Greetings from first Oktaha, Oklahoma
and then Pink, Oklahoma
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Outlaw Motor Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #827 (this was a re-visit) Winding Creek Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,703 THE EVENT I am constantly out traveling. I’m making memories. Then I’m sharing those memories with you. I hope you enjoy what I share. 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 (above with my good buddy Slim Ab on a racing trip to Tunisia on the continent of Africa). 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. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,700 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? 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 Friday/Saturday, June 4/5, 2021. The trip with a little bit of everything. This weekend’s trackchasing trip has a bit of everything. Carol happily came along for the adventure. You’ll read about some racing like other trackchasing trips. Moreover, you’ll experience the Trackchasing Tourist Attraction aspect of my hobby. Here you’ll meet old friends while being introduced to new friends. That’s probably the best kind of trip. Handling the past and planning for the future. Normally I return from one of these extravaganzas on Monday. Upon getting home, I’ll finalize the sharing of my past trip. It’s shared via my newsletter, Facebook, and my website: www.randylewis.org. At the same time, I scout out new trackchasing opportunities for the rest of the year. Most importantly, I will be working on the very next trip. Overall, that is the most interesting and challenging and very enjoyable part of my hobby. Off we go. This weekend, our plans included racing in Oklahoma and Missouri; but we also expected to see the Women’s Softball World Series in Oklahoma City. Once there, we will have an opportunity to meet up with the yard kart driver with whom I’ve been corresponding over the past couple of months through phone calls. Likewise, I’ll spend time with some old friends from St. Louis. I’ve known them for the better part of fifty years. Rained out! I had hoped to be at the New Tulsa Speedway on Friday night, attending their first-ever race. Even though this is a brand-new track, they are having some birthing problems. They’ve had several “grand opening“ dates scheduled – only to cancel. To make this trip easier, I found a brand-new Los Angeles to Tulsa non-stop flight. There were no such flights pre-pandemic, so I was surprised to find one as the pandemic begins to wear down. Unfortunately, the Tulsa Speedway canceled their Friday night event on Wednesday because of wet grounds. That was surprising. There hadn’t been any rain predictions from Wednesday through Friday. That’s not a good sign if the track can’t handle rain stopping on Wednesday or earlier for a Friday night show. What do you think Carol? When Tulsa Speedway canceled its race, it knocked out any opportunity for me to visit a new track on Friday. So, I asked Carol if it would be OK if we scheduled a new track for her – along with a racechasing visit for me. She was all over that. When Carol goes on one of these trips, she wants to see as many new tracks as she possibly can. A very special Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. This meant that the new plan would involve a Friday night racechasing track for me and a trackchasing trip for Carol. On Saturday afternoon, we would go over to the Oklahoma City Hall of Fame Stadium. There, we would see a preliminary game of the Women’s College World Series. I have been to the Softball Hall of Fame in the past but have never seen a game during the World Series. I’m well-informed with World Series baseball history. After all, I’ve been to the World Series for major league baseball three times. Those stops included Yankee Stadium in New York, Busch Stadium in Missouri, and the Oakland Coliseum in California. I’ve also seen the College Baseball World Series in Omaha, and the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. That’s a pretty good background for baseball watching, isn’t it? Lastly, I’ve seen a game at every one of the thirty major league baseball stadiums. On Saturday night, we would make an appearance at a track where no other trackchasers had ever visited. In fact, I doubt other trackchasers know about it. But after our visit and my report is shared, trackchasers will flock to this unknown secret location. I have a very special driver friend who turned me onto this. More traveling in Missouri. From there, Carol and I will motor up to Missouri for an afternoon at the county fairgrounds. We’ll attend a go-kart race and will join our friends from St. Louis: the Ottos. Afterward, we will drive eight hours to return to Oklahoma City. There, we will see the first game of the World Series championship series for women’s softball. While we had hoped UCLA might be in that match, it’s not looking good. Wanna stay an extra day? Before we headed out on this trip, I asked Carol if she wanted to stay the extra day. Therefore, we could see the women’s championship series. When she agreed it was an excellent idea, I was a little bit surprised but her wishes are my command. I would dump Carol off in Oklahoma City Tuesday morning, and she would take a flight back to Los Angeles. Then, I would begin an additional eight days of trackchasing across the Midwest. I would have a chance to see friends and big races while having the time of my life. This is a fun hobby. Without further ado, I will take you through part one of this trip. It covers our departure from Los Angeles on Friday and Carol’s return to Los Angeles on Tuesday. FRIDAY There is a LOT of logistics involved in each of these trips. For a mini-vacation to Oklahoma and Missouri, Carol and I would need to park two separate cars at LAX. Why? We were returning at different times. And so, that just made the most sense. Tomboy’s. My common practice is to drive my car toward LAX, stopping at a Tesla supercharger around five miles outside the airport. But today, for the first time ever, I discovered that there is a Tomboy’s hamburger joint within close walking distance of the supercharger. I stopped there for the double cheeseburger, fries and soft drink. In total, it cost $12.50. That seemed high, especially since I can get the same order at In N Out for maybe seven bucks or so. Nevertheless, it was a good find. Technology rocks except when it doesn’t work. Our flight from Los Angeles to Tulsa included a little bit of drama. For some reason, the airline kiosk wasn’t working. This relegated us to a long slow line of people. All awaited help from an agent. We didn’t have that much time to make out flight. The delay probably increased my blood pressure. Still, Carol and I made our flight and landed in Tulsa at about eight p.m. on Friday night. Because the Tulsa Speedway was rained out for tonight, our backup plan was the Outlaw Motor Speedway (OMS) in Oktaha, Oklahoma. I’ve been there previously, back in 2005. At the time, OMS was my 827th-lifetime speedway. Randy & Carol Lewis – Enid, Oklahoma And so, we headed down to the Outlaw Motor Speedway. Carol could add a new track to her lifetime résumé. Going into tonight, I had seen racing at forty-two tracks in the Sooner State. Carol had only been to one! At that one track, Carol and I held a huge $10,000 promotional check to be won at that race. The local newspaper did a special story on our visit. If you’d like to see my video from the Outlaw Motor Speedway in Oktaha, click on the following link: Racing from the Outlaw Motor Speedway! Just give me a Camry and we’re good. We didn’t get to tonight’s track until ten p.m. When we landed in Tulsa, the National Car Rental people only had SUVs. I don’t like SUVs as rental cars. They’re never all that comfortable and they consume a lot of gasoline. I outlasted the agent until she upgraded me to an Audi A6. It’s a nice enough car but I will take a Toyota Camry any day. I was coming back here after 16 years. Tonight‘s race included a general admission price of ten dollars. Despite arriving at intermission, we were still charged as if we were here when they opened the gates. That’s the same price I paid more than fifteen years ago. There’s been no inflation down here. Upon our arrival, we found a nice three-eighth mile minorly banked (9 degrees) dirt oval racing facility. The track was extremely well lit. Moreover, there was a nice crowd. Soon we found some very comfortable seating, located about ten rows high in the grandstand and right behind the flagman. It was a beautiful, low seventy-degree night. The track was doing a lot of track prep at intermission. We didn’t hear any racing, though, as we pulled onto the track grounds. We found our seats in the grandstand after we visited the track’s gift shop. Once there, we watched cars and water trucks circling the track. Apparently, the track’s surface hadn’t been equipped for the heat races. The announcer indicated they did a rework of the track during intermission, taking “six to eight inches” of dirt off the turns. I’m guessing this track rework took the better part of an hour. Skip the heat races? We were further told that there were eighty cars in the pit area tonight. All were spread over five classes off stock cars, modifieds and late models. We would be able to see five main events from the point at which we had arrived. And so, this got me to thinking. Maybe we should skip the heat races in the future. Instead, we could show up at intermission for the main events. That’s really not a bad idea. Other patrons have already been sitting in the grandstand for nearly two-and-a-half hours without a main event in sight. Although this track was called a 3/8-mile, I would consider it a long 3/8-mile. I think they could’ve run on a much shorter track. As a result, they would have a more entertaining program. Nevertheless, we watched some 16-20 cars racing in each feature race. The battle for the leads were good. We stayed for four of the five futures, missing only the modified race. That put us into our Marriott Hotel at around one a.m. We were off to a good start with this trackchasing trip. SATURDAY Let’s go watch some softball. Always the early riser, Carol was up in time to eat at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. I slept through it all. The first item on today’s agenda was a two-hour drive down to Oklahoma City. Once there, we would see the women’s college softball World Series. That would be a lot of fun. Jim Thorpe! When I’m driving, I’m always on the lookout for special side attractions. We got one this morning. I saw a sign for the “Jim Thorpe Home.“ I was very familiar with Jim Thorpe. When I was probably about ten or twelve years old, I saw the “Jim Thorpe – All American” a movie starring Burt Lancaster. I love that film. Now, I’m motivated to go back and see it again. The signage directed us toward Yale, Oklahoma. There we stopped to see the only home that Jim Thorpe an American Indian of the Sac and Fox tribe ever owned. A young lady, Ashley, took us on a complete tour of the home. The house was more than a hundred years old. You really don’t want to miss the photos from this one. It was a great unexpected stop. Don’t miss my photo album on this one!! Today was the day. Several years ago, I visited the Oklahoma Softball Hall of Fame. I love halls of fame, and at the time, I vowed to return to see one of the World Series matchups at the Hall of Fame complex. Today was that day. Today, I bought our tickets on line. I don’t normally do that but “scalping” isn’t a big thing at venues like this. That meant there would be almost no one selling tickets outside the venue today. The USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium seats 13,000 fans. It opened in 1987. We had great seats just a few rows from the field and close to home place. We were rooting for Florida State. We saw the Florida State Seminoles play the Arizona Wildcats. As major UCLA fans we don’t care much for Arizona. To put it mildly in men’s basketball I think their fans are idiots. That’s why when Florida State staged a last inning comeback to win, we were happy. Pickle shots. Never again! We dined on hot dogs, pretzels, Coors Light and “pickle shots”. Yes, pickle shots! What’s a pickle shot. It’s frozen pickle juice. Never again for me. I almost threw up! We were heading to Pink! From the game we headed over to the Winding Creek Speedway in Pink, Oklahoma. No trackchaser had ever been to Winding Creek. As far as I know no trackchaser had ever HEARD of Winding Creek. How did I find out about it? I know people! I’ve got a buddy. His name is David Hardy (above with his family). David drives a yard kart. I first saw him race, although we didn’t meet, at the OK Corral earlier this year. David has been very helpful giving me information about Oklahoma kart racing. Thanks David! Weather…yes weather was a problem. Tonight, the Winding Creek Speedway had a weather problem. It had rained and it continued to rain. Any other track would have canceled. However, Alan the track promoter told me he rarely cancels a show at his track. Always nice to meet the track promoter. I had a nice chat with Alan. He was happy to see that a California trackchaser had chosen his track to visit. Alan told me he built the track himself. They’ve been racing about 10 years. I suspect they rarely have racing with any classes that meet trackchasing rules. Tonight, they had the classes we needed to see race. The Winding Creek Speedway is not equipped to handle a muddy track that takes on a lot of rain just before their show is supposed to begin. Alan did the best he could with a very small tractor and his son driving a beater around the track. The show was delayed. It did stop raining. During that time, I was getting to meet people right and left. Of course, I spent quite a bit of time with David and his two sons. They were all racing yard karts out of the same garage. David races in the senior yard kart division and his kids run in the junior yard kart division. Trackchasing’s complex rules. David’s senior yard kart was the ONLY trackchasing countable racer at the track tonight. Normally, that we be a problem. However, David would be racing with his sons. Their cars were countable but they as drivers, being youngsters, were not “trackchasing approved”. Nevertheless, if a countable car and driver races with other(s) who are racing approved cars even though the driver(s) are not approved the track counts. Don’t ask me to give you any more detail on this trackchasing rule! David would also race with some trackchasing approved caged karts with kids driving them. That counts to. Say what? After they tried to get the track in shape and ran some practice laps it was already 10 p.m. At that point the track promoter did something that scared me. He held a driver’s meeting. He asked the drivers if it might be better to just cancel the show entirely. We had been at the track for four hours since 6 p.m. Although from my point of view I had a vested interest in the outcome of the meeting I could only sit back and observe. I’ve seen and heard of way too many trackchasers trying to influence promoters in situations like this. That is shameful. The drivers and promoter went back and forth on the cancellation idea for several minutes. Finally, it was agreed that those that did not want to race could bow out. David and his kids wanted to race. They did. The track counted and we were happy. It’s always nice to meet old friends at a new track. During the night a father/son combo came up to say hi. I had met these guys at the Kiamichi Mountains Speedway in Nashoba, Oklahoma. That was in June, 2020 during the midst of the Covid pandemic. Shane and Hunter McDonald were spectators on that night. I remember them saying they were racers. Shane has given up his driving career to help Hunter race flat karts. It was nice they recognized me and came up to say hi. Driver interviews are part of my YouTube video from Winding Creek. Please don’t miss my YouTube video from our visit to the Winding Creek Speedway. It includes at the track interviews with both David Hardy and Hunter McDonald. These guys will tell you about their race teams. From Pink we made the long drive back to Tulsa. We would have much time to sleep in our hotel. We had an early morning flight from Tulsa to St. Louis and a big day planned for tomorrow. Good evening from first Oktaha and then Pink, Oklahoma. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,703 tracks. Oklahoma The Sooner State This Saturday evening, I saw racing at my 43rd lifetime track in the Sooner, yes, the Sooner State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Oklahoma. Oklahoma ranks #20, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Oklahoma state trackchasing list. I have made 31 separate trips to Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma sayings: We chase and eat what other states run from 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. Jim Thorpe; Women’s College World Series; Winding Creek Speedway! 
