Greetings from Washington, West Virginia
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Ohio Valley Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,692 THE EVENT Editor’s note: If I were to analyze our 50 United States West Virginia would stand out for two reasons. Of all the states I visit, and I visit 30-35 different states every year, West Virginia is the most rural of all. Secondly, I believe my trackchasing “penetration” of West Virginia is the least developed of all the 50 states where I’ve seen racing. Nevertheless, that would change just a bit this weekend. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with Indy car driver Lyn St. James). I live in San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,690 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Friday, April 23, 2021. There’s no doubt about one important thing as regards my trackchasing. I do it differently than anyone else. There are hundreds of people who have created a documented trackchasing list of one kind or another. Out of all of those people there’s never been a trackchaser who depends on airplanes almost exclusively to trackchase. Back in the day nearly 30 years ago some small-town guys in Pennsylvania came up with the idea of trackchasing. It was a simple idea to begin with. People would go see some auto racing at a racetrack they had never been to before. After they did that for a while, they began to think of keeping a list of the tracks they had seen. This was the beginning of what is now known as “lifetime totals”. A typical trackchaser would get in his old Ford (I actually drove the above Ford in a race up in Wisconsin), back out of the driveway and drive an hour to a racetrack that raced every weekend. In almost every case that track had an oval shape. Then when the race was finished the trackchaser would get in their old buggy and head back to the barn. Pretty simple, huh? The early trackchasing posse was not a very diverse group. It was all men. Yes, once in a while women would come with the men but this was a “man thing”. There were no kids. The early trackchasers didn’t really like kids, I guess. To discourage little rug rats from identifying with any drivers their own age they banned all racing by kids. Oh yeah. This was a group of white men…just saying. At the time trackchasing at local tracks was easy. In the Midwest and northeast just about every other town had a racetrack. Often times within 100-mile radius there might be ten permanent tracks inside that circle. Over time things changed…as they always do. If I had to guess, considering the track counting totals of the top 25 worldwide trackchasers, I would say that more than 90% of this group’s tracks were seen when the trackchaser drove to the track. Trackchasers rarely flew back in the old days. Heck, trackchasers rarely fly to a track in the new days! On the other hand, I have flown to the tracks I have visited for most of the years I have devoted to trackchasing. I would guess that more than 75% of the tracks I’ve seen, maybe more, were seen after I hopped on an airplane. I guess that means I’ve seen more than 2,000 of my tracks with the benefit of an airplane. I’m going to guess that maybe only one or two fellow competitors have seen as many as 100 tracks after taking an airplane to get there. In many ways reaching the track by driving has a lot of advantages over flying. Of course, driving is usually less expensive than flying. Maybe the biggest point of support for driving is it allows the trackchaser to be a complete control. A driving trackchaser doesn’t have to worry about an airplane ride being delayed or canceled. When someone is driving, they get to decide when to turn left or turn right. The driving trackchaser is in complete control. The driving idea doesn’t work for me. Why? I live in Southern California. I have lived in Southern California for more than 40 years. The only realistic method of transportation I could use to get to the tracks I see is with an airplane. Observers of the hobby know that I have seen racing at nearly 2,700 tracks. They know that the second leading trackchaser in the world has a track total in the 1,800s. Many people after that have track totals that hover around one thousand. Then the hobby has a good deal of newbies with less than 500 tracks. I would submit to the casual reader that being a flying trackchaser is a lot more difficult and expensive than being a driving trackchaser. Over the years, airlines have implemented cancellation fees and change fees and baggage fees and all sorts of expenses that drive the cost of flying up. If a trackchaser wants to fly standby like I do they’re going to run the risk of not getting on the plane and missing the race they hope to see. This weekend’s trackchasing adventure is a good example of what I have tried to explain above. When I left my house this morning, I planned on seeing a track in West Virginia on Friday night, a track in Nebraska on Saturday night and then a NASCAR Cup race in Talladega, Alabama on Sunday. All of that racing would be followed by a major-league baseball game in Texas on Monday night. I retired nearly 20 years ago. When I retired, I had seen racing at 581 lifetime tracks. That was a pretty good total I thought. But if I was going to retire, I would have some free time and I would need to fill that free time with something. I played golf. Carol and I went on cruises all over the world. Nevertheless, I still had some more free time to fill. What else could I do? Trackchasing! As they say the rest is history. I might comment about the 581 racetracks where I had seen racing before I retired. Lots of trackchasers have seen a greater number of tracks when they were still working. However, this is what might not be obvious. Did you know that when people retire, they see fewer tracks than when they were working? It’s true. That might seem counterintuitive since retirees are supposed to have more free time, right? Why is that? Well, when some people “retire” they take on other paying work. That’s not retiring. That’s changing jobs. Most people retire when they are older. Then they have less energy than ever before in their lives. Other retirees no longer want to spend the money on racing that they did when they were working. Other older retirees just don’t get the same amount of fun out of racing that they did when they were much younger. Still other people who have retired after seeing a large number of tracks find the remaining tracks that are left to see to be simply too far from their home base. Sadly, some retired trackchasers don’t live very long. There are certainly a wide range of varied reasons why the trackchaser who retired after seeing a lot of tracks doesn’t do nearly as well when they retire. I would guess that conservatively I have made forty trackchasing trips for every one of my nearly 20 years of retirement. That’s 800 trips. If I really wanted to look at it closely, I would not be surprised if my trip totals were closer to 900 or even more. How many of those trips go according to plan when I leave the house? Not very many. For this weekend’s trip I’ll bet I looked at 75 or more flight combinations if I looked at one. For me to get to Columbus, Ohio the best option I could find seemed to have me flying from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Columbus. I had three different options that would take me there overnight leaving on Thursday. That kind of travel is a lot different than backing that old Ford out of the driveway and driving an hour and a half down the road to see a race track like trackchasing’s forefathers did, isn’t it? Yes, where I live has a definite impact on how I trackchase. I didn’t even fly on my first airplane until I was 21 years old. Our grandkids are twelve. They’ve flown on hundreds of flights! The airplane has created and insured my trackchasing success. However, my long-term success has now created a significant long-term challenge. I don’t have very many tracks left to see. The ones that are available are all located pretty far apart from one another. Making this weekend’s trip just a bit more difficult was a major rain storm that was passing through the Midwest and Southeast on Saturday. Most tracks race on Saturday. A very wide portion of the United States where most tracks are located was going to be affected by rain. I do my very best not to make these crazy travel plans when they might be affected by rain. I told you that the second track for this weekend’s trip was planned for Nebraska on Saturday night. The best way I could find to get from Columbus, Ohio to Nebraska was to drive…and then fly! I couldn’t drive all the way because that would be nearly a fourteen-hour one-way drive. This was the plan. I would drive eight hours overnight from Washington, West Virginia to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD). Then I would hope to fly from ORD to Omaha, Nebraska on an 8 a.m. flight. From Omaha I would have another two hours of driving to the racetrack. Piece of cake, right? Then after the race in Nebraska I would sleep overnight in my car! Why? I wouldn’t get out of the races on Saturday night until 11 p.m. or so. I couldn’t get back to the airport after the races until after 1 a.m. I needed to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m. I had to return my rental car and catch a 5:45 a.m. flight to Atlanta. Why Atlanta? I planned on seeing the NASCAR Cup race in Talladega with a 1:30 p.m. start time on Sunday. Are you tired yet? After the Talladega race, I will drive right back to Atlanta and hop on a jet airplane Monday morning from Atlanta to Dallas. I’m going to Dallas to see the Los Angeles Angels play the Texas Rangers. Yes, I am an Angels fan. As a matter of fact, I saw the Rangers play at Anaheim Stadium twice during this past week. I am not such a big baseball fan that I will fly half way across the country just to see the Angels play. Although watching Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani is definitely worth the price of admission! I had a special reason for flying to Dallas or more specifically Arlington, Texas. The Texas Rangers have a brand-new baseball stadium. They actually began playing at Globe Life Field during the 2020 season. Globe Life Field should not be confused with Globe Life Park which sits just across the street. Globe Life Park was built in 1994. I guess there’s a lot of money to be made in insurance! However, because of the Covid pandemic no fans were allowed at any of those 2020 games. Covid is winding down in most places. I’m told that in Texas the Rangers have no Covid attendance restrictions whatsoever. I don’t know if any other ballpark carries that liberal of a view of the pandemic or not. It was important for me to see a game in the Ranger stadium for one huge reason. One of my goals, which I achieved a few years ago, was to see a major league baseball game in every active major-league stadium. Then in 2017 the Atlanta Braves built a new stadium. I had to go to see a game there so I could still say that I had seen a game in every MLB stadium. Now the Rangers have built their new stadium so I had to go there so that once again I can say that I’ve seen a major-league baseball game in every park. Make sense? Can I be direct with you? I left my home this morning at 3 a.m. I didn’t really fancy driving all night from Washington, West Virginia to Chicago, Illinois for an 8 a.m. Saturday morning flight to Omaha. Who would, right? For the past year since the pandemic officially began in March, 2020, I’ve been on nearly 100 airplanes. I’ve stayed in hotels for more than 100 nights. Now that people are being vaccinated the Covid situation for the United States is changing dramatically. Changing in two ways. First, all the people who stayed around their house and didn’t travel anywhere for the last 13 months want to get out of the house and see the world. That’s fine. It’s just that it makes things a little bit more difficult for me being a standby flyer. Additionally, there are still some airlines that are blocking seats in order to curry favor with Covid fearful flyers. One airline is blocking all middle seats and will do so until May 1, 2020. In just one more week all of those middle seats will be available to me. On a 180-passenger plane with middle seats blocked that means sixty seats are not being used. If I made it to Nebraska, I might encounter flight availability difficulty from Omaha to Atlanta on Sunday morning. A couple of days in advance of that flight there were only five open seats. Those five open seats could be gobbled up by one Mormon family. If I didn’t make that flight out of Omaha there would be no Talladega Superspeedway in my weekend future. I had rental car reservations with all kinds of combinations and permutations. I had one car reserved from Columbus to Chicago. Another was reserved from Columbus to Charlotte. Additionally, I had National Car Rental reservations in Omaha, Atlanta and Dallas. I canceled a few reservations when other options that had been part of the trip planning progress didn’t really pan out. I mention all of this to you to support one particular point. I don’t trackchase like other people do. I never have. No one trackchases like I do. They never have. All of that is simply a statement of fact. I did have one other option that cropped up as I was driving to the airport in the dark this morning. If this option came to fruition it might make my traveling a little bit easier but my race watching enjoyment would definitely decrease. The state of Indiana has a couple of different groups that race UTVs on farms and through the woods. Woods UTV race is probably the least enjoyable form of racing from a spectator point of view. However, a UTV race that’s 95% in the woods counts as much as seeing the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway as far as trackchasing goes. The bad weather that I told you about was going to affect the Midwest. That weather could be a potential problem in Indiana as well. I didn’t think the promoters of a UTV would cancel as easily because of wet weather as an oval track would. At the very last minute I decided to replace my Saturday night Nebraska track with a late Saturday afternoon Indiana UTV event. On the positive side that would leave the Nebraska track available for every Saturday night for the next few months. That was a good trade-off I thought. Now let me tell you exactly how this trip came down. All of the above was simply an explanation of the planning process. Like I say I easily put well over 10 hours of time simply planning the logistics of this trip. As I prepared to board my flight today from Los Angeles to Seattle the gate agent told me I was going to have to check my rolling travel bag. I didn’t really want to do that. My rolling travel bag also carries my briefcase. My briefcase is pretty heavy with my laptop and a few other things in it. If I didn’t have my rolling bag then I’d have to carry my briefcase myself. That would end up killing my back when I walked in airports as far as I do. Sadly, I had no choice. When I landed in Seattle I had only a few minutes to catch my connecting flight to Columbus, Ohio. My total flying time today was about seven hours. I would also lose three hours to time zone changes moving from the Pacific to the Eastern time zones. When I landed to Columbus, I had to wait for my bag to come off the baggage carousel. I probably only check a bag on one out of fifty or even more trips. I hate checking bags. I hate waiting for bags to come off the plane. I still had one logistical situation that I had to resolve in order to make this trip hunt. I had to change my rental car reservation from me picking up in Columbus and dropping my car in Chicago to being able to drop the car in Indianapolis. Potentially that could have been a problem because rental car agencies don’t like last minute changes. They see the opportunity to charge the consumer when they make last minute changes. Nevertheless, today making that change was relatively easy. Now I had a National Car Racing Toyota Camry that I would pick up in Columbus, Ohio, drive to Washington, West Virginia and ultimately drop in Indianapolis, Indiana. I get a lot of work done when I’m traveling in the car on these trackchasing trips. Since I was already in Columbus, Ohio I knew that I would see racing tonight in Washington, West Virginia. My plan for racing tomorrow in Martinsville, Indiana was firm. It was time to act. What type of action was needed? I needed a hotel. I almost always use Priceline to get my hotels. Additionally, I almost always stay in a Marriott or Sheridan property. They treat me mighty fine as my old buddy Charlie Garrison used to say. Tonight, I made a reservation at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Sheridan and Marriott have about 30 different hotel brand names that they market. I had to decide if I were going to eat somewhere on the way to the races tonight for dinner or eat at the track. I’ve been disappointed so many times with the concessions at our nation’s short tracks. Now I almost always stop somewhere before I get to the track. Tonight, I stopped at an Ohio staple, Skyline Chili. I can’t exactly recall using the drive-through at Skyline Chili much but I did tonight. My chili five way and single coney dog met and exceeded my expectations. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m sorry that so many short track racing operations can’t get their act together. I know that some of my racing friends and some of my racing promoter friends will be disappointed in my analysis. I’m not here to blow smoke up anybody’s skirt. I think you expect me to tell it like it is. I’ll share some facts then you can decide whether or not a good customer experience was had by the folks in the audience tonight at the Ohio Valley Speedway in Washington, West Virginia. The Ohio Valley Speedway Facebook page told everyone that racing was to begin at 7:30 p.m. By the time I stopped in a highway rest area to change into my semi cold-weather clothes and had dinner at Skyline Chili I didn’t pull into the track parking lot until 8 p.m. They had a huge crowd. The parking lot was full. I used the Mary and Joseph parking approach. What’s that? There’s always room for one more at the inn! Tonight, I parked right next to a couple of caged kart racing operations. Since these teams didn’t race after I arrived, I’m suspected they raced earlier in the day. That’s only a guess. These types of race vehicles might be for kids. They might also race on a smaller than normal track at Ohio Valley. I’ll have to check on all of that. The price of tonight’s general admission was $15. There was no senior discount available. Skyline Chili had given me a 10% senior discount when I stopped there for supper tonight. The Ohio Valley Speedway was racing tonight as part of their 63rd season of racing. I don’t know how many tracks have raced for 63 years and are continuing to race in 2021. I’ll guess it’s not more than 10 or 20. I’m talking about racing on a weekly basis for 63 years! I would say that any business that has been operating for 63 years is definitely doing something right. The lifecycle of a business is to begin, grow, plateau, decline and ultimately go out of business. There are very few companies in America that have been open for 63 years. I’m happy to report that my former employer, Procter & Gamble, has been in business for more than 150 years and they are still going strong. I have several measuring sticks when I try to decide whether a racing operation and race program have met or exceeded my expectations. One of those measuring sticks is what would my grandkids or Carol or my own kids would think about the event. Tonight, the Ohio Valley Speedway would not have pleased any of those groups. When I pulled into the parking lot the temperature was 55°. It’s late April. When I left the track tonight the temperature was 41°. Luckily there wasn’t much wind. The weather was cold. However, I don’t blame the track for the weather. I guess that’s a West Virginia problem. The announcer did tell us that the track, being located down in a valley that ends up at the Ohio River, gets colder here than anywhere else in the area. I was also disappointed that my AT&T cell service was down to one bar. This effectively eliminated any opportunity to entertain myself between races and during other downtimes such as crashes and intermissions. I was bummed about that but I don’t blame the Ohio Valley Speedway. I guess that’s an AT&T problem. As noted, “racing” was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m. Tonight the track had a class of winged sprint cars, a UMP late model division, a couple of divisions of modifieds and a four-cylinder class. Five classes. For some ungodly reason they wanted to time trial every car in the pit area. On a positive note, they did time trial three and four cars at a time. That made things go faster. I do not like to sit on a hard board in the cold watching time trials. I wouldn’t want to watch time trials if they gave me the plushest Lazy Boy recliner and the track had the equivalent of San Clemente weather. No time trials for me. I might point out that some folks apparently think that hot laps and time trials are “racing”. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. When that is the case, I would recommend they spell that out when providing the time schedule. How about something like this? The first heat race did not take to the track until 9 p.m. That meant that the first countable race was an hour and a half later then when “racing” was advertised to begin. I’m sorry. Unacceptable. The winged sprint cars brought about 25 racers and competed in three heat races. The late models had similar numbers for three heats. The local modified class had about 20 racers and ran two heat races. The four-cylinder class had around 30 entries and competed in four heats. Finally, the sport modified class had about 25-30 racers and ran races. That’s a lot of heat races isn’t it? That’s nearly 20 heat races. It took them two hours to run the heats. That meant when the final heat race took the checkered flag it was 11 p.m. and 41°. At this point in time the World’s #1 Trackchaser was looking to exit the facility. Come on short track operators you can do better. The last heat race finishing up at 11 p.m.? I wanted to get in my car and drive away as fast as I could because I feared the announcer was going to tell the fans the track was going to take a short intermission and be right back. For gosh sakes they still had three or four “B” mains to run before we could even think about getting into feature racing. I wasn’t the only person leaving the races at 11 p.m. I saw families with young children leaving. I saw older people leaving. If I had a drone, I could have seen me leaving! What kind of an event on a perfect weather day with no unusual delays has an advertised start time of 7:30 p.m. and finishes up the last heat race at 11 p.m.? Disgraceful. I will tell you the racing, for heat races, was actually pretty good on the 3/8-mile dirt oval. The crowd was huge. The PA system was solid and the announcer did a good job. My bottle of Diet Pepsi was only two bucks and the kettle caramel corn, for a large package, was just six dollars. All of that was good. They just didn’t run a timely operation. I think of myself as a good listener. Doesn’t everyone? Tonight, the announcer mentioned something that I never would have expected to hear him say. His words were so strong in subject matter that a big portion for the rest of my trip was changed immediately. How could that be? The track announcer told the crowd that the West Virginia Motor Speedway over in Parkersburg, West Virginia would be racing this coming Sunday. That’s in two days! What? They hadn’t raced at that track since 2013. The trackchaser track census doesn’t mention a thing about the WVMS. I had never been there. What were the chances that the Ohio Valley Speedway would be racing in their 63rd season, when I was just nine years old, and I finally show up after all of that time and on that particular evening I learned that the nearby (8.7 miles) West Virginia Motor Speedway was going to be racing for the first time in eight years in just two days? The trackchasing gods were suddenly helping me after a disappointing trackchasing effort in Texas last weekend. My logistical mind went into overtime. I was quickly thinking how I was going to have to re-organize my entire rental car plan. Hotel locations were going to have to change. If I went to the race at the West Virginia Motor Speedway on Sunday night I wouldn’t be going to the NASCAR Cup race in Talladega on Sunday afternoon. I can’t be two places at once! Today my day had begun when I got up at 2:40 a.m. for a 3 a.m. departure from San Clemente. To get to the Ohio Valley Speedway in West Virginia I had driven three hours and flown seven hours. I had lost three hours in time zone changes. Now with tonight’s tardy race event I wasn’t going to get to my hotel until 1 a.m. back in Columbus, Ohio. This is not a hobby for the faint hearted. But then you knew that. Good evening from Washington, West Virginia and the Ohio Valley Speedway. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,692 tracks. West Viriginia The Mountain State This evening I saw racing at just my 10th lifetime track in the Mountain, yes, the Mountain State. I don’t even hold a top ten trackchasing ranking in West Virginia. West Virginia ranks #45, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time West Virginia state trackchasing list. I have made just 10 separate trips to West Virginia since first going to the famous Pennsboro Speedway in 1982 seeing these tracks. West Virginia State Track List Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member West Virginia sayings: Let’s grab some Tudor’s! Not the royal English family, but rather some of the most delicious biscuits in West Virginia. JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 800 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. See it in pictures! Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. One of my rare trips to West Virginia! 
