Photo – Bill Silvester Facebook page

Bill Silvester got hooked on racing when the North Carolina legislature banned dog tracks in the state, and the track in Currituck County transitioned from greyhounds to stock cars.

The 71-year-old retired middle school teacher attended his first race in 1964. On Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, he will have seen a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on every active track on the schedule.

As he completes his bucket list, it’s hard for Silvester to pick a favorite.

“Every track has some differences, some uniqueness,” he said. “I absolutely love Bristol. People in Las Vegas are just unbelievable. We were sitting in Fontana last year. I got looking around and I have a tendency to say ‘I wish we were sitting here or here or here’—and we looked around and said, ‘There’s not a better seat at this track than what we’re in right now.’”

Silvester’s wife usually accompanies him on his journeys to race tracks—if she doesn’t have to fly.

“For the most part, it’s been a family thing. My wife—she became my wife—went to the first race with me in Currituck. As a family, we have been to probably 20 race tracks.

“She will not fly. In 2008, we went cross-country to California to visit with her college roommate, and I said, ‘OK, I’ll go, on one condition—we stop by Indy.’ So that was the Brickyard.”

Silvester remembers his first trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway and how impressed he was at the 1.5-mile track.

“The first time we went to Charlotte, that was an absolute palace,” he said.

Now that Charlotte will be hosting a road course race instead of an oval event in the 2018 playoff, will Silvester have to make a return visit?

“We’ll see,” he said with a smile. “We’ll see.”