Reprinted with permission from my January 15, 2005 Trackchaser Report

 

 

Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky

 

 

 

 

 

PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS

 

I had not meant to go trackchasing this weekend.  I had not meant to go to the airport this weekend.  I had not meant to rent a car this weekend.  I had not meant to stay in a motel this weekend.  I had meant to spend the entire weekend reading Dr. Suez books.

 

 

However, on Wednesday of this week, I was sitting in my office gazing out at the Pacific Ocean.  There had been some 2,000 emails building up since I returned from Australia that needed to be cleaned up.

 

 

One of the emails was from fellow trackchaser, Guy Smith, announcing an indoor event in Louisville, Kentucky.  Guy’s communication was part of a newfound “nice personism” being adopted by the entire (I hope) trackchasing community.  I call it the Trackchaser Freedom of Information Act.  We are attempting to get everyone who finds a race date to share it publicly with our group.  According to his email, I could see both an oval track and a figure 8 track at Freedom Hall in Louisville this Saturday night.  A quick check of my Palm Pilot told me their were no UCLA basketball games this coming weekend, a quick check of my left shoulder told me there would not be any golf this weekend.  Additionally Carol and I did not have any pressing social engagements.

 

 

In fact, our two-foot high family Christmas tree still stands in its same position as before we left for Australia on Christmas Eve.  This is the exact tree I purchased at Wal-Mart for less than $25 while we lived in a small condo when our new house was being built.  That price even included the lights, ornaments and the icicles.  I don’t know what else I have to do, to prove that we are indeed pensioners living on a small fixed income.  We haven’t even had time to open our Christmas presents. They still sit under the tree and will until I return from this trip.

 

 

 

When I told Carol about Guy’s email, she went into a questioning mode.  “He’s being nice to you?  Why’s he being nice to you?  You won’t let them go near your rental car will you?  They might put sugar in the gas tank.”  Carol likes to ask me multiple questions at one time.  Sometimes I get confused and cannot remember the first questions when a long series of queries ensues.  No, I told her, Guy and his friends are going to a race in Canada.

 

 

Anyway, I saw Guy’s message and thought, “What if?”  What if I could fly to Louisville on Saturday morning, see the race and be back by Sunday.  Carol would hardly miss me.  The first part of the trip started to take shape when I checked my favorite on-line travel agent and found I could fly round-trip to the area for just $164.  Heck, I paid $185 for my first car, a 1955 Pontiac Chieftan.  One hundred sixty-four dollars seemed like a pittance for such a trip.  Wait!  Just to be a little more accurate is this description.  My parents paid $185 for the Pontiac Chieftain.  It had the same paint scheme as the picture above.

 

 

Of course, there were a couple of strings attached.  There always are.  First, the $164 fare would not get me into the area on Saturday until 8 p.m.  That would be too late to see the race.  I would also have to fly into Cincinnati not Louisville.  Cincinnati is 107 miles north of Louisville.  However, if I went in on Friday not Saturday I could still get the low airfare, I would just have to pay for an extra day’s rental car and motel.  Heck, that wouldn’t cost too much.

 

 

In the flash of an eye, I was booked into Cincinnati (CVG) for a non-refundable fare of $164.  National Rental Car would allow me to drive one of their brand new automobiles for only $17.99 a day.  The city of Cincinnati would charge me a few different taxes so they could build a sports stadium for their local teams.  What the heck the folks back in SoCal do the same thing to Cincinnatians when they come to see Disneyland.  I was also able to get a special internet fare at the Motel 6 in Florence, Kentucky for $31.49 (regular rate was $32.99).  What a savings huh?  That Tom Bodette is a generous fellow. I was sitting pretty.

 

 

I went back to the computer.  There were several more posts from different trackchasers regarding the 2005 season and another event happening this weekend in London, Ontario, Canada.  This was the event that several eastern-based trackchasers were planning to attend.  Will White is on a quest to maintain his Canadian trackchaser dominance even though he lives in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.  This Canadian track would help him meet his objective.

 

 

My Louisville race is on Saturday. My non-refundable ticket deposits me back in Los Angeles on Sunday.  It was a great plan until………….I came across an email from Wisconsin’s Ed Esser.  Ed made a reference to an indoor race in DuQuoin, Illinois on Sunday afternoon.  DuQuoin was just six hours driving time from Louisville.  In trackchaser parlance, that’s just over the hill and around the bend.

 

 

I had a new plan.  I would simply call up United Airlines and change my ticket so I could stay an extra day and go to that DuQuoin race on Sunday.  I might have to pay a change fee of $100, but that’s the price of being uninformed.  When I called United a rather sullen reservations agent informed me that because I had such a low initial fare I would have to pay $463 to make the change I wanted.  He told me this in a very calm voice that indicated that either he didn’t know how much $463 really was or he didn’t care that it was me and not him that would be charged $463.

 

 

That dog wouldn’t hunt.  However, I can’t fly to the Midwest in the middle of January and bypass a track just six hours away.  If you don’t know it by now, I don’t give up.  There must be another way.  How about finding a one-way fare on Monday from Cincinnati to Los Angeles (LAX).  After some digging around, the best I could do was a $214 fare from CVG to LAX.  There were lower round-trip fares back to LAX from nearby Dayton, Ohio, but the rental car drop fees were outrageously high.  The rental car companies are very generous in letting you drive their cars for almost nothing. However, those stinkers (a phrase my mother loved to use) want you to bring the car back to them rather than some other place where I might like to leave it.

 

 

So I was into the airfare for $378. I would now need three nights of motels and three nights of rental cars instead of two. It wasn’t as good a deal, as it started out to be, but still not that bad for getting three tracks.  I looked in my money clip and the contents were a little slim from entertaining Carol in Australia.

 

 

I made a quick trip to our local ATM.  When I arrived, my card was denied.  Had it taken this long for the bank to catch onto our check writing scam?  I went inside the bank and was told my ATM card had lost its magnetism.  Those damn Aussies!  I would have to call the CitiBank 24/7 customer service line to order a new one.

 

 

In seemingly no time, I was on the phone with an agent whose name was Tony.  Tony did not have an Italian accent.  He had an Indian accent.  I asked him where he was working.  He told me the office was near Bombay, India.  OK, “Tony”, here’s the deal; I need a new ATM card.  He was very efficient and told me a new card would wing its way to San Clemente is just a few days.

 

 

Before we hung up, Tony noticed I did not have a CitiBank savings account.  Tony, most people who go to 127 tracks in one year don’t have a savings account!

 

 

 

Editor’s note: You’ll probably have to hear me refer to the “127 tracks in one year” for a while until I get it out of my system. Carol stills calls me, “Mr. 68” around the house in honor of my record golf round last July.  That’s a lot better than being called, “Mr. 127” by my golf buddies.

 

 

Anyway, Tony had noticed I didn’t have a savings account.  He went on to tell me that if I saved $10 per week for all 52 weeks in a year, at the end of the year I would have $520……..plus interest.  Yes, CitiBank was willing to pay me interest while they loaned out my money to some other poor slob who also didn’t have a savings account, but would have to pay four times the interest to CitiBank that CitiBank wanted to pay me.

 

 

I told Tony that although saving money was a good idea, I didn’t want to open an account.  As soon as I got off the phone with him, I immediately brought out my HP F16A financial calculator.  You know, Tony was right.  If I saved $10 a week, in just 52 weeks I would have $520.

 

 

Now before you think I blow money like a drunken sailor on this trackchasing stuff, let me explain.  I’ve been accused by some of dominating the hobby just because I am willing to spend some money to travel the country and the world in search of new tracks.  Some have even called me the “George Steinbrenner” of trackchasing.  I was listening to David Letterman interview former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani last week and they both said they like Steinbrenner spending a lot of money to get a wining team.  This proves you can’t please everybody.  Nevertheless, I prefer being the “Rick Hendrick” of trackchasing and Andy Sivi, who’s probably richer than any other trackchaser, being the “Junie Donleavy of trackchasing”.

 

 

Actually, Carol and I started out with no money whatsoever. We paid for our own wedding, which cost about $500. Carol organized it all, while I was in Marine Corps boot camp.  When I returned from training, I got a job with Richardson-Vicks that would someday become part of Procter & Gamble.  I remember when we had my boss over for dinner the first time.  Our dining room table was a folding card table that Carol had cleverly disguised with a nice looking tablecloth.  We got our china one piece at a time.  Sort of how Johnny Cash got his car, but we didn’t steal it.  It’s the same china, some 33 years later that the Eckels enjoyed pumpkin pie on this past Thanksgiving Day.  Bruce and Pat, we’ve taken pretty good care of that china, wouldn’t you say?

 

 

The bank would give us a different dish every time we deposited $25. It took a lot of deposits to get a place setting for eight including the gravy bowl and butter plate.  Actually, I think we had to make a $35 deposit to get the gravy bowl.  When we returned from our honeymoon (driving to Florida for a few days), we bought a mattress.  But we couldn’t afford the box springs or headboard.  We slept on that mattress with it being on the floor for more than six months before we could afford the rest of the bed.

 

 

Somehow, with some good fortune and gaining financial ground the good old American way, I worked for it, we prospered.  We raised three very intelligent and resourceful children who do not need to depend on us for money.  So, if anyone resents the fact that I can afford to pay $164 or even $378 for that matter to fly out to see some guy race a beat up old car around a makeshift figure 8 track, I’ll use a phrase I’ve heard Guy Smith use, “That’s bullshit!”  Nevertheless, I don’t say that with any negative feelings in my heart, but with a simple reassuring smile.

 

 

 

JUST A LITTLE MORE TRAVEL NEWS

Remember, you are getting the Trackchaser Report for a very reasonable price, so don’t complain about the length of these reports.  There’s a lot to mention to keep you fully informed.

 

 

Traveling from LAX just got a little more comfortable.  I used to park in Lot C at LAX.  This is a 2,000-space parking lot.  You park your car, and then wait several minutes for a shuttle bus.  The shuttle bus then takes you to the central building of Lot C where you then get off the first shuttle bus and onto a second shuttle bus.  This second bus does not depart for the airport until every seat is occupied and every standing room position is filled. Once there is absolutely no more space to cram even a newborn infant the bus departs for the airport.  The trip back to Loc C on the return trip is even more time consuming as the bus unloads at more than twenty locations.

 

 

Son, J.J., gave me a heads up on a new parking location.  I’m always glad to see when our investment in UCLA tuition is repaid to dear old dad.  The new parking garage is called The Parking Spot.  I now have a Parking Spot credit card.  I drive into the parking garage, insert my credit card, and am immediately recognized.  They provide free bottled water at the shuttle bus stop.  The shuttle bus is rarely crowded, the driver helps with the bags and would you believe they play classical music on the brand new shuttles?  And, believe it or not, with the discount I get through J.J., the price is the same as Lot C. Good job J.J.!

 

 

On this trip I’m connecting into Chicago’s O’Hara airport and then onto Cincinnati.  I’ve flown into or out of O’Hara a million times.  No, that can’t be right.  I’ve flown into or out of O’Hara two million times.  The first time I ever flew into O’Hara was for an interview with the Playtex Company.  The round-trip fare from Peoria, Illinois was $44.  Playtex was supposed to reimburse me for all of my travel expenses.  They were really slow in re-paying us and we needed the money.  Finally, Carol sent a letter to the President of Playtex.  We were paid that week!  I’m sure the District Manager who interviewed me paid every future interviewee a little quicker after that episode. Good job Carol!

 

 

By the way, since this all happened some 33 years ago, I can share some financial details.  Playtex offered me the job for a starting salary of $8,000, a company car and bonus.  Richardson-Vicks offered me $8,500, a car and bonus.  When I told Playtex that I was taking the Vicks job, they countered with a salary increase to $9,000. Too late.  I was going to Richardson-Vicks in what turned out to be one of my best financial and business decisions.

 

 

I must be crazy to fly into O’Hara on a Friday night when every businessperson is closing down his or her workweek.  I saw one woman with all of her easel pad sheets spread out on the floor.  She was recapping the meeting notes of the day and listing all of the “action steps” the group had come up with.  Boy, I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore.

 

 

If I’m crazy for flying into O’Hara the local residents are equally crazy.  Its 8 freakin’ degrees outside!  We lived in the Chicago area for three years.  There was one 30-day period where it never got above freezing.  Of course, this summer, all of my Chicago area friends will tell me the winter “really wasn’t that bad”.  Since I went to college just 60 miles away, in one of the windiest and coldest places in the country, I know how brutal the weather can be.  If you’re into curling, and I know some people who are, then this climate fits the bill.  As Clint Eastwood says, “You’ve got to ask yourself……Do I want to live in an ice box for 4-6 months out of the year, and then a sauna for 2-4 months out of the year or do I want to live in SoCal and the O.C?”  You’ll have to answer that question yourself.

 

 

The company I am retired from, Procter & Gamble is headquartered in tonight’s destination, Cincinnati, Ohio.  I’ve flown into Cincy maybe 500,000 times.  I’ve got to be honest, each time I absolutely hated it.  Cincinnati is on Eastern Time.  For my monthly or more frequent meetings, I would leave my house in California at about 7 a.m. and get to my hotel in Cincinnati at about 8 p.m.  At 11 p.m. Eastern time when most people were getting ready for bed, it was only 8 p.m. Pacific time.  It was hard for me to go to sleep at 8 p.m.  After I would toss and turn until about 3 a.m., Eastern Time I would finally fall asleep.  Our meetings started at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time. That’s 4:30 a.m. Pacific time.  I’d get up at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time (3:30 a.m. Pacific time) to get ready.  The Eastern time zoned people couldn’t have cared less that Westerners were getting up at 3:30 a.m. Pacific time. This is where I first discovered Eastern bias, so Eastern trackchasers should not be offended and think the concept started with them.

 

 

On a more serious note, I had the opportunity to visit my ailing grandfather, Grandpa Shuck in a nursing home today in Evansville, Indiana.  He is not doing well.  This chance to visit is really one of the reasons this trip made some sense.  Grandpa Shuck will turn 90 years old on February 23.  I’ve now visited three relatives in nursing homes.  It is not a fun thing to do.  I guess if you live a healthy life and don’t get hit by a bus, you might finish your days in a place like this.  Grandpa Shuck was always a physical fitness guy.  Into his 70s, he could still stand on his head!  Anyway, we had a pleasant chat.  Hang in there buddy, you’re almost there.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

The Freedom Hall oval and figure 8 tracks are my 811^th and 812^th lifetime tracks. They are my second and third tracks of the 2005 season.  This is my first domestic trackchasing appearance of 2005.

 

 

The Freedom Hall venue is home to the University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team.  The Cardinals won the NCAA basketball championship in both 1980 (beating UCLA) and 1986.  Tonight the building was turned into an arena that would host a rock concert, drag races, and oval races, figure 8 races and monster trucks. It was a wild time.

 

 

Wikipedia provides this additional information on the history and background of Freedom Hall.

Freedom Hall is a multipurpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, serving as the home of the University of Louisville Cardinals men’s team from 1956 to 2010, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association from 1970 until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976, and the Louisville Cardinals women’s team from its inception in 1975 to 2010.  Freedom Hall’s last regular tenant was the Kentucky Stickhorses of the North American Lacrosse League, who used it from 2011 until the team folded in 2013.

 

 

The show was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.  I pulled into the arena parking lot at 7:15 p.m.  There was a five dollar per car parking fee.  At this time of night, it was getting very busy and I had to park about 600-800 yards from Freedom Hall itself.  It was also cold.  I would estimate it was between 25 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a strong wind of 20 M.P.H.  This combination of cold and wind would yield a wind chill factor in the teens.

 

 

I had to decide if I would bring my video camera into the arena.  Many “big name” arenas like I would be visiting tonight prohibit the use of video cameras.  Did I want to risk walking nearly half a mile in some really cold and windy weather only to be told I would have to take my video camera back to the car?  If I tried and was rebuffed I would end up walking nearly a mile and a half in some very harsh weather.  I decided against bringing the camera and ended up regretting it since there was no one checking cameras and the action was terrific.

 

 

As I approached the building, I noticed a very long line of people waiting out in the cold to buy tickets.  There were two lines of at least 150 people each.  In this weather, this looked bad.  I was expecting to see trackchaser Ed Esser tonight.  As a strategic trackchaser, I started at the head of the line hoping I might see Ed somewhere near the front.  If this worked, I would be able to get “cuts” and prevent a serious case of frostbite.

 

 

Just at that moment, the two lines of potential ticket buyers parked just like the Red Sea and Ed Esser appeared.  It was great to see Ed, but he had already bought his ticket.  How would I get my ticket in such a long line?  It never did occur to me to go to the back of the line and wait like everyone else. It never does.

 

 

Just as I was considering my next step, a young blond woman came up and asked if I needed a ticket. Of course, I was hoping this wasn’t some stupid pickup line.  She said she had paid $19 each of her tickets and one person in her party couldn’t come.  If Ed hadn’t been standing right there, I would probably try to tell you I used my superior negotiating skills to beat her down in price.  Truth be known she bid against herself by saying she would take $10 for the single ticket.  You should never do that in negotiating.  I accepted her offer.

 

 

As she was fishing in her pocketbook to give me change for a twenty-dollar bill, she said she had to hurry to catch up with her grandkids.  What!  I go from being picked up by some young blond chick to negotiating with grandma?  Ed will confirm my story.  We both guessed this woman could be no older than thirty-five or forty. They grow up young in the south.

 

 

Once we were inside, we saw a nearly sold out arena.  We estimated with the building configured for a Motorsports event that the seating capacity was about 7,000.  All seats were reserved.  Since both Ed and I had reserved seats in different sections we just picked out a couple of seats in one section that was mostly unoccupied and sat down.

 

 

At the appointed 8 p.m. starting time, the very countrified announcer told the crowd they were having a hard time getting everyone in from the outside ticket line and the show would be delayed.  They did not start until 8:30 p.m.

 

 

By this time, the place was nearly full although people continued to come in for another hour.  At 9:30 p.m., the final new arrivals sat down in front of us.  I asked the fellow how long they had stood in line.  He told me they were in line in mid-teens temperatures for exactly one hour!  Ouch.

 

 

 

There would be a lot of action tonight.  Imagine a flat area a little bit larger than a hockey rink in the lower center of the arena.  This area was filled with dirt and the oval shape was surrounded with “Jersey” barriers.  These are the portable concrete barriers you are likely to see when there is road construction on the highway.

 

 

The first event of the night was to bring in the five monster trucks for their introductions.  Monster trucks have names.  Tonight we had the “Mummy” and “The Oz” amongst others.  These trucks are loud.  My earplugs were back in the car in my video camera bag!

 

 

Following the monster truck demo, they ran two mini-sprint heat races.  There were nine mini-sprints in total.  The infield was marked by a white chalk line.  Without a physical barrier, the drivers fudged a bit and cut off some distance when rounding the turns.  With these heat races, my 811^th track was in the books.

 

 

Next came the vintage class of stock cars.  This is the same class that races at nearby Sportsdrome Speedway in Jeffersonville, Indiana.  There were nine vintage cars for their two heat races.  The figure 8 cars were the last auto-racing group.  The 10 cars ran two heats.  Maybe the track’s management limited each class to ten entrants.  Nevertheless, with the figure 8 race, track #812 was in the books.

 

 

There was still lots of motorized mayhem to come.  One of the most popular events of the night was the 2-wheel drive truck tug-o-war contest.  The trucks had a very strong chain attached to their rear bumpers.  When the signal was given, each truck tried to pull the other across a centerline.  When the power button was pushed each truck’s front end came off the ground like a raring stallion.  The crowd loved it.  There were about 12 trucks in competition.

 

 

They followed this competition with ATV drag races.  These were not your sister’s ATVs.  The ATVs were highly modified and looked like drag bikes.  There was also a class of acrobatic ATV riders with the best performer winning a large trophy.

 

 

Next up was country singer, Cledus T. Judd.  He’s famous for singing parodies of country songs.  And you thought country songs WERE parodies!  He sang his big NASCAR hit and a few others.  At this point in the show, I really thought I was at a rock concert and not a traditional double auto race.  They were dancing in the aisles.  I never thought I’d say this but I’m in the market of a Cledus T. Judd CD!

 

 

It was now about 10:30 p.m. and the autos came out for their feature events.  The most entertaining was the figure 8 class.  The Louisville area is noted for some fast and furious figure 8 racing.  These 10 cars did not disappoint.  They were fast and did not back off at the “X”.  There were several crashes and even one oil fire that forced the driver to exit his car in a panic.  The lower half of his “driving uniform” was a pair of blue jeans! The crowd gave him a huge hand.

 

 

Ed and I exited the arena without staying to see the monster trucks smash four old Cadillac Sedan Devilles.  The wind chill temperature must have dropped to below ten.  Showing that not all trackchasers are out to win at all costs, I insisted that Ed share my hotel room.  Ed saw significant value in the offer, since his Bronco is not well insulted against temperatures of this magnitude, and he accepted.

 

 

Tonight was a very entertaining evening.  As the night wore on and exhaust fumes began to fill the building, management decided to open the doors and windows to let some fresh air in.  They let in a lot of COLD fresh air in and by the end of the evening; it was quite chilly in Freedom Hall.

 

 

RACE TRACK FOOD: 

I didn’t have any refreshments at the arena since it didn’t look like it was worth fighting the crowds.  Some people are binge eaters.  I am a binge dieter.  I’m sticking with Wendy’s Chili as my primary source of caloric intake.  So far, so good.

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE: 

I will be driving the National Rental Car Racing Buick. I promise to return it where I picked it up.

 

 

 

THE TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

The battle for positions that could change in the near future is as follows:

 

 

5. Guy Smith – 943
6. Jack Erdman – 863
7. Randy Lewis – 812
8. P.J. Hollebrand – 790
9. John Moore – 787
10. Ed Esser – 731

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE DRIVING DISTANCES:

Cincinnati Municipal Airport, Florence, Kentucky – trip begins

Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky – 375 miles

 

 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: 

Freedom Hall – $10

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

The #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi

 

That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, all of the children are above average and the real estate prices are way above average.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planned new racetracks (on the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip)

 

Jan 16       Southern Illinois Center                         DuQuoin, IL

 

 

 

 

Racetracks visited in 2005 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

810. Sungold Stadium aka Premier Speedway, Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, January 1

 

811. Freedom Hall – Oval – Louisville, Kentucky, January 15

 

812. Freedom Hall – Figure 8 – Louisville, Kentucky, January 15

 

 

 

 

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You might have remembrances of the Freedom Hall race events.  If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them here.

 

Official end of RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report