I am an international trackchaser.  My trackchasing hobby has taken me to well over 70 countries.  With all of that travel I have seen and done just about everything….but not EVERYTHING.  That’s why I’ll keep traveling for as long as I can.  There is always one more thing to see and one more thing to do.

 

 

I hope you enjoy taking a brief tour of Ireland, my 19th trackchasing country.  It’s a beautiful place with nice people.  Their racing was fun too.  Go Irish!

 

 

 

DAY 1-4 – HOW EXPENSIVE COULD EUROPE POSSIBLY BE TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

You are about to read about our European trackchasing adventures. As with all RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Reports everything presented as fact is, well, a fact. On the other hand, everything presented as an opinion is in fact MY opinion. As you know opinions are like elbows, almost everyone has one.

 

 

If you feel that the graphic and straight talk presented below might be so realistic as to take the luster off of a future European visit for yourself…….do not read any further. If my description of European pricing might make you so sick to yourself that you can’t take it…..do not read any further.

 

 

However, if you feel comfortable regarding the warnings issued above, sit back and come along on a journey through the “old country”. You may pick up an idea or two for a future journey of your own. At the very least, you will see how one couple runs all over the world and you won’t have to spend a dime of your own money “experiencing” Europe.

 

 

If, on the other hand, you don’t have time to read some 6,000 words right now, you can see the photos taken during Part 1 of the 2008 “How Expensive Could Europe Possibly Be Trackchasing Tour”. Simply click the following link:

 

Ireland – 2008 Just for the fun of it!

 

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

 

Do you think gas prices are high in the U.S.? Stop your whining……………….more in “Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008”.

 

Where’s the best panoramic view in all of Dublin? …………..details in “Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008”.

 

What offsets the high cost of living in Europe for me?…………..details in “Day 2 – Monday, May 5, 2008”.

 

 

Reader Questions for Randy

 

1. From Illinois – In the trackchasing rules what does the term “no visits on off days count” mean?
2. This simply means that in order for a trackchaser to be able to count a track they must see actual wheel-to-wheel racing. A trackchaser cannot show up on an “off” day, a day when the track is not holding wheel-to-wheel racing, and count the track.

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM DUBLIN, IRELAND AND SURROUNDING AREAS. 

 

We woke up this morning in San Clemente, California.  We went to sleep over the next three nights in Ireland.  This is what transpired during days 1-4 of our 11-day European trip.

 

 

Preparation 

I guess I could be called a road warrior. I didn’t take my first airplane ride until I was 21 years old. Back in the summer of 1970, I flew into Billings, Montana to visit a young woman living in Wyoming. I guess I was a late bloomer. During that trip, I also caught a race at the Belaro Speedway in Billings. Belaro Speedway is estimated to be my 14th-lifetime track. Who was the young woman I was visiting in Wyoming?

 

 

Trackchasing’s First Mother, of course. As you might rightly surmise she was not a mother at the time.

 

About two years later, in July 1972, I began flying for business. I would fly nearly every week since then for the past 36 years. I’ve accumulated my share of frequent flyer miles. On American Airlines alone, I’ve been credited with more than 6 million miles. During that time the average frequent flyer award ticket required 25,000 miles. I estimate I’ve earned a like number of frequent flyer tickets on all of the other airlines I’ve flown on a combined basis. That’s about 500 frequent flyer tickets spread over more than 35 years.

 

 

I have given well over half of those tickets to my family, relatives and friends. I didn’t need to use them because I could fly nearly anywhere I needed too on business. By the time our three children reached the age that I took my first flight, they had been to numerous countries all around the world. Travel is a very broadening experience for children. I think that flying and travel was most valuable in the development of our kids. They are more “world” people than most of their American counterparts.

 

 

Alas, I have not spent all of our frequent flyer miles. I have saved a few for those special trips for Carol and me to take in our golden years. We would be using American Airlines frequent flyer miles on this trip. Our plan was to fly to Dublin, Ireland and then Copenhagen, Denmark before returning to Los Angeles.

 

 

I try to shop for good values as we travel the world. American Airlines requires 40,000 miles to be used for a frequent flyer ticket to Europe from October 15 to May 15 each year. After May 15 and until October 15, the mileage requirement is 60,000 miles.

 

 

Often times in today’s world frequent flyer miles are easier to earn than they are to spend. Only a few seats on each plane are allocated for “award” tickets. You have to plan ahead in order to get the flights and destinations you want.

 

 

A couple of months ago, I came up with the idea of traveling to Europe. I hoped that Carol and I could catch 2-3 tracks in countries we had never visited. Going into the trip, I had seen racing in 14 different countries. I found some good flights and made my reservation but did not ticket the trip. I had 14 days to finalize the reservation.

 

 

Somehow, I lost track of time. When I called the airlines, I was told I had missed the 14-day cutoff to confirm my reservation. Ouch! However, I was in luck. I was able to rebook the exact flights we needed for a trip to conclude on May 14, the last day for the reduced mileage award of 40,000 miles per person.

 

 

The main plan was to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. However, there were no non-stop flights available from Los Angeles to Copenhagen on American Airlines or any of their partners. We would need to stay overnight in Ireland.   We would be using Aer Lingus Airlines.  We’d never been to Ireland so that was fine with us. I was asked how long we would like to stay in the country. Since I wasn’t planning to do any trackchasing in Ireland (I didn’t think anyone would be racing on Tuesday/Wednesday), I made the reservation for us to spend two days there.

 

 

I asked for the help of European trackchaser Roland Vanden Eynde of Brussels, Belgium in planning the racing portion of our trip. Roland has been trackchasing in 37 different countries and ranks first in this category. He came up with a race in Ireland on Monday, May 5, a bank holiday (aka three-day weekend) in Ireland. This required a last-minute change (again!) in our itinerary. We would need to come in a day earlier than planned.

 

 

We would fly all night, land at 10 a.m. Ireland time (2 a.m. San Clemente time), then drive for 2-3 hours to see the race in Central Ireland. That was fine with me. I was more than willing to add a day to the trip in order to get an extra trackchasing country.

 

 

Then, less than a week before we were scheduled to depart, the Ireland race date mysteriously disappeared from the website schedule of the Tipperary Motor Speedway. They had canceled the race. I found another track in Mallow, Ireland that had a scheduled Monday autograss race date on the bank holiday. Autograss racing is done mostly in farmer’s fields. At the last minute, the Mallow race was canceled because they could not get permission to use the race site.

 

 

We were back to our original plan of no racing in Ireland. With the new flight plan, we would now have three days in Ireland, which worked for us.

 

 

I also had a beefed-up plan for using my GPS unit. For the first time ever, I would be using my Garmin global positioning unit (GPS) outside of North America. I use my GPS unit 100% of the time when I’m traveling in the U.S. It’s the best piece of technology I’ve ever had. I will be borrowing son-in-law James’ European mapping software for this trip. The maps come on a small chip that simply pops into the GPS unit.

 

 

In advance of the trip, I used Google Earth (first introduced to me by son, J.J.) to find longitude and latitude coordinates for the destinations we expected to visit. I then used a POI (Point of Interest) software program to download the L/L data into my GPS unit. This stuff works like a charm. It truly is the best thing since sliced bread.

 

 

 

Day 1 – Sunday, May 4, 2008

Our overnight flight from Los Angeles to Dublin worked out very well. Both Carol and I were able to commandeer a middle section of four seats together. This allowed us to lay flat and sleep most of the way to Europe. It wasn’t the most comfortable “bed” but it was better than sitting upright in an airplane seat for more than ten hours.

 

 

 

Day 2 – Monday, May 5, 2008

This was our first ever trip on Aer Lingus Airlines. We were very satisfied with them. As you might expect from an Irish airline, their airplane colors are green. Their service was efficient, the food was free and it was good, which is somewhat unusual in today’s flying world.

 

 

During this travelogue, I will tell you about what services we used and what the cost was whenever I can. I figure you might be able to use our experience as a guide for your own travels.

 

 

When we landed, the weather was gorgeous. Ireland is noted for rain and wet weather. We did not get a drop of rain in the three days we visited. The temperature was also very comfortable. It was 60-75 degrees under bright blue skies each day.

 

 

I used www.sidestep.com to book a three-day rental car with the Thrifty Dollar Rental Car Company. Ireland is part of the European Union. Their currency is the Euro. Currently, the exchange rate for the Euro is one Euro to $1.61 U.S. The U.S. dollar is the weakest it has been in recorded history. This makes everything more expensive for Americans.

 

 

Editor’s note:  As this is re-posted in January 2015 the exchange rate is one Euro to just $1.18 U.S.

 

 

As you read the details of our trip, you may be surprised at how expensive everything was. Many times, it was somewhat comical at what the Euro price translated too in U.S. currency. There was only one redeeming feature in the weakness of the dollar for us.

 

 

Over time, I have owned a large number of Procter & Gamble shares. I also own a good deal of American companies that do a large volume of their business overseas.   As an example, P&G gets more than 50% of their profits from outside of the U.S. They earn those profits in foreign currencies. When they bring that money back to the U.S., they can buy more U.S. dollars because of the weakness of the dollar. This translates into increased profits and a higher stock price. Although I can’t be specific, I am certain I have made many times more dollars from these increasing stock values than I have spent in foreign countries touring. Anyway, that’s my story and I sticking to it.

 

 

Our rental car in Dublin cost 71 Euros or about $115 U.S. for three days. That’s a great buy on a rental car in Europe. We would not do nearly as well in Copenhagen. We rented a mid-sized car, a Mazda 3. In America, it is next to impossible to rent a manual transmission car. However, in Europe, “stick” shift rental cars are commonly available. Cars with manual transmissions often cost about half of what a car with an automatic transmission does. For this reason, we went with the manual transmission. I don’t normally do this when I travel to foreign countries.

 

 

In Ireland, people drive on the left side of the road in right side steer cars. I would be shifting with my left hand. I have a good deal of experience driving stick shift cars. The last time I did it with a right side steer car was when I competed in an autograss racing event in Turley, England. I figured my European racing experience would serve me well for this trip and it did.

 

 

Rental car insurance can be very expensive. I ran into one American tourist who told me the daily rental car insurance was more than the daily rental fee of the car. Fortunately, my MasterCard credit card covers me for rental car insurance in foreign countries. However, the Thrifty Rental Car rep needed to call MasterCard to confirm this fact.

 

 

At the end of our three days in Ireland, we would be departing on a 6:45 a.m. flight. The Thrifty Dollar rental car location did not open until 6 a.m. each day. This meant I would either have to return the car the night before our flight or park the car on the morning of our flight in a long-term parking lot. We would be charged 20 Euros ($32 U.S,) for this privilege. They try to get you coming or going!

 

 

The rental car did have a very unique feature I have never seen in a car before. The words “drive on left” were printed on a card that was glued to the dashboard just above the steering wheel. Those words were written backward so that they left a reflection on the windshield just a few degrees from where the driver looked when facing forward. You’ll see this “touch” is some of the photos I took.

 

 

Clearing Ireland customs and getting our checked luggage was easy. We hopped in our rental car and began to drive southward in the central and southern portions of Ireland. The plan was to spend our first two days traveling the countryside and our final day in Dublin.

 

 

Roland had suggested we stop by the Tipperary Motor Speedway, site of the scheduled and then canceled Monday racing event. You never know what might come of such an event.

 

 

At about 2:30 p.m., we found the track. I was shocked to see some 500 or more cars in the racetrack parking lot. Were they racing? It sure looked like they were. However, when Carol and I approached the ticket window, we discovered a “drifting” event was going on. This is a relatively new form of motorsport.

 

 

I’m not sure I fully understood what they were doing. It appears the driver tries to put his/her car into a controlled spin for as long as possible. This creates a good deal of tire smoke as the cars go full speed into a turn and then slide all the way around.

 

 

Drifting is not a countable form of trackchasing. Nevertheless, I was interested in seeing my first ever event of this type. However, with ticket prices at 20 Euros ($32 U.S.), I didn’t want to see it that badly. I struck up a conversation with the security guard at the main gate. His name was Michael and he was the son of the track owner.

 

 

It didn’t take long for me to tell Michael about my trackchasing background and hand him my business card. Soon Trackchasing’s First Mother and I were being admitted as guests of the Tipperary Motor Speedway. Please note that I never ever asked to be admitted free, but gladly accepted the gracious offer made by the track.

 

 

Carol and I spent 30-40 minutes taking pictures of the track and the drifting action. Most of the crowd was of the “twenty-something” variety. This was definitely a younger crowd similar to what you might find with “Speedway” for the motorcycle set.

 

 

The drifting didn’t really set my world on fire, although I was glad to see what they were doing. The best part was simply seeing the track layout. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up here again sometime. On our way out, I heard the announcer saying something about the “World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser” visiting today. Yes, I believe I am the first trackchaser ever to get a mention at a drifting event.

 

 

Carol and I continued southward to the tourist town of Killarney. We would overnight here before taking the “Ring of Kerry” circular drive. For our dinner, we selected a restaurant that advertised “steaks and pizza”. It was a nice sit-down place. We were about ready to experience the weakness of the dollar.

 

 

We ordered a four-cheese with garlic 13” pizza from Salvadors on High Street in Killarney. Their slogan is “Traditional Irish cuisine with a continental touch”. This was thin crust gourmet pizza. For what it was, it was one of the best pizzas I had ever tasted. How much would a 13” pizza sell for in a mid-range sit-down Irish restaurant? Twenty-seven dollars! We ate every last crumb.

 

 

We will be overnight for nine nights during this trip. In order to control both the expense and quality of our overnight lodging, I made hotel reservations online for five of those nine nights. However, we did not have a reservation for this our first night of the trip.

 

 

Killarney is a tourist town. If there is one bed & breakfast (B&B) hotel here, there are 300. It didn’t take long for us to find one to our liking. We would have a second-floor bedroom in a two-story home. The home looked to have 6-7 rooms to rent. The kindly older Irish woman told us the fee would be 35 Euros ($56 U.S.) per person. The room had its own bathroom. They call that “en suite”. This is not always the case with B&Bs. A full Irish breakfast was also included. With the price of things over here, we figured that was probably worth $15-20 per person. We gladly accepted our accommodations for our first night in Ireland.

 

 

 

Day 3 – Tuesday, May 6, 2008

We awoke in our bed and breakfast second-floor bedroom fully rested. Our host had asked us what time we wanted breakfast before we went to bed last night. We figured a 9 a.m. breakfast would work well with our sleep plan.

 

 

Although Ireland is 10 hours ahead of our time zone in California, after three days we are almost fully acclimated to the time change. Our breakfast was served in a quaint little “breakfast room” that had maybe six tables for the B&B guests.

 

 

Our breakfast table was bountiful. We dined on “Frosties” (sort of like Frosted Flakes), toast and jam, coffee, juice, Canadian (probably Irish) bacon, sausage and an egg fried sunny side up. We certainly had all we could eat.

 

 

We had stayed overnight in Killarney, Ireland. Killarney is a great base to see the entire South West of Ireland. We had driven about three hours south of Dublin to get here. Killarney is at the top of the “Ring of Kerry”. We would be driving the “Ring of Kerry” today. 

 

The Ring of Kerry is a tourist drive that follows a very rough circle. The distance around the ring is a little more than 100 miles long. The roads are extremely narrow. For the middle of May, the number of tour buses was surprising. I can only imagine what it’s like in the middle of the summer.

 

 

Carol felt like we were driving in a “tunnel” with the narrow roads and rock fences or vegetation that bordered the roadway. She was also sitting in the passenger’s seat on the left side of the car and on the left side of the road! To add to the “excitement” of driving on extremely narrow roads and on the “wrong” side of the road, we had a stick shift car. Nevertheless, it was all good.

 

 

We had blue sky weather with temperatures in the low 60s. The “Ring” might not have been as scenic as we were expecting, but there were some very beautiful spots. This is a rural drive. We passed through a few small towns. It was difficult to pull over to the side of the road for pictures and views because the roads were so narrow. It was especially exciting when it came time to pass a tour bus or truck coming in the opposite direction.

 

 

I was most impressed with the houses of Ireland. They were immaculate. The house exterior’s often sported vibrant colors of orange, yellow or blue. We never did see any rundown housing in the three days we were in Ireland.

 

 

One of the most striking features that we saw in Ireland as well as Denmark and Sweden were the Canola Oil farm fields. The Canola plants are in full bloom now. They produce a bright yellow flower. I can’t describe the beauty effectively enough. I recommend you view the photos of the trip to see for yourself. Although the pictures of the Canola fields are striking, they are not as good as being there.

 

 

In the middle of our trip, we had a nice lunch at Danny O’Shea’s in a seaside town along the bottom of the ring. I was also surprised, although I probably shouldn’t have been, at the dominance of Irish names here. In the U.S., we have Irish names along with nearly every other ethnicity known to man. In Ireland, there are ONLY Irish names for the local business proprietors. We came across our share of O’Malley’s, O’Reillys and the like.

 

 

Following our four hour drive around the ring, it was time to drive back to Dublin. That was another four-hour drive. However, the scenery was entertaining and it didn’t seem like a burden to make the drive at all.

 

 

We would be spending two nights in Dublin. Our stay was pre-booked at the Regency Airport Hotel in Dublin. I located this hotel on www.hotwire.com. Our rate was about $117 U.S. per night.

 

 

If you know where you’re going and how long you want to stay, pre-booking hotels can be a convenient and money-saving idea. The walk-in rate for our room was more than $150 per night, so we definitely saved money.

 

 

I read reviews by guests who had stayed at the Regency. Some were good and some were bad. It’s difficult to read online reviews from individual customers. What I’ve found out in reading these reviews is that everyone looks at the same situation through their own glasses. Some folks are wearing rose-colored glasses and others are wearing glasses with the lenses spray painted with flat black paint. Although I like to read the reviews, I take them with a grain of salt.

 

 

One thing I did notice is that when a European hotel has the word “airport” in its name that does not necessarily mean it’s located very close to the airport. We ended up taking a taxi from the Regency “Airport” hotel and the fare was $32!

 

 

Our room was similar to a Marriott in quality. Unfortunately, it did not have any air-conditioning or a phone. The phone wasn’t a problem as we didn’t know anybody to call anyway. However, the weather was unseasonably warm for Ireland and our room was very hot to sleep in. Even with a window open, it was still somewhat uncomfortable to sleep.

 

 

We were not traveling with a workable cell phone. I don’t necessarily advocate such a plan. To offset, our inability to make any calls, I did as much advance work with my GPS unit as I could. I had plugged in the Longitude/Latitude locations for all of our pre-booked hotels and racetrack locations. This worked perfectly. It was much more relaxing not having to worry about finding street names and making the right turns. This was the first time I have ever used my GPS in Europe and it was a lifesaver. From a logistical point of view, it rocked!

 

 

The Regency Airport Hotel was within a 10-minute walk from a few nice dinner restaurants. The hotel desk clerk recommended we walk, but we didn’t know what the neighborhood might be like so we drove. That was a mistake. We ended up parking on a residential street that was wide enough for one lane of driving with cars parked on both sides of the street.

 

 

Our Italian restaurant meal was good, although not great. We had Guinness beer and normal Italian entrees. Our bill totaled about $80. We found food to be two and sometimes three times more expensive than back at home.

 

 

The drive back to the hotel from the restaurant was a challenge. The streets all seemed to be one-way in the direction we didn’t want to be going. Without my GPS system, we might still be driving around the streets of Dublin.

 

 

 
Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008

 

Yesterday was a day of touring in rural Ireland. Today, our second full day in Ireland would be a day of city touring. We drove into the city of Dublin, a drive of less than 10 miles. We chose the “City Tour” Dublin sightseeing tour bus company. The double-decker open-air tour bus company stops at 24 different points all over the city. The tour is fully narrated. We could “hop on” and “hop off” at any of the 24 stops. Then when we had toured the local area, it was normally about a 10-minute wait until the next bus came along.

 

 

As we got into the city, we began to see what everyone who had been talking about the expense of Europe really meant. The all-day tour bus fee was 15 Euros. That was about $22 U.S. I didn’t think that was too bad.

 

 

However, the parking fee to park our car in the city for the day was $20 Euros (almost $34 U.S.). Fuel for our rental car was also expensive. Although we got good mileage with the car (32.8 miles per gallon), we ended up paying an average of $7.46 per gallon for petrol. Currently, the average price of gasoline in the United States is $3.77 per gallon. Fuel in Ireland is TWICE as expensive as the U.S. Nevertheless, people in the U.S. are having major heartburn at “just” $3.77 a gallon.

 

 

During the middle of the day, we were looking for lunch. We found another Italian eatery (our third in three days). We were alerted by a sign that read “Lunch or early bird special – starter or side order plus pizza or pasta plus glass of house wine – 8.95 Euros.” This seemed like a good value for “8.95”.

 

 

The food was excellent. I had garlic toast for my starter and spaghetti carbonara for my entrée along with a tasty glass of white wine. The food was actually gourmet. However, the 8.95 Euro price was really about $15 U.S. I had a Coca-Cola Light and we enjoyed a chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream dessert as well. With a 10% tip, our bill topped out at just over $50 for lunch. The food was fantastic but it wasn’t quite the budget price we had initially thought it would be.

 

 

The tour was fun although there are not that many famous or notable sights to see in Dublin. We were lucky that the weather was gorgeous with blue skies, sun and a temperature in the low 70s. This made riding on the top deck of the open-air tour bus a delight.

 

 

The highlight of our tour was stop #23. This is the Guinness Storehouse location. Here we took a tour what is called the “Guinness Experience”. Although they don’t use this location to make beer any longer, it is the spot that back in 1759; Arthur Guinness began brewing his famous “Porter” which is now produced around the world at the rate of 10 million glasses per day.

 

 

Like the beer, the admission fee for the Guinness tour was a little “stout” at 13 Euros (about $21 U.S.). However, it was fun and we did get a “free” pint of the product to consume in the Gravity Bar. The Gravity Bar sits on the seventh floor of the storehouse and offers a 360-degree view of the city. Folks say this is the best panoramic view you can find anywhere in the city. We finished off the day when a visit to the Guinness gift shop to test the limits of our Visa credit card.

 

 

Speaking of credit cards, we found a curious requirement that made charging things somewhat less convenient. Many retailers required a “pin” number in order to accept our credit card. We don’t use a pin number with credit cards in the U.S. Therefore, we had no idea what our pin code was or if we even had one. Sometimes the retailer would override this requirement and sometimes they would not. In Denmark, this nearly created an international financial crisis that I will tell you about in a future report.

 

 

We ended up having our final dinner at the Regency Airport Hotel restaurant. This was a mid-scale dinner house. I was still being shocked by the high prices of Europe. The cheeseburger on the menu went for $24 U.S.! The prime rib was just a few dollars more, so I chose that.

 

 

Our three days in Ireland was coming to an end. No, we did not see any countable racetracks but we did have a fun time. Being in Ireland was helpful in understanding what it will take to successfully trackchase here in the future.

 

 

Before we could leave we faced possibly the toughest challenge of the trip. Our flight tomorrow to Copenhagen would depart at 6:45 a.m. This meant we would need a 3:45 a.m. wakeup call Dublin time. We would be “waking up” at 7:45 p.m. San Clemente time. That seemed strange and it was.

 

 

My friends at the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Company did not open until 6 a.m. (those late sleepers). Unlike the U.S. they did not have any place on their property where I could drop the car before they opened. Their only choice was for me to drop the car in the long-term parking lot and take the parking lot shuttle to the airport. There would be a $32 U.S. charge to do this.

 

 

I didn’t like that idea. Therefore, we returned the car the night before, took a cab to the hotel and then another cab back to the airport at zero dark thirty on Thursday morning.

 

 

I did notice in my rental car contract that the only “foreign” country I could drive my car to was Northern Ireland. There would be a surcharge of $48 to do that. Fortunately, my MasterCard covered all of the insurances for my rental car. That provided a nice savings as the cost of rental car insurance in a foreign country can be greater than the cost to rent the car.

 

 

Additionally, there was a surcharge of 9 Euros per day for renters aged 70-74. I don’t believe folks over 75 years of age are even permitted to rent a car. I hope that by the time I’m 75, they will have modified this rule. I don’t want to have to go into the fake I.D. business….again.

 

 

 

RACE REVIEW

No countable racing seen during the first three days of the Spring, 2008 European Trackchasing Tour.

 

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

 

Dublin International Airport – Monday-Thursday

I’ll be driving the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Racing Mazda 3. The car features a five-speed manual transmission and has a good deal of pep. The car’s interior road noise was a distraction.

 

 

I drove the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Racing Mazda 3 594 miles in the three days we had it. I paid an average price of $7.46 per gallon for petrol. The Mazda gave me 32.8 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 22.7 cents (U.S.) per mile. The car cost 19.4 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

It’s O.K. if you have to feel bad to make yourself feel good….just don’t blame it on me.

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA – Dublin, Ireland – 10,340 miles

 

RENTAL CAR

Dublin International Airport – trip begins

Drove all over Ireland

Dublin International Airport – 594 miles

 

 

 

DAY 1 – SO YOU WANT TO BE A TRACKCHASER IN EUROPE TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

My international Trackchaser Reports follow a different format from the domestic trips I take. This is part 1 of a three-part series detailing my visit to Ireland in search of my 19th trackchasing country.

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM THE TRACKCHASING ROAD.

 

I woke up yesterday morning in San Clemente, California.  I went to sleep overnight in business class seat #2B on a flight from Atlanta, Georgia to Dublin, Ireland. 

 

 

What you are about to read is based upon a true story.

 

 

Day 1 – Friday, October 24, 2008

How does a boy from a little town in Illinois head out for Mississippi and end up in Ireland?

 

 

The above tag line could very well sum up my life. Today this is what that tag line meant. I really did leave the house with the intent of arriving in Meridian, Mississippi. I really did, at the very last minute, bypass the Magnolia state and end up in Ireland. Here is what happened.

 

 

I’m trying to increase my 2008 new tracks total to 100. As I begin this weekend’s trip, I have seen 89 new tracks this year. I needed to see three tracks this weekend to be on pace for 100 by the end of the year.

 

 

With my trackchasing proclivity seeing just eleven more tracks from October 24 until the end of the year should be easy, right? There’s just one problem. We have so many football and basketball games, theatrical productions, performance shows (Merle Haggard, Larry the Cable Guy) and family events planned that seeing 11 more new tracks is absolutely stretching the limits of the calendar. Although my plan was to see three of those eleven tracks this weekend, I won’t make that goal.    Here’s what happened.

 

 

As you read the following words, it will become obvious to you why so few, if any, have ever adopted the lifestyle I have to trackchase all over the world. A rational mind might accurately state, “Who would want too?” This is a perfectly legitimate question and one that is difficult to answer.

 

 

My “perfect storm” plan was to get up at 3:33 a.m. on Friday morning. I would drive 65 miles in the early morning dark, get on an airplane from Los Angeles to Atlanta, then get on an airplane to Jackson, Mississippi, then drive 87 miles to Meridian, Mississippi. Once in Meridian, I would seek out a rural dirt track oval that was holding the first night of racing in what would be a two-day show.

 

 

Now if the above was the “perfect storm” then you might accurately surmise that the above did not happen. In my trackchasing, the “perfect storm” almost never happens as planned or predicted for me. I do believe it is truthful to say that no one puts more planning into each and every trip than I do. I don’t think anyone plans better than I do trip in and trip out. Some trackchasers have some problems with me SAYING that but I don’t think they have any problem in their heart of hearts with this assertion being true.

 

 

I drove my car to LAX. I didn’t park it in my favorite long-term parking spot, called The Parking Spot. I parked it in the Delta short-term parking lot. That lot charges something like $30 per day. However, my car wouldn’t be there long. I left the car at 5 a.m. Son J.J. picked it up a couple of hours later so he could use the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS 430 as a storage unit! Yes, he would store his pilot gear in the car while he jetted off to a wedding in Hawaii. He moved the car to the employee parking lot.

 

 

Yes, this is why I assert that I am the best planner in trackchasing. With this small mini-plan, J.J. would have a place to store his gear. By moving the car to the employee parking area for four days, there would be no parking charges. This reduces my overall five-day parking expense from about $55 to about $30 while helping out J.J. at the same time. It’s the lifelong sum of a large number of mini-plans like this that adds up to a tightly knit family and some significant monetary savings.

 

 

Making the Lexus a mini-storage unit might have been the highlight of the day.

 

 

By getting up at 3:33 a.m. I hoped to get on a flight to Atlanta that left at 6:10 a.m. There are about 10 non-stop LAX-ATL flights each day. That’s a lot. However, just five of those would get me to Atlanta in time for me to make the rest of the connections that would get me to the Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Mississippi in time for the races. Those five flights had more than 1,100 total seats. Surely, one of those seats would be able to accommodate the World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser wouldn’t it?

 

 

On that first flight, I ended up being #27 out of 31 standby passengers on the standby list. Just a handful of those passengers got on the flight. I wasn’t deterred. I walked a few gates over and waited for the 7:15 a.m. departure. On this flight, I was #24 out of about 30 passengers waiting to get on the plane. There were about ten open seats. I would not get on this plane either.

 

 

What I’m about to tell you is top secret. Don’t tell anyone, not your spouse or your closest friend or your cleaning lady.

 

 

That’s right. It’s common knowledge that there are seven terminals at the Los Angeles International Airport. In order to get from one terminal to the next you have to leave security, go to the next terminal and pass through the airport security for that terminal. Of course, this is both a hassle and time-consuming.

 

 

Other than the people who built this underground walking tunnel there may be no more than 25 people who know about the secret passageway from terminal 5 to terminal 6 at LAX. I don’t think anyone at the FAA or TSA knows about it. I’m telling you for just one reason…….you’re a loyal and dedicated reader of the Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report. Yes, you get many benefits for your dedication.  Again, this information is only available to readers of the Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report.

 

 

It was time to change my luck. I would switch plans, switch terminals and switch airlines.

 

 

I have access to more information about travel and technology than any other trackchaser. Again, some might take exception to my saying this but could not take exception to the accuracy of the statement. I was now in terminal six where a whole new set of airline geographical options were available.

 

 

I had missed two planes to Atlanta. My new plan was to go to Dallas and then on from there. However, I missed getting on that plane by just two seats. I was beginning to run out of time and options. I scanned the arrival list of cities in terminal five. New Orleans might be a good bet. I could drive to Mississippi from there. However, availability to New Orleans didn’t look good either. I finally decided on trying for Chicago. I was #33 on the standby list and there were 29 remaining seats. Somehow, a few people who were already on the list did not show up. I got on the plane to Chicago. However, I did not get first-class or even “Economy Plus” which offers more legroom regular coach. I was sandwiched in a middle seat with no legroom and between two guys who must have been former offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears BEFORE they hit the buffet line a few too many times. It was a tight fit. I tried to sleep.

 

 

Oh yes….just one more thing about this flight. The airline I would have been taking to Atlanta allows me to wear shorts when I fly them. The airline that I flew to Chicago requires long pants. I hate long pants. I only wear long pants about 10 hours each year except when I fly an airline that requires it.   A quick change in the handicapped area of the nearest men’s room got me “dress code compliant”.

 

 

I figured once I got to Chicago things would go better. I would connect to Atlanta or somewhere closer to Mississippi and the plan would be back on target.

 

 

As I flew to Chicago in the early afternoon, I had absolutely no idea where I would be sleeping tonight. I’m not telling you I didn’t have any idea what hotel I would stay in. I’m not telling you I didn’t have any idea what city I would be staying in. I’m not even telling you I didn’t have any idea what state I would be staying in. I didn’t even know what country I would be staying in for the evening!

 

 

Leading candidates for my overnight stay included Chicago, Illinois, Meridian, Mississippi and anywhere I could fly from Chicago that would get me closer to Atlanta for tomorrow’s really big journey. Would you like to travel like this? I love it. It creates a “buzz” in my life.

 

 

Probably the worst time of the week to fly into Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in on Friday afternoon. This was Friday afternoon! I scanned my flight guide that lists every arrival and departure in the United States and many foreign countries. I was looking at my options. The flight guide is much smaller this month than it was last month.

 

 

You may have read about airlines beginning to cut back on their flight frequency especially to smaller cities. Yes, they are doing that. Is it a right-wing conspiracy? Is it a liberal biased attack on our freedoms? On the other hand, is it simply a way for those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” to attempt to derail their worst nightmare ever? You will have to be the judge.

 

 

Once I landed in Chicago there were no good flights to cities closer to my final destination, Meridian, Mississippi than Atlanta. There were two available flights that would still make my timeframe. The first was on Delta Airlines.

 

 

I believe two of the largest airports, by physical size, in America are the airports in Chicago and Atlanta. Today I landed at the far end of terminal one in Chicago and would have to walk to the “L” wing of terminal five at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Veteran users of this airport know this is one of the longest walks in airport history. The walk is easily over one mile long.

 

 

I made the trek at a fast walking pace. This reminded me that a good number of my fellow passengers are in two words, “totally clueless”. They stand around in the middle of major passageways assessing their options as if they are the only ones in the airport. It’s the old ones with canes and walkers that I like to knock to the ground whenever I can. O.K. I’m kidding……but not by much.

 

 

I arrived into the “L” wing of terminal five only to see that the flight to Atlanta was delayed by three hours. Ouch! That would have been a good thing to know before I race-walked a mile. I would not be using this flight. My last option was back in terminal one!! I had to retrace my steps and walk ANOTHER MILE in my deck shoes. This was getting old.

 

 

This was my last chance to make it to Atlanta in time to get to the race in Mississippi. However, IF I made this flight I would not get to Jackson, Mississippi on time. I would have to fly directly into Meridian (where the track was). However, this had not been a primary option since the flight did not land until 8:37 p.m. Even with this time of arrival I figured I would probably get to the track just as the time trials were wrapping up and the countable racing was beginning.

 

 

It is common at this point of a long diatribe to offer one of those famous Randy Lewis Racing Wal-Mart gift certificates for loyal readers who have read this far. However, I can’t for two reasons. First, as I’m sure you’ve read we’re in a tough economy. Secondly, those Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers are reading right along to see if they can find something in one of the Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Reports that they don’t like. That’s actually a good thing. It makes me feel like I can control their behaviors and ultimate responses. I like that.

 

 

Anyway……I called National Rental Car to make a reservation in Meridian just in case I made it. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that National doesn’t have an office in Meridian. What kind of place was I going too? I had planned to use one of my “free day” coupons with National in Meridian to avoid those onerous one-way drop fees when I returned the car to Atlanta. What was my fallback plan since I couldn’t get a rental car from National in Meridian?

 

 

To save time since I would be arriving late I would take a cab to and from the track. The only flight on Saturday morning from Meridian to Atlanta that would get me there in time for my flight to Dublin, Ireland left bright and early at 5:40 a.m. (2:40 a.m. San Clemente time). I figured I might have to sleep overnight in the Meridian airport. This plan didn’t sound that appealing, for just one reason……it wasn’t.

 

 

I was down to my last option that would get me to Mississippi on time.   A day that had looked so promising was on its way to turning to $%^&.

 

 

Once back in O’Hare’s terminal one, I found myself 31^st on the standby list with 27 seats still remaining for the last flight to Atlanta of the day. This was also my last option available in order for me to get to Mississippi on time. Again, as if by divine intervention or some such thing, a few people didn’t show up even though they had already checked in either at the airport or online. I got a seat to Atlanta. However, Atlanta was having bad weather. We sat for a few minutes on the tarmac waiting to take off. The pilot came over the P.A. with this news, “I have good news. The tower had told us we were going to have to sit here for two and a half hours because of flow control into Atlanta. They have just reversed their decision and we’re leaving right now!”

 

 

That was the best news I had heard all day in a day devoid of much good news. We were off. The pilot did warn us that we might have to circle for a while when we got into the greater Atlanta area. We didn’t but it did take us more than 20 minutes to get to our arrival gate in the rain and windswept Atlanta airport.

 

 

When I got off the plane I would have less than 20 minutes to go from the “T” gates to wherever my Meridian flight would be leaving from. Atlanta is a huge airport. They handle more flights than any other airport in the U.S.

 

 

When I found a TV monitor that would tell me what gate my Meridian flight would be leaving from I received my last piece of bad news of the day. The flight was delayed an hour and one-half. It would not be landing in Mississippi until nearly 10 p.m. If the flight actually would leave at this new later time, I would likely miss whatever racing I had planned on seeing.

 

 

Mississippi was out!

 

 

Somewhere in life, I learned that as soon as option #1 in no longer a possibility then I immediately move on to option #2. However, some people ask me “what if you did ‘such and such’ to make option #1 work”. When I hear that statement it tells me the person I am having the conversation with is not really listening. When option #1 is no longer a possibility that means it is no longer a possibility.

 

 

Option #2 was “do not stop in Mississippi but go directly to Dublin”. The Dublin flight left Atlanta at 8:25 p.m. That flight was on time. It was now 7:57 p.m. I was at the far end of the “T” gates at the Atlanta airport. The Dublin flight would be leaving from the far end of Gate E. Veteran users of this airport know these two points are at the exact opposite ends of this vast flying space. For the third time in the last six hours I would have to traverse a distance of more than one mile. However, in Atlanta, much of that distance could be covered aboard an underground train. That made the trip much faster and easier.

 

 

I arrived at the gate for the flight to Dublin. All of the other passengers had already boarded. The flight was leaving in less than 10 minutes! I explained that I had a standby reservation on this flight. However, my reservation was for TOMORROW night, not TONIGHT!

 

 

If I flew tomorrow night I would likely get a business class seat. By arriving for tonight’s flight I was likely to get a coach class seat and maybe even a middle seat in coach. It might be better to just stay overnight in Atlanta and take my chances tomorrow night. However, in the standby flying game, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I decided to fly tonight.

 

 

The agent was kind. She sensed that I was a trackchaser that had been trying to get to Mississippi all day and just couldn’t pull it off.

 

 

She scanned the available seating chart from Atlanta to Dublin. She found a business class seat for me!! Some of my readers may never have flown in their lives. Most likely have spent the time they have flown in coach seats. Some may have had the pleasure of flying in first or business class. Often times, upgraded seats on domestic flights are not worth it. However, on international flights the difference between a coach seat and an upgrade to business or first class is truly the difference between night and day.

 

 

It had been a long day. I did not make it to Mississippi. Now, my getting to 100 new tracks in 2008 is in serious jeopardy. Arriving into Dublin a day early was going to disrupt my Dublin rental car plan. I would deal with that tomorrow.

 

 

For now, I would set back in my business class seat and “enjoy” my seven-hour flight to Ireland. I had already flown for six hours today in preparation for my overnighter to Ireland. After a “Jack and 7”, O.K. two “Jack and 7s” and a glass of white wine to go with my sautéed shrimp dinner I was off to slumber land. When I awoke it would be a new day. I would be in Ireland.

 

 

To be continued………………….

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness….a real fine line.

 

 

 

DAYS 2-3 – SO YOU WANT TO BE A TRACKCHASER IN EUROPE TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

If you don’t have time to read some 6,000 words right now, you can see the photos taken during Part 2 of the 2008 “So you want to be a trackchaser in Europe Trackchasing Tour”. Simply click on  the following link:

 

Tipperary Motor Speedway and my arrival into Ireland!

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

My international Trackchaser Reports follow a different format from the domestic trips I take. This is part 2 of a three-part series detailing my visit to Ireland in search of my 19th trackchasing country.

 

 

If you’re a new reader to the Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report don’t forget to go to www.randylewis.org for the latest photos and trackchaser interviews. The home page features my most recent trackchasing exploits.

 

 

GREETINGS FROM DUBLIN AND POINTS SOUTH IN IRELAND.

I woke up yesterday morning in business class seat #2B on a flight from Atlanta, Georgia to Dublin, Ireland.  I went to sleep in a B&B in Waterford, Ireland.  This is what transpired during days 2-3 of the 5-day European trip. 

 

 

What you are about to read is based upon a true story.

 

 

Day 2 – Saturday, October 25, 2008

It took 13 flying hours to get here, but it was worth it. I was about ready to see racing in my 19^th trackchasing country.

 

 

I landed at Dublin Airport at 9 a.m.  The airport was under construction.  The existing terminal was old and run down.  However, it won’t be long before they will have the new airport terminal finished. The flight from Atlanta had been about seven hours. I was able to get a few hours sleep. Of course, it’s so much better to be able to fly business class.

 

 

As mentioned in the last report, I had come into Ireland a day earlier than planned because I couldn’t get to Mississippi on time. I would now need an Ireland rental car for three days. My original reservation called for only two days. I feared that would be a problem. It was!

 

 

I had a great deal with Europcar for my two-day rental. The charge would be just $22 per day, but with European taxes and fees that jumped to rate to about $33 per day. In these parts, that’s still a great deal. I used www.sidestep.com for my international rental car shopping. They also provide a one-stop shopping source amongst many rental car companies.

 

 

Arriving a day earlier than planned was creating a problem with my advance rental car reservation.

 

 

At the rental car counter, I explained that I had arrived a day early. I was told by “Mary” a take charge, ‘I’m your friend’ older woman that she would try to help me all she could. After some time she came back to tell me that “no, we can’t give you your car a day early” but we could upgrade you to a Mercedes for just $110 Euros (about $150 U.S.) per day. She also told me the 11 Euro deposit I had made on my original reservation would now be lost. She made it sound like she was doing me a favor. No amount of cajoling on my part could get a better deal. Mary reminded me that we were just starting a “bank holiday” (similar to our 3-day holiday weekends) and car availability was at a premium.

 

 

I told her I would think about it and walked away. I had another plan. I searched for an internet connection at the airport. The only one I could find charged 5 Euros for one hour. I took it.

 

 

I quickly went to www.sidestep.com and booked a three-day reservation starting in one hour. The daily rate was the same as my original two-day reservation. Armed with a new confirmation number, I approached my friend Mary again. I explained what I had done. “Oh, you are a ‘wise knight’ aren’t you” she explained in a thick Irish brogue. I’d never been accused of being that before but I took it as a compliment. Mary then told me to stand aside for ten minutes and she would soon get to me.  I don’t think she was fully appreciative of my opportunistic approach to life.

 

 

While I was waiting, I noticed that another agent, a younger woman, had no one in her line. I approached her with my sad story and new rental car confirmation number. She was most positive and soon she was calling to get my original deposit refunded and quickly processed my car. Sometimes (actually, most of the time) it pays to take matters into your own hands and simply keep working until you get the result you want. That strategy nearly always works for me.

 

Postcards are a great way to show the folks back home you’re thinking about them.

 

 

I would have to wait 20 minutes to get my car. I used that time to purchase postcards for the family. It’s a Lewis family tradition to send cards on nearly every trip anyone takes. It is a nice way to remember everyone.

 

 

I was pleased that I was able to successfully operate the airport’s electronic postage stamp machine. This was not the type of stamp machine you might see in the states. In the U.S. postage stamp dispensers normally just sell you a “book” of stamps, say ten 40-cent stamps for four dollars.

  

 

Today’s machine had me place each postcard on a scale to be weighed. The machine then calculated the postage based upon the weight of the card (not much) and the destination. Although the postcards cost only about 75 cents U.S. each, it was just over a dollar to mail each card!

 

 

By the time I had written all my cards and mailed them, my car was ready. The Europcar rental car lot is just across the street from the terminal. That’s so much better than our rental here in May from the Thrifty Rental Car Company. We had to ride a bus to their off-site location and then take a cab when we returned the car because they were not going to be open when we needed them to be.

 

 

No paper maps for me. I don’t need no stinkin’ maps.

 

 

My rental car is a Toyota Auris. No, not a Taurus. It’s a typical small four-door hatchback with a five-speed transmission. Most rental cars in Europe have manual transmissions. They cost about half as much as cars with automatic trannies. At one point, the agent asked me, “Would it be all right if I gave you a car with an automatic transmission”. As an American that seemed like a strange question. However, I am not in America. One of the benefits of travel is to see how differently (and successfully on most occasions) things are done compared to where I come from.

 

 

While I familiarized myself with the car, I fired up “Tonto” my loyal and trusted GPS friend. I would be borrowing the Peters’ family European GPS mapping software chip. It’s amazing that a chip that is slightly smaller than a penny can provide such detailed road information for all of Europe. The chip is probably as big as it is so folks like me can actually pick it up.

 

 

It might seem surprising to you but I do not have any paper maps of Europe at all. I wasn’t able to use Google Earth to get specific longitude and latitude information for the tracks I will be visiting. The satellite photos of this area are not clear for some reason. I will simply use Tonto to get me to the town where the track is located and ask folks, if necessary, for the location of the track.

 

 

No! Not car trouble.

 

 

When I travel I stop frequently to take pictures. I marvel at how narrow the roads are. Nevertheless, European drivers are above average. They navigate these roads, which are sometimes the width of alleys, without a hitch.

 

 

One of my stops took me to an old-time cemetery. When I make these stops I typically put the transmission in neutral and apply the emergency brake. When I return, I start the engine with the car in neutral and the brake still on without touching the clutch, the brake or the gas pedal. However, this time, the engine wouldn’t start. I got nothing. I looked down at the power adapter (cigarette lighter). I had both my GPS unit and my cell phone plugged into an “inverter”. Had these two appliances drained my car’s battery so soon?

 

 

Fortunately, the car was parked on a slight grade. I used the knowledge I had acquired at age six at the old Peoria Speedway. Back then while the national anthem was being played the cars would park at an angle on the top side of the highly banked quarter-mile oval waiting for the first race to start. Then when it was time for the race to begin they would glide down the bank of the hill a few feet, pop the clutch, and the car would fire. That’s what I did.

 

 

Now I was concerned. I was already 100 miles from Dublin. I didn’t want to drive back to the airport to get a replacement. My cell phone only works in Europe when I have an internet connection and I hadn’t found one of those yet. I certainly didn’t want to have to bump start the car for the rest of the trip. What could I do?

 

 

As I drove along, I thought and I thought. Maybe Tonto could help. The nearest rental car location that he gave me was an Enterprise rental car location. I decided to drive over there. Maybe they could help in some way. Of course, they were closed.

 

 

All the while I was getting hungry for dinner. I came across a Chinese restaurant that looked promising. I parked the car on a slight grade and went in to eat. Two young Chinese sisters were serving tonight. I asked if they might be able to make a telephone call for me to the Europcar number listed on my rental agreement. They told me, in broken English, they would be happy to help. It took a few tries but I finally reached a woman at the Europcar location at the Shannon airport in Ireland.

 

 

She didn’t think I had a battery problem. Her solution was to make sure I was depressing the clutch pedal all the way to the floor. She asked me to go out and try this. With it pouring down rain, I went outside and walked nearly 100 yards where my car was parked on the side of a hill. I tried depressing the clutch all the way to the floor. The Toyota started! I did not have a bad battery, just a case of operator error. That was a relief to learn.

 

 

Once back in the restaurant, the rental car contact told me the “depress the clutch to the floor” idea is a security measure to prevent car theft. If I were a car thief I don’t think it would take long to figure that one out. Nevertheless, I carried on with a delightful Chinese dinner in a restaurant fully decked out for the upcoming Halloween period. I was surprised to see how popular that holiday is in Ireland.

 

 

Do not go to sleep until after dinnertime on your first day in Europe!

 

 

It was getting late (about 7 p.m. in Ireland and 11 p.m. in San Clemente) and I was tired. If you get only one good idea about traveling to Europe from these reports, I hope it’s this one. When traveling from the states, you are likely to land in Europe in the morning. The “morning” in Europe will be about your bedtime back at home. After the adrenalin burns off a couple of hours after arrival you will begin to feel sleepy, you will begin to feel very sleepy…..and it will only be 12 noon!

 

 

Do not go to sleep!! If you take just a short nap of 2-3 hours, then you will have a very difficult time going to sleep in the evening on European time because it was only about noon on the time you have just come from at home. Do your very best to stay up until past dinner time in Europe. Then, if you can make it to 8 p.m. or so, you can go to bed. If you sleep from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning you should have plenty of sleep to get you through the next day. At this point, you will nearly be “acclimated” to the time zone change that is eight hours ahead of California.

 

 

It didn’t take me long to find a suitable B&B. My host told me both my bed and breakfast would be 45 Euros. That’s about 60 bucks, a bargain in Europe, for the package. I took it. Most B&Bs don’t take credit cards so come with some cash.

 

 

My room was comfortable and my hosts gracious.  Just as I was about to get to sleep the owner knocked gently on my door. He was reminding me to set my clock back an hour tonight for “winter” time. I thanked him very much and smiled. Colin Herridge had already alerted me to this change and my clocks reflected it.

 

 

 

Day 3 – Sunday, October 26, 2008

 

 

What’s a ‘hockey” mom?

 

 

I awoke in my Waterford, Ireland B&B to find the smallest shower I have ever used.   I’m a big guy but there are many people bigger than I am. I couldn’t raise my arms in the 24” by 24” inch cubicle of sorts. Nevertheless, it was my first complete bathing in 48 hours so I enjoyed it.

 

 

I walked down the steps from room #5 just as if I was at home and headed for breakfast. Editor’s note: We have a “reverse” floor plan at home. Our bedrooms are on the bottom floor and the living area is on the top floor to take advantage of our ocean view.

 

 

Obviously, bed and breakfasts come with not only a bed but also a breakfast! Often these are outstanding breakfasts as it was today. I sat down to a perfectly appointed breakfast table and met the “lady” of the house. I still had not paid for my stay. I had not had to give any form of I.D., give them a credit card (they don’t accept them anyway) or even give them my name! Contrast that lack of formality with a typical check-in at a U.S. located hotel.

 

 

My hosts had lived in their home for 45 years. They have been a “B&B” for the past 39 of those years. They were a friendly couple in their late 60s. When they learned I was American, they had just one question. I wasn’t expecting it.

 

 

They wanted to know what a “hockey mom” was. Yes, they were referring to V.P. candidate Sarah Palin. I gave them my best explanation that this meant a mother who spent a good portion of her life driving her kids to hockey practice and games. When I told them the label was similar to being a “soccer mom” they seemed to understand.

  

 

Want to hear an Irish view on American politics?

 

 

The Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report is in no way a political forum. I dislike politics because each party is so partisan. Of course, you haven’t seen partisan until you’ve been around trackchasing politics for a few seasons. I would prefer it if we had no political parties at all. Then if there were 20 political issues maybe someone could actually say they supported 14 “conservative” points of view and 6 “liberal” points of view or vice versa.

 

 

 

Nevertheless, my hosts had their own views on American politics. They felt John McCain was “too old” and Sarah Palin was “too inexperienced”. They thought Barack Obama might be a good change of pace but they weren’t too sure about that. They thought America was in two wars that they shouldn’t be in.

 

 

They also thought the American middle class was being asked to shoulder too much of the burden. It was at this point that I pointed out that the “rich” pay far more than their share of taxes. Just in the U.S., the top 7% of all income earners paid 51% of all income taxes. There were 67,000 households that paid an average income tax of $707,000!! When seven people out of a hundred pay for half the bill, that doesn’t leave much for the other 93% to pay. I really don’t care for that.

 

 

My new Irish friends pointed out that the rich pay a lot in Europe but so does everyone. I mentioned that many people making lower incomes in America don’t pay anything at all. They were somewhat astonished by this news. “Everyone pays here, even the person on a government pension. They would tax us on ‘yesterday’ if they could”.

 

 

With that, the conversation turned to why I was visiting the Republic of Ireland……trackchasing. They were amazed that anyone would travel this far for such a thing. I get that a lot. I finished my breakfast with a photo of them and a promise that their establishment would be featured at www.randylewis.org.  It is.

 

 

 

Colin Herridge comes through as he always does.

 

 

I did almost all of the trackchasing prep for this trip by myself. However, one Mr. Colin Herridge was his usual helpful self from his compound in the United Kingdom. I don’t always feel comfortable mentioning who gives me aid in the trackchasing world for fear of retaliation against my helpers from those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. Think Tony Soprano and the mob and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. However, Colin is his own man and is somewhat protected by the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

Colin provided some geographical tips but mentioned two other items that improved my enjoyment of this trip. First, he mentioned that Ireland would be moving from “summer” time to “winter” time this weekend. This is akin to our Daylight Savings Time. Of course, just like us, they “fall back” in the fall. This gave me an extra hour of sleep, which I was most grateful for.

 

 

Secondly, Colin told me that the famous Waterford Crystal Company is located near where my second track of the trip would be in Waterford, Ireland. He mentioned they had a factory tour. I love factory tours. I made my visit to the Waterford Crystal facility. You can read all about it in the Trackchaser Tourist Attraction section. Colin, thanks for your help, it is ALWAYS appreciated.

 

 

Following my tour, I headed down to the racetrack. Irish roads are narrow and winding. I suspect the average Irish driver could drive circles around his/her American counterpart. Despite the somewhat harsh driving conditions, I rarely see accidents in these parts.

 

 

Where would I be without ‘Tonto’ my loyal and faithful GPS servant?

 

 

Following the race, Tonto took me down some one-lane roads on the way back to Waterford where I would stay the night again. I find it beyond belief that my little black GPS box can find a road no bigger than a paved path and send me down it. Of course, I would like to thank the Peters’ family for lending me their European GPS maps.

 

 

 

It was time to find my second B&B of the trip.

 

 

It would have been very easy to simply go back to last night’s B&B. I was only 15 miles from its location and I had been perfectly pleased with it. However, the RANLAY does not roll that way.

 

 

I do this hobby for the purpose of creating unique experiences. That’s the advantage that trackchasing has over race chasing. By its very definition trackchasing means visiting a track I have never been too before. I guess I look at my B&Bs the same way.

 

 

B&Bs are an excellent value. I like them more than Carol does. First of all, they are less expensive than most hotels. My two B&B stays were just 45 Euros on this trip. That’s just over $60 U.S. with the current exchange rate of one Euro to $1.33 U.S. dollars. When we visited here just six months ago, it took $1.61 U.S. to buy one Euro. That’s quite an improvement for the U.S. dollar.

 

 

B&Bs also include breakfast. It’s not unusual for a typical European breakfast to cost from $15-20 U.S. Therefore, paying just $60 U.S. for both a bed and a breakfast is a good deal.

 

 

However, the price value is not the only reason for me to choose a B&B. What I like most about them is they are so unique. In almost every case the B&B owner lives on the bottom floor and rents out rooms on the top floor. Most of these rooms have their own bath and are usually large and uniquely shaped. Most of my B&B experiences have come in older homes that could easily be featured in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

 

 

B&Bs are much more prevalent in Europe than they are in the U.S. In Ireland, it is not uncommon to see several in the space of a few miles. B&Bs are cheaper in Europe compared to the rest of the area’s cost of living than they are in the U.S. I have seen some very overpriced B&Bs in the states. Overall, my B&B experience has been outstanding.

 

 

Tonight is my second overnight, of three, in Ireland. My B&B is called the “Old Rectory”. They even have a website at www.homepage.eircom.net/~1108. I haven’t been to the site yet but plan to visit.

 

 

I was shown two rooms by the B&B’s female proprietor. The first room was small at about 8’ by 8’ and contained just a twin bed. The second room was much larger and actually had three twin beds. The smaller room went for $40 Euros and the larger for $45 Euros. I chose the larger.

 

 

I staying in Dungarvan, where tomorrow’s track the Waterford Raceway is located. They have a well developed “city centre” also known to my American readers as “downtown”. I drove into the city centre although I could have walked about 10 minutes to get there. With so much rain and damp weather, I feared getting caught in a rainstorm if I walked.

 

 

I stumbled across Merry’s Bar, a place that served both food and drink. This was one of the places my B&B proprietor had recommended. Considering it was Sunday night, I was glad to find something open, but I was in Ireland and this WAS an Irish bar.

 

 

I settled down to a “beef” burger with chips (fries) and a Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke). It was good but not great at a cost of more than 20 dollars. Yes, B&Bs are $60 for a bed and breakfast are a good value.

 

 

To be continued…………………

 

 

 

TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION

I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home.

 

I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day.

 

 

Waterford Crystal Factory Tour & Showroom Visit, Waterford, Ireland

I would never have known about this opportunity if my U.K. friend Colin Herridge had not given me the heads up. You may be familiar with the famous Waterford Crystal products. Their biggest market is the U.S. We have several pieces of Waterford Crystal in our home including a few pieces I was given as recognition awards during my business career.

 

I showed up bright and early for the first Sunday tour of the day that began at 9:15 a.m. There was a charge of 10 Euros for an adult and 7.5 Euros for a senior. The young woman in charge told me she would give me the senior rate to save me some money. I wasn’t sure how I felt about her plan except it did save me about three bucks so how could I complain.

 

I soon boarded a bus with about 10 other visitors and we were off on the tour. The bus drove us a very short distance of less than a mile to the factory location. We began with a six-minute video of the Waterford Crystal business development and manufacturing process. The company was first begun by two Czechoslovakian brothers nearly two hundred years ago. The company has changed hands several times since the beginning and is now a publicly-traded company. The guide told me privately they are currently going through a restructuring that will reduce the workforce from the current total of 800 due to the softness of the U.S. economy.

 

 

We were allowed to see the entire manufacturing process. It began with the liquid glass “blowing” continued on to the cutting/etching area and finished off with the engraving department. 

 

 

The tour lasted about one hour. Waterford makes several trophies for sporting events. They make three pieces of each trophy. One goes to the winner of the event, one goes to the organizer of the event and the other is a “just in case” copy that Waterford keeps. Of course, you can imagine what the purpose of the “just in case” copy is for. I had my picture made hoisting the AT&T Pebble Beach golf trophy just in case I never win it on my own!

 

 

What would America be like if everyone had to produce in order to get paid?

 

 

One of the workers spent some time talking to our tour group. He told us the entire pay system in Waterford’s factory is based upon what they produce. One hundred percent of each worker’s pay is tied to “piece-rate production”. He said when he comes to work on Monday morning, he knows that he must produce to get paid. He said this provides for a very “special” type of concentration for he must not only produce pieces but each must pass inspection.

 

 

The gift shop/showroom…..

 

Following the tour, a visit to the gift shop/showroom was mandatory. This is exactly the kind of visit Carol would have liked. Therefore, I had to bring her back a memento of sorts. The Waterford Crystal gift shop and showroom is huge. They feature all of their products. I couldn’t remember what pieces of Waterford we already had and what we did not.

 

 

Waterford Crystal is not inexpensive. In fact, it is expensive. I love factory tours and I love the opportunity to buy some of the products I’ve just seen made on the tour.

 

 

Of course, as a standby flier I didn’t have room in my carryon luggage to buy much. However, Waterford offers free shipping (it takes six weeks to ship) for orders over 200 Euros. I got the free shipping! It will remain to be seen whether or not I bought stuff we already had or not.

 

 

Either Colin Herridge will be a hero or a zero in our household in about six weeks. I will say this. I have never spent more than I did today at the end of a factory tour. In fact, I doubt I have ever spent 1/10 as much! Nevertheless, money is for trading. Today I traded a bunch of it for some gifts I hope my family will enjoy for years to come.

 

 

 

RACE REVIEW

 

TIPPERARY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, ROSEGREEN, IRELAND

 

 

This was not my first visit to this track.

 

 

I never would have come to Ireland this weekend if Tipperary Motor Speedway had not canceled a wheel-to-wheel racing event when Carol and I were in Ireland this past May. Nevertheless, they did! Therefore in order to “get” Ireland I had to come back. Carol was satisfied with spending four days in this lovely country a few months ago, but I was not. I had to come back……and so I did just because I needed to “get” Ireland.

 

I am in the midst of what will be my biggest “traveling” trackchasing season ever. This comes during a time when I am trying to cut back on the amount of trackchasing I do in favor of a leisure time diversification program I have implemented.

 

So far this year my trackchasing travel has led me to new tracks in Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and, of course, the United States. This is a fairly eclectic list of countries and I’m not done yet in 2008.

 

 

Today’s event was held at the Tipperary Motor Speedway in Rosegreen, Ireland. The track is out in the middle of the Irish countryside. Tonto, my loyal and steady GPS unit could get me to Rosegreen, but I had to take it from there. It helped somewhat having been to the track in May (for a drifting event) but not much.

 

 

I tried to use Google Earth to find the track by satellite. However, for some reason satellite photos of this part of Ireland are unclear. Once I arrived at Rosegreen I was about to go into the very same gas station that I had stopped at in May to seek directions. Just at that point, I noticed a stock car being towed in what must have been the direction of the track. I followed.

 

 

Today’s racing event was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. I arrived an hour early to find a rain-soaked parking lot. It was so damp that I pleaded with the parking attendant to let me move from the space I was initially assigned. He wasn’t thrilled with my request but I certainly did not want to be mired in the mud when it was time to go.

 

 

On my previous visit, I had made a connection with the promoter’s son at the entrance gate. I sought him out to no avail. I was told he was off playing rugby. Instead, I was directed to a woman selling tickets at the back gate named Peggy. I told her about my trackchasing background and she told me about the track’s unsteady future. Then I paid 20 Euros and was admitted to the property.

 

 

This track did not have all of the drama and suspense that attending a new track usually does since Carol and I had been here just six months ago. Nevertheless, this was a new trackchasing country, my 19^th. That made today’s visit special.

 

 

Oval track racing in Europe is unique.

 

 

There are several things that make racing in Europe unique. Some I like and some I don’t. There was no formal seating at today’s race of any kind. There were a couple of enclosed shelters along both straights of the 1/4-mile slightly banked asphalt oval. The shelters came in handy as it rained off and on today.

 

 

The weather was not the best. It was about 50 degrees with a 15-25 M.P.H. wind blowing all day. The weather can change rapidly in Ireland. It went from blight blue skies to overcast with a driving rain about every 15 minutes. I went from standing out in the open to standing under the shelter about every 15 minutes.

 

 

There was a good crowd on hand of more than 1,000 people. With the lack of creature comforts on a property like this that was a large crowd. There were two temporary food concession trailers serving your basic burger, fries and soft drinks. There was also an ice cream vendor as there usually is at short track events in this part of Europe.

 

 

I like this type of racing because, despite whatever weather conditions may arrive, they never cancel because of inclement weather. However, with the condition of today’s dirt and grass parking lot and with a crowd of this size, had it gotten much wetter, they might have considered canceling because people could not have parked their cars.

 

Racing of this kind does not use the yellow flag to delay the program like we do in the U.S. That’s a godsend. As a trackchaser, I look forward to attending events that are not going to be canceled despite the weather and won’t be delayed despite the crashes that inevitably occur on the track. That’s very spectator friendly.

 

 

My European trackchasing interviews are some of my favorites.

 

These types of tracks almost always come with a solid P.A. system and a good announcer. That was the case today. Although I had not thought to bring my usual trackchasing press release, I did introduce myself to the track’s commentator, Morris.

 

 

He was pleased to make the acquaintance and gave my visit several mentions during the day. Although this recognition is common practice, Morris added two “spins” that I had never heard before. He referred to me as “Randy N. Lewis” each time. Of course, the “N” stands for “Neal” which was my grandmother’s maiden name. He also mentioned the slogan I have on the back of my business card that reads, “If you’re lucky enough to live at the beach, you’re lucky enough”. Of course, I borrowed that phrase, with approval, from long-time Trackchaser Report reader Jim Sabo who also sponsors my race scanner.

 

 

Banger racing is one of my top three favorite classes of racing.

 

 

The racing was fun, especially with the bangers on the program. I love the bangers. They have everything in place for a spectator-pleasing event. First, they always have a large field of cars in every race. Today the bangers would run three heat races. They brought more 40 cars to the track today. In the U.S. a track with 40 cars in one class would almost never exist. If they did have 40 cars they would likely have 5-6 heat races with just 7-8 cars in the race, a consolation event, and a feature event. Today, all 40 cars started in heat one! Then, all cars that were still running started in heat two and then in heat three. That’s the way racing on this level should be done. The crowd loved the action.

 

 

In team banger racing, there is “full contact”. Essentially, it’s a demolition derby run on an oval circuit where the winner must complete a set number of laps before the checkered flag falls. With such a full field of cars, the high-speed mayhem was spectacular. I had seen some outstanding banger racing in the U.K. but today’s event was as good as any I have ever witnessed.

 

 

Following the first banger heat race it took them about 20 minutes to clean up the mess. At this point, Morris, the commentator, invited me up to the press booth for an “on-air” interview. He was most enthusiastic about the trackchasing hobby and provided several open-ended questions. This allowed me to give the Irish crowd a quick background on what trackchasing is all about. I’m sure most had never heard of the hobby.

 

 

If you were at the track today, then you know what my next two planned trackchasing countries will be. If you were not, then you had best keep your eyes peeled for an email coming your way describing the fun.

 

 

What’s the future of the Tipperary Motor Speedway?

 

 

While I was in the press box, I met the track owner and promoter, Mike. He was not as optimistic as Morris. Mike is having trouble with a local homeowner who wants to have the speedway shut down. This is a common theme in the U.S. Racetracks are often located in rural areas. The Tipperary Motor Speedway has been here since 1981 according to an old-timer I spoke with.

 

 

The track has been in litigation for a long time. According to Mike, the Irish Supreme Court had just made a decision on his case. They ruled against the track. Beginning in 2009, the track will be allowed to be open just five hours per week. This will eliminate the popular two-day shows the track runs and needs to maintain profitability. Mike has until Christmas to decide what he will do, if anything, with the track. He told me it doesn’t look good for the future.

 

 

Normally at these types of European tracks admission to the pit/paddock area is included with the price of spectator admission. That was not the case today for most of the banger class. The pit area was fenced off and admission was only gained by those sporting a bright yellow wristband. Mike, the promoter, was nice enough to grant me admission to the paddock area so I could bring photos to you for your racing enjoyment. 

 

 

Also on the racing card today were production saloons, 1300 hot rods (4-cylinder production cars) and lightning rods. These classes of cars raced in the clockwise direction whereas all U.S. oval racing runs in the counter-clockwise direction.

 

 

I thought the admission price was a bit steep and the spectator facilities for sitting and peeing were either non-existent or rustic at best. All of this was completely overshadowed by the friendliness of the people and the fun racing program. I hope the Tipperary Motor Speedway can find a way to stay in business so they can continue to entertain fans for many years to come.

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

 

Dublin International Airport – Saturday/Tuesday

I’ll be driving the Europcar Rental Car Racing Toyota Auris. This is a small 4-door hatchback model with a 5-speed manual transmission. The driver’s seat position goes back as far as the one in my Lexus does. Overall, I was very pleased with this little hot rod.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average.

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA – Chicago, IL –1,743 miles

Chicago, IL – Atlanta, GA – 845 miles

Atlanta, GA – Dublin, Ireland – 3,939 miles

 

RENTAL CAR

Dublin International Airport – trip begins

Rosegreen, Ireland – 201 miles

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Tipperary International Raceway – 20 Euros

 

 

 

DAYS 4-5 – SO YOU WANT TO BE A TRACKCHASER IN EUROPE TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

 

If you don’t have time to read some 6,000 words right now, you can see the photos taken during Part 3 of the 2008 “So you want to be a trackchaser in Europe Trackchasing Tour”. Simply click on the following link:

 

Waterford Raceway and the last days of my Ireland trip

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM DUNGARVAN, IRELAND.

I woke up this morning in Waterford, Ireland.  I went to sleep in Dublin, Ireland after this afternoon’s race before returning to San Clemente on Tuesday.  This is what transpired during day 4&5 of this 5-day European trip. 

 

 

What you are about to read is based upon a true story.

 

 

 

International ‘Big 3’ unique country list

In addition to the enjoyment of international travel that involves sightseeing, observing other cultures and just plain fun, I came to the Republic of Ireland for a trackchasing specific reason. I’m competing against two trackchasers who have seen races in more countries than I have. Roland Vanden Eynde of Vilvoorde, Belgium has seen racing in 38 countries. Will White of Quakertown, Pennsylvania has seen racing in 20 countries. I’m now up to nineteen and gaining rapidly.

 

 

I thought you might be interested in seeing a list of countries that each of us has seen racing in where the other two have not. Roland’s list is long. Will and I have a much smaller “unique” list, but at least we have one. These are the countries that each of us has trackchased in where the others have not.

 

 

Roland Vanden Eynde (21)

Andorra

Argentina

Croatia

Czechoslovakia

East Germany

Estonia

Finland

Greece

Hungary

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Malaysia

Monaco

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Tunisia

 

 

Will White (6)

Bahrain

Costa Rica

Dominican Republic

Guatemala

Guyana

Malta

 

 

Randy Lewis (3)

Barbados

South Africa

Thailand

 

 

 

Day 4 – Monday, October 27, 2008

 

I wasn’t ready for an Irish Milky Way

 

 

I awoke in my second B&B of the trip at 8:30 a.m. in preparation for my 9 a.m. breakfast. Overall, I had adapted to the 7-8 hour time zone change from home well. I actually think I’ve been able to handle the change better than when we first started coming to Europe in the early 80s.

 

My room last evening had a large picture window some 12 feet wide that faced into an open farm field. Since I was on the second floor, there was no need to close the drapes when I went to sleep. I did wake up once in the middle of the night and startled myself. I looked out that window in the dark and the number and brightness of the stars actually scared me for a second. We get some beautiful star viewing opportunities where I live because with the ocean nearby there isn’t too much light to detract from the nocturnal viewing. This past evening’s starburst was fantastic.

 

 

Breakfast was what is called the “full Irish breakfast”. This includes bacon, sausage, eggs, toast and coffee. It is very filling and tasty. My host was not as friendly as what I found on my first day of the trip, but she took care of me well.

 

 

Following breakfast, it was off to the track. I was staying less than 15 miles from the Waterford Raceway. Since I had scoped out the track on the first day of my arrival it was easy to find this morning. I will cover my observations of the track and races in the “race review” section.

 

 

Petrol in Ireland was a bargain

 

 

Following the races, I had a 130+ mile drive back to Dublin. I had reserved a room at the Travelodge in Dublin before I left the states. I feared that traffic might be bad coming back into the city following a three-day holiday weekend. It wasn’t a problem at all.

 

 

As always I was using “Tonto” to direct me. When I got near the Dublin airport, he showed me two Travelodge hotels in the area. Neither of the listings offered much of an address. I figured I had a 50/50 chance to getting the right one. It is true that I had a 50/50 chance. However, I ended up picking the wrong 50%. This delayed my arrival to the correct Travelodge by about 15 minutes.

 

 

Just before I arrived at my hotel for the evening, it was time to petrol up. This was the only time I needed to stop for fuel during the entire 412-mile trip. Petrol was a “bargain” of sorts today. When we visited Ireland in May, it exchange race called for $1.61 U.S. to purchase one Euro. Today the exchange rate was only $1.33 per Euro. The petrol charge this evening was “only” 1.149 Euros per liter. This translated to a “bargain” price of just $5.78 per U.S. gallon. During our Ireland trip in May, we paid $7.46 per gallon.

 

 

Lodging was cheap but food was not.

 

 

My Dublin airport Travelodge hotel was located in a city atmosphere. It looked to be nearly brand new. My room was spacious and appointed with the blonde furniture that has seemed to be so popular in Europe for many years.

 

 

I found this hotel online for the reasonable sum of 49 Euros (about $65 U.S.). This meant that my three nights of lodging in Ireland (two that included breakfast) averaged only $60-65 per night. Considering the weakness of the dollar and the overall expense of Europe in general that’s fantastic. I can easily pay that much when staying in Super 8 type hotels in smaller American towns.

 

 

The one area of my trip that I did find to be expensive was eating in traditional sit-down restaurants. I had dinner at the Travelodge Hotel restaurant. I ordered the salmon cakes (similar to crab cakes) and received three of them. That along with a creamy fish chowder soup and a Coca-Cola Lite came to about $23 U.S. I had a similar experience at two other restaurants earlier in the trip. However, it’s a lot cheaper to be ripped on the price of an informal meal that the larger expense components of the trip such as airline tickets, rental cars or hotels. HoHowe

 

 

 

Day 5 – Tuesday, October 28, 2008

 

After just 13 hours of flying I was back home!

 

Today is getaway day. It will take 13 flying hours to get back to Los Angeles. The flight from Dublin to Atlanta was wide open. However, it was not wide enough open for me to get a business class seat. For the first time in my last four flights to/from Europe, I would be flying in coach. This wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. The legroom was O.K. and I had the middle three seats of the plane all to myself. I slept off and on in hopes I would still be able to go to sleep when I arrived back home at 8 p.m. (3 a.m. Dublin time).

 

 

Congratulations to Angela the retiring flight attendant.

 

 

One of the highlights of my flight was that the lead flight attendant was retiring after 29 years. This was her last working flight. Her fellow flight attendants had given Angela a tiara to commemorate the occasion. Towards the end of the flight, most of the passengers were given 8 1/2” by 11” photo cards of the flight attendant. At the appropriate time, everyone raised their placards and gave the woman a rousing send-off of applause.

 

 

Connecting from international flights in Atlanta is a hassle

 

 

Once I landed in Atlanta, I received their normal and unusual welcome for international travelers. Apparently, only Atlanta and one other airport have this procedure. Passengers actually land in one part of the airport from their international flights. If they are connecting domestically to another airline (and most are) they must leave the secured portion of the international terminal. Then the passengers must go through domestic security to again get back into a secured portion of the domestic side of the airport. Of course, if passengers had purchased any liquids and not placed them in their checked baggage they had to forfeit said liquids before clearing domestic security. I learned this the hard way a few months ago when I had to turn over a bottle of wine I had purchased for a friend.

 

 

The last portion of my trip would be a flight from Atlanta back to LAX. By the time I arrived in Atlanta, there were still four non-stops going to SoCal. I had already flown nine hours from Dublin to Atlanta. If I didn’t make any of these four flights I would have to get a hotel in Atlanta for the evening and try again tomorrow. I’m sure everyone would like to fly for free or at a greatly reduced expense. What’s not to like? However, I’m not so sure that folks would want to go through what I go through to save a little money. I actually don’t mind it a bit. I think of it as a game and a challenge, the same way I look at trackchasing.

 

 

I’m happy to report that I got one of the last seats on the very first of the four LAX flights leaving from Atlanta. This had been a quick trip that had me leaving for Europe on Friday morning and returning Tuesday evening. For the most part it went just as planned. I never would have thought that international travel would have been so, relatively, easy. The more I do it, the more comfortable it becomes.

 

 

Of course, there is no rest for the weary. I’m actually not that weary but probably should be. I will be home for less than 36 hours before Carol and I head out for another exotic international trackchasing location. I could tell you where that is but then what good would that do you?

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

Prices were definitely not as expensive as I have experienced in the past during my European visits.

 

 

My B&B accommodations were easy to find and reasonably priced. They were a great value for the money.

 

 

I did not encounter a toll road during the entire trip.

 

 

My rental car was fantastic. It gave me great mileage. I am now a firm convert of using a manual transmission on trips like this.

 

 

Tonto (my faithful GPS partner) did his job perfectly. Not only did he provide expert road directions but he told me where to find gas stations, restaurants and hotels.

 

 

European showers and bathrooms are still some of the most convoluted contraptions I have ever encountered.

 

 

The people were nice everywhere I went. They always are. They love Americans on an individual basis. It’s sort of like congress. Everyone dislikes the ENTIRE congress but they like THEIR congressperson.

  

 

Many things made this trip easier than expected not the least of which was having my airline sponsors provide a round-trip business class seat to Ireland on about 10 minutes notice.

 

 

On this trip, I went over the 206,000 trackchasing travel miles mark for the 2008 trackchasing season. That would be more than TWICE as many miles as any other trackchaser has covered in any given year…..ever. The only benchmark I can recall reading about was Ed Esser’s 92,000 driving miles in a single season. However, I’m still short of my all-time annual record of 208,000 miles. I expect to break that record within the week.

 

 

 

RACE REVIEW

 

WATERFORD RACEWAY, DUNGARVAN, IRELAND

When I began to plan this trackchasing trip to Ireland I had no real intention of seeing two tracks in the country. Actually, I never would have even come to Ireland in October if the Tipperary track had not canceled at the last minute when Carol and I came here in May.

 

 

However, I was lucky. I am a lucky trackchaser. As I began to do research on this trip I learned that I would be visiting on a “bank holiday” weekend. Think of these as the three day holiday weekends that my readers in the states enjoy several times each year.

 

 

The Waterford Raceway was holding a special two-day show over the weekend. They would race on both Sunday and Monday. Seeing them race on the Monday fit perfectly with my plan to see racing at the Tipperary Motor Speedway on Sunday.

 

 

I arrived into Ireland on Saturday afternoon. I took that opportunity to drive by the Waterford track in advance of Monday’s race. The track was not easy to find. However, once I did find the place on Saturday getting there for Monday’s race day would be easy and it was.

 

 

For some reason, unknown to me, admission was free for Monday’s races. Racing was scheduled to begin, according to the track’s website at noon. I arrived at 11:30 a.m. However, in a display similar to their American cousins, the show did not begin until 1 p.m.!!

 

 

When I arrived early I noticed that most of the track’s grassy parking lot was a quagmire from the rains of the previous day. This gave me the opportunity to grab a spot on some high ground with my car facing partially downhill. From there I proceeded to watch fans drive into the wet portion of the parking area and, in more cases than not, get stuck. Yes, it was good fun.

 

 

Unlike yesterday’s track at Tipperary, admission to the pit area was allowed. This gave me ample opportunity to go in and out of the pit area to take photos and most importantly attend the driver’s meeting.

 

 

The official language of the Republic of Ireland is English. However, it is not MY English. To my ear, their dialect is nearly unintelligible. I also noticed that I was asked to repeat myself frequently, so I don’t think they easily understood what I was saying either. However, with a little effort on both parties’ parts we could communicate.

 

 

It was a cool weather day. The temperature was about 45-50 degrees. What made the day uncomfortable was the wind. It was a biting cold wind that blew at more than 20 M.P.H. I had to wear my golf rain pants over my long pants and added a sweatshirt over my t-shirt and then my heavy-duty golf wind shirt. I was still cold.

 

 

The track was most unusual. I am classifying it as a road course for one simple reason. In order to complete a full lap, a driver must turn both right and left. I estimate the track was about ½-mile in distance. The racing surface is tarmac (asphalt) although some portions of the turns might have a surface of concrete.

 

 

When the driver’s took the green flag, they almost immediately made a mild left-hand turn before approaching turn #2. From that point on the cars made only right-hand turns as they raced in a clockwise direction. Turn #2 was some 40-50 feet lower in elevation than the starting line. It was a “negative camber” turn. This meant the outside of the track was lower than the inside of the track. You will almost never see this at an American track.

 

As the cars completed turn #3 they raced down a primarily straight backstretch before driving uphill into turn #4. The third turn was several feet lower than turn #5. As the cars raced out of that turn they faced a mild decline before returning to the starting line.

 

 

As in many European oval short track races, the cars were handicapped. This meant that they were spaced all around the ½-mile road course until the green flag was dropped. This was designed to give slower cars an advantage. In many ways this type of start is no different than the “Randy rule” that bars most West coast off-road racing.

 

 

I had corresponded in advance with “John” about the goings-on at the Waterford Raceway. John turned out to be the track announcer and racecar inspector. We chatted briefly in the pit area. He welcomed my attendance and was looking forward to his track being featured in print and photos at www.randylewis.org.

 

 

All of the cars racing today were of the European “hot rod” variety. There were some classes for youngsters as young as 12 years of age. As a matter of fact, my contact John pointed out one car (#911) that was being driven by a boy who had just turned twelve. He crashed! There were several classes driven by adults. However, all of the cars were of a similar body style and it would have been impossible to tell which cars were driven by drivers either above 18 years of age or below.

 

 

Concessions were handled by a mobile catering truck. I had another chicken sandwich that was tasty. The only restroom facilities I saw were in a permanent building. There was just one toilet for men and one for women.

 

 

The track was set in the middle of the Irish countryside. The Irish hills in the distance were more than beautiful. The weather can change in Ireland quickly. Although there was blue sky most of the time, dark clouds did come by with hard rain for a short time.

 

 

The races were mostly short in duration. I didn’t count the laps but they seemed to cover 6-8 circuits around the track. The announcer told us that each class would run 3-4 heat races during the day. There appeared to be multiple classes running in each race. They did not stop any races when a car became disabled on the track. They simply threw a “corner yellow” and drivers knew to be cautious when they passed the stopped car.

 

 

Even though the program did begin one hour late the drivers were constantly reminded to be ready for their race and to keep the program moving. Their “no restart” policy helped on a cold day.

 

 

Consistent with nearly all European short track operations that I have seen there was no formal grandstand seating area. Fans simply stood along the front stretch, which was elevated. This provided a great view of the racing action. Since I had no place to sit, I roamed around the facility taking pictures from every angle possible.

 

 

Overall, it was a nice day at the races. I was pleased to see two Irish tracks race during the weekend. Seeing two tracks provided some point of comparison.

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

 

Dublin International Airport – Saturday/Tuesday

I’ll be driving the Europcar Rental Car Racing Toyota Auris. This is a small 4-door hatchback model with a 5-speed manual transmission. The driver’s seat position goes back as far as the one in my Lexus does. Other than the minor setback involving the clutch usage (which was caused by driver error), I was very pleased with this little hot rod.

 

 

I drove the Toyota Auris 660 kilometers (412) in the three days I had it. I paid an average price of $5.78 per gallon for petrol. The feisty little Toyota gave me 36.2 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 16.0 cents (U.S.) per mile. The car cost just 66 Euros to rent for three days ($89.11 U.S.) which was about 28.7 cents U.S. per mile to rent, all taxes included.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

Jesus loves you, but I’m his favorite.

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA – Chicago, IL –1,743 miles

Chicago, IL – Atlanta, GA – 845 miles

Atlanta, GA – Dublin, Ireland – 3,939 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR

Dublin International Airport – trip begins

Rosegreen, Ireland – 201 miles

Dungarvan, Ireland – 262 miles

Dublin International Airport – 412 miles

 

 

AIRPLANE

Dublin, Ireland – Atlanta, GA – 3,939 miles

Atlanta, GA – Los Angeles, CA – 2,113 miles

 

Total Air miles – 12,692 miles (5 flights)

 

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 13,104 miles

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Tipperary International Raceway – 20 Euros

Waterford Raceway – Free!

 

 

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $20 Euros (about $27 U.S.)

 

 

RANKINGS

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. I’m telling you, it’s not my fault!

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,389

 

 

 

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 – 455

27. Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 371

28. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 369

 

 

 

2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

 

1. Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 157

2. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 91

3. Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 73

4. Brian Hickey, Westport, Massachusetts – 71

5. Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 65

 

 

 

LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS

After the most recent updates (September 21, 2008), my lifetime NGD lead sits at 15 state position points. That’s not bad but I will have to focus on this for the remainder of the year.

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

Ireland was my 19^th different trackchasing country. I expect my next two new tracks to be in trackchasing countries #20 and #21. Trackchasing’s First Mother will put aside her grandmotherly responsibilities and return to her former jet-setting ways. Stay tuned.

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2008 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

1,299. Barnes Lake Ice Track, Ashcroft (road course), British Columbia, Canada – January 13

 

1,300. Bira Circuit, Pattaya (road course), Thailand – January 19

 

1,301. Cameron Lake Ice Track (oval), Erskine, Minnesota – January 26

 

1,302. Birch Lake Ice Track (oval), Hackensack, Minnesota – January 27

 

1,303. Mille Lacs Lake Ice Track (road course), Garrison, Minnesota – January 27

 

1,304. Mille Lacs Lake Ice Track (oval), Garrison, Minnesota – January 27

 

1,305. Ozark Empire Fairgrounds (oval), Springfield, Missouri – February 1

 

1,306. Atlanta Motor Speedway (road course), Hampton, Georgia – February 2

 

1,307. Brainerd International Raceway Ice Track (road course), Brainerd, Minnesota – February 3

 

1,308. Bay of Green Bay Ice Track (road course), Marinette, Wisconsin – February 9

 

1,309. Lake Speed Ice Track (oval), Tilleda, Wisconsin – February 9

 

1,310. Shawano Lake Ice Track – North Shore (oval), Shawano, Wisconsin – February 10

 

1,311. Cecil Bay Iceway (oval) – Cecil, Wisconsin – February 10

 

1,312. Mototown USA (oval) – Windsor, Connecticut – February 15

 

1,313. Moosehead Lake Ice Track (oval) – Greenville Junction, Maine – February 16

 

1,314. Clarence Creek Ice Track (oval) – Clarence Creek, Ontario, Canada – February 17

 

1,315. Durban Grand Prix (road course), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – February 24

 

1,316. Lake La Biche Ice Track (road course), Lake La Biche, Alberta, Canada – March 1

 

1,317. Rice Lake Ice Track (oval), Rice Lake, Wisconsin – March 8

 

1,318. Ashland Ice Track (oval), Ashland, Wisconsin – March 9

 

1,319. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez (road course), Mexico City, Mexico – March 16

 

1,320. Hartwell Motor Speedway (oval), Hartwell, Georgia – March 22

 

1,321. Lavonia Speedway, Lavonia (oval), Georgia – March 22

 

1,322. Dover Raceway (road course), Brown’s Town, St. Ann, Jamaica – March 24

 

1,323. Lake Country Speedway (oval), Ardmore, Oklahoma – March 29

 

1,324. Swainsboro Raceway (oval), Swainsboro, Georgia – April 3

 

1,325. Screven Motor (oval), Sylvania, Georgia – April 4

 

1,326. Centerville Super Speedway (oval), Centerville, Arkansas – April 5

 

1,327. Central Arkansas Speedway (oval), Plumerville, Arkansas – April 5

 

1,328. Clinton Country Speedway (oval), Alpha, Kentucky – April 6

 

1,329. Pleasant Valley Raceway (oval), Boise, Idaho – April 20

 

1,330. Bremerton Raceway (road course), Bremerton, Washington – April 26

 

1,331. Port Angeles Speedway (oval), Port Angeles, Washington – April 26

 

1,332. Evergreen Speedway (1/5-mile oval), Monroe, Washington – April 27

 

1,333. Virginia Motor Speedway (oval), Jamaica, Virginia – May 1

 

1,334. Natural Bridge Speedway (oval), Natural Bridge, Virginia – May 2

 

1,335. Sturup Raceway, Malmo (road course), Sweden – May 10

 

1,336. Ring Djursland, Tirstrup (road course), and Denmark – May 11

 

1,337. Nisseringen, Naestved (road course), Denmark – May 12

 

1,338. Valentine Speedway (oval), Glenrock, Wyoming – May 17

 

1,339. Gillette Thunder Speedway (oval), Gillette, Wyoming – May 17

 

1,340. Phillips County Speedway (oval), Holyoke, Colorado – May 18

 

1,341. North Pole Speedway (oval), North Pole, Alaska, – May 22

 

1,342. Tanacross Airport (road course), Tok, Alaska, – May 24

 

1,343. Mitchell Raceway (oval), Fairbanks, Alaska, – May 24

 

1,344. North Star Speedway (oval), Wasilla, Alaska, – May 25

 

1,345. Capitol Speedway (oval), Willow, Alaska, – May 25

 

1,346. Elk City Speedway (inner oval), Elk City, Oklahoma, – May 30

 

1,347. Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex (oval), Sweet Springs, Missouri – May 31

 

1,348. Central Missouri Speedway (oval), Warrensburg, Missouri – May 31

 

1,349. Lucas Oil Speedway (road course), Wheatland, Missouri – June 1

 

1,350. Ark-La-Tex Speedway (oval), Vivian, Louisiana – June 5

 

1,351. Monticello Speedway (oval), Monticello, Arkansas – June 6

 

1,352. Paris Motor Speedway (oval), Paris, Texas – June 7

 

1,353. Grayson County Speedway (oval), Bells, Texas – June 7

 

1,354. Prowers County Motorsports Park (oval), Lamar, Colorado – June 13

 

1,355. Moler Raceway Park (oval), Williamsburg, Ohio – June 20

 

1,356. La Junta Raceway (road course), La Junta, Colorado – June 21

 

1,357. El Paso County Speedway (oval), Calhan, Colorado – June 21

 

1,358. York County Fairgrounds (figure 8), York, Nebraska – June 22

 

1,359. Black Hills Speedway (oval), Rapid City, South Dakota – June 27

 

1,360. Heartland Speedway (oval), Rapid City, South Dakota – June 27

 

1,361. Newcastle Speedway (oval), Newcastle, Wyoming – June 28

 

1,362. Jackson County Sports Park (oval), White City, Oregon – July 11

 

1,363. Great Basin Raceway (oval), Ely, Nevada – July 12

 

1,364. Lovelock Speedway (oval), Lovelock, Nevada – July 13

 

1,365. Saratoga Speedway (oval), Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada – July 19

 

1,366. Saratoga Speedway (figure 8), Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada – July 19

 

1,367. Alberni Motorsports Park (road course), Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada – July 20

 

1,368. Scotia Speedworld, Halifax (oval), Nova Scotia, Canada – August 1

 

1,369. Centre for Speed (oval), Grand Barachois, New Brunswick, Canada – August 3

 

1,370. Penticton Speedway (oval), Penticton, British Columbia, Canada – August 9

 

1,371. Penticton Speedway (road course), Penticton, British Columbia, Canada – August 9

 

1,372. Tri-Oval Speedway (inner oval), Fountain City, Wisconsin – August 22

 

1,373. Tri-Oval Speedway (outer oval), Fountain City, Wisconsin – August 22

 

1,374. Genesee Speedway (oval), Batavia, New York – August 23

 

1,375. Limerock Speedway (oval), Caledonia, New York – August 23

 

1,376. Wyalusing Valley Motorsports Park (oval), Wysox, Pennsylvania – August 24

 

1,377. Utica-Rome Speedway (inner oval), Vernon, New York – August 24

 

1,378. Hebron Fair (figure 8), Hebron, Connecticut – September 5

 

1,379. Shadybowl Speedway (oval), Degraff, Ohio – September 6

 

1,380. Beamsville Fair (figure 8), Beamsville, Ontario, Canada – September 7

 

1,381. Autodrome BRNO (road course), Brno, Czech Republic – September 13

 

1,382. Lambrechten Stock Car Track (road course), Lambrechten, Austria – September 14

 

1,383. Sherman County Speedway (oval), Goodland, Kansas – September 26

 

1,384.Thirty-Five Raceway (oval), Frankfort, Ohio – September 27

 

1,385. Oakshade Speedway (oval), Wauseon, Ohio – September 28

 

1,386. Big Island Oval Track (oval), Hilo, Hawaii – October 11

 

1,387. Mountain Raceway Park (oval), Maryville, Tennessee – October 19

 

1,388. Tipperary International Raceway (oval), Rosegreen, Republic of Ireland – October 26

 

1,389. Waterford Raceway (oval), Dungarvan, Republic of Ireland – October 27

 

 

 

 

THE COUNTRY LIST

 

#19!!

 

RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Lifetime Trackchasing Countries

 

 

# 1 – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Peoria Speedway – Mt. Hawley, (oval) – Track #1, Peoria, Illinois – circa 1954 (age 5)

 

# 2 – CANADA – Cayuga Speedway (oval) – Track #174, Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada – July 31, 1988 (Dick Trickle winner)

 

# 3 – AUSTRALIA – Parramatta City Raceway (oval) – Track #180, Granville, New South Wales, Australia – November 17, 1989 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 4 – UNITED KINGDOM – Northhampton International Raceway (oval) – Track #378, Northhampton – June 26, 1999 (accompanied by Carol, Kristy, Jim)

 

# 5 – NETHERLANDS – Driesum Racetrack (oval) – Track #839, Driesum – May 5, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 6 – BELGIUM – Bellekouter oval (oval) – Track #841, Affligem – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 7 – FRANCE – Circuit de Croix en Ternois (road course) – Track #843, Saint-Pol sur-Ternoise – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde – 2^nd new country in one day!)

 

# 8 – GERMANY – Nurburgring (road course) – Track #844, Nurburg – May 13, 2005 (accompanied by Carol, Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 9 – NEW ZEALAND – Western Springs Speedway (oval) – Track #1,134, Western Springs – December 26, 2006 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 10 – MEXICO – Triovalo Bernardo Obregon (oval) – Track #1,281, Tiajamulco de Zuniga, Jalisco – October 14, 2007 (accompanied by Carol, J.J., Roger Ward)

 

# 11 – BARBADOS – Bushy Park Racing Circuit (road course) – Track #1,296, Bushy Park – December 9, 2007

 

# 12 – THAILAND – Bira Circuit (road course) – Track #1,300, Pattaya – January 19, 2008

 

# 13 – SOUTH AFRICA – Durban Grand Prix (road course) – Track #1,315, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal – February 24, 2008 (accompanied by J.J. and Will Van Horne)

 

# 14 – JAMAICA – Dover Raceway (road course) – Track #1,322, Brown’s Town St. Ann – March 24, 2008

 

# 15 – SWEDEN – Sturup Raceway (road course) – Track #1,335, Malmo – May 10, 2008 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 16 – DENMARK – Ring Djursland (road course) – Track #1,336, Tirstrup – May 11, 2008 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 17 – CZECH REPUBLIC – Automotodrome BRNO (road course) – Track #1,381, Brno – September 13, 2008

 

# 18 – AUSTRIA – Lambrechten Stock Car Track (road course) – Track #1,382, Lambrechten – September 14, 2008

 

# 19 – IRELAND – Tipperary International Raceway (oval) – Track #1,388, Rosegreen – October 26, 2008 (Carol and I visited this track earlier in the year)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first visit to Ireland and the Ring of Kerry drive

 

 

 

 

Tipperary Motor Speedway and my arrival into Ireland!

 

 

 

 

Waterford Raceway the last track of my first trackchasing visit to Ireland