve got to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever been in a smoke shop in my life. I don’t smoke. I have never smoked. Nevertheless it was interesting to see the product offerings in a place like this.

 

 

The last time I had seen such unusual contraptions being offered for sale was in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam it’s legal but I’m not sure the end product usage of these smoke shop items in the state of Washington meets all legal standards. Nevertheless I was not here to judge but to get a copy of my race ticket. I did that at no charge thanks to a most kind smoke shop proprietor.

 

 

Being aggressive and creative can be a good combination.

When I got a little closer to the Washington State Fairgrounds I noticed that parking was going to be a shuttle bus ride away. That wasn’t a good idea. After the races I didn’t have time to wait for a crowd shuttle bus back to my car.

 

 

I also saw a grocery store charging five dollars to park. Neither of those options met my requirements. I ended up parking on a side street for free just a couple blocks from the fairgrounds itself.

 

 

The fairs I visit are almost always packed.

I was admitted without incident by using my preprinted admission tickets. There was just enough time to walk around the fair a bit. The place was packed. There did not seem to be all that much going on. Nevertheless, the place was jammed. 

 

 

It was interesting to note that the vast majority of the crowd seemed to be in the age range of 15-30 years. They were very few people in my age bracket. That’s not unusual. I think what I do is not something that people in my age range do all that much. I think those folks are sitting back at home on the sofa scanning Reader’s Digest. Just sayin’ right?

 

 

I hope this is a good idea.

Right now I’m eating a low-carb diet. Why? Because in the past I’ve eaten a HIGH-carb diet! It was amazing to see the fairgrounds food offerings. What a carb lovers delight. The most popular item seemed to be the scones. They were doing a fantastic business with lines more than 100 people deep. Seattle is famous for Starbucks and Starbucks is big into scones.

 

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Washington State Fairgrounds – Puyallup, Washington

 

 

I would have a great view of the racing.

When I bought my reserved seat ticket online there was only one seat available in the entire section that I was looking at. I grabbed it quickly. I was in section 12 row 7 seat 5. This was pretty much in the center of the stadium just the right distance from the racing action.

 

 

From outside the stadium I could hear the noises from the racing engines. They were so loud they either sounded like monster trucks, which I thought it happened the night before, or some kind of high speed racing, possibly drifting. Although I was early I wanted to get into the track to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

 

 

I entered the huge fair arena. I noticed that four-cylinder figure 8 racing type cars were simply taking practice laps around the flat huge asphalt racing surface. They were sliding so much that several of them had burnt off their rear tires down to the rim. That didn’t seem to slow them down. The crowd loved it.

 

 

4,000 people at $32 per.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a large grandstand arena devoted to demolition derby and figure 8 racing. I guess the crowd at the Syracuse Fairgrounds in New York might beat it but very few others would.

 

 

The announcer said the grandstand held 4,000 people. I almost thought that estimate was low. The place was a complete sellout. If folks didn’t buy their tickets in advance adults were paying $32 to watch the show. That meant the total gate receipts could be approaching $125,000 U.S. I doubt the racers themselves got very much of that.

 

 

I had no idea when the figure 8 race was scheduled in tonight’s program. I hoped it wouldn’t be too late. I had a 40-minute drive back to the airport to a rather inaccessible rental car parking garage. My flight to Dallas was scheduled to leave at 11:45 p.m. Tonight’s race program would begin at 7:30 p.m.

 

 

Hacked?

To their credit they did start the program precisely on time with the national anthem. However in the middle of the playing of the anthem it almost seemed as if somebody had hacked the recorded performance. Some strange sounds were being made over the P.A. The crowd let out a collective groan. Then all of a sudden the anthem reverted back to its normal playing method. That was strange.

 

 

No, this couldn’t be. Stop the madness.

What was about to occur was even stranger. I had come to tonight’s event in the hopes of seeing figure 8 racing. I was told the figure 8 racing was a sideshow to the demolition derby events. In reality the demo derby action was also almost its own sideshow.

 

 

Skid plate cars….ever seen ‘em?

The first “race” of the night was for “skid plate cars”. You might be wondering what a skid plate car is.

 

 

All of the cars in this race were front wheel drive four cylinder powered racing machines. What they had done with the skid plate cars was to immobilize the rear tires from rotating. Then they placed metal plates on the bottom of the rear tires.

 

 

With this arrangement you have the front wheel drive tires pulling the car. The rear tires don’t rotate but skid on the ground creating sparks and general havoc from the rear tires. The cars are very difficult to control as you might imagine.

 

 

The skid plate race took off in a clockwise direction racing around an oval marked by orange traffic cones. The announcer told the crowd the race would last for six laps. You won’t want to miss the video of this one.

 

 

So why was this significant?

What did this mean for me, a retired pensioner trying to get a little entertainment in the world of trackchasing? It meant that I just seen racing on a “oval” at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington.

 

 

Now hold on! I didn’t make the trackchasing rules. Trackchasers are allowed to count racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. No this was not the Daytona 500 or the World 100. Nevertheless, the sold out crowd was paying $32 U.S. per person to see this oval racing. This track will forever be known as lifetime track number 2,205.

 

 

Shocked, thrilled and flabbergasted.

Too much? To tell you the truth I was shocked. I was thrilled. I was flabbergasted. I had come to see a figure 8 race and an oval track race broke out. This was totally unexpected and pure luck. However I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

 

A short time later a couple of groups of V-8 powered racers that had been described as “demolition derby cars” appeared on the track. They quickly had two groups of four race a couple of short heat races around the track in the counterclockwise direction.

 

 

Not that charitable.

They didn’t try to wreck each other. It was a real race. It was a race in the opposite direction of what the skid plate cars had done. Of course cars racing in opposite directions on an oval configuration do not count as two separate tracks. No, trackchasing’s founding fathers were charitable but not THAT charitable. However if anybody had any heartburn over skid plate racing this oval racing would put that to rest. Now I had seen some oval track racing when I had not expected to see any.

 

 

Now for what I had come to see.

A little while later the figure 8 cars hit the track. They had a couple of heat races with 8-10 cars in each race. This was very entertaining with lots of crashing and banging and hitting each other at the “X”. Now I had seen racing at two different tracks at the Washington State Fairgrounds.

 

 

This meant I had seen racing at three different tracks in Washington on one day. I had not expected that. However I was most pleased for the opportunity.

 

 

Later in tonight’s event they had a “automobile soccer” novelty piece of action. The huge crowd loved it.  There were two cars on each “team”. The drivers tried to push a fully disabled car (soccer ball) into the other team’s goal. I had seen this done many many years ago.

 

 

It was getting late now. The entirely flat all asphalt parking lot type racing surface was filled with debris from the crunching of cars. It looked as if it was going to take a long time to clean things up from this point. I still hadn’t seen any demo derby action and that’s what the event advertising had focused on.

 

 

Nevertheless I had seen racing on an oval track tonight and then on the figure 8 track. This wasn’t “professional” racing but it was “entertaining” racing. That’s why the crowd was so big.

 

 

You get what you measure.

In life you “get what you measure”. Trackchasing’s founding fathers and others wanted trackchasing to be like this. It is.

 

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

J-I-B.

From the Washington State Fairgrounds I stopped at Jack-in-the-Box on the way back to my car. Not many carbs coming from sausage, cheese and eggs. The food from there would get me to Texas. You can’t ask for more than that.

 

 

Good night.

 

 

 

Washington

 

 

The Evergreen state

This afternoon and evening I saw my 31^st, 32^nd and 33rd lifetime tracks in the Evergreen state, yes the Evergreen state. No other trackchasers are in the same zip code compared to these Washington state totals.

 

 

 

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

Washington sayings: Coffee: What it means everywhere else: The stuff that gets you up in the morning and unslumps you midafternoon. What it means in Washington: Everyone in Washington’s blood type.

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Washington State Fairgrounds – $21 (including fair gate admission)

 

 

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $21

 

 

 

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

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,206

 

 

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 – 4.47

 

 

 

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 racing action today.

 

Racing from the Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex 

.

.

Racing from the Washington State Fairgrounds

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Horn Rapids Motorsports Complex photo album

Northwest Quadcross racing from Richland, Washington

.

. 

Washington State Fairgrounds photo album

Figure 8 racing and some beautiful Washington scenery