Greetings from first Bloomer, Wisconsin
And then Dewhurst, Wisconsin
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Como Lake Ice Track Ice oval Lifetime Track #2,761 Lake Arbutus Ice Track Ice oval Lifetime Track #2,762 Welcome to my 2022 trackchasing season! THE EVENT Editor’s note: January and February are mainly reserved for ice trackchasing. Ice racing is a short season so I have to strike while my hand warmers are hot. I travel this way so you don’t have to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. I AM A TRACKCHASER. What’s a trackchaser? What is trackchasing? Trackchasing is a hobby of mine. With trackchasing I do just three things. Each one is of equal importance to me. I travel the world watching auto racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. I seek out “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” during my travels to keep myself entertained when I’m not at the racetrack. 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 I plan airline, rental car and hotel accommodations to get me from my home in Southern California to racetracks located in the United States and all over the world. Just the planning part of my hobby is as much fun as anything. I am known as the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”. How did I get that title? I have traveled to 85 different countries and see racing at nearly 2,800 tracks…that’s how I got that title. 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 Saturday/Sunday, January 15/16, 2022. This weekend I will begin my first trackchasing trip of the 2022 trackchasing season. Every year I start with Ice racing. Ice racing takes place from about the middle of January through the end of February. It’s a very short season. Nevertheless, coming into 2022 I have seen racing at 120 different ice racing locations in 23 states, provinces and countries. I’m hoping to add another state to that list a little bit later in the season. Because no one has ever done it this way I’m not sure people can really appreciate what it takes to trackchase in the Midwest and east from California. Here’s what it means to me logistically. I’ll have to hop on an airplane, get a rental car and get a hotel. I’ve drive hundreds of miles creating a fuel expense of about a full tank every day I’m on the road. In the entire history of trackchasing, which dates back to 1928, very few people have ever flown to a race or rented a car. Yes, people do that from time to time but if I had to guess well over 95% of trackchasing new track visits, me excluded, do not include an airplane or rental car. Last year Covid wiped out much of the ice racing for the 2021 season. If Covid didn’t take out ice racing then warm temperatures did. Those poor folks with AMEC (Adirondack Motor Enthusiasts Club) in New York haven’t had a race since 2019 because of bad ice conditions. They have canceled the first three shows for this year as well. I think they need to find a place on land to race! My 2022 ice trackchasing season is going to be limited. This is the case for a plethora of reasons. First, I’ve seen ice racing at 120 locations. My next nearest fellow trackchasing competitor has about half that total. When you’ve seen that much ice racing it really reduces the new ice racing opportunities. Covid is still hanging around and that doesn’t help things either. During January and February of this year we have two luxury cruises scheduled, a trip down to Texas to see our grandkids and UCLA basketball games. When the ice racing season is only 6-8 weekends long all of those conflicts really do put a dent in my ice trackchasing. I will head to cold-weather locations for three or maybe four weekends this year. I’ll make the best of it. Several of those ice races will be in Wisconsin. February 10, 2006 – Ed celebrates my 1,000th track with Carol and me in Auburndale, Florida . I entered the year trailing Ed Esser’s state leading track total in Wisconsin of 118 total tracks by just nine tracks. There’s a good chance I will knock off four or five Wisconsin ice racing locations by the end of February. That will put me just a little bit closer to Mr. Esser’s total. Now let’s get started with the adventure that made this weekend’s trip a success. FRIDAY I encountered a few logistical challenges to begin this trip. Luckily, none of them were showstoppers. I had an 11 a.m. flight plan from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. My flight was delayed by two hours. With a flight delay, I could no longer pick up my rental car in terminal 2 at the Minneapolis airport. That meant I had to stand out in the cold and wait for a train to take me from terminal 2 to terminal 1. There I picked up my faithful National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. Yes, if you’re going to travel you better have a flexible mindset. I had worked out all of the stops for this trip and expected to drive about 400 miles. Temperatures were going to be in the 10-20° range. Over the years I have built up quite an arsenal of cold-weather gear which is perfectly suited for standing out on a frozen lake in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Russia or Finland…all places where I have ice trackchased. As soon as I knew I was getting on the airplane in Los Angeles I pulled out my Apple iPhone 13 and made a hotel reservation. I used my Priceline app for a hotel in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I got a highly rated Best Western hotel for just a pittance. Paying a pittance is always a good idea. There isn’t much inflation in my life…but then again, I am a travel professional. This year I added one new item to my ice racing cold-weather gear. For Christmas Carol gave me a Zippo brand hand warmer. The hand warmer is so much better than the little cloth ones I’ve tried to use over the years. Its battery powered and can be reused hundreds of times. This Zippo hand warmer works really well. SATURDAY I will be staying in my Best Western hotel for two consecutive nights. That makes travel a little simpler and more convenient. I grabbed a little bit of breakfast and then drove over to Bloomer, Wisconsin. Bloomer is home to Como Lake aka Bloomer Mill Pond. This is a 98-acre lake with a maximum depth of 11 feet. I don’t know how think the ice was today…but it was thick enough. I was going to be seeing some racing sanctioned by the Northern Wisconsin Ice Racing Association. They do a fantastic job. How fantastic? Today they drew 281 racing machines. These were primarily ATVs but also a few motorcycles and three wheelers and 12 UTVs. When I pulled onto the lake a woman stopped me and said that it might be a good idea not to park on the lake. Why? She said a large crack in the ice had surfaced. Her recommendation did not sound like a good idea to me. How bad could it be? I would be using the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry as a warming hut from time to time. I needed to have it parked on the frozen lake. There was some really good news with the scheduling of today’s racing. Some 27 classes were racing today. They had so many entries in some classes that they had to run multiple heat races. This created about 35 races in total. These were just the heat races. Following the heat racing the group would take an intermission and come back with 27 feature events and a few non-qualifier races as well. Folks, that’s a full day of ice racing. Luckily for me, the UTV studded class was the very first race of the day. Racing was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. but they didn’t start until nearly 11 a.m. Had I needed to be someplace else having seen the three car UTV studded class as the first race of the day I could have left the ice at that point in time. I didn’t do that. The second UTV division was for non-studded or sometimes called “rubber to ice” vehicles. There were nine entries in this group. However, wouldn’t you know it, the non-studded UTV class was going to be the last race of the morning session and the evening session. If I wanted to see the non-studded UTVs race their heat I would have to sit through 36 ice races. I did just that! I had the time. I had the warming hut. I did take a long time to walk around the entire paddock/pit area. You probably know that the pit area is called a paddock for a road course and a pit area is called a pit area for an oval track. Why? I have no idea! Today some of the races were on a road course and some of them were on an oval configuration. The UTVs raced only on the oval track. You’re not gonna want to miss the pictures and the videos I got today. You’ll feel just like you were there without being bothered by the wind chill. The weather wasn’t all that bad. I did have all my full complement of long underwear and gloves and ski goggles and the like. The ambient temperature was about 15°. This was made better by a bright sun reflecting off the ice and almost no wind. It’s the wind that they get you in these situations. I had a good time at the ice races today. Please check the video and the photos. If you do that, I think you’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of what I’m sharing with you today. Following the ice racing I had scheduled to see a Division 3 college basketball game. The plan was to drive over to Menomonie, Wisconsin to see the University Wisconsin – Stout team play the University of Wisconsin – Lacrosse team. Their game started at 3:00 p.m. The 37th race of the day for the non-studded UTVs finished with enough time for me to get over to the basketball game easily. I called the university just yesterday to confirm the game was scheduled and was going to begin at 3 p.m. Often times university phones are answered by students. Students are students because they haven’t learned everything in life yet, right? I asked the young woman who answered the phone if fans were allowed to see the games. She was seemingly stunned by this question. “Of course,” she said. The reason I asked is that leading universities like UCLA and Stanford out in California are not allowing fans to watch their games right now because of Covid. I guess Covid isn’t really a thing in Wisconsin. When I showed up at the Johnson Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Wisconsin – Stout something didn’t seem right. I was parked right in front of the entrance but there was no action. It was just 30 minutes before game time. Was I at the wrong place? Had I showed up at the wrong time? No, I had the right place and I was on time as well. I walked into the fieldhouse and soon discovered that the University of Wisconsin – Lacrosse team could not travel because of Covid protocols. The game was canceled on less than 24 hours’ notice. “Covid protocols” have canceled about 10 basketball games on me just this season. Covid has been a major bummer for people in so many ways. With no basketball game I took my time getting back to the hotel. I was a little surprised I couldn’t find a basketball game anywhere in the general area. I looked over the schedules for all NCAA Division 1, 2 and 3 games. Nothing…near. Oh well. I hoped to catch some college basketball on the road with Carol next week as we begin her first trackchasing trip of the year. I did stop at a Farm and Fleet store in Eau Claire. I love those places. They have so much stuff that really isn’t part of my lifestyle. I did get Carol a gift. What? A box of lemon squares mix! She (I) will love those. I also picked up a package of beef jerky links and some N95 masks. Better late than never! SUNDAY In Europe it is common for your “hotel” to offer breakfast in the price of the lodging. In the past 10 years or so hotels that offer breakfast in the United States have become more common. I miss going to Europe and will get back there as soon as the Covid problem eases up. My Best Western hotel for the weekend offered a very decent breakfast. They had several selections of hot food, juices and a waffle maker. They even had complementary bottled water. I never almost never see that. Today’s ice racing venue had me driving through a campground that surrounded Lake Arbutus in Hatfield, Wisconsin. The Hatfield city limit sign was amusing. It read population: Summertime 5,000, Wintertime 50! Lake Arbutus is a large lake covering 774 acres. The lake maximum depth is 50 feet. It is located in Clark, Jackson Counties. Fish include Musky, Panfish, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Walleye and Catfish. The weather was solid for ice racing. The temperature was about 17°. There wasn’t much wind and the skies were cloudy. The was very similar to yesterday’s ice racing with the exception of yesterday having sunny skies. I can tell you this. Seventeen degrees feels better under sunny skies than it does under cloudy skies! Today I was planning to see my 2,762nd worldwide lifetime track. I’ve done that in 85 countries. It is the “85” that makes me the World’s #1 Trackchaser. I would also be seeing racing at my 122nd lifetime ice track and my 112th racetrack in Wisconsin. Today’s ice racing was being promoted by the Central Wisconsin Ice Racing Association. Yesterday I saw racing that was organized by the Northern Wisconsin Ice Racing Club. There is also a Southern Wisconsin Ice Racing Association. I expect to see one of their events later this year. Yes, Wisconsin has a lot of ice racing! Today I was charged five dollars to enter the ice racing grounds. It is somewhat rare for ice racing organizations to charge a spectator entry fee. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good idea. I’d like to make sure these groups promote ice racing well into the future. If it takes five bucks to help to make that happen, I’m all for it. Normally spectators can drive their cars onto to the ice and park around the perimeter of the ice race track and, if they want, watch the racing from inside their cars. This makes ice racing much more comfortable when your car can also be your warming hut. That option would not be available to me today. I had to park my car on land and walk a short distance to get onto the lake. When I did get out onto the lake, I noticed the ice had a thin layer of snow. I also noticed that the ice surface was as slick as snot. The small amount of snow on the surface helped me keep my traction. I was also aided by a pair of ice cleats which were stretched across my size 14 REI winter boots. I have Wendy Hurst to thank for the ice cleats idea! Thanks Wendy! I soon ran into Bryce Peterson, one of today’s UTV race drivers. Bryce has helped me with my ice trackchasing in the past. He told me that he only races his UTV during the winter time. During the summer he’s a truck puller which is the same thing as a tractor puller except he’s pulling things that weigh a lot with his truck. Bryce told me there were eight UTVs entered in today’s ice racing event. He also said that he thought there were more than 300 total entries racing in 39 individual classes. Each class would race two heat races and then have a feature event for their class. This method would make for more than 100 races in total. The UTVs were scheduled to race as the 37th class out of those 39 classes on the ice today. That’s a lot of racing on a 17° cloudy winter day while standing on a frozen lake in Wisconsin. I’m proud to say I saw the first class race on the Ice today at right around the official starting time of 11 a.m. I was still in the pit area when the UTVs became the 37th class to run. All races were run on an oval. You’re not gonna wanna miss my photos and videos. If you take the time to look at that you will feel as if you were on the ice today just like I was. But… you’re likely going to be much warmer in your living room than I was standing out on Lake Arbutus. The ATV machine is the most popular racing entry at the three major groups race racing in Wisconsin. UTVs and motorcycles come in far behind the number of people racing ATVs. I would also say that the ATVs are the most entertaining to watch. They really get after it. These groups do not race cars. I always breathe a sigh of relief AFTER the one and only trackchasing countable class has had their race. Today that class was the UTVs. They didn’t race until 36 other classes had already competed out of the 39 classes on the ice today. When the entire first round was finished it was time to head toward Minneapolis. Before I left, I stopped inside the refreshment tent. They had good stuff at reasonable prices. I had a nice warm serving of mac n cheese for just two bucks and a large bottle of Diet Mountain Dew for another two bucks. Nice. From there I arrived at terminal 2 at MSP by about 6 p.m. My flight wasn’t leaving until 9 p.m. This gave me plenty of time to get in the last of my four miles of power walking. I expected to pull into my driveway at about 4:10 a.m. on early Monday morning Wisconsin time. Now do you understand why no one has ever done this seriously from the west coast? Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,762 tracks. Wisconsin The Badger State This weekend I saw racing at my 110th and 111th lifetime tracks in the Badger, yes, the Badger State. I hold the #3 trackchasing ranking in Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks #6, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Wisconsin state trackchasing list. I have made 73 separate trips to Wisconsin to see these tracks. 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 Wisconsin sayings: Stop and go lights 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 860 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. Como Lake Ice Racing with the Northern Wisconsin Ice Racing Club Lake Arbutus Ice Racing with the Central Wisconsin Ice Racing Association 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. Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” All photo albums are fully captioned. A day on the ice way up on Lake Arbutus in Dewhurst, Wisconsin 
