Greetings from Mirabel, Quebec, Canada
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Circuit ICAR – road course short – Lifetime Track #1,757
Circuit ICAR – road course long – Lifetime Track #1,758
THE EVENT “WAS THIS A VISIT TO A GHOST TOWN AIRPORT OR A RACETRACK?” THE KEYS TO THE TRIP . The streak continues. If you take care of the details everything else will take care of itself. If you just listen you will hear some very strange things. GREETINGS FROM MIRABEL, QUEBEC, CANADA PHOTOS! VIDEOS! SEE WHAT I SAW TODAY! IT’S JUST LIKE BEING THERE! . It’s simple. There are three different ways for you to see what I saw today at the races. You can watch a YouTube movie. Secondly, you can see my still photos via YouTube.com. Finally, you can see my still photos by using Picasa. With Picasa you can view the pictures at your own pace or watch them in a slide show produced by Picasa. Pick the method you like best from below. WHO, WHAT, WHY AND WHERE The Plan . The ‘same facility’ trackchasing double. Yesterday we were in Detroit, Michigan and today we were in Montreal, Canada. It’s not often that a trackchaser gets to see racing in one country and the next day in another. The main reason for showing up in the greater Montreal area was the chance to get a “trackchasing double”. There are several types of “doubles”. Today’s was a “same facility” trackchasing double. From time to time one facility will host racing on two different tracks on the same day. Sometimes there will be racing on two different sized ovals often referred to as an inner oval and an outer oval. Another popular same facility double is when there’s racing on an oval and a figure 8 track on the same day. One of the more unusual ‘same facility’ doubles. Today, at the Circuit ICAR, they would have the “Cup Lites” racing on a road course that was quite a bit shorter than the bigger road course where the Canadian Tire NASCAR stock car boys and girls would race. This created the unusual “two road course” same facility trackchasing double. How about a third? We even had an opportunity to see a track near Montreal that evening. However, they were rained out. That didn’t effect my trackchasing rain-free streak though. If I can see a race every day that I go trackchasing that meets my requirement for not being rained out. The streak continues! Today marks one year and one day since my last trackchasing rainout day. For the past 366 days I have seen a new track on every day that I have trackchased. During this streak I have added 101 tracks to my totals without having a single day rained out. That’s not the best I have ever done but it’s pretty good. The Trip . French, French, French. We woke up this morning in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We went to bed in the same hotel in Montreal before returning home to San Clemente on Monday morning. This is what today looked like. Quebec is the only mainly French-speaking province in Canada. Boy, are they strong on French. I think fewer people speak English in Quebec than they do in France! Nevertheless, that doesn’t hold Carol and I back. We marched into this morning’s restaurant with all the confidence in the world. Our confidence might have been shaken a bit when the restaurant’s menu was ONLY in French. Check out our experience in the food section below. After the races…….. I love renting different models of cars. I use these trips to try out various models of cars. There’s nothing like driving a car a long distance to see how you like it. During this trip we rented a downscale Toyota Rav-4 and a Ford Edge SUV. I didn’t like either. My boss used to say ‘if you take care of the details everything else will take care of itself’. When it comes time to return my rental car, National will send me an electronic receipt just seconds after my return is complete. They’ll also give me a hard copy receipt on site. Today, before leaving the car rental area, I checked out my receipt. They had erroneously charged me for two gallons of gas….at a total of $18!! Luckily, my looking at the receipt immediately let me get a corrected total. It reminded me that I need to check these receipts every time I return a car. Terminal F is a bummer in Philly. I’m not a big fan of “Terminal F” at the Philly airport. If you land there and need to connect to another flight in the main terminal then you’re going to have to take a shuttle bus. Alternatively, you can walk but then you’ll have to clear airport security again. Terminal F is mainly used for commuter aircraft. On the other hand the Philly airport, like Cleveland’s, has “street pricing” on their goods and services offered in the airport. You can’t ask for more than that. It doesn’t happen in very many places. The dreaded “SSSS”. When it came time to leave Montreal for first Philadelphia and then Los Angeles I noticed a problem with my boarding pass. It had the dreaded “SSSS” printed on it. I knew what that meant. It meant I would have to have “enhanced” security when heading to the airplane. This is a random thing. Carol didn’t have this restriction. I sent her on her way to the plane and “took my medicine”. Nevertheless, traveling has never been easier for me. Over the years, I have used “continuous improvement” strategies to anticipate and eliminate problems. While traveling frustrates many it doesn’t bother me at all. Observations Progress often saves you money. Progress! I love it. When I first started doing this a simple single photograph cost nearly fifty (fitty?) cents, and sometimes more. Now I can take all the pictures I want for free. I use rechargeable batteries in my camera. If I didn’t it would cost $4-6 dollars USD for every 300-400 pictures I took. I carry two rechargeable batteries. They cost about $15 each. They essentially last forever. I’ve had to replace only one of them. Why? I lost it! “My” Lexus now lives in Honolulu with a new paint job and master – son Jim. A very satisfied customer. I drive a 2004 model car. We bought it new nearly eight years ago. It’s got 116,000 miles on it. Most people, who buy new cars, would replace it after eight years. However, I am satisfied with the car for two reasons. First, it performs about 95% as well as the day I drove it off the showroom even after eight years of use. Secondly, since we purchased that car I rented well over 300 cars. That’s given me plenty of variety so when I get home it’s almost as if I’m driving my own car for the first time. If you listen you will hear some very strange things. You can’t believe everything you hear. Today the rental car bus driver was telling his customers this tale. He said that if someone has had a “radio isotope” stress test in the past 48 hours they won’t be able to clear the metal detectors at the airline security checkpoint. That can’t be true can it? I’ll be swatting those summer tourists like flies for the next three months. I’m just beginning the long June-August trackchasing trail. I’ll do a lot of traveling during the time. Flights were wide open on this trip. However, as the summer grinds on that will change and getting on flights jammed with summer tourists will be difficult. Then after Labor Day flights will open up. However, that when UCLA football season opens up and tracks begin to close for the season. ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL . Bar Le Casino De Mirabel – Mirabel, Quebec, Canada There was a lunch break at the track today. We had an option of eating at the track or venturing off-site. With a nice “window of opportunity” I decided it would be better to eat off-site from the Circuit ICAR. I had “Garth”, my friendly GPS buddy, do a quick search on nearby places to eat. A “Sonic Drive-In” was listed. We certainly didn’t come to Quebec to eat at a Sonic (although I generally like Sonic). However, I figured there would be other more local places near to wherever the Sonic Drive-In might be. That line of thinking turned out to be erroneous. The Sonic Drive-In Garth took us to was a gas station! We ventured on and came across the Bar Le Casino De Mirabel. We picked it for two reasons. It wasn’t a chain or if it was it wasn’t a chain we were familiar with. Secondly, the parking lot was packed. That had to be a good sign on a late Sunday morning. When we entered we found virtually no English being spoken. The menu was only in French. However, our friendly server tried to help us in broken English. I LOVE these kinds of situations. You can learn so much. I selected the “Le Supreme”. Soon I was dining on a breakfast of 2 oeufs, 1 crepe ou 1 pain dore, bacon, jambon, Saucisses, feves au lard, creton et petit, jus d’orange! Want to know what all that was? Check out the pictures! Buffet Fu Lam Wok & Grill – Montreal, Quebec, Canada Fu Lam (yes, this is a link!) This was a rare find. I’ve eaten in my share of Chinese food buffets. Most aren’t very good especially those in the Midwest. Remember, I’m from the Midwest. Tonight’s restaurant was HUGE! They served everything that any Chinese restaurant would offer plus sushi and Mongolian BBQ wok cooking. Again it was mostly French speaking but we didn’t starve to death because of the language barrier. Did we overeat? You’ll have to ask Carol about her behavior but I know I did! Don’t miss the pictures. This will probably be the “Buffet of the Year” since I don’t go to many buffets. RACE REVIEW Circuit ICAR – Mirabel, Quebec, Canada This was one strange looking airport. Today’s racing took place at the Montreal-Mirabel International Airport. The airport was built in 1975. When it was built it had the largest surface area of any airport in the world. In 1989 some 81,000 of the original 98,000 acres of airport property were deeded back to their owners. Now the Mirabel airport is used predominantly for air cargo. The former passenger terminal apron is now the Circuit ICAR racecourse. I guess things didn’t go as planned. The Mirabel airport was intended to replace Montreal’s Dorval airport. From 1975 to 1997 all international flights were required to use Mirabel. That means that during my business career I flew into Mirabel although I don’t recall it. Mirabel’s distant location made it unpopular with travelers. The airport has now become an embarrassment and within Canada is known as a “boondoggle” or “white elephant”. Luckily for my trackchasing hobby this white elephant is also the site of today’s trackchasing double. A big in’ and a little in’. Today we would see racing on two different sized road courses. The first was for the “Cup Lites” class. This class is sometimes called “mini-cup”. Some 10-12 of these cars raced on the “short” course. I never did find out how “short” it was. Nevertheless, it was considerably shorter than the reported 2.11 mile course that the NASCAR Canadian Tire stockers used in the afternoon. The grandstands were sets of bleachers some 15 rows high. Overall, for such a major Canadian NASCAR event there wasn’t a very big crowd although the small seating capacity was almost completely filled up. The Cup Lites raced in the morning. Before and after their race we toured the pit area. It was fun to see the NASCAR stock cars going through tech inspection. This is a rather rigorous endeavor. You won’t want to miss the pictures. The main event. The main event of the day was the 31-lap, one hour and twelve minute race for some 25 Canadian NASCAR stock cars. I saw this group race last summer for a big Wednesday night show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The cars are dead ringers for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup division. Andrew Ranger a famous Canadian driver won today’s feature event with the less than spectacular average speed of 54.3 M.P.H. Of course the race was slowed by several yellow flag incidents (4 for 10 laps). Overall, this was not the most compelling racing I had ever seen. The wind blew strongly and it was cool. However, this being a road course event I was pretty sure they would not cancel if it rained. It didn’t. I spent a good deal of the day just people watching. Not this time but at least I know where the track’s at now. Later in the evening we attempted to see some racing at the RPM Speedway. This was a difficult track to find. Without a working cell phone or internet connection it was impossible to use those machines to see if the track had cancelled. Nevertheless, we had the time and decided to drive on out to the rural track. The track’s management had invited us to be their guests. We’ll have to take them up on their offer at some future date. PROVINCE COMPARISONS Quebec La Belle Province This afternoon I saw my 19th and 20th lifetime tracks in Quebec, the La Belle Province, yes the La Belle Province. I still have nearly 50 tracks to see up here. That group is a mixture of ice tracks, ovals and “one-off” racetracks. The language barrier (French) prevents me from better understanding the opportunities in Quebec. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! Do some trackchasers carry an unfair geographical advantage? Should foreign trackchasers be given a handicap so they can enjoy the fruits of trackchasing glory? 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 Quebec sayings: La rondelle ne roule pas pour lui. The puck isn’t going his way. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Detroit, MI (DTW) – 1,962 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Detroit Metro Airport – trip begins Detroit, MI – 19 miles Detroit Metro Airport – 44 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE Detroit, MI (DTW) – Philadelphia, PA (PHL) – 452 miles Philadelphia, PA (PHL) – Montreal, Canada – 392 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport – trip begins Mirabel, Quebec, Canada – 42 miles Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International – 373 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE Montreal, Canada – Philadelphia, PA (PHL) – 392 miles Philadelphia, PA (PHL) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 2,390 miles Total air miles – 5,588 (5 flights) Total rental car miles – 417 (2 cars) Total miles traveled on this trip – 6,005 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix – Free! (tickets from a fellow spectator) Circuit ICAR – $35 Canadian Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $35 Canadian 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. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 9 countries of 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 a full day of road racing and dining from Montreal: A very full day of Montreal racing and touring 
