Financial tip of the day!
This is a financial planning newsletter, among other things, right?
Were rates ever really that low?
Here’s a financing tip if you’re in the market for a new car. When I bought my last new car in December 2019 I got an interest rate of just 1.99% for a 72-month car loan. That was a smoking hot deal at the time. However, since then interest rates have shot up toward the moon.
Deep subprime credit rating? Never heard of it.
According to NerdWallet.com (November 9, 2023), the average new car loan interest rate is 5.07% for those with a super prime credit score of 781-850. The average rate for prime credit scores of 661-780 is 6.44%. For those with the lowest credit score, deep subprime with scores of 300-500, the rate is 14.18%.
And then there’s that.
I applied with three different lenders. One of them told me my credit score (I’m getting the loan without Carol) was a perfect 850. The loan officer told me she had never seen an 850 credit score. Of course, I don’t know if she had been working in the business for three days or thirty years but that put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Facebook pays ME money!
I settled on an interest rate of just 3.99% from a credit union in Maryland named FedChoice. I got the tip from being part of a Tesla Model X Facebook group. FedChoice will save me about $5,000 compared to the best rate offered by the other two loan options. As far as I know, FedChoice lends in all 50 states. You can become a member for free if you are a federal employee. If not, there is going to be a membership fee. What’s the membership fee? Wait for it. Five bucks!
I plan to go with a 72-month, $80,000 loan. I don’t particularly appreciate giving up the last two years of my 72-month $100,000 loan at 1.99%. Nevertheless, there are some great reasons (to be detailed in a future newsletter) for getting a new car. Of course, this supports my Die with Zero lifestyle approach as well.
It’s all a matter of dollars and cents.
Why not pay cash for the car? I have a simple philosophy. If I can earn, after tax, a rate of return greater than the cost of the loan I will borrow every time. Every time! My long-term (21 years) investment ROI is 7.9%. My incremental federal and state tax rate is 32%. This gives me an after-tax ROI of 5.37%. Doing additional numerical research (subtraction!) told me my take-home return of 5.37% was greater than the cost of the loan at 3.99% I went the loan route.
I wanna be the bank!
Most everyone reading this has a bank they work with. You make a deposit and the bank, usually, gives you money in the form of interest. What does the bank do with your deposited money? They loan it out at a higher rate than they are paying you!
Most banks do pretty well financially with the strategy outlined above. I wanna be the bank in my transactions. How do I do that? I get a lender to lend me money at a low-interest rate. Then I take that money and invest it at a higher rate. It’s really that simple.
Is this strategy really worth it?
You betcha. But first, let’s be real. I’m not going to get rich using this strategy on a car loan with a “spread” of 1.38% with $80,000 over six years. However, I have a lot of spreads like this working in the background. My biggest is my $2.5MM mortgage at 2.25% for 10 years. Investing that money at a 3.12% spread (5.37%-2.25%) WILL create a huge advantage.
No, my after-tax ROI of 5.37% is not guaranteed. My ROI might be higher! An additional benefit is that I get to keep my cash for added flexibility. They say cash is king, right? I have made literally hundreds of thousands of dollars borrowing low and investing high with home and car loans. That’s not an exaggeration. I wouldn’t do it any other way. And yes, your mileage might vary.
Pennsylvania handler’s races.
Do you collect anything?
You, the reader, will have to decide whether reading this particular trackchasing newsletter edition is worth it. If you are a racing fan, you’re probably going to ask yourself, “Why in the world would Randy make such an effort to see racing like this? If you are not a racing fan, you’ll probably ask yourself a similar question that goes like this, “Why in the world would Randy spend his time doing something like this “? Honestly, I can’t answer either one of your questions.
Ever collected these items?
Trackchaisng is a hobby. Below is a list of the most popular collecting hobbies in the world.
Stamps
Coins
Baseball pins
Vinyl
Comic books
Wine
Trading cards
Toys
Trackchasing is not included in the top worldwide collecting hobbies. Take a look at the hobbies I listed. Most of the hobbies listed above do not require flying across the country to do them. Most can be done in the comfort of your own home. However, if you want to “get out of the house” you may want to consider trackchasing as your hobby of choice.
To begin planning a trackchasing trip I need to have some racing dates and locations in mind. It’s the middle of October. Most of the racing world has shut down for the season.
Fragile is a problem when flying cross country is part of the plan.
On top of the seasonality hit, because I’ve seen racing at nearly 3,000 tracks I’ve been to just about every track in North America. The remaining tracks still on my “hit list” don’t race very often. Their schedules are very “fragile “. Fragile? What do I mean by fragile?
What’s an example of a racing track and racing date that is not fragile? Two events that come to mind would be the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. The dates for those events are known a year in advance. They aren’t going to change for virtually any reason whatsoever except for the weather. Even with bad weather, usually rain, they have the equipment and the willpower to keep the event going. Many of the racetracks I still have left to visit for the very first time have very fragile schedules. The most obscure item can knock them off their game.
Yes, I’ve had these things happen at the last minute.
Obscure items? I’ve had races canceled because the water truck broke down. Others have canceled because they lost electrical power the owner got sick someone in the owner’s family died or a hurricane came through weeks ago and damaged the property. If a cancellation can happen I’ve experienced it. None of these setbacks would change the day of the Daytona 500.
This is one element of trackchasing that keeps my mind sharp.
With all of that in mind, I set out on an adventure to see racing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for a long weekend trip to the East Coast. For Friday I had just one choice. There was a track in Maine scheduled to race on Friday. On Saturday I had a location near Philadelphia and one in Southwestern Alabama near Pensacola, Florida to choose from. Then on Sunday I could either go up to New Hampshire for a track near Boston or be in the general Philadelphia area for a Sunday afternoon race. These were pretty much my entire geography options for the weekend.
Weather makes these choices even more fragile.
As I decided to figure out my travel plan, I needed to overlay a weather map for my potential geographical targets. The Friday weather in Maine looked acceptable. However, the next day Maine was nearly certain to get a lot of rain. Why would Saturday’s weather affect the race I wanted to see in Maine on Friday? The folks up in Maine had scheduled a two-day show on Friday and Saturday. Friday was for preliminaries and Saturday would feature the main events. The crowd on Saturday would be bigger but would be lost entirely if the Saturday rains came. Believe it or not, racetracks are a business! They need to make a profit or at least break even. I understood they might not want to race on Friday if it was fairly certain they would get rained out on Saturday. By the way, this is the track that canceled on me at the last minute, after I was already in Maine when their water truck broke down!
The general weather forecast around Philadelphia on Saturday was iffy. That allowed me to think about going to a track in Alabama, which was actually closer to the Florida border.
My travel plans change hourly!
For Sunday the track that I really wanted to visit up in New Hampshire had a very bad weather forecast. I expected they would have to cancel. That meant that I might have to fall back to being in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. It was with some trepidation that I decided to try for Maine on Friday, Alabama on Saturday and Pennsylvania on Sunday.
The “California Penalty”.
To see a race on the East Coast on Friday. I have to leave California on Thursday. That’s because of the distance I need to travel and the three-hour time zone change.
If you’re not early…you’re late.
I left San Clemente, California, where Carol and I live in a modest seaside cottage, very early on Thursday morning. I didn’t leave early enough. First I stopped to supercharge my Tesla. Then I drove 65 miles in Thursday morning rush-hour traffic to get to the airport. Finally, I walked 25 minutes from my parking garage to the airline terminal. I was only at the gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart. That’s cutting it close.
This flight delay worked in my favor…sort of.
There was a silver lining in this particular cloud. My flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia on Spirit Airlines was delayed by more than two hours. I had scored a tremendous deal on a round-trip ticket from LA to Philly. The cost was just $125 on Spirit Airlines. That was almost like traveling for free!
I waited out the flight delay and got in the back of the line which must have been 75 people long. The line moved slowly but soon I was only about five people from having my boarding pass scanned and stepping onto the airplane. At just that moment I got a text message from one of my racing buddies up in Maine. The Maine track that I was hoping to see on Friday night had been canceled. They canceled on the forecast…for Saturday’s racing. Lots of tracks cancel on the forecast nowadays. With cell phones and weather apps, everybody thinks they are weatherman. I will probably mention later that it never did rain in Unity, Maine on Friday night.
Go Big Green!
Yes, that’s me above, with John Sullivan a resident of Maine. I’m wearing my Dartmouth College shirt. When people see the shirt they commonly ask me if I went to Dartmouth. I truthfully tell them I did go there.
Poor customers shouldn’t ask for much.
It is a true statement that as a trackchaser I am not a great customer for a local racetrack. I’m only going to go to that track in most circumstances one time. The track wants to get customers who come to several of their events all season.
The track up in Maine had wanted to host a two-day show with preliminary events on Friday night and their feature races on Saturday night. It probably wasn’t going to rain on Friday but it most certainly was going to rain on Saturday. The track canceled Friday night’s show because they knew they would get rained out on Saturday night, their moneymaker night. I can understand that. That was good for them but it was bad for me.
I’m going home.
What did I do when I got that text message saying the Maine track had canceled their Friday night racing? Remember this was Thursday at about noon in California. I stepped out of the boarding line for my flight to Philadelphia on Spirit Airlines flight. The “great deal” I got on my round-trip ticket was now a total loss. Folks, I am a retiree living on a small fixed income. I can’t take total losses very often and support the lifestyle to which Carol has become accustomed. With a disappointed attitude, I walked more than a mile back to my parking garage and drove 65 miles in heavy 14-lane wide freeway traffic back to our home in San Clemente.
Reassess and act…always act.
I wasn’t giving up. I was reassessing. I could relax until the next day. Then on Friday night, I would board an overnight flight From Angeles to Philly. When I landed in Philadelphia on Saturday morning, I could decide if I wanted to fly down to Alabama for their race where the weather was going to be perfect. Or, I could hang around the northern Philadelphia area where the weather was a little questionable for Saturday night’s racing.
I always seem to think these overnight flights are a good idea. I could indeed be home nearly all day Friday. Then when I landed in Philadelphia at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, I would have all day to enjoy the East Coast. Perfect, right? Not exactly. When something seems too good to be true it almost always is too good to be true. I don’t sleep on flights nearly as well as I used to. When I landed in Philly on Saturday morning, I was dragging. And yes that’s me above, sleeping in the Oslo, Norway airport.
I wanted to delay picking up my rental car because I only planned to keep it for two days. I wanted to pick up the car on Saturday at pretty much the same time I needed to return it on Monday. I’ve slept overnight in the Philadelphia airport several times. On one winter evening, they had sleeping cots, with amenities for their overnight “guests”. Yes! The City of Brotherly Love. This morning I grabbed a seat near a window in the terminal and called up AppleCare. I had some MacBook Pro issues I needed to resolve. My temperament wasn’t quite as cheery and jovial as I had hoped it would be given the flight that I had just taken.
I checked my weather apps again. They were now saying that Philadelphia was not going to get as much rain this afternoon and evening as originally forecast. It would be a lot easier for me to simply stay in the Philadelphia area rather than hop on a plane to Atlanta and drive four hours down to Flomaton, Alabama. My decision was now made. I would now sink or swim by attempting to trackchase in Honeybrook, Pennsylvania.
The best cheesesteak in Philly.
Every time I fly into Philadelphia, which is two or three times a year and sometimes more, I stop at a place near the airport called Leo’s Steak Shop. Philadelphia is famous for its cheesesteaks. The most well-known places are Geno’s and Pat’s. Those two are located across the street from each other. I’ve been to both. Geno’s is the more famous of the two. I don’t think they are nearly as good as Leo’s Steak Shop. I am beyond shocked that Geno’s carries a 2.6 Yelp rating. I can’t recall ever seeing a Yelp rating that low at a restaurant with hundreds of ratings, let alone more than 3,600 reviews that Geno’s has. I went with the large cheesesteak which was beyond huge and with a hefty price tag as well.
A beautiful time of the year.
The fall colors are near their peak around Philadelphia right now. I took some great pictures of the golden and orange leaves of fall.
These are quarter midget racers.
Today I was headed to the Honeybrook Speedway. They race quarter midgets at this track. If you’ve ever seen a sprint car, you can imagine a quarter midget racer as being roughly a one-half-sized sprint car. The QM pictured sits on a dolly used the move the car from the pit area to the starting grid.
Quarter midget racing is limited to drivers aged 5-16. There are probably well over one hundred quarter-midget tracks spread out across the United States. Their rules are nearly identical just about anywhere you go. The main focus of quarter-midget racing is that it’s dedicated to racing for youngsters.
Absolutely no kids? Why? Don’t ask me.
The rules of trackchasing do not allow trackchasers to count a track where the racing divisions are limited to drivers under the age of 18 years. I have no idea why trackchasing’s founding fathers came up with that idea. I don’t agree with it. I think it’s kind of stupid. But I try to stick to the rules for simply one reason. This allows every trackchaser who is counting their tracks under the same set of rules to compare their totals with someone else under a common set of rules. It’s apples to apples.
I came for the handler’s race.
At most of these quarter-midget tracks, at the end of the season, they have what they call a “handler’s race”. This means that a mom or a dad or a pit crewmember, who can be of any age, gets to race the quarter midget. These folks have supported their young drivers all year. Now they get to show their driver “how it should be done”. It is at this point in the annual race schedule that a trackchaser swoops in, sees the handler’s race, and finally gets to count a track that was not countable all year long because of the driver’s age.
Quarter midget racing is auto racing’s Little League baseball.
I’ve seen a few of these types of races. When I go to the track I sit through an entire day of their racing which is 100% dedicated to kids aged 5-16. None of that counts at all with my trackchasing hobby. This is auto racing’s version of Little League baseball. The dads and the grandpas do get into it a little bit just like you might have seen some time at a little league baseball game. They are sometimes critical of the officiating, and sometimes they get a little critical of their son, grandson, daughter, or granddaughter. Today I saw one grandfather getting on his grandson and the son’s mother had to step in and ask Gramps to tone it down!
The people. It’s really always the people.
The highlight of my day at Honeybrook Speedway was being able to meet the people who ran the program. My main contact was a fellow by the name of Mike. I came up and introduced myself. I asked Mike when the handler’s race was going to be. He and I struck up a conversation.
Mike was a great guy. He was happy to see that a fellow had come all the way from California to see the racing at the Honeybrook Speedway. They’ve been racing for about 50 years at this location.
Mike told me that he is working with the local government officials and a developer to make sure that the racetrack can co-exist with the new homes that are being built in the area. Nothing is finalized, but Mike is confident that things are going to be able to be worked out for both groups.
Not in my backyard. C’mon, man.
It is very common for homeowners who move in after a racetrack has been built to try to shut the track down. Some race tracks are “grandfathered in”. This means that no matter what happens after they have been given racing rights in perpetuity, the track can keep racing no matter what. Sometimes they must add restrictions like a curfew or mufflers or whatever. I’m not sure if the Honeybrook Speedway has a grandfather clause. They simply have to work with their neighbors and Honeybrook is trying to do that.
I was coming to this little track for trackchasing purposes. I was most interested in seeing the handler’s race. The regular race program was going to begin at noon or so. I had no idea how long the kids would race before they got around to having the adults race.
Don’t be late.
A good friend of mine, Gerry O’Reilly, always told me “If you’re not early, you’re late”. I don’t think he was talking about handler’s races at quarter-midget tracks but his general philosophy is a good one. There was no way I could make my way from California to Pennsylvania and somehow show up late for the only race that was bringing me to the Honeybrook Speedway.
Hercules.
Just play it safe I showed up at noon on a cold, windy, and sometimes lightly raining afternoon. I sat in my rental car some of the time, but I was close enough to the track to see what was happening. It was fun to see the dads working on the cars. The quarter midget racing machine only weighs about 200 pounds. The pit crew literally lifts the car to make an adjustment or repair.
Don’t give up. Hang in there. Patience prevails.
When did the hander’s race begin? 7 p.m. That was SEVEN hours after I had arrived on a bad weather day. Yes, I had been there all day. It was easy to get my four miles of walking completed in this situation!
He came from where?
I think word had spread that a fellow had come from California to see the racing at Honeybrook. Several drivers, crewmembers, and fans came up and said hello. They thanked me for coming. Nice people. One of the fellows who stopped me was midget driver, Tim Buckwalter. Tim finished in the top 10 at the Chili Bowl A main event last year. That’s a big deal for open-wheel drivers.
These guys made it work.
In quarter midget racing it is common for the youngsters to race with their heads tilted to the left to create better balance for the race car. Tonight, in the handler’s race, with the dad’s racing that “head leaning” took on a new meaning. When the dads got in their kid’s car THEIR HEAD WOULD NOT FIT INSIDE THE ROLL CAGE with their race helmets on! To make things work the dads sat in the seat, put their heads outside of the roll cage to the left, and THEN put their helmets on. It was quite the sight!
Thank you Honeybrook Speedway!
When the handler’s race was finished, I was invited to present the awards to the winning drivers. I was in the victory lane photos. Yes, I was the only guy wearing shorts for two reasons. First, I’m from southern California. Second? I don’t know any better. The folks at Honeybrook Speedway even gave me a custom hat commemorating my day at their track.
Don’t miss the video.
Yes! I made a video from my visit to the Honey Brook Speedway. Wanna see it? Click the link below.
Racing from Honey Brook Speedway.
If you get the chance check out my video you’ll see exactly what quarter-midget racing is like. QM racing is always done on small oval tracks. Lap times can be six seconds or less. It’s exciting to see a driver who is five or six years old handling a car around a track that is that tight and that quick at that age.
As I said, I met lots of nice people at the Honeybrook Speedway. I wish them the best and hope that their track continues to race for many years to come. I was happy to be at the track if for no other reason to be able to meet the people.
New Hampshire? No. Pennsylvania? Yes.
The next day, Sunday, the weather forecast again looked bad for the track I wanted to visit in New Hampshire. Later in the day, I would check their Facebook page. I found out that they were actually able to get their racing event in. That surprised me. Maybe I’ll make it up there next year. The threatening weather did save me from making a 14-hour round-trip drive from the Philly area. I guess that was a good thing.
They’ve been doing this right here for 66 years!
As it was, I stopped in Trumbauersville, Pennsylvania at the Oaklane Quarter Midget Speedway. Oaklane has been racing at this location since 1957. Pennsylvania is the most die-hard racing state in the country by my observations. These people eat, sleep, and breathe short-track auto racing.
The drive from where I was staying at the Holiday Inn in Quakertown, Pennsylvania was a short one over to Oaklane. On the way, I stopped at a Wawa gas station and convenience store.
Wawa!
These Wawa stores are located on about every other corner in the general area. They along with a similar outfit called Sheetz have mini- delicatessens built inside their stores. The stores are modern and offer lots of conveniences. Today I ordered breakfast using an electronic kiosk at Wawa. I noticed some people having trouble using the kiosks. I wish the kiosk developers could stand behind the customers using their devices…just one time. The dialog is colorful. I felt pressured to complete my kiosk order so as not to hold up others behind me. Service was slow. The food wasn’t that great. Overall, I was a little disappointed in the entire operation.
Like yesterday, I got over to the Oaklane QM Speedway at about noon. I had a 9 p.m. flight scheduled from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. I hoped they could get their race program done in time for me to make the one-hour drive down to the airport. Then I would fly five hours back home to Los Angeles. This was my main plan. If the plan worked out, I would pull into my driveway at about 4 a.m. on Monday morning Eastern time. I know! The main plan wasn’t that great. That pretty much meant my backup plans were worse!
A huge field of quarter midgets.
The drawback at Oaklane compared to yesterday at Honeybrook was that I couldn’t park close enough to the actual raceway to keep an eye on what was happening. It was a cool day at about 60° with some sun and a pretty good wind. Standing out of those conditions for seven or eight hours is not very comfortable.
I ran into a fellow who was a member of one of the race teams. He seemed to be hooked into the racetrack organization pretty well information-wise. He and some others told me they expected the handler’s race to go off at about 5 p.m. That would give me plenty of time to see that particular race then drive down to the airport and catch a coast-to-coast flight.
Yep. I’ve been doing this for a very long time. These were the tube sock and short shorts days.
I might point out a few important items. I have been doing this “racing thing” for a long time (above about 40 years ago or more talking with the promoter in Hawaii whose track had to cancel because a hurricane had knocked out his electricity three weeks before I arrived). Additionally, I am a gullible person. I WANT to believe people. In my line of work, I run into people who want to give me good information. They just don’t know they are giving me bad information. I also meet people who aren’t all that concerned about providing information and may give bad information for any number of reasons. In racing, if someone says the race will begin at 5 p.m. then you had best plan on the race starting at 7-8 p.m. That’s just the way it is. However, I am like a pet rabbit. I want to believe in the goodness and honesty of people…even if they are carrying a shotgun. Maybe you can see where I’m going with this.
The regular racing for the kids started at around noon and ended at 4:45 p.m. That was fantastic. However, what happened over the next three hours was not so fantastic.
I’m not really the fan most tracks are looking for.
You need to realize something that I mentioned earlier. I am not a great fan prospect at these tracks. I show up for a once-in-a-lifetime visit, in most cases, and stay for three hours. Then I leave and tell you all about the trip and never go back. Racetracks can’t operate with fans like me.
There are no purses but people are spending some big money.
This was the last racing weekend of the year at the Oaklane Quarter Midget Speedway. They probably had 70 or 80 or maybe more cars in the pit area. That was a huge turnout. Many of these little racers were hauled in enclosed trailers by motorhomes longer than most motorhomes probably should be.
Win a pumpkin!
When the kid’s racing did finish at 4:45 p.m. they took their time. The handler’s race was still on, but it was not imminent. Not being “imminent” likely meant I was going to be spending another night on the road. For the longest time, they didn’t do a single thing. Then they announced the winning drivers for every race of the day for every position in every race. The track’s infield was strewn with pumpkins that had been put there on display. They had a drawing from basically the entire entry list of drivers so that everyone was able to select a pumpkin and take it home. I get it. These races are for the kids. As a trackchaser, I was last on the priority list.
These points of recognition and lucky dog drawings and just a general waste of time delayed the handler’s race until three hours after the regular racing had stopped. Randy would not be flying back to SoCal tonight. I’ve seen a few handler’s races. I’ve never seen one where the last race of the day was three hours after the time the main racing finished.
As the time ticked away the opportunity for me to catch my flight diminished until it was no longer an opportunity. That’s the way it is with my hobby at times. I have come to expect these kinds of things.
Was this going to be a “real” race?
The first of the three “handler’s races” was with one of the mothers who had supervised the rookie racers all season long. In this race, there were three 5-year-olds and the mother. Four entries.
I didn’t know if this was going to be a “real race” or not. It certainly met the rules of trackchasing. The mother was over 18 years of age. All I needed to see was a class where the racing was open to people 18 years of age or older.
I had to decide if this was going to be a “real race”. Was the mother just going to horse around and let one of the five-year-olds win? Race officials started the mother at the back of the four-car field. Within three or four laps she had taken the lead.
I said to myself if she wins this race, then it’s a real race because nobody would have a fake race where the mother beats three 5-year-olds. However, in the middle of the race, the starter black-flagged the mother and put her on the tail of the field for no obvious reason. This immediately made me think that this was no longer a real race. They weren’t racing. They were making this seem like a race where in the end one of the kids wins the race. That’s the “Hollywood” way to end the race.
Winner. Winner. Chicken dinner.
However, on the restart, the mother once again passed all the kids and ended up taking the checkered flag. This convinced me that this must be a real race. Who in their right mind would let the mother beat the little kids? The mother took a couple of checkered flag victory laps and pulled into the pit area. That was one strange event.
It almost didn’t matter if this particular race counted or not. There were still going to be two more handlers races after this one. Plus, by this time I had already missed my airplane back to Los Angeles.
Calling all moms.
The next race was a “mom’s race”. There were seven or eight entries in this race. They had a devil of a time starting. They kept driving so slowly on the warm-up laps that the engines died. As soon as they got one or two of them started another one or two stopped running.
For this race, I was standing next to the guy who told me several hours earlier that they would easily get the handler’s races done at a much earlier hour. I asked him if he remembered telling me that. He just looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes, which was about all he could do. I doubt very much that he was returning to California this evening with his race team. Of course, at this point, I wasn’t returning to California either.
That’s gonna leave a mark.
The mom’s race had one very competitive driver and some other drivers who crashed. Other ladies were lapped multiple times. I had no idea if any of these women had an agenda against their fellow competitors. If so, now was the time for payback! There was a very hard crash into the fourth-turn wall. A mother or two was going to be very sore tomorrow.
I had definitely seen a countable race at this stage. I looked over in the hot pit lane. There were only two or three handler’s cars being readied for the final event of the night. At this point, there was no need to stay for whatever that might end up being.
I shouldn’t really complain.
I have to tell you I was pretty well disappointed with how today’s show was run today. I say that from my own selfish perspective. All I wanted to do was show up see one particular race and leave. That really wasn’t what today was all about with the racers, parents, and fans of the Oaklane Quarter Midget Speedway. Don’t worry. I get that.
Best dessert of the year?
The best experience from the entire day? The food! They offered a pumpkin cheesecake enchilada. I had never had one of those. I wasn’t going to pass up my first-ever chance at this delicacy. This treat was outstanding. It was just the dessert to support an outstanding gourmet cheeseburger. There is a silver lining to every cloud, eh?
When it was confirmed that I wasn’t going to catch my original flight back home tonight I made plans for another night’s hotel expense. I wouldn’t get back to Southern California until Monday at noon. That later arrival screwed up my scheduled test drive for the Tesla Model X I was thinking about buying.
My original plan had me returning on Spirit Airlines on Monday morning from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. However, when I didn’t board that plane last Thursday (when the track in Maine postponed their race) that canceled my return flight today, Monday. When it rains it pours!
I won’t. I won’t. I probably will.
I can tell you this. If and when I ever get to 3,000 tracks, I’m at 2,930 right now, I won’t be traveling coast to coast to see handler’s races. I won’t do it.
The longest day?
On Monday I had a 9 a.m. flight. Of course, that’s 6 a.m. California time which was the time zone I was still on since I had only left on this trip on the red-eye flight Friday night. Now, using California times, I woke up at 3 a.m., returned my rental car at 4:30 a.m. boarded my flight at 6 a.m., flew five hours, walked a mile back to my parking garage, and then drove 65 miles on a 14-lane freeway to get home.
Sorry to have to say this. Nobody is ever going to do what I do in trackchasing.
There are numerous reasons why no one has pursued the trackchasing hobby the way I have or ever will. One of those reasons is the daunting travel requirements. That has never bothered me. As a 23-year old I can still remember my very first night of business travel. The company was paying for me to stay in a Holiday Inn. I was in the hotel restaurant enjoying a nice meal fully paid for by the company. I had driven to the hotel in a company car and they were paying for the gas. How great was that? I have never ever gotten tired of travel and to this day still don’t. I must tell you that I enjoyed that very first business meal by myself in that hotel restaurant. At the same time, I am pretty sure during the rest of my 30-year business career I never ever dined at a hotel restaurant by myself again.
Being interviewed by the ever-popular Bennie Bishop in Western Australia.
Randy Lewis
World’s #1 Trackchaser…still trackchasing out of a three-car garage down San Clemente way.