Greetings from Lake Elsinore, California
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
.
.
Lake Elsinore Motorsports Complex – Main Track
Dirt road course
Lifetime Track #1,516
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES DAY 1 – “THE LAST ONE OF 2009 (I THINK)” TRACKCHASING TOUR RANDY LEWIS RACING EXCLUSIVE Randy’s Three Toughest Competitors There are some in trackchasing that might object to the word “competition” as being part of the hobby. That’s O.K. Anyone can “say” what they want. I look at it like this. “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck, then it’s a DUCK!” No offense to anyone not listed. Now before I go any further I don’t want to offend any trackchasers who didn’t make the “top three”. I consider everyone a friendly competitor until they prove otherwise. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a friendly competition. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, you will find me on the golf course with my fellow golfing competitors. We try to play our very best game in the hopes of besting everyone else. Everyone roots for themselves to do well……but they never root for their fellow competitor to do poorly. Really, it’s all about sportsmanship. Sometimes I think that aspect of trackchasing competition was missed by some. Oh well, I “didn’t take ‘em to raise”. The top three!! Now let’s get to those all-important rankings. Remember these are my top three toughest trackchasing competitors. They are not ranked in any particular order of importance. I guess they are ranked CHRONOLOGICALLY in the order that I encountered them. So, here goes: Some may find Eleanor’s name on this list to be surprising. Everyone remembers their first kiss, their first date and so on. Eleanor (shown above with her husband Paul and me at a track in New York) was my first real trackchasing competitor. Coming into the year 2000 I was ranked 15th in the trackchasing world rankings. I had seen just 405 tracks. I wasn’t even a fly on most people’s trackchasing radar screen! As I began to see a few more tracks, I started thinking about the trackchasing standings. I really don’t know why the people who set up the rules and organized this trackchasing thing wanted to have standings. The only reason I can imagine is that they wanted to have a friendly competition amongst everyone to see who could see the most tracks. That doesn’t mean everyone thought they could see the most. However, the standings would reward someone for improving by a position or two regardless of where they stood in the overall standings. I have met Eleanor on a few occasions. Carol and I last saw her and her husband Paul in Cobleskill, New York if memory serves me correctly. I honestly don’t think that Eleanor ever thought of me as a “fellow competitor”. I doubt she ever looked at the standings to see where I was relative to her. I do know this. Whenever she knew I was coming to a track where she and Paul would be, she always tried to save me a seat. That made her a “friendly competitor” in my eyes. Over time, I was able to improve my rank of 15th in the lifetime rankings. I think I passed Eleanor somewhere in the mid-teens. Although this was several years ago, I remember the fun in inching closer and closer to Ms. Weidman in the hopes that I might pass her in the rankings some day. Finally, I did but it wasn’t easy. I will always remember Eleanor Weidman as my first……yes, my first trackchasing competitor. You’ve all heard me talk about Ed Esser. Ed defines the word “competitor” in the world of trackchasing. Present company excepted, I think Ed is the fiercest trackchasing competitor in the entire hobby. Ed is soft spoken and enjoys staying out of the limelight. He doesn’t “say” much about the competitive aspect of trackchasing. However, his actions speak much louder than his words. Ed lives in the Madison, Wisconsin area. He drives to almost every track he visits. He sleeps in his car more than 100 nights every year. Ed used to be a race chaser and not a trackchaser. Most of us were like that. However, Ed has come “over to the other side”. Now he puts his main focus on trackchasing. I wonder if the trackchasing rankings had anything to do with that. At the end of the 2002 season, I had seen 622 tracks. At the time, I was ranked #9. I trailed some of the big names of trackchasing including Schneider, Brown, Killian, Sivi, Smith, Erdmann, Hollebrand and Moore. I was pretty far behind each of these people. Up to that point the most tracks I had actually seen in one year was 76. I didn’t have any plans to be passing them anytime soon. At the same time, no one had ever passed me in the lifetime rankings. However, there was one fellow who was making some noise behind me. Yes, I’m talking about Ed Esser. Going into the 2000 season, when I was ranked 15th, Ed was ranked 19th. The “big dogs” of trackchasing could never have imagined what was coming their way. I almost missed it myself. Going into the 2003, I had a more than comfortable 108-track lead over Mr. Esser. However, in 2003 Ed went to an astounding 114 tracks. Only Andy Sivi had ever crossed the century mark up to that point. I was still a casual trackchaser in 2003. It was my first full year of retirement. I was still feeling my way. I saw just 60 tracks in ’03. However, if you do the math real quick, you will see that Ed reduced my 108-track lead by fifty percent. That’s right he erased HALF my lead!! This got me concerned. I hadn’t thought all that much about the “competition aspect” of trackchasing. Apparently, without saying anything to anyone, Ed had! This was when I first learned that I needed to WATCH what my fellow trackchasers were doing rather than LISTEN to what they were or were not saying! I had a decision to make. No one had ever passed me in any lifetime rankings. I could just pull over and let Ed fly by…..or I could try to compete. I chose the latter option. Every time I turn on my laptop, Ed is posting a track report about his far-flung travels. He will drive from Wisconsin to Florida for a weekend of trackchasing. Then he’ll drive home and then drive right back down to Florida the very next weekend for more racing. The guy is crazy! At the end of the 2003 season, my track lead had shrunk to just fifty-four. I made up my mind to do my very best to keep Ed behind me. That didn’t deter him. Over the past several years, Ed and I have been seeing a lot of tracks. Remember in 1999, Ed and I were ranked 19th and 15th respectively. At the end of 2002, we were 9th and 10th I believe. Where are we now? Ed is now the #2 ranked trackchaser in the world and I am #1. I’ve seen 1,516 tracks through this report. Ed has seen 1,251. We’re sailing along in the top two trackchasing spots. I have absolutely no idea how I have been able to increase my lead over Ed during the past few years. I do know this, if I let up just a little bit Ed will be tapping on my back bumper. Although I am proud of Ed for clawing his way from 19th place to the runner-up position, I don’t want him to go any further. In the past few years, my trackchasing has begun to take on a higher profile. This seems to have “ratcheted up” the competitive aspect of trackchasing. Although I can’t prove it (well, I probably could), I believe I am responsible for motivating several trackchasers to trackchase more and more. I know that some people think this is a joke, but my lawyers have actually advised me to address the above increase in trackchasing activity. You’ll all heard about those lawsuits where someone goes into a bar, gets drunk and then crashes into somebody on the way home. Then the drunk driver tries to place all the blame on the bartender! My attorneys have recommended that I post a warning (aka liability limit) regarding this special trackchasing phenomenon. Of course, I can’t be held responsible for the behavior of any other trackchaser. If they choose to deplete their life savings trying to keep up with me, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE. Every trackchaser needs to behave in a responsible fashion. That includes their financial responsibility to their family and loved ones as well as their behavior in the trackchasing community. This brings us to my third and last “toughest competitor” Gordon Killian. No Gordon hasn’t been much of a threat in the overall lifetime rankings to me. However, Gordon has done something no other trackchaser has ever done and that’s pass me in a major trackchasing lifetime ranking. I consider the “most lifetime tracks” category as the most significant trackchasing title there is. Coming is a close second to that group would be the “Lifetime National Geographic Diversity” ranking. The NGD ranking combines a chaser’s number of tracks seen with the geographic diversity of where those tracks were visited. Since this is a “National” ranking, it only includes tracks seen in the United States. The Lifetime NGD contest has been in existence since 2003. Gordon Killian was the winner of this contest in three of its first four years. I’ve done my best over the year to give Mr. Killian full credit for his NGD achievements on my website. Finally, in 2007, I wrested the lead away from Mr. Killian for this important title for the very first time. From there I thought it would be smooth sailing and Gordon would forever remain in second place. However Gordon put on a major push in 2008 and RE-PASSED me for the lead. I had never been overtaken in an important lifetime category. This meant that Gordon Killian had traveled to more states and seen more racetracks spread across those states than anyone else. That’s quite an accomplishment. Sometimes Gordon’s sportsmanship leaves something to be desired. However, I take his behavior with a grain of salt. I attribute his actions to the extreme competitiveness of the hobby. If you’re a trackchaser you already know how competitive this hobby can be. If you’re a non-trackchasing reader, you can simply study the trackchasers and their track lists. When someone moves from Pennsylvania to New Mexico to Louisiana there’s only one reason for it…..trackchasing competition. Summary There you have it. These folks qualify as my “three toughest competitors”. This doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of other trackchasers who are just as tough. Most trackchasers will tell you that they frequently look at the trackchasing rankings in one category or another to see how they’re doing. Many trackchasers then base their trackchasing destination choices on those rankings. I say good for them! Competition is a good thing. I wish all of my fellow trackchasing competitors well. GREETINGS FROM LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA TODAY’S HEADLINES Learn about my geographical trackchasing background. …………..details in “The Objective”. I started at the beach, drove over the mountains and ended up in the desert………………more in “The Trip”. You won’t see this crowd at many oval track events. These are desert racing fans…………..details in “The People”. THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective This is the way trackchasing was meant to be. Today I went trackchasing, like trackchasing was meant to be. What does that mean? It’s simple. I walked into our garage, got in my car and drove to the track. After the race, I drove home. That’s pretty simple isn’t it? When I was a boy making the 10-minute ride from my house to the Peoria Speedway, that’s how we did it. Fly to a track? Are you kidding me? I didn’t fly on my first airplane until I was 21 years old. For all those times when we went to the Peoria Speedway and a handful, that’s right a handful of other tracks in Illinois and Iowa, I never ever considered flying to a racetrack. Who is their right mind could have imagined my seeing 1,516 tracks in 35 countries! My trackchasing objective is to keep things simple. It’s always been my objective to keep trackchasing simple. Following college and the Marine Corps my company started transferring me around the country. That part of the business transition was pretty simple too. In order to get a bigger salary I had to take on more responsibility. That meant moving from one place to another where the jobs were bigger. At first, it took me some time to get used to how the corporate game worked. The company offered me a promotion and relocation to Memphis, Tennessee. I turned it down! I would soon learn you don’t turn down the “corporate boys”…at least not more than once. I was 23 years old. A couple of 40-somethings sat me down and explained how things work. They said simply that if I wanted more responsibility (read that more money) then I would have to move to take bigger jobs. Then they offered me a job relocation to Cincinnati. I took it! Then I began taking more and more relocations. After the first one, it got to be fun. Soon we were moving almost every year. In 1973, when we lived in Cincinnati, our home track became the Queen City Speedway in nearby West Chester, Ohio. We weren’t wealthy enough to have our own garage yet, but we did drive out to the track and drive home afterwards. Sadly, the Queen City Speedway closed a long time ago. Then in 1974, we moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Our new home track became the Manzanita Speedway. “Manzy” was a great track. It’s the first place I saw wingless sprint car racing on a regular basis. This is where I first saw the famous Rick Ferkel race. He would become one of my all-time five favorite drivers. I also learned to eat “cheese crisps” aka quesadillas at the track by the junkyard in West Phoenix. We drove to the track and came home after the race. Sadly, the Manzanita Speedway is now closed. In 1975, we were transferred next to the Los Angeles area. We settled in Mission Viejo and the legendary Ascot Park became our home track. “Ascot” was my most favorite track of all-time following the Peoria Speedway. I continued a love for wingless sprint car racing. It was the best. I became a big Buster Venard fan and sadly saw more than one driver meet his maker at Ascot Park. In late 1979, following my first ever visit to the Knoxville Nationals (Ronnie Shuman was the winner) we moved again, this time to Ridgefield, Connecticut. Our closest track was the Danbury Fair Race Arena. However, they raced on asphalt there. I preferred dirt. They don’t race at Danbury anymore. So we drove a few miles further and our home track became the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York. This is when I was first introduced to the more than entertaining “East Coast Modifieds”. I also started traveling to races in the area. It was easy. There was great racing all over the place. However, we only lived in Connecticut for 15 months and it was time to move again. In 1980, we moved to the Chicago area in Inverness, Illinois. My new home track became the Santa Fe Speedway. We went there a lot as well to the somewhat nearby Rockford Speedway. This was great racing. Again, we left our garage (we could afford a three-car garage now) drove to the track and drove right home afterwards. It was fun. However, Chicago was way too cold for me, especially after having lived in SoCal. After three years of being a frozen snowman, I demanded a move to sunny southern California. After a while, the company came through. We moved back to SoCal in 1983 just in time to see Bill Elliott win his first ever NASCAR race (on TV) in November. We went back to watching races at Ascot. That was fun. We started to travel a little bit as well. Ascot closed in 1990. They really put a crimp in the simplified trackchasing style of leaving the garage, driving to the races and then driving home after the races. I had the travel bug. I started to travel. No, I started to travel a lot. I traveled a great deal in business and loved it. I loved trackchasing travel even more. In 2002, I retired. That was fantastic. Now I could travel all I wanted without having to go anywhere on anyone else’s schedule. That was fantastic! This is the background that made today’s racing so great. I went out to the garage, got in the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS 430 and just drove to the track. That’s right, I drove 39 miles over the Ortega Mountains and I was there. Then after the race, I drove home. It was simple. Trackchasing was meant to be simple and today it was. The Trip From the beach to the desert. We live in a suburb of Los Angeles. Actually, the “Los Angeles area” runs about 110 miles north to south and 50-60 east to west. We are the southernmost suburb for all of Los Angeles. Our town is a “beach town”. You can see the ocean from all over town. However, if you head inland you will be in the Southern California low desert. There it is common to see all kinds of wildlife ranging from coyotes to mountain lions. Today’s short adventure would take me into the desert and over a winding two-land mountain road. When I came down the other side of the mountain, my first view would be of Lake Elsinore, the largest fresh water lake in Southern California. My track visit was near the lake. It was a short 39-mile drive from my house to the track. I believe this track is the closest active track to my house of any in the world. This made my last trackchasing adventure (probably) of 2009 an easy one. The People This type of racing attracts a different kind of fan. Demographics is an interesting word. In a nutshell, “demographics” described the unique attributes of a certain group of people. The demographics of a “short course off-road event” is probably the most different of any class of fan that I see at any class of racing event. How would I describe the “short course off-road fan”? They’re sort of a cross between a “surfer dude” and a “skater”. If you were to attend major open wheel events in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin or Knoxville, Iowa you wouldn’t see many of these people. If you went to a NASCAR race, you wouldn’t see them. If you visited an asphalt road course in the U.S., you would not run into this demographic. Surfers and skaters! Of all the types of racetracks that trackchasers visit, the only place you’re going to see a crowd primarily made up of “surfers” and “skaters” would be one of these shows. What physical characteristics help define this crowd? They were their shorts below the knee. They’ll have baseball hats cocked to the side. There will be no shortage of tattoos or body piercings. Does every fan of “short course off-road racing” look like this? Of course not. It’s just that an inordinate amount of the fans do. These fans are passionate about this type of racing. They know the drivers. They cheer wildly during the race. Compared to most fans I see at most tracks I visit, today’s fans are dramatically more enthusiastic. They’re good fans. I like this type of crowd. RACE REVIEW LAKE ELSINORE MOTORSPORTS COMPLEX – MAIN TRACK – LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA Today was my last trackchasing day of 2009 (probably) and the final race of the Lucas Oil O/R season. Today was the final day of racing for the inaugural season of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series presented by Geico Powersports. There were only 6-7 weekends of racing by this group this year. This weekend they practiced on Friday and raced today, on Saturday. The admission price was high at $30 for adults. However, the prize money was over the top. There was $181,000 in prize money up for grabs today. All trackchasers have been to shows where the ticket price was thirty dollars. However, how many of those shows paid $30,000, $20,000 and $20,000 again for three of the four main events. The prize money was amazing. Maybe they brought funds in from earlier events this year to help the season-ending payouts. They had a big crowd today. I’m guessing some 3,000-5,000. At $30 per person, that’s a good crowd. What I found surprising were the limited amount of food stands at today’s show. There were only two. Even more surprising was these two stands weren’t doing much business. Maybe this kind of demographic doesn’t eat at the track! This was ‘short course’ racing. The track itself was a dirt road course at about one mile in length. There were six “oval like” turns built into this course. Each of these turns was connected by a “straight” of sorts. Those straights all had major jumps in them. Of course, they use “land rush” starts at these events. That’s a requirement of the trackchasing rules. It’s also the most common way these short track off-road events start their races. I’ve seen several of these shows, almost all of which have been in the western states. The racing is the most fast and furious of any kind of racing I see. It is very entertaining. Maybe that’s why the fans get into it the way they do. There is passing, banging and lots of jumping. Don’t miss the pictures! Don’t miss my photos of this event. The jumps these trucks and buggies take are truly amazing. I’m guessing they go some 20-30 feet in the air. The length of the jump can easily surpass 50 yards. It’s wild!! The flagging system is much different than anything I see in traditional oval racing. They try to eliminate the incessant yellow flag delays that have ruined much of the oval racing I see. When a competitor flips over, the track personnel are at the scene in less than 15 seconds. They don’t get there so much as to check on an injured driver (which they do) but to right the machine and get it off the track before the cars and trucks made a full circuit around the track again. This really saves on those meaningless delays that too many tracks have. Competition caution flags. This form of racing also has “competition cautions”. This type of yellow flag is used for just one reason. They want to close up the competition midway in the race. The crowd loves it. It makes the race much more entertaining for the fan. When you think about it, these competition cautions are not much different than the NASCAR “Chase”. It’s a way of “evening out” the standings in the midst of the overall battle. It takes what might be a runaway contest and tightens things up. The casual fan likes that. The casual fan is what racetracks are trying to attract. They’ve already got the hard-core fan. They need to keep that fan that might just as easily spend his or her time at some other activity coming back to the track. Oval tracks could learn several lessons from the “short track off-road” crowd. STATE COMPARISONS California This afternoon I saw my 109th lifetime track in the Golden state. That might seem like a lot but it only gives me a second place ranking here. By the way, I hold a number one ranking in all of the 13 Far Western states except California. That spot is reserved for a trackchasing great, the deceased Gary Jacob. Over the years Gary and I ran into each other at various California tracks. He was a great follower of the RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report. He once told me he would print out a section of my report and “run downstairs” to show his family what crazy things trackchasers do. Gary’s California track total is 149. I still have six tracks that I haven’t seen in California. None of them race on a regularly scheduled basis. I’ll try to see them as time permits. Coming Soon – RANLAY Racing Exclusive Features! Trackchasing politics revealed….they’re about ready to kill each other. 2009 Trackchasing Annual Report. (End of January, 2010) Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser I’m living vicariously through myself. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE No planes! RENTAL CAR #1 No rental cars! PERSONAL CAR I did drive the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS 430 back and forth to the track today. That distance was 82 miles. I have now put a whopping 742 miles on Carol’s car trackchasing in 2009. Total Air miles – 0 (0 flights) Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 82 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Lake Elsinore Motorsports Complex – $30 Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $30 COMPARISONS LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY UPDATE Randy Lewis – current score = 4.98 (tracks posted thru October 11) 2009 NGD point changes Connecticut -7 Iowa -1 Maine -10 Massachusetts -6 New Hampshire -11 North Dakota -1 Rhode Island -8 South Dakota -1 Texas +1 Vermont -8 Wisconsin -1 Net changes -53 Gordon Killian – current score = 5.73 (tracks posted thru October 4) 2009 NGD point changes Connecticut +1 Georgia -6 Kansas +1 Kentucky +1 Minnesota -1 Nebraska -2 New Mexico -4 North Dakota -1 Ohio -1 Pennsylvania -1 Rhode Island -1 South Carolina +2 South Dakota +1 LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Lucas Oil Off-Road at Lake Elsinore Main Track 
Net changes -11
