Greetings from Costa Mesa, California
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Action Sports Arena
Dirt figure 8
Lifetime Track #2,260
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 Going into this two-week trip I have seen 73 new racetracks for the 2016 season. By the end of this trip I will know whether or not I’m going to go for 100 tracks for the year. It won’t be easy. I don’t like to, and I don’t, set numerical goals for how many tracks I expect to see in a given season. Why? I don’t want to “have to” go trackchasing just to make a season long goal. I can see plenty of tracks every year with the strategy I have used for years. What’s that? I simply go trackchasing when I don’t have a family or personal commitment scheduled. Of course with kids and grandkids and UCLA football and basketball and two or more trips to Hawaii every year…..I’m surprised I have ANY time for trackchasing! If I do decide to go for the century mark this year, and make it, it will be the 11th season where I’ve seen more than 100 tracks in a calendar year. By way of comparison, most of the trackchasers ranked in the worldwide top 20, which includes those Pennsylvania-based group trackchasers, have never seen 100 tracks in a single year or even come close! WEDNESDAY Last year, for the first time ever, I discovered the Sunnyside Promotions group. Carol and I went to one of their sanctioned events up at the Alameda County Fair in Northern California. Upon further examination I learned that Sunnyside offers their services to three California fairs. They work at the Alameda County Fair, the fair in Chino and the Orange County Fair. I wondered why their entire portfolio included only three fairgrounds since their website says they been doing this for a very long time. They must have a lot of downtime in the office! Did you know that the county fairgrounds located in Costa Mesa, California is a most unusual county fair. First of all it runs for a full month, although they are closed Mondays and Tuesdays within that 30-day period. I’ve never heard of a county fair going that long. I live in orange county, California. Orange County is a county of more than three million people. Heck, it’s even got it own TV show with The Real Housewives of Orange County! The Orange County Fairgrounds is located about 35 miles from our house in San Clemente. It, along with the Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park would be the two racetracks closest to where we live. Tonight we would head up to the fairgrounds to see the fair for the first time in many years. Why now? They were having a figure 8 racing program. This would not be the first time that Carol and I have trackchased at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Back in 2014 Carol and I saw the Robby Gordon race promotion compete on two different road courses (tracks #2,024 & #2,025) at the fairgrounds. Back in 1993 we saw some TQ midget racing on their dirt flat track oval. That was track #225. That’s right! I had seen 2,000 tracks from the time I left the fairgrounds in 1993 to when I left the place in 2014! Tonight we were returning for a fourth track at the Orange County Fairgrounds. For years on Friday nights the Orange County Fairgrounds was home to some of the best flat track speedway motorcycle racing anywhere. We don’t get the Orange County newspaper anymore. As a matter of fact we don’t get any newspapers. Our news comes from TV, radio and our cellphones. I don’t know if they still have flat track speedway motorcycle racing any longer there or not. There were so many things that made our Orange County Fairgrounds visit tonight unique. This is not a fairground with all that much similarity to the small rural agricultural-based Midwestern fairs that I attend. I’ll give you several examples of what I mean. Tonight Carol and I will be driving two cars to the fair. When the entertainment is finished for us Carol would head back home. I would drive on to the Los Angeles airport. I will be taking my 20th airline trackchasing trip of the year. Frankly, it seems like more. Stuff is expensive in California. Before I got up to the fairgrounds tonight I paid $2.65 a gallon for fuel. Lots of places in America are selling gas for less than two dollars right now. I don’t even want to tell you what the cost of housing is. You would be aghast. Aghast! We each paid $10 to park our cars next to each other. That seemed a little bit outrageous but given the logistics of what was coming up it was the best idea we could think of. Admission to the fair was $12 for adults. However if you had successfully achieved your 60th birthday you could get in for just seven bucks. That was the program for us. Additionally there was a charge, for some people, to get into the arena to watch tonight’s figure 8/demo derby entertainment. There were no senior discount prices for the combination fair/arena ticket. Those went for $17.50 per person. This meant that if you had purchased a regular adult admission to the fair for $12 you were only paying an extra $5.50 to get a reserved seat for the derby. However if you had come in as seniors at seven dollars for the fair you would be paying a premium of $10.50 for the demolition derby and figure 8 race. Carol and I did not retire in our early 50s by wasting our money. We didn’t retire based upon an inheritance. I didn’t ask Carol to keep working so I could retire. I earned all the money and simply gave it to Carol as I got it. Then at age 52 I submitted my retirement paperwork. Questions? Tonight the fairgrounds had an additional seating option at the Action Sports Arena. They were also offering general admission seating for no charge whatsoever….on a first come first served basis in three of the fair large grandstands. There were a lot of unusual aspects to tonight’s fair. I can’t ever recall a program offering reserved seating for a certain price and then general admission for free. Tonight about three-quarters of the arena, everything beyond the permanent grandstand, were general admission complementary seats. We had arrived at 3 p.m. We knew the racing was not going to begin until 8 p.m. It’s difficult to predict what traffic will be like in a county with three million people. We wanted to have plenty of time to see the very large Orange County Fair. We certainly accomplished that in spades. Let me describe the environment. Carol called the Orange County Fairgrounds the “Disneyland” of fairgrounds in general. The entire place was paved with hard surfaces. The fairgrounds was cleaner than anything we’ve ever seen and was on a par with Disneyland. You could eat off the ground but then why would you want to do that? As I remember the Bloomsburg fair in Pennsylvania had more food choices than any other fair I have ever attended. I don’t know if tonight’s get together matched that but it was probably in the top five of the more than 300 county and state fairs that I have visited. We started off by splitting a Philly cheese steak. It was good although minorly overpriced. Later in the afternoon we moved over to some fried pickle chips. Ever had fried pickle chips? Do you even know what they are? When I saw them on the menu I wasn’t sure myself. Essentially these were small slices of dill pickle, which had been breaded and fried. Probably anything that is breaded and fried tastes really good. Most of my audience would sign on in support of that statement in a heartbeat. A few members of my family not so much. Even Carol, who eats like a bird, was pitching right in and dipping those fried pickle chips in ranch dressing. There was a crunchy texture. Our large serving of chips went down easily. It was all we could do, O.K. it was all I could do, to avoid the myriad of dessert choices that we found along the way. There were chocolate chip cookies and fudge and strawberry shortcake and all kinds of fried Oreos. To top it off there was the Krispy Kreme triple cheeseburger. Years ago, I had a visit to a heart doctor. He examined my arteries and told me they were as clean as a whistle. He told me I could eat a cheeseburger every day for 10 years and not have a problem. I’ve been acting on his advice! On the weekends throughout the year the Orange County Fairgrounds hosts a very huge “swap meet”. This is not a swap meet in a traditional sense. All of the stuff they sell is brand-new. They feature a lot of really unusual stuff that you can get at pretty good prices. Tonight’s ” mall” area was located in the center of the fairgrounds in a series of air-conditioned buildings. They had more unusual consumer goods in there that at any fair I’ve ever seen in my life. I wondered if a lot of it was from the “swap meet” vendors? Californians are a unique breed. When we travel long distances we are much more likely to run into Californians traveling than any other state by a large margin. Californians spend a lot of money on luxury goods including cars, restaurants and the like. You won’t see very many “beaters” on the freeways of Orange County. Tonight we stayed for a couple of minutes to hear a young lady “spiel” on the benefits of her pots and pan cooking line. We were told that the pots would last for your lifetime and you could give them to your kids and grandkids. Nothing whatsoever would stick in the bottom of these pans. These were literally the best pots and pans you could buy. After listening to the presentation for a while we were so intrigued that we had to stay long enough to see what the cost of these products might be. Carol predicted they would be “several hundreds”. I’ve never bought a pot or a pan in my life. I had no idea. There were several choices. The basic offering was for pots and pans that were smaller and would cook for one or two people that didn’t have as many pieces in their line. As she went on to describe the offerings the pots got bigger and the number of items in a package got larger as well. So how much do you think a full line of “super duper” pots and pans might go for? The basic package started at about $2,000. The top-of-the-line group went for a little more than $6,000. The female salesperson told everyone that that really wasn’t a bad deal at all. She said, “The boys are right next-door now buying hot tubs for that price!” O.K., I’m going to be honest with you. I have purchased a deluxe hot tub/spa for my backyard. Since I did this in the 1970s I can’t really remember what I paid for it. However I’m thinking it was NOT more than $6,000. I do know this. I sold that house in 1979. Someone else has been enjoying the hot tub that I researched and put in the ground for the better part of the last 40 years. There were mattress companies, and gutter companies and hot fudge peanut brittle companies and dry skin prevention companies and just about everything else that you don’t see in a “normal” store. The most unusual was the “teeth bleaching” exhibit! I wondered what the business backgrounds were of the people pitching these products tonight. The fair also had a very large carnival area. The Ferris wheel was the largest I have ever seen at a county or state fair. We rode the sky ride from one end to the fairgrounds to the other. We were probably on that ride for the nearly 10 minutes. This was a big fairgrounds. One of the first attractions was a small circus. It was right at the entrance of the green gate where we joined the festivities. We wandered in and grabbed a seat in the top row of the wooden bleachers with no footboards. Yes, that was uncomfortable. The first service employee we encountered was a fellow who was shorter than me but probably weighed more than I do. He was “stocky”. Later in the show he would be able to do some acrobatic things that I never would have predicted from a guy with his body type. He was supporting himself upside down on one hand at an elevation of about 10 feet with his body extended a 100% vertical position. This guy didn’t look like it but he was strong! The one part of the Orange County Fair where there wasn’t much activity was with agriculture. Carol assured me that this was because we were visiting during the last week of the fair. The animals had been moved out. I wasn’t so sure. Houses in most of Orange County have replaced agriculture. The county got its name because of its orange groves but those disappeared many years ago as well. The fairgrounds was absolutely packed with fairgoers. Carol and I did not come close to fitting the demographic of virtually anyone we saw enjoying themselves tonight. First of all we were older. I’m guessing we were in the top 1 to 2/10 of 1% in age. We had to look long and hard to find someone older than us! Here’s my question. Where are all of the people that are in the age bracket that Carol and I fall into? Don’t they go to fairs anymore? Are they simply sitting at home in the recliner watching TV? We just don’t see all that many people our age doing the more adventuresome activities that we are often involved in. Come on America get off your butts and get out there and do something. Most of the people at tonight’s fair were in the 18-30 year age bracket. There were a lot of kids as well. I would say that the Orange County Fair is the most ethnically diverse fair of any I’ve seen by a large margin. Certainly most fairs that I go to in the Midwest and East are populated by nearly 100% Caucasians. That is certainly not the case at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Caucasians are in a distinct minority. We learned that we really didn’t need 4-5 hours to see the fair. It’s a big fair but in 4-5 hours you can cover a lot of ground. We decided to go over to the Action Sports Arena at 7 p.m. to make sure we got a good seat in the general admission seating area. That plan worked out well. We got seats in the top row of the grandstand. THE RACING Action Sports Arena – Costa Mesa, California You’re probably getting sick of me telling you how the Orange County Fairgrounds is different than most other fairs I have ever attended. However, it really is. That came to the racing part of things as well. I had contacted the promoter in advance of tonight’s event. They had advertised on their website that there would be five nights of figure 8 racing at the fair along with a different form of demolition derby each night. Before I endured the hassle of fighting the traffic and the crowds and the expense of the fair I had to confirm that they would be having figure 8 racing tonight. The Sunnyside Promotions contact confirmed all of this. He also told me there was a strong desire from the fair board for them to perform their show in a reasonable amount of time What did that mean? Entries would not be open to just anyone. In order for the show to have a reasonable amount of competitors, yet not too many, the racers who would be here tonight were “invited”. That doesn’t happen very often at fairs. The figure 8 race itself would be the first event on the agenda. There were just five cars invited apparently. They ran a 12-lap feature and that was that. I was most happy to hear a very professional announcer informing the crowd of tonight’s race agenda. Racing was supposed to begin at 8 p.m. The announcer would tell us we were just 16 minutes before the start and then 12 minutes and etc. I knew we were in for an efficient program the way he was speaking. We were given a complementary eight-page program. The program listed the drivers their sponsors and several aspects of the race agenda. Each of the five nights of racing would have a different themed demolition derby. Tonight’s theme was for cars. Later in the week they would do motorhomes, an all female demolition derby and the like. As it turned out we would not be able to stay for the demolition derby. It sounded as if that was just one demolition derby heat anyway. The program listed only about seven entries. Our home was only 35 miles from the fairgrounds. Why couldn’t we stay for the complete program? It was pretty simple. I had an 11:12 p.m. scheduled departure from the Los Angeles International Airport. I was just happy they were starting the figure 8 racing on time at 8 p.m. The place was pretty much sold out. I’m going to guess there were at least 2,000 fans and maybe something closer to 3,000. Again most of those fans were young people in their 20s. The actual 12-lap race, with only five figure 8 cars, was contested over a normal sized flat dirt figure 8 track. The race was not all that compelling. However, when only a minor incident might occur or seem to occur the crowd went wild. The highlight was the sunset and palm trees in the background. This truly was “novelty” racing at its best. What did I learn from that? I’m going to guess that the vast majority of tonight’s 2-3,000-person crowd have never ever seen a figure 8 race. They would go absolutely bonkers if they saw a figure 8 racing at Barnes City! However I’m also going to guess that the vast majority of people at tonight’s fair had never been in an environment that was anywhere close to the small town rural tree shaded Barnes City, Iowa environment. That’s too bad on so many levels. The figure 8 racing race ran nonstop. It was finished by about 8:15 p.m. The announcer told us that the demolition derby would not begin until 9 p.m. We didn’t have time to wait 45 minutes for the next event. I couldn’t afford to miss my flight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis. Getting into Indianapolis would position me for the next 10-11 days of active trackchasing. AFTER THE RACES We had a fun time at the fair. The racing was definitely anti-climactic. Nevertheless I have now seen my 153rd lifetime Golden state track. Carol was seeing her 83rd California track. The top three trackchasers in California are me, Gary Jacob and Carol. That’s quite a threesome. I ventured over to Los Angeles International Airport arriving well in time for my flight. It turned out that my flight was actually delayed by nearly an hour and wouldn’t department till around midnight. That was fine for me. I had accomplished tonight’s mission and was happy with the result. Good evening from Costa Mesa, California. California The Golden state This evening I saw my 153rd lifetime track in the Golden state, yes the Golden state. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in California. California is the state where I have seen the most tracks in a single state. 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 California sayings: “There’s a high speed chase on!” We will drop literally anything we’re doing to watch all three hours of a high-speed chase. It’s on every channel, we call and text our friends so they don’t miss it, and we give each other play by plays. You can actually be late for work if you feel like it — because there’s a high-speed chase on. QUICK FACTS 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 550 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 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 the video production from the racing action today. 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. A night at the Orange County Fair – Photo Album 
