Caroga Lake Ice Track

Editor’s note:  I wanted to thank and congratulate the Thunder Bay Ice Racing group up in Canada.  On February 16, 2013 they held the “1^st Annual Ed Esser Memorial race.  Peter Dumoulin was kind enough to send along two YouTube videos of the event.  Please take a look at this most kind gesture from the location where Ed saw his 1,430^th and final track.

Editor’s note:  Don’t miss my brief review of my visit to the East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Florida at the bottom of this report.  Tracks that I am re-visiting don’t normally rate their own report so I’ll give them a mention next to the Trackchaser Report where I last trackchased.

THE KEYS TO THE TRIP

 Do you ever leave for vacation without a clear idea on where you are going?……………more in “The Plan”.

You can’t pick your family or your airline seat mate………………more in “Observations”.

Everything was just perfect at East Bay except maybe the most important thing…………..details in “Race Review”.

Do you ever leave on vacation with no real idea where you are going?

I really had no idea where I would be trackchasing today (Sunday) when I finished up in Houston, Texas yesterday.  I know that might be hard to believe but it is the absolute truth.  I did know that today’s race would be in a cold climate though.

It is rare for me to ever travel out of the west to see just one track.  I’m into “trackchasing efficiency”.  I would rather take ONE trip to see TWO tracks that take two trips to see two tracks.  I figure if I see two tracks in one weekend then I can use that second weekend for something totally unrelated to trackchasing while my fellow competitors are spending nearly all of their weekends chasing tracks.  Make sense?

Lots of choices.

For this trip I had five choices for a Sunday trackchasing visit.  All of those tracks were planning to race on snow and/or ice.  However, the unpredictable winter weather was “messing with me”.

My New Hampshire track cancelled early when record snowfalls came pounding in on Friday.  A Minnesota track on my radar screen raced on Saturday (while I was in Texas) but cancelled their Sunday show when freezing rain came in.

The two tracks I could see in New York didn’t confirm they had beaten the snowstorm until late Saturday afternoon.  That didn’t give me much time to add either of them to the plan.  My final choice, in Ontario, Canada, appeared to be racing from what their website told me.  However, I would always rather get to talk to a real person before traveling hundreds of miles only to find out the track website was not current and they were not racing.

Once I did zero in on one track I would need to have a travel plan.  Once I started heading toward the track of my choosing there would be no time to “switch” if things didn’t work out.  I was concerned about my weather related “streak” being broken this weekend.  I was doing my best to prevent that from happening.

I was going to Canada. 

I woke up this morning in Albany, New York.  Somewhat surprisingly I went to bed in Tampa, Florida for the next two nights.  Then after four nights on the road I headed back to San Clemente, California.

As I headed toward the Houston airport on Saturday evening I had made an executive decision.  I was going to trackchase in Canada on Sunday.  I had just received my U.S. passport back in the mail two days ago.  It was sporting a brand new visa for country #64.  I couldn’t wait to make that trip but I had to finish up this one first.

Flight schedules are the sparsest on Saturdays and particularly Saturday evenings.  Business people don’t usually travel over the weekend.  Traveling on a Saturday is a major no-no for most corporate folks.  Leisure travellers want to leave on Friday (after work) and return on Sunday (so they can get back to work on Monday).  That leaves airports looking like a ghost town on Saturdays relatively speaking.

However, I soon found out I was too late to get a flight to Toronto from Houston.  The best I could do was standby for a flight to Detroit.  From there I could make the six-hour drive into rural Canada during the winter and BEGINNING at about midnight!  That was the BEST plan I could come up with.  I would land at 11 p.m. on Saturday.  Ontario’s racing was to begin just 14 hours later.  During that time I would need to rent a car, clear the Canadian border and drive at least six hours.  I figured I could drive overnight stopping whenever I got a bit drowsy.  It never occurred to me that I could have simply taken a late Saturday night Houston flight back home to Los Angeles.

That was one other minor problem with the flight to Detroit.  It’s capacity was 72 people.  They had sold 73 tickets.  Luckily I was the only standby passenger for this flight.  If I made it the travel itinerary listed above was my plan.  If I didn’t make it then I would be stranded in the Houston airport with nowhere else to go for the weekend.

Wait!  I’m no longer going to Canada.

When I arrived at the airport I checked the airlines departure “boards”.  They are really not boards but huge video screens that list all of the airport’s departures and arrivals.  I wanted to see what other flights were still available in addition to my flight to Detroit.

That’s when I discovered a flight to New York’s LaGuardia airport.  I was surprised that flight wasn’t cancelled as nearly 100% of yesterday’s New York flights had been because of the snowstorm.  With the LaGuardia flight I might be able to make it to one of the New York tracks without driving overnight like the Canada plan dictated.

Further checking told me I could get a seat a bit easier to New York than Detroit.  I switched plans just 40 minutes before flight time.  The new plan would have me landing in New York at about 11 p.m.  I would rent a car and drive three hours upstate to the capital of New York, Albany.

That’s exactly what I did.  When I arrived at the Motel 6 in Albany at nearly 3 a.m. my rental car thermometer read 7 degrees.  That was chilly.  I looked down at my knobby knees.  I was still wearing my cargo shorts from this afternoon’s racing in much warmer Texas.  Yikes!

Following today’s races……

Why not stop in Florida for a day on the way home?

There was no way I could get back to California following today’s ice racing in upstate New York.  The best I could do was get back home on Monday.  That gave me an idea.  Why not jet down to Florida to catch a day of SpeedWeeks and get back home a day later on Tuesday?  That seemed like a wonderful idea.  I haven’t been to Florida for the popular SpeedWeeks races in a long time.

The Lucas Oil Late Model stock cars were racing at the East Bay Raceway near Tampa.  The weather was going to be warm, and surprisingly I could likely catch a flight down there and then back home with little hassle.  This was perfect.

Before I became the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” I was a racechaser.  I went to lots of races without a care in the world about whether I had been to the track before.  As a racechaser I went to the track to see the races not simply to add a new track to my “resume”.

How big of a “racechaser” was I?  Well, my next visit to East Bay will be my 22^nd.  That’s not bad considering I live nearly 3,000 miles from the track.  East Bay Raceway Park is one of my top ten favorite tracks.  It’s a tacky third-mile clay oval with just a little bit of banking.  I’ve seen cars come from the back to win the feature.  I’ll tell you a little bit about my visit to East Bay in the “Race Review” section.

People are resilient.

When I landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport two things surprised me.  First, with the storm of the century or something like that hitting just yesterday afternoon the roads were already bone dry.  I think New York City got 9” of snow while a little further north in Connecticut and New Hampshire snowfall was measured in FEET.  With the dry roads the horrendous condition of the New York streets could not have been more evident.

I am amazed at the amount of diversity in all manner of things we have in America.  One of those differences is country’s geographical diversity.  Upstate New York could not be any more different than where I live in sunny Southern California.

This afternoon I was in Caroga Lake, New York.  The temperature was in the low twenties.  The lake had 15” of ice or so and was covered in 6-8” of snow.  That didn’t stop the locals from having fun that was consistent with their climate.  I saw people riding snowmobiles, skating on an area of the lake that have been cleared of snow and ice fishing.  People are a resilient bunch.  They make do with what God sends their way.  Good on them.

Behind the times but quaint just the same.

In some ways upstate New York is way behind the times.  In other ways it’s a most quaint and lovely little place.  I can only imagine the maintenance required to keep these 100-year old homes going.  When I travel in the Northeast and New England I see some of the most rundown homes, maintenance wise of anywhere in the country.

On the other hand there’s a “Norman Rockwell” painting awaiting the observant traveller around every corner.  This part of the country is beautiful in the summer.  It might be just as pretty under snow cover during the winter.

You can’t pick your family or your airline seatmate.

On the flight down to Tampa I was seated next to a portly gentleman.  He must have easily weighed 250 pounds.  He was wearing a thick and bulky leather jacket.  This bulked him up to the equivalent of about 280.  Being the ever so pleasant traveling companion when I slid into my seat (what was left of it) I asked, “Wanna but your jacket overhead?”. Without looking up he grunted, “No I’ll keep it on”.

Battling the traveling public is a chore.  If you’re going to do it you had better have a positive attitude.  I prefer people who don’t “impact” others when they travel.  I can’t stand “loud talkers” or people who impinge upon my space with their bodies or personal conversations.  You would think people would be on their best behaviour when they traveled.  When I see wives sniping at husbands, or vice versa in the airport I can only imagine what it is like at home.

When you’re in L.A. don’t miss this place!

J.J. – Yelp expert.

ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL

Cacao Mexicatessen – Los Angeles, California

On the way home from this trip I stopped in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock where son J.J. lives.  He’s in the middle of a major home remodel project and I wanted to see how things were going.  We would also have the chance for lunch.

The neighborhoods of L.A. are chock full of hundreds of little “hole in the wall” ethnic restaurants.  My iPhone app Yelp! helps me a lot here.  However, our kids and J.J. today now where all the good places are where they live.

Today’s “Mexican like” restaurant was one of the best little places I’ve ever visited.  I hope you’re keeping a diary of the places I recommend.  If so, you’re going to be in for some very good eating.

Today’s special for me was a 6-ounce rib eye steak, lots of full green onions and French fries smothered in garlic.  Unless you’ve been to this place I doubt you can imagine the presentation.  Don’t miss the pictures.

Racing action on Caroga Lake.

CAROGA LAKE ICE TRACK – CAROGO LAKE, NEW YORK 

It was a beautiful day on the ice for a good ice racing show.

Today’s ice racing was being promoted by the AMEC Ice Racing group.  I can’t ever recall seeing an AMEC show before.  I probably have not.  This was only my second New York based ice race, the other being on Honeoye Lake back in 2006.

I will tell you that I was most impressed with the AMEC show.  Why?  Mainly because they had a huge turnout of racecars.  I’m guessing around 40 competitors showed up for just their second race of the 2013 season.  New York is sort of on the “ice” border.  It’s far enough south to create unsafe ice racing conditions (they need about 15” of ice) which ends up cancelling many of the their shows in recent years.

From the AMEC website come some background info on this long-running and famous ice racing club:

The Adirondack Motor Enthusiast Club (A.M.E.C.) Celebrates its 59th anniversary this year. We have also completed our 48th year of ice racing. A.M.E.C. Ice Racing is the safest and most inexpensive form of road racing available today. We race 6 classes of cars on approximately .75 to 1.9 mile road courses on frozen lakes in northeastern NY from mid January until early March. All regular classes run on purpose built studded ice racing tires.  We also have the Bridgestone sponsored “Street Legal” classes, which use the studless Bridgestone Blizzak  winter tires. The Street Legal Unstudded [SL] class is for 2WD cars and the [SL4] class is for 4WD and AWD cars. We also have a studded tire Street Legal Class for both 2WD and 4WD/AWD using only the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 tires. Normal turnout is 60 to 80 entries. The Menard classes run from mild to wild–from under 1500cc box stock cars to custom designed tube frame cars with up to 5.8 liter (358ci.) engines that are capable of running well over 100 mph.

Without a P.A. system it was difficult to tell exactly what type of race I was seeing.  Most ice tracks don’t have much in the way of track announcing.  That’s too bad.  Fans want to know if they are watching a heat race or a feature race and what classes of cars are racing.

Today, like I almost always do, I drove my National Rental Car Racing Hyundai Sonata onto the frozen lake.  I’ve seen nearly 50 ice tracks.  It’s much better to park on the ice.   One of the main advantages is being able to watch the racing from the car if necessary.  On a zero degree day with a 25 M.P.H. wind trust me that’s an ADVANTAGE.

However, today the temperature was about 25 degrees with no wind and lots of sun.  It wasn’t cold at all.  The group was racing on a road course that I would guess was about a mile in length.  I took photos of just about every racer at the track today.  Take a look to see what they were racing.  It surprised me and it might surprise you too.

100 M.P.H. racing on ice!

The “stars” of the show were the modifieds.  These looked like the famous D.I.R.T. mods that run all over the northeast during the summer.  There were only about five of them but they reached speeds in excess of 100 M.P.H. down the long front straight.

There were several sports cars powered by four and six-cylinder engines.  Surprisingly, there were several street cars that looked as if their owner’s had driven them to the track today.  One guy even had a good-looking BMW Z3 convertible (he kept the top up!) on the track.  I’m sure more than one insurance agent has received a call on Monday morning requesting a repair quote from one of these races!

People were out on the lake just as if (sort of) it was 80 degrees in July.

There was lots of activity on this warmish winter day other than ice racing.  The main activity seemed to be ice fishing.  I talked with several fishermen and nobody seemed to be catching anything.  At least they looked like they were having fun.

I didn’t have any idea I was coming here until a few minutes before my flight from Houston last night.  It’s this last minute decision-making that I find most interesting and enjoyable.  If and when the day comes that my airline sponsorships change this form of trackchasing for me will go away.  I intend to enjoy it for as long as I can.

Don’t miss the race video and pictures from today’s event.

EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – GIBSONTON, FLORIDA

This was not my first East Bay rodeo.

Of course, I was not visiting the East Bay Raceway Park for the first time.  Although my last visit was in 2003 tonight would mark my 22^nd lifetime visit to “East Bay”.  I’ve been down here with Carol, my stepfather Bill and long-time buddy Jim Sabo.  Some of the coldest nights I’ve ever spent at a racetrack have been right here.

As a trackchaser I am one of the few who will travel long distances to go back again and again to a favorite track.  I don’t mind people who abhor racechasing in pursuit of trackchasing.  However, it’s a bit much when some trackchasers call themselves racechasers and they are not.

I don’t get to many of my top ten most favorite tracks anymore.

East Bay is one of my top ten most favorite racetracks out of the 1,819 I have seen.  The track is a slightly banked one-third mile dirt oval.  It doesn’t get dusty, the track stays tacky.  I’ve seen sprints and late models here almost always during Florida SpeedWeeks in February.

Nearly perfect but not quite.

Tonight’s program was nearly perfect except on one-major account.  The program had just one class, super late models.  That was good.  There was a strong P.A. system with a good announcer.  They started on time.  That was good.  They ran time trials for the 42 racers on hand tonight.  I’m not a big fan of time trials.  However, they ran three cars “on the clock” at the same time.  That was good.  Time trials were finished in about fifteen minutes.

The race program called for four heats, two “B” mains, a non-qualifiers trophy dash and a 25-lap feature race.  I sat next to racechaser Dave Garrison who was nice enough to save me a seat and even bring me a seat cushion.  You can’t beat that for hospitality.  The program took it’s final checkered flag at 9:20 p.m.  That was VERY good.

Heck, the lighting was perfect.  The concessions were way above average.  They even had strawberry shortcake (my favorite) and completely dipped and smothered in chocolate key lime pie.

Here’s what wasn’t perfect.  As a matter of fact it was very imperfect.

“But Randy, this program seemed to offer all of the things you’ve told us you want in a good racing program for all these many years.  You said it was ‘nearly perfect’.  What didn’t you like?”, the curious reader might be heard to ask.

There was very little passing for the lead in any of the main races.  The fastest four cars in time trials started on the pole of each heat race.  In three of the heat races the pole-sitter led every lap in the heat race.  In the other heat the pole-sitter hit a rut while leading and the second starting car got by for the win.

In the feature event the four heat winners started on the first two rows.  Dennis Erb Jr. and Scott Bloomquist started on the front row of the “A” main and finished “1-2” with Erb winning.

As a matter of fact, Dennis Erb Jr. set fast time.  Then he won his heat from the pole putting him on the front row of the feature.  Then he led ever lap of the “A” feature for the win.  Mr. Erb won “everything” tonight collecting $5,000 for his feature win.  Here’s the kicker.  Dennis Erb Jr. did not have to pass a SINGLE car for position all night.  That is bad!

I will tell you this.  There was some hellacious driving, side by side, back in the pack.  That’s what saved the program.  I will admit the cars are very evenly matched.  This is why the “cars and stars” of the program put pressure on the event promoters to let the fast timers start up front.  The people with the best equipment normally get the best drivers.  That combination with time trials puts the fast guys up front.  From there it is nearly a “no-brainer” for them to mash the gas and win from the front row.  That is the single more irritating thing I find about the major late model and sprint car shows.

STATE COMPARISONS

New York

The Empire State

This afternoon I saw my 62nd lifetime track in the Empire state, yes the Empire state.  Nobody in the world has seen this many tracks in such a confined area that far from where they live.  I like it that way.

There are still some fifty tracks for me to see in New York.  However, not a SINGLE one of them is a regularly scheduled weekly oval track.  There are a bunch of figure 8 tracks, kart tracks, road courses of varying varieties and the like.  Nevertheless, I’ll be back.  I like New York. 

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

New York sayings: You Have the Right to Remain Silent, You Have the Right to an Attorney…and No Right to Self Defense

Caroga Lake ice racing….and touring!

TRAVEL DETAILS

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Houston, TX (IAH) – 1,382 miles

RENTAL CAR #1 

George Bush (Houston) Intercontinental Airport – trip begins

Pasadena, TX

George Bush (Houston) Intercontinental Airport – 108 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

Houston, TX (IAH) – New York, NY (LGA) – 1,416 miles

RENTAL CAR #1 

New York LaGuardia Airport – trip begins

Caroga Lake, NY

New York LaGuardia Airport – 415 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

New York, NY (LGA) – Tampa, FL (TPA) – 1,020 miles

RENTAL CAR #3

Tampa-St. Petersburg International Airport – trip begins

Gibsonton, Florida

Tampa-St. Petersburg International Airport – 117 miles – trip ends

AIRPLANE

Tampa, FL (TPA) – Los Angeles, CA – 2,158 miles

Total air miles – 5,976 (4 flights)

Total rental car miles – 642 (3 cars)

Total miles traveled on this trip – 6,618 miles 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Pasadena Expo Center – $10

Caroga Lake Ice Track – No charge

East Bay Raceway – $35 – Not a trackchasing expense

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $10

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 300 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,814

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 63

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.08

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report