BERLIN LIONS CLUB FAIRGROUNDS - BERLIN, CONNECTICUT

09-04-26 Berlin Fairgrounds

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RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report 

DAYS 4-5 – “IT WAS TIME TO GET BACK TO NGD POINT CHASING” TRACKCHASING TOUR

GREETINGS FROM BERLIN, CONNECTICUT

TODAY’S HEADLINES

The time to reveal my “Special announcement” is here …………..details in “Randy’s Special Announcement”.

I don’t get to very many tracks on the very first day they ever hold an event..................more in “The Objective”.

Not everyone has the work ethic needed for success…………..details in “The People”.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL

I will maintain my policy of affording anonymity to readers who send in interesting bits of information or who provide cutting edge analysis.

FROM THE BEST READERS IN RACING

From my newest Italian resident reader regarding my recent Iceland report.

Hi Randy!!

Amazing…this report is one of the best!  (maybe because I like Iceland, although I’ve never been there).

May I try to guess the topic of your special announcement?

From my on the ground contact in Iceland regarding my Iceland Trackchaser Report.

Editor’s note:  I asked him to correct any incomplete or inaccurate information I may have written about Iceland.

Hi Randy,

Just great to be able to help you, and after reading your article you seemed to have had a great time, and I did not see anything poorly described on your behalf  :  ).  Great article!

Best regards and thanks,

Gunnar B

RANDY’S SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

At long last, I can reveal what I’ve been promising you for a very long time.  I’ve had several people try to guess what in the world I might be referring too.  Here were the six finalists, who tried to guess what my announcement might be, before “Trackchasing’s First Mother” was summoned to decide the winners.

** You will announce a new sponsor, P&G or Gillette or a brand from the company

** You will announce that you have purchased a second home closer to the middle of the country that will serve as another base for trackchasing activity, allowing you to reduce your travel, or at least your travel expenses.

** You will announce your retirement from trackchasing (two people mentioned this).

** You will announce that you and the lovely Carol are going to be grandparents again.

** You will announce that you are doing a study about what people do in really small countries.

** You will announce you are finally going to write a book about your trackchasing.

In hindsight, I guess it would be difficult for anyone to guess what my “announcement” might be without any hints whatsoever.  Many of you have been long time readers of the RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Reports.  You have come to expect my sharing travel tips, financial planning ideas and even those unusual but delicious culinary locations spread throughout the world.

Today I will let you in on a great little “secret” that you or someone you know may also benefit from.  My lifestyle involves a good deal of travel both in the United States and abroad.  Therefore many of my tips have been from a “traveler’s perspective”.  If you don’t travel as much as I do (and who does?), not all of the tips will apply to your own lifestyle.

As I began to travel all over the world during the past five years, it became increasingly difficult to eat a healthy somewhat low calorie diet.  My clothes told me this!  I’ve always tried to eat at least halfway responsibly.  However, I have special little eateries stashed away in just about every medium sized town and bigger in the United States.  Most are delightful places for a good meal, but not always good for the calorie counters among us.

With that said, I found myself weighing in at 236 pounds not too long ago.  That was a personal best!  However, it’s not always a good thing to achieve “personal bests” in categories like this one.

One of the TV programs that Carol and I watch is The Biggest Loser.  Of course, we watch each two-hour episode on a recorded basis so as not to waste 40 minutes of our time with commercials.  I don’t know if you’ve seen this program or not.  They bring in 15-20 obese men and woman normally weighing between 250-400 pounds.  They then proceed to run them through some very tough physical training and eating modification programs.  Each week the person who has lost the least amount of weight gets kicked off the program.  What is interesting about this program is that you know that one of these 400-pounders in going to weigh 200 pounds by the show’s end.  You just don’t know which one.

At a weight of 236 pounds, I wasn’t a serious candidate for The Biggest Loser.  However, gaining a pound every month or so can add up.  I wanted to lose some weight but I didn’t have a plan.

At about this time, daughter Kristy and son J.J., also decided they wanted to lose some weight.  Unlike me, they had a plan!  In the Lewis household, everyone is an overachiever of sorts.  In addition, everyone likes to share whatever ideas he or she has with the rest of the family.  Soon I had a plan to lose weight as well!

Everyone in our family is very technology savvy.  J.J. and I each have the Apple iPhone.  You don’t need an iPhone, or even a cell phone, to use the weight loss idea that has worked for me.  I’m talking about WeightWatchers Online.

I didn’t know anything about WeightWatchers really.  I did have the misimpression that the group was similar to Alcoholics Anonymous.  I didn’t relish the idea of standing up in front of a lot of strangers and admitting I was addicted to pizza, corned beef and the Waffle House!

As you will see, I never had to attend a single WeightWatchers meeting.  Therefore, I still don’t know what goes on at one.  The WeightWatchers principles are very simple.  Their slogan goes something like this, “You can eat anything you want, you just can’t eat all you want”.  I liked the idea about being able to eat anything I wanted under this program.  I wasn’t sure, but have learned to adapt to the idea of not eating ALL I wanted.

Here’s how the WeightWatchers program works.  All foods and drinks are assigned a point value.  With the “online” program, I could enter my current weight on either my laptop or my phone.  That would be 236 pounds.  I then chose a “goal” weight.  I picked 207 pounds.  I hadn’t weighed 207 pounds in a very long time.  This seemed like a good stretch goal.

I was lucky to have the support and education of Kristy (and her husband James as well) and J.J. as well as Carol (who might have been more skeptical than anything else) who prepares my at home meals.  WeightWatchers was sending me emails with healthy food recipes, exercise programs and the like also.

The WeightWatchers program calculated that I could have 33 “points” each day.  A single point is roughly 50 calories.  I could also have an additional 35 points to “spend” on anything I wanted during the week.  Exercise earned points on the “good” side.  I typically do about three days of aerobic exercise each week for about 45 minutes each time.  During the time I’ve been on WeightWatchers I have not increased my exercise amounts from what I was doing before.  I do get a lot of walking in when I rushing from one point to another in airports.  However, the trackchasing lifestyle of getting up at 5 a.m. and going non-stop until late at night does not leave much room for formal exercise.

Let me tell you some more about the WeightWatchers point system.  As I mentioned I could eat up to 33 points each day.  Here’s a list of some typical foods and their point values:

One egg – 2 points

McDonalds egg McMuffin – 7 points

One orange – 1 point

Diet soda – 0 points

Subway double meat 6” turkey sub – 6 points

One-cup Raisin Bran cereal – 3 points

Shrimp 2 oz. – one point

One-cup orange juice – 2 points

On the other end of the scale are the foods with high point values that need to be avoided such as:

Large Dairy Queen Butterfinger Blizzard – 23 points

Pizza Hut personal pan pepperoni pizza – 15 points

Coca-Cola 8 oz. – 2 points

Fast food steak and egg biscuit – 11 points

I think you get the point, or points as the case may be!

The Weightwatchers program is not a “quick loss” program.  They encourage you to lose weight the same way you put it on, one pound at a time.  Each week you enter your current weight.  I chose Wednesdays because I’m home the most on that day of the week.  The point totals reset each week.  There is no credit for eating LESS than 33 points, in my case, each day.  Unused points do not carry over, so that encourages eating up to your point limit.

On days or weeks where I found myself eating a few more points than expected, I tried to increase my physical activity.  It was rare, if ever, that I exceeded my point level for the week.

I made a pact with myself not to mention my “diet” outside of the family.  As tall as I am, I think I carry weight pretty well even when I weighed more than I needed too.  I wanted people I interacted with on a daily basis like folks at the golf club, and others to notice my weight loss without my mentioning it.  Even though I was losing weight not too many people seemed to notice at first.  However, as I lost more, I begun to get that positive feedback as people noticed the pounds I have shed.

I did talk to a couple of friends who had tried WeightWatchers with limited success before I began the program.  One told me, “you don’t need to lose any weight, you’re already skinny”.  He wasn’t trying to squeeze into my XL shirts that had once been comfortable.

I started the program in mid-December.  As you know since that time I’ve made eight separate trans-oceanic trips.  When I travel to faraway places, I want to try the local foods.  For me, that’s a major part of the fun.  Just traveling domestically is difficult when I want to eat well.  Although Carol is a great cook at home, I estimate I eat more than half my meals in a restaurant each and every week.  I’ve done this for years.

So…..how have I done?  This morning I weighed in at 211 pounds.  That’s a 25-pound weight loss. I’m very happy with that.  I’ve been on the program for about five months.  That’s a weight loss of about five pounds per month.  For the first four months or so, I never ever gained from one week to the next.  During the last month there was a week following an international trip where I gained two pounds.  The following week I lost three pounds and WeightWatchers sent me an email saying I was losing weight too fast!!  I still plan to reach my goal of 207 pounds.

Are you familiar with the “BMI” index?  BMI stands for “Body Mass Index”.  This is a standard “height/weight” index that defines when people are overweight and when they are obese.  Unless, your nickname is “beanpole” you are not likely at a normal weight!  Even at 6’ 3” and 211 pounds I am still considered “overweight”.  In order to be considered “obese” I would need to top 241 pounds.  When I weighed 236 pounds I was within shouting distance of being obese.  I hope I never reach that dubious level.  To be considered at the top range of the “normal weight” category I would have to weigh 200 pounds.  I might just try to dip my toe below 200 to say I did it, but right now 207 pounds remains as my goal.

It is absolutely amazing how much better I feel in my clothes.  Before, I was starting to trade up to XXL shirts.  Now most of my XL shirts feel loose.  I had been down the very last notch on my favorite belt.  Now I am down to the very last notch (of five) on the OTHER end of the spectrum.

Lots of people go on “diets”.  Some of those people lose weight.  Of the people who lose weight most gain it back and often times gain back more than they lost.  I know I have.  However, this time seems to be different.  I now have indelibly marked in my brain, as well as my iPhone the point values of pizza, waffles, steaks and ice cream.  I’ve found I enjoy chicken, turkey and fruits just as much as the above.

I will try to keep you posted on my results in the future.  It shouldn’t take much more time to reach my goal.  Then I will revert to the “maintenance” portion of the program.  Once I do reach my goal, I hope to be at that number or below on December 15, 2009, a year after I started with WeightWatchers.

So……that’s my “announcement”.  I guess no one was thinking along these lines.  Nevertheless, if someone else picks up on this idea, they stand to benefit greatly just as if they had learned how to use Priceline.com or rebalance their retirement portfolio.

Oh yes, we have contest winners.  Carol, without knowing who submitted which entries, picked the first contest guess above submitted by Russ Ingram of Texas as the grand prizewinner.  Russ will receive a Delta Airlines first class amenities bag and a Dubai Autodrome racing program.  Everyone else who submitted a guess will get a Dubai Autodrome racing program.  Thanks for participating in another RANLAY Racing reader contest.

SEE THE PHOTOS; ENJOY THE PHOTOS

If you would like to see photos from today’s trackchasing adventure go to www.ranlayracing.com, click on the “Trackchaser Reports” tab and then click on “#1,422 Berlin Lions Club Fairgrounds” for the pictures and story.

I LEFT SAN CLEMENTE VERY EARLY ON WEDNESDAY MORNING TO BEGIN ANOTHER TRACKCHASING ODYSSEY.  FIRST, I STOPPED OFF IN ALABAMA FOR A RACE.  THEN I FLEW FROM ATLANTA TO BOSTON AND THEN TO REYKJAVIK, ICELAND BEFORE RETURNING TO BOSTON.  I WRAPPED UP THE TRIP ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN CONNECTICUT BEFORE RETURNING TO SAN CLEMENTE LATE SUNDAY EVENING.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED ON DAYS 4-5 OF MY TENTH TRACKCHASING TRIP OF THE 2009 SEASON.

What you are about to read is based upon a true story.  Heck, I’m seeing some of this stuff for the first time myself!

THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP AND THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

The Objective 

Today’s track was special in a couple of ways.

Following an inter-continent double yesterday I was just pleased to see another new track on Sunday afternoon.  It was extra special in that this  new track was running for the very first time.  It won’t take my fellow East coast competitors to be all over this one.  Gaining NGD points was an extra plus.   

The Trip

I tried to be creative with my New England hotel choice.

Yesterday morning I had awakened in Hafnafjorour, Iceland.  By the end of that day, I was in rural New Hampshire.  Following my race in the Granite state I needed a hotel room that would position me well for today’s race in Berlin, Connecticut.

New England has some interesting older hotels and bed & breakfast establishments.  I wanted to forgo the chain motels/hotels in favor of a private business.  However, as I drove through one small town after another the “ma and pa” places had already turned their lights out.

I ended up staying in a Super 8 motel in Massachusetts.  European Indians operate a number of these kinds of places as they did tonight.  I earn frequent stay points (Wyndham Rewards) when I stay at Super 8 motels so not all was lost.

It’s not often I can get back to California on the same day that I see my last new track.

I would say that one of most misunderstood aspects of my trackchasing travel is what it takes to get from my home to the first track of the trip and back home from the last track of the trip.  When I grew up near Peoria, Illinois, we lived about 15 minutes from Peoria Speedway.  Often we waited in line for them to open the gates so we could get a top row seat.  The races were normally over by 11 p.m. or so.  After a quick tour of the pits, we would be home by midnight.

Most of the racing I see happens at night.  When the race is finished by midnight or so, there is ZERO chance of getting back to California that night.  I take 35-50 trackchasing trips each year.  That means my overnight travel can be increased by 35-50 nights every year simply because I can’t get home when the race wraps up on the last trackchasing day of the trip.  Contrast that with the fact that most of my east coast fellow competitors can sleep in their own bed after the last race of the trip.  However, that’s getting more difficult for them to do as well.  This is one of the reasons we see trackchaser results falling off for certain people who are unwilling to accept this extra level of commitment.

I got home on the same day after the last track of the trip….but it was late.

I  quickly grabbed a flight from Boston to Los Angeles.  I arrived at LAX at about midnight.  However, my car was parked at the John Wayne Orange County airport some 45 miles away.  The best way to retrieve my car was to rent a car.  This was my fourth rental car of the trip!  I was home by 1 a.m. just as the Icelanders I had met were going to work on Monday morning at 8 a.m.!  No, I don’t think people really have a good idea what really needs to happen to get this done from California.

The People

There just wasn’t much people contact during the final day of my trip.

The president of the Nutmeg Kart Club was helpful in providing email information regarding his group.  Other than that, I kept a low “people” profile during the last 24 hours of my trip.

I did encounter two young women working in a Subway sandwich store.  One girl admonished the other for continuing to work after she had clocked out.  I told the admonisher that she was unlikely to be a brilliant success in the business world with this approach.  I doubt my words had any impact.  Yes, people can be their own worst  enemies when it comes to success in the business world.

RACE REVIEW

BERLIN LIONS CLUB FAIRGROUNDS, BERLIN, CONNECTICUT

Today was a new location for the Nutmeg Kart Club.

For the past 35 years, the Nutmeg Kart Club has raced in Sheldon, Connecticut.  For a good amount of that time, they never raced any karts that were “trackchasing” countable.  However, they have in recent years.  I’ve had the Sheldon track on my schedule only to be thwarted by bad weather many times in the past.  Now that they have moved on to the Berlin, Connecticut location I won’t ever get the chance to see a race in Sheldon.

The racing wasn’t much today.

Go-kart racers seem to spend more time practicing than they do racing.  That was the case today.  Additionally, out of all the kart classes running today, only one of them, the senior champ karts, would allow me to count today’s track.

There were ten of the senior champ karts racing today.  I would probably vote to count all go-karts if such a rule were proposed.  However, that would open up hundreds of new tracks that previously have not counted in the trackchasing comparisons.  I’m not sure I want to spend the time and effort going to more than 500 new go-kart tracks.

The action today was somewhat anticlimactic.

My trip started all the way back on last Wednesday with a new track visit in Alabama.  However, the real highlight had been my trackchasing in Iceland.  After touring and seeing the racing up there, the rest of the trip was anticlimactic.

The go-karts today caused a lot of yellow flag restarts with a sun-baked dry dirt track.  I think some of the races might have been shortened to a “green, white, checkered” finish because the racers couldn’t drive straight.  Nevertheless, I was happy to see a race on a Sunday in Connecticut.

STATE COMPARISONS

Connecticut

This afternoon I saw my 10^th lifetime track in the Nutmeg state.  This moved me from 11^th place into a tie for 9^th place here.  It also improved my Connecticut state NGD score from 15 to 9.  This is a gigantic improvement.  I have not been able to do much NGD point chasing with my recent international focus.  Nevertheless, I had not lost sight of those valuable NGD points.  Guy Smith leads this state with 18 tracks.

Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for the state.  Just click on this link or paste it in your browser:

http://www.autoracingrecords.com/tc/statregion.php?country=USA&region=CT

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

Boston, Massachusetts – Saturday/Sunday

For the second time in the last couple of weeks I rented a Kia automobile.  I would be driving the National Rental Car Racing Amanti.  This being my second Kia rental, finding the gas cap opener was easier this time!

I drove the car 335 miles.  I paid an average price of $2.07 per gallon.  The car gave me 27.85 miles per gallon fuel mileage at a cost of 7.8 cents per mile.  The car cost 16.4 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.

Coming soon!

How do fellow P&G retirees really think?

Why I fear Ed Esser.

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

Pain is temporary; glory is forever.

TRAVEL DETAILS

AIRPLANE

Orange County, CA – Atlanta, GA – 1,919 miles

Atlanta, GA – Mobile, AL - 302 miles

RENTAL CAR #1

Mobile International Airport – trip begins

Flomaton, Alabama – 77 miles

Atlanta International Airport – 340 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

Atlanta, GA – Boston, MA – 944 miles

Boston, MA – Reykjavik, ICELAND – 2,411 miles

RENTAL CAR #2

Reykjavik International Airport – trip begins

Hafnafjorour, Iceland – 245 miles

Reykjavik International Airport – 265 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

Reykjavik, Iceland – Boston, MA – 2,411 miles

RENTAL CAR #3

Logan (Boston) International Airport – trip begins

Winchester, NH – 101 miles

Berlin, CT – 224 miles

Logan (Boston) International Airport – 335 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

Boston, MA – Los Angeles, CA – 2,608 miles

RENTAL CAR #4

Los Angeles International Airport – trip begins

John Wayne Airport – 45 miles – trip ends

Total Air miles – 10,595 (6 flights)

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 11,585 miles

I have now traveled more than 117,000 miles trackchasing in 2009.

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

Flomaton Speedway - $15

Kapelluhraum – No charge

Monadnock Speedway – No charge

Berlin Lions Club Fairgrounds = No charge ($5 donation for car show)

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $15

COMPARISONS

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS UPDATE:

There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,422

World Lifetime Trackchasing Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statlife.php

Other notables

These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus or more) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.

26.  Kevin Eckert, Indianapolis, Indiana – 460

27.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 377

28.  Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 374

2009 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

Lifetime track totals in (  ).

1.  Bing Metz, Tatamy, Pennsylvania – 30 (341)

2.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 22 (1,422)

Tracks have been reported by 28 different worldwide trackchasers this season.

Complete 2008 Trackchasing Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statyear2008.php

LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS

Final 2008 National Geographic Diversity results have been posted.

COMPLETE TRACK TYPE CATEGORY COMPARISONS OF NOTE:

Dirt Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statdirt.php

Paved Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statpaved.php

Ice Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statice.php

Mixed Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statmixed.php

Oval Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statoval.php

Circuit (road course) Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statcircuit.php

Figure 8 Track Comparisons

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statf8.php

Indoor Track Comparisons

 http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/statindoor.php

Official Trackchaser Rules

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/rules.php

Past trackchasing reports are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

Official trackchaser comparisons can be viewed at:

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/index.php

Some of the data in this report comes from

http://autoracingrecords.com/tc/index.php

and my Garmin GPS aka “Tonto”

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

Just when you thought it might not be possible I have some very exotic trackchasing plans coming up in the near term.  Stay tuned.

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2009

1,401. Death Valley Raceway (oval), Armargosa Valley, Nevada - January 3

1,402. Lake Weyauwega Ice Track (oval), Weyauwega, Wisconsin - January 11

1,403. Marion Pond Ice Track (oval), Marion, Wisconsin - January 11

1,404. Grandvalira Circuit (road course), Port d’Envalira, Andorra - January 17

1,405. Kuna International Raceway (oval), Kuna, Idaho - January 25

1,406. Circuito Efren Chemolli (oval), Buenos Aires, Argentina - January 31

Ozark Empire Fairgrounds (oval), Springfield, Missouri – February 6 (new track for Carol only)

Lake Speed Ice Track (oval), Tilleda, Wisconsin – February 7 (new track for Carol only)

1,407. DeltaPlex (oval), Grand Rapids, Michigan – February 8

1,408. Losail International Circuit (road course), Doha, Qatar – February 13

1,409. Lake Washington Ice Track (road course), Mankato, Minnesota – February 15

1,410. Bahrain International Circuit (road course), Sakhir, Bahrain – February 27

1,411. Dubai Autodrome (road course), Dubai, United Arab Emirates – February 28

1,412. Dunkin Donuts Center (oval), Providence, Rhode Island – March 6

1,413. Fur Rondy Grand Prix (road course), Anchorage, Alaska – March 8

1,414. Perris Auto Speedway (road course), Perris, California – March 14

1,415. Autodromo de Tocancipa (road course), Tocancipa, Colombia – March 22

1,416. Motorland Aragon (road course), Alcaniz, Spain – March 28

1,417. Circuto de Murca (road course), Murca, Portugal – March 29

1,418. High Plains Speedway (oval), Clovis, New Mexico – April 19

1,419. Flomaton Speedway (oval), Flomaton, Alabama – April 22

1,420. Kapelluhraum (road course), Hafnafjorour, Iceland – April 25, 2009

1,421. Monadnock Speedway (oval), Winchester, New Hampshire – April 25

1,422. Berlin Lions Club Fairgrounds (oval), Berlin, Connecticut – April 26

Official end of RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report