If I could just get to the East Coast to get this trip started, I would be “golden” as the boys back in the Caterpillar Tractor Company factory, where I worked during college, used to say. The weather on the East Coast was going to be perfect. The races were scheduled. Then…what was the problem? Flights! Virtually all of the flights going back to the east coast were full. I was flying standby. Could I get a seat?
I checked at least 25 flights all over the east coast ranging from Charlotte to Boston, and as far inland as Pittsburgh. Every one of those flights was full. They were not looking to add another standby passenger even if he was the World’s #1 Trackchaser.
I had an appointment in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday. When I finished with that, I immediately headed up the 405 freeway toward the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Traffic can begin to get heavy on SoCal freeways during the late afternoon. I was standing by for a flight to Chicago’s Midway Airport (MDW). That flight had two open seats. I was number three on the standby list. I could only hope that one passenger would get stuck in traffic, have a flat tire, or maybe sleep in. O.K., I NEVER hope for someone else’s misfortune however if someone does have some misfortune, I am willing to benefit from it. I made the flight to Chicago!
I landed at 10:30 p.m. My next standby option would be a flight from Chicago (MDW) to the Boston airport in Massachusetts. That flight left at 5:45 a.m. There would be no time to get a hotel. The best I could do was to find a couple of seats where I could lie down and try to get some rest. That’s not easy to do in an active airport when you are trying to sleep “landside” as opposed to “airside”. I might have slept one hour or so. The ongoing annoying announcements kept me from the rest that I was looking forward too.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Nevertheless, I made the flight to Boston and landed at 9 a.m. Because I was the last passenger getting on the plane, they made me check my bag. I don’t like doing that.
When you check a bag, you lose a lot of flexibility. Flexibility in life is key. I landed in Terminal B at Logan International Airport. Terminal B just happens to be the location of Stephanie’s restaurant. Stephanie’s accepts my Priority Pass Membership. PP offers lots of benefits to me.
I would take a chance and not immediately claim my checked bag. I stopped at Stephanie’s. There I enjoyed a burger for $18.25 and a Diet Coke for another four. This seemed a little pricey but I had an ace in the hold. That was Priority Pass! Priority Pass gives me a $28 food and beverage credit each time I use it. I wouldn’t pay anything but a tip. That seemed fair to me!
When breakfast was finished, I fetched my bag. It was waiting for me in the Southwest Airlines baggage claim office. I had taken a chance and that chance paid off.
The next step in my trackchasing logistical process was to get my rental car. Today I was renting a car in Boston and would be returning it in two days to the airport in Montreal, Quebec airport. One-way rentals can be downright expensive. However, when you understand my racing itinerary, you’ll see why a one-way rental was the best idea I could come up with.
There are always going to be a handful of race tracks that each year I want to see but for whatever reason, I don’t get a chance to visit. The Durham County Fairgrounds was one of those tracks. I’ve been trying for more than 15 years to get to this race.
They only race once a year at the fairgrounds. That race date is always on a Friday night in late September. A lot of times I have committed that weekend to UCLA football. It’s just been difficult to try to tie in a Friday night show all the way out in Connecticut with something else that would make the long trip worthwhile. This year I was able to do it.
The weather all weekend was going to be clear. This would also be the coldest weather I’ve encountered in 2022 dating all the way back to my ice racing adventures in January and February. I even elected to wear long pants this evening in the Nutmeg State. It is a rare occasion indeed, to see me wearing long pants.
The fair in Durham County is a big one. The East Coast has some big county fairs. East Coast county fairs just like East Coast race tracks are likely to have better food options than anywhere else I visit.
I arrived early so I could check things out. They charged five dollars to park in a huge farm field. The field was already jampacked with folks going to the county fair. People love their county fairs! It was a 10-minute school bus ride from the parking area to the fair.
I was admitted to the fair itself under the “advanced age” policy for only $10. I don’t know what youngsters were paying. That seemed fair enough (pun intended) although I was still a little bit bummed about having to pay the park. So many tracks offer free parking that when I have to pay for it I feel a little chapped.
Tonight’s temperature during the racing was about 55° with a 10-20-mile-an-hour wind. My Weather Underground app told me the “feels like” temperature was 47°. I haven’t been out in 47° temperatures in nearly a year. What makes the cold feel the worst? It’s always the wind.
I spent several minutes touring the animal barns. These barns were large and modern and much different than most of the Midwestern fairs I attend.
I marveled at all of the county fair food choices. The Durham County Fair did not disappoint on this front. After considering my options, and not wanting to blow my caloric budget, I settled on a regular-sized bag of kettle corn. The kettle corn was tasty and priced at eight bucks. That seemed reasonable along with a 20-ounce plastic bottle of diet Coke for another three. The kettle corn would be my in car snack for the next couple of days.
The setup for tonight’s double figure 8 racing was unique. One side of the track was a huge hillside. By race time this area was absolutely packed. People sat on blankets and some brought their own chairs. I didn’t have either option available for me.
Double figure 8 racing is an idea that is always used by JM Productions, a figure 8/demolition derby company based in Pennsylvania. Double figure 8 racing has the cars racing around three large tractor tires rather than the traditional two markers. This gives the drivers an opportunity to race through an “X” twice.
Almost all figure 8 racing that I see are really races more so than crashing into a fellow competitor situation. There are a lot of areas in the United States and Canada where demolition derby action is more popular than figure 8 racing. Maybe that’s because I’m lazy but I just don’t get that. Why would you want to build a demolition derby car that you might be able to race only one time when you could build a figure 8 race car that you might be able to drive all season?
Tonight, there were six or seven cars in each of the seven heat races. The winner of those heat races transferred to the main event. All of the second-place drivers from the heats ran in a consolation race. Eight cars made up the feature race.
The racing was good. However, with racing like this involving only one class of cars, one race very much looks like the next. I’m not complaining about that. I’m just explaining it.
With the temperature falling and the wind blowing strongly out of the north, I chomped on county fair kettle corn and slugged down one of the many Diet Cokes, out of the tens of thousands of Diet Cokes, that I have consumed in my life. I thought to myself. I was living the life! This was Trackchasing. Trackchasing is a fantastic hobby that I am enjoying to the nth degree.
When my trackchasing appetite had been filled, it was time to grab another school bus ride back to the parking lot. I sat in the front row seat of the bus. Someone told me a long time ago that the best students in school sat in the front row. I didn’t know if that applied to school bus riding but why take a chance, right?
From my location in Durham, Connecticut my plan was to drive up as close to the Quebec, Canada border as I could tonight. Then I would sleep overnight in my car somewhere in Vermont. The next morning, I would head up to the Circuit Ste. Croix Riverside Speedway for an Enduro stock car race tomorrow afternoon.
It is important to note that I do not sleep overnight in my car to save money. Yes, saving money is a byproduct of sleeping in my car, but it is not the primary reason why I would do such a thing.
So, what is the primary reason I slept in my car tonight? The reason was simple. There was not enough time to get a hotel. It is quite common for me not to have finished my trackchasing business until midnight or later. It is also quite common that my day needs to begin early the next morning. If I don’t have a full eight or nine hours to stay in my hotel room, I don’t think it makes fiscal or physical sense to get a hotel. Tonight, I expected to get up toward the Canadian border at about midnight. I needed to be on the road by six or seven o’clock in the morning.
At a little past midnight, I found myself at an Irving brand gas station in Barton, Vermont. I was 25 miles south of the border. I gassed up at this station.
Gas prices in the United States have always been about 20-25% lower than what is offered in Canada. Whenever I am about to enter Canada, I try to grab the last U.S. station and fuel my car to the max. With this strategy, I will end up buying the absolute minimum of higher-priced gasoline in Canada.
Tonight, I paid $3.67 a gallon for fuel in Vermont. That’s a pretty good price considering I was paying a little bit more than nine dollars a gallon in the Netherlands just two weeks ago!
I stopped inside the gas station convenience for a bathroom break. I ended up buying a bottle of Gatorade Zero and a small six-pack of white powdered sugar donuts. I haven’t had those in ages. I might get the munchies sleeping overnight in my car.
I asked the woman who was “manning” the cash register if it would be OK if I parked the National Car Rental Racing Toyota in a remote dark section of their parking lot and slept for a few hours. She said that would be fine but cautioned me to lock my doors. Lock my doors in Vermont? Interesting. I did as instructed and slept until about 6 a.m. My couple of overnight bathroom breaks were creatively accommodated by a large plastic McDonald’s drink cup. Just saying.
Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser San Clemente, California USA