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Greetings from Palmerston North, New Zealand
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Robertson Holden International Glen Speedway – Lifetime Track #1,143
Today we would be returning from our short trip on the South Island of New Zealand back to the North Island. We took the Interislander ferry. That part of the trip went very well. However, when an electrical short fried my computer’s mother board things took a downturn. That’s the way it goes sometimes. However, when I received a last minute message from NZ journalist Colin Smith that the Taupo Motorsports Park was racing tomorrow a smile returned to my face. I had not planned on getting to see that track. I found the Robertson Holden International Speedway to be one of the most impressive racing facilities seen on our NZ tour. I had the opportunity to meet promoter Bruce Robertson. He hooked me up for an interview with the track’s commentator. Then I was hustled over for another NZ newspaper interview with the Manawatu Evening Standard. I was getting some great opportunities to tell the NZ racing fans and general public about my hobby of trackchasing. Following all of the good things we have seen about New Zealand racing such as 20+ car count heat races, no dust, interesting announcers, limited race stoppages for spins and wrecks, races run one after another, programs routinely finished by 10 p.m. and much, much more Carol provided this comment, “I don’t think I will be able to watch racing in the U.S. anymore.” U.S. promoters, are you listening? I understand her point, but I hope she’s wrong. For refreshments, Carol had a steak pie. I have a strict pie policy. I only do sweet pies. Bottom-line, is that we had a great time at the Robertson Holden International Speedway. The facility is one of the best we saw on the entire trip. The quantity of stock cars was staggering. The races just kept coming one after another for a very entertaining program. This was our view from our Picton hotel, just before we left the South Island. I’m glad we didn’t get this rental car. The occupants were Swedish and told me, “Yes, the rental car company paints each car uniquely and they try to be funny.” O.K. Good-bye South Island. We’ll be back as soon as we can. With New Zealand being in the Southern hemisphere, the sun seems to be more intense. These passengers apply their sun protection for our three hour ferryboat ride. We’re heading back to the North Island for the last few days of our trip. I love to go to stores where the locals shop when we travel. This is a store called “The Warehouse.” It’s sort of like a K-mart. If you go to Palmerston North, don’t miss eating at Pompeii, an Italian ristorante. How’s this for a pizza with toppings? You won’t see me in long pants are very many tracks. You ARE likely to see me in my New Zealand hat from now on! This is one of the best auto racing grandstands I have seen at a short track. There was a different type of seating in the turns. Check out the dirt on the seats. It got there from the race cars sliding into the turns. Tonight, there were more than 120 stock cars on hand. Here the drivers hop on the back of their cars for driver introductions. I’m always fascinated with the many different ways that men’s bathrooms can be laid out. Most tracks we visited in New Zealand did not offer beer, wine or liquor. The pit area was packed with stock cars. They were the only class running tonight. I can’t recall seeing palm trees in a pit area since Ascot Park. Small children don’t seem to be a problem in New Zealand pit areas. These are the typical types of haulers being used in New Zealand racing. The front view of a stock car. These stock cars race with very narrow tires. I’m sure that saves lot of money in the long run. This is also a stock car, but with a radically different body style. I had a nice interview with the track’s commentator. It was about 95 degrees in the booth and he was barefooted! This was our view at the Robertson Holden International Speedway. This was the lineup for just one of the stock car heat races. The racing action was fast and furious. Most of the time when cars wrecked, like they were doing here, they just kept on racing with no yellow flag stoppages. GREETINGS FROM PALMERSTON NORTH, NEW ZEALAND (THAT’S WHERE THE DAY BEGAN) SPECIAL NOTICE! I just wanted to alert all of my Trackchaser Report readers to an important point regarding the timing of when you receive these reports. I have a few guidelines that I will stick too. First, I will maintain my policy of never sending more than one Trackchaser Report email per day, except in the most unusual of circumstances. I will always send the TRs in the chronological order in which the tracks were seen. There may be times, like the New Zealand trip, when a few days pass before I send out my reports. Often this will be caused by a lack of suitable email facilities or simply because I don’t have time to get the reports out as quickly as I would like. You can always scroll to the bottom of the Trackchaser Report to see the exact date when I visited the track. Finally, I will continue to offer as many subject headings as possible, just as a newspaper does. This way, if you don’t have time to read the entire report, you can skip to those areas that you find most entertaining. This is the FIFTH AND FINAL report in a multi-part series that will detail our 17-day trackchasing and touring adventure to New Zealand and French Polynesia. The format of this Trackchaser Report will differ from those you have been reading all season. Our activities will be listed chronologically by day and divided into “Trackchasing” and “Tourist” categories. You will get a glimpse into how another family approaches and takes a long and exotic trip like this. I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures, until you and your family head out on your next tour of the world. Warning: If you do not want to experience the feeling of “being there” I recommend that you not read the descriptions of what went on or view the pictures of what was seen. I would not want any future visits to these faraway parts to be ruined by the realism you are about ready to experience in words and pictures. Part V Friday, January 5, 2007 TOURIST ACTIVITY Our morning was spent riding the Interisland ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. This time the ride was smooth and uneventful. We landed at about 1 p.m. and had plenty of time for some shopping in the Wellington area. When I’m in a foreign country, I love to go into stores that the locals shop every day. This gives me a better understanding of how the people live their lives. Today, we went to a store called, “The Warehouse.” We have seen a few of these in our travels over the past two weeks. The Warehouse is a downscale mass merchandiser with lots of “stuff” at discount prices. I enjoy hearing the New Zealand phrases for common articles that are so different that what we name things in the states. A plastic cooler used to store cold drinks was advertised in the store as a “Chili bin.” We hit several other retail outlets in a large strip shopping center as well. Our destination tonight is the town of Palmerston North. This is a good-sized town where we would be able to eat dinner before we went to the races. We chose an Italian eatery, Pompeii for dinner. There were some unique things about this restaurant. When Carol ordered an iced tea, our server told us this was the first time in her three years of employment she had ever had that request! Our pizza came with more toppings than any pizza I have ever had. I told the server to cut the pizza into six pieces since I didn’t think I could eat eight! It is for these reasons that I will give Pompeii a RANLAY Racing Money Back Guarantee. If you go there and don’t like your meal, it’s on me. About 10 days ago, I tried to use my computer car adapter power supply. I believe that unit has a short in it, because when I tried to use it, it fried my computer’s motherboard. This was the second time this has happened in the last 30 days. This meant that I could not charge the computer battery in ANY manner until the motherboard was replaced. I had 30% charging capacity left when the failure occurred. That meant I would need to conserve that 30% for emergency use only. Tonight’s motel in Palmerston North offered high-speed internet. They provided a cable for $5NZ that plugged into the telephone and my computer. It worked well, but my battery charge left me with only 15-20 minutes of computing. That was just enough to score a major win. Colin Smith, sportswriter for the Bay of Plenty Times had left me a message only a day or so after I stopped using my computer. Just before my battery power ran out, I noticed his message from the more than 750 overall emails that had accumulated in my account over ten days. Colin was writing to tell me about an afternoon trackchasing opportunity for tomorrow. What were the chances that I would decide to use my computer for the first time in ten days and find a message telling me about a new track that was racing, tomorrow, our last trackchasing day of the trip? Colin was talking about the Taupo Motorsports Park. I’ll tell you more about that below. TRACKCHASING ROBERTSON HOLDEN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, PALMERSTON NORTH, NEW ZEALAND – RANDY’S TRACK #1,143 & CAROL’S TRACK #299 – 1/5/07 This speedway is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They’ve been racing here for more than sixty years. When we arrived there was only room to park on side streets. We had a three-block walk to the track. After I purchased our tickets, Carol and I entered the track. A fellow motioned me over just as we entered the gates. He was “Paul,” a member of the Macgor’s Speedway email racing discussion forum. He had tracked my progress and wanted to meet the “World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser.” He had just one question for Carol regarding trackchasing. “Do you get on with it or are you bored Sh#$$%^less?” Yes, this question startled her! Nice meeting you Paul. Our next step was to pick out a spot in the huge covered grandstand. This modern structure is one of the very best spectator conveniences I have ever seen. Fans set in the comfort of folding chair type seats in all 30 rows of seating. I would estimate this grandstand seats 4-5,000 people. Underneath the seating area are modern stadium quality restrooms. A full concession area and bar are available as well. I must say the number of food selections available was like most of the other New Zealand tracks. That meant the food choices were limited. I did learn that potato chips are called “chippies” and sometimes called, “cold chips.” There are several modern V.I.P. suites just as you would find in any modern sports stadium being built today. The track also has a large video screen that shows both live action and instant replays of the racing action. I’ve seen this several times in New Zealand and Australia but rarely in the U.S. Speaking of the promoter, his name is Bruce Robertson. I asked him what the official name of the stadium was. He replied, “Robertson Holden International Speedway.” At the time I didn’t put Bruce’s last name and the track name together. I’m assuming Bruce owns a Holden automobile dealership. Bruce and I spent several minutes together. He has been to several U.S. tracks including Knoxville and Eldora. He likes Eldora best. Bruce wanted me to visit with the track’s commentator and I did. I was wearing long pants, a racing t-shirt, a sweatshirt and my heavy blue and gold UCLA jacket. The temperature was about 55-60 degrees outside. The temperature inside the commentator’s booth was about 90 degrees. The commentator was wearing shorts and was barefoot! We talked for a long time, as he was most interested in our hobby of trackchasing. When I finished up I felt like I had just left a sauna! Following my commentator interview, Bruce led me over to the media suite and I did an interview with Tony, who represented the local paper, the Manawatu Evening Standard. In 2005, Tiger Woods had made an appearance at this track. It turns out that Tiger and Steve Williams were at the Wellington Speedway, south of here. Wellington rained out and Steve wanted to show Tiger what NZ racing was all about. They helicoptered up to the Robertson Holden track and hung out watching the racing for the night. Since this was an impromptu visit by Tiger no one knew he would be here. That being the case, Tony got the inside scoop and a great interview with possibly the most recognized athlete in the world, Tiger Woods. Way to go, Tony! By the way, tonight I learned that Steve Williams’ Valvoline patch that he wears on his golf shirt when caddying for Tiger Woods is worth more than $500,000. Good on you, Steve! Tonight we would be seeing the North Island Stock Car Championships. The program would include racing for just one class, the stock cars. This was the only show of the twelve we saw with a single class program. They had a ton of them. Make that several tons as in more than 120 cars. Pit access was excellent. I was able to take several photos of what was happening in the pit area. Tonight’s racing was full contact. They crashed and banged and when they were done with that, they banged and crashed. When cars became disabled on the track, they rarely displayed the yellow flag. I first saw this type of racing in the U.K. and I like it. There were times when the driver would be stopped sideways in the middle of the straight and be unable to continue. If the driver signaled the starter that he wanted a yellow flag for his own personal safety, they usually stopped the race. That seemed fair to me. By the way, when the red flag is displayed the cars stop in their tracks. When whatever problem that caused the red flag is corrected, the green flag drops and the cars resume racing from the exact place they stopped when the red flag came out. U.S. promoters, are you listening? New Zealand does not do any time trials for there oval racing programs. Yes, I like the way NZ runs their races. Tonight each car raced in three heat races. That made about 16 heat races at 15 laps each with 20-25 cars in each race. That’s a lot of racing for $20NZ (about $14US). Offering good hard racing with this amount of competition may be the reason the track is in its 67th year of racing. Following all of the good things we have seen about New Zealand racing such as 20+ car count heat races, no dust, interesting announcers, limited race stoppages for spins and wrecks, races run one after another, programs routinely finished by 10 p.m. and much, much more Carol provided this comment, “I don’t think I will be able to watch racing in the U.S. anymore.” U.S. promoters, are you listening? I understand her point, but I hope she’s wrong. For refreshments, Carol had a steak pie. I have a strict pie policy. I only do sweet pies. Bottom-line, is that we had a great time at the Robertson Holden International Speedway. The facility is one of the best we saw on the entire trip. The quantity of stock cars was staggering. The races just kept coming one after another for a very entertaining program. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. * Warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list. ** Special exemption. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS Tracks have been reported from two different worldwide trackchasers through January 5, 2007. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis #1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi Your best bet is to work your butt off, reach your goals and enjoy your rewards.
CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Sydney, Australia – 7,490 miles Sydney, Australia – Auckland, New Zealand – 1,340 miles
RENTAL CAR – AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND Auckland International Airport – trip begins Driving all over New Zealand Auckland International Airport – 2,648 miles (4,236 kilometers) – trip ends AIRPLANE Auckland, New Zealand – Papeete, Tahiti – 2,540 miles Papeete, Tahiti – Los Angeles, CA – 4,110 miles Total Air miles – 15,480 miles Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 18,128 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Western Springs Speedway – $20NZ Blue Chip Speedway at Baypark – Free Upper Hutt Family Speedway – $20NZ Stratford Speedway – $15NZ Huntly Speedway – Free Meremere Raceway – Free Meeannee Speedway – $15NZ Top of the South Speedway – $12NZ Woodford Glen Speedway – $12NZ Robertson Holden International Speedway – $20NZ UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS G’by, mate. Yep! Our trip could not have been any better. The people were great, the scenery was beautiful and the racing better than in the states. However, all good things must come to an end. However, I won’t be on the trackchasing sidelines for long. 
