Greetings from Kimball, Minnesota
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
.
.
KIR Ice Racing
Ice road course
Lifetime Track #2,294
THE EVENT My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. January and February are primarily reserved for ice racing each year. That’s a hit or miss proposition at times. Today’s adventure was one more of the 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! FOREWORD It seems as if my ice racing trackchasing season starts later and later every year. Last year, 2016, was a very slow year for ice racing in general. Some groups and most trackchasers never got a single ice race in because there wasn’t enough ice. I was able to add five ice tracks to my 2016 list. I am very fortunate to have my airline sponsorships. Without them I could never have made a dent in ice racing. Ice racing schedules are simply too unpredictable. There is no way I want to buy an airline ticket three weeks in advance only to find out, on 24 hours notice, there wasn’t an enough ice to allow for a safe race. However, with my airline sponsorships I have been able to go out on the ice trackchasing trail quite frequently. Going into the 2017 season I have seen 76 different ice racing tracks. Most leading ice trackchasers started at it much earlier than I did. No one can match my ice track totals. Those 76 tracks have been seen in 16 different states, provinces and countries. Here’s the list: Alaska British Columbia ON THE WAY TO THE RACES FRIDAY This weekend’s ice racing effort is going to be somewhat unique. I left my home in sunny Southern California at 10 a.m. on Friday. If I’m really lucky I’ll get home about 4 a.m. Monday morning. That’s a timeframe of about 66 hours. I don’t plan to change my clothes at all on this trip. It’s not that I’m trying to avoid proper hygiene. Before I left on this trip I took an extra long shower and got the cleanest shave I could possibly get. I knew I wasn’t going to be visiting hygienic civilization during the trip so I had to make everything last from the point I left home. My plan was simple in some regards. To begin with I would fly from Los Angeles to Seattle and then on to Minneapolis. Once in Minneapolis, after landing at midnight, I would grab a place to sleep in the most passenger friendly airport in the country. Where is that? The Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport. I’ve slept overnight in Minneapolis several times in the past. My initial plan had me flying to Boston on Saturday evening. However a snafu with an airline ticket forced me to abort the flight to Boston. Instead I would fly into the New York LaGuardia airport. My plan was to see some more ice racing at Tupper Lake, New York on Sunday morning/afternoon. Somewhat coincidentally Tupper Lake is approximately five hours from BOTH Boston and New York. In New York I would rent a car at the LaGuardia airport. This is one of the biggest “POS” airports in the entire country. When it came time to return my car I would bring it back to the John F. Kennedy airport also New York City. By the way, back in 1980, I had my car vandalized at the LaGuardia. Just three weeks before I had purchased a brand new fire engine red Cadillac Sedan Deville. Coming home late after an all week business trip I discovered my car had been broken into and the radio stripped creating $2,000 in damage. I should have seen that as an omen. I’ve bought about ten new cars in my life. That Caddy was the worst of the bunch by far. If my plan went really well I could catch a late night Sunday flight from New York back to Los Angeles. Of course it would be a five-hour drive from the ice race to the airport before I could get on that plane! This idea would have me landing at LAX in the early morning hours of Monday. Then I would simply drive the 65 miles from LAX back to San Clemente and call it a weekend. How’s that sound for an aggressive plan? I was most fortunate to be able to fly first class into Minneapolis. How many Trackchasers get to do that? I never take my good fortune for granted. I am thankful and appreciative for what I have. If you have never checked out the website, www.sleepinginairports.net you should do so. There are times with my trackchasing schedule that there just aren’t enough hours to make getting a hotel worthwhile. On the trip, by the time I got situated, it would be 1 a.m. I would need to leave for the ice track at about 9 a.m. A hotel would barely be worth it when the airport sleeping arrangement was so good. Remember, I am retired. Carol and I are living off our meager savings that needs to last the rest of our lives. These strategies are usually related to convenience and expense. I have never had the big trackchasing budgets of the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. There used to be a second-floor alcove at the Minneapolis – St. Paul airport that I loved sleeping in. It was my most favorite airline sleeping spot in the entire country. However they built a PGA retail golf store there so no more sleeping in that spot. Tonight when I arrived in the airport I asked a couple of maintenance people where would be a good place to sleep. They gave me an excellent recommendation. Their spot is also on the second floor and out-of-the-way. The good thing about the Minneapolis airport, for sleeping, is there are none of those annoying announcements every five minutes overnight like you might find at most airports. I found a couple of leather chairs and a table and soon that was my bed. I had electricity; free Wi-Fi and restrooms were just down the hall. During the night there were several other people who meandered through quietly. They would make their own bed for the amount of time that they needed to stay. While I slept (above) I even downloaded my iTunes movies on my Apple MacBook Pro. I try to watch one movie for each flight that I take. I used to take that flight time for writing my Trackchaser Reports. Now I dictate those reports on my iPhone on the fly. This frees up time for movie watching during all of the airplane rides I’ll take each and every year. I had been in contact with some folks who were racing at the KIR Ice Racing group. I was told this pond is actually in the backyard of one of the guys helping with the ice racing. I’ve actually seen a couple of racetracks in the backyards of different properties. I’m thinking about the Barnyard Raceway in Rhode Island and the Ealyville Speedway in Illinois. However, I’ve never seen an ice race in someone’s backyard! That’s going to be a first. I had discovered they have been racing on the ice here since for at least the past 11 years. I wasn’t sure if all of that ice racing included cars or not. I just learned about this track a couple of weeks ago. You can bet this omission will come up in our weekly research meeting at Randy Lewis Racing. Last year when I wrapped up my ice-racing season I thought that I was running out of ice tracks. However, extensive research by the Randy Lewis Racing research department has come up with a slew of new ice tracks for 2017. I’m planning on a very robust month of February for ice racing. I won’t be forgetting Carol (above). What spouse wouldn’t like to be invited on a nice ice trackchasing trip right? When she joins me we won’t only be seeing ice racing. We tie in one of our most favorite touring spots in the world as well. Stay tuned on that one. Before I go much further I wanted to give a shout out for my Evernote note-taking app. With Evernote I can simply dictate these reports into my iPhone. When it comes time to publish them I will make a few changes here and there and everything is ready to go. The more I can automate the task of sharing with you the more information I can provide in less time. That seems like a good idea to me. SATURDAY Soon it was time to pick up my rental car. At the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport I can simply walk over to the terminal building where the rental cars are located. As a matter of fact my walk takes me past the area where thousands of rental cars are cleaned, gassed and put back on the line. Being able to walk to the rental car lot is so much more convenient than having to hop on a shuttle bus and ride for 5-15 minutes. I selected a Toyota Camry. I wanted to get a car that I thought would be good in the ice and snow. I’ve had trouble getting traction when I’m driven out onto a frozen lake. Imagine that! I figured that since I had slept overnight in an airport last night I should reward myself with a quality breakfast. I was looking for pancakes. However, none of the Yelp recommended pancake houses were all that close. I elected to stop at the Perkins, which normally offers good food. I was not disappointed although this particular perk Perkins had generated only a 2.5-star Yelp rating. Under normal conditions you would not find me eating in any 2.5 star restaurants. Nevertheless, I dined on a very exotic dish featuring shrimp and bacon over a bed of yellow corn grits. It was the southern Cajun special. This was supplemented with a side order of three pancakes. I downed it all. My day was beginning well. THE RACING KIR Ice Racing – Kimball, Minnesota It was only going to be about a 70-mile one-way drive from the airport over to Kimball, Minnesota. My track contact Derek Hedburg and I have been in constant communication over the last several days regarding this race. This is the one and only time they will have ice racing this year in Kimball, Minnesota. Derek had given me a street address that was going to get me close to where they were racing. When I reached my final GPS destination I still couldn’t see the track. I drove for another half a mile or so. Now, I could see the racecars on the frozen lake from the highway. Parking was going to be a little dodgy. Spectators had to park in what amounted to a snow-covered rolling hillside. With the temperature in the mid-20s the snow was hardened and slick. I was a bit concerned on how I was going to get out of that spot after the races. I decided I would worry about that….after the races. We all know that the state with the most prolific beer drinkers is….Wisconson. However, Kimball, Minnesota isn’t very far from the Badger state line. Today it was about 25 degrees outside with some wind. Is that beer drinking weather in Minnesota? You betcha! I didn’t see anyone else drinking anything BUT beer! No problem there. Everyone looked to be having a good time to me. I followed a group into the track that was carrying at least one 24-pack of their favorite beverage….and it wasn’t Diet Coke. I had arrived at about 11 a.m. Racing was scheduled to begin at 12 noon. This gave me plenty of time to look around the pit area, take lots of photos and meet up with Derek. Derek was driving the Hedburg Racing car #64. This was going to be both a maiden voyage for the racecar and Derek’s first ever ice racing attempt. I brought more clothes with me on this trip than I thought I would need based upon the 27-degree temperature. I didn’t use my long underwear, scarf, hand warmers or ice cleats. I figured I wasn’t going to be out on the ice that long and it wasn’t that cold. For the most part that was an effective strategy. It does take a lot of effort to bring along all of the things that are required to keep one toasty warm while standing out on a frozen lake in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Nevertheless, I was still wearing most winter weather gear than just about anyone else today. There was no admission charge. They were selling some fairly good-looking T-shirts for $10 a pop. I probably should have bought one but I didn’t want the hassle of carrying it around with me for the next few hours. Most ice racing that I see only features cars. Today they had pocket bikes, motorcycles, quads and three wheelers as well as the cars. There were about 25 competitors in these non-automobile classes. There were 20-25 low-dollar ice racing stock cars competing today. Each car would run in two races. The first set of heats included 7-8 cars in each race. That meant three heat races for the cars during the first half of the program. Today’s racetrack configuration was a road course. It was a long course. I’m going to guess nearly a mile in length. The pocket bikes and three-wheelers raced on a much smaller road course. When the cars got on the far end of the course they were a long way from the paddock area. It was pretty cool that a drone followed them all along their path. I’m assuming it was taking video as it went. I need a drone. Because the track was so large at points the cars were so far from the viewing area just watching the race was a little bit less enjoyable. It was good that most of the lake was covered in a light coating of snow. That made walking around on the lake much easier than had it been glare ice which is often the case. The organizers did a good job of keeping the show moving along. They had a very brief driver’s meeting. Using a PA system allowed everyone in the paddock to hear what the plan was. Following the meeting they ran off the series of heat races without delay. Unfortunately Derek Hedburg (above), my favorite driver of the day, was having some radiator problems in his new racecar. That slowed him down in the heat race and actually encouraged him to load up before the second round of heats took place. I was able to give Derek a heads up on an ice race in Minnesota that he hadn’t been considering for next week. Maybe I’ll see him there. AFTER THE RACES Getting out of the parking lot was going to be a challenge. I did see some fans that had been boxed in. Luckily that wasn’t my problem. By the way, I do have just a couple of pet peeves in life. One of them is directed at people who park in such a way as to prevent someone else from leaving at a time of their choosing. OMG. Who is their right mind would do that. It’s not as if a driver who creates this problem doesn’t know what they are doing. I know that none of my readers would ever intentionally box someone in. You’ve all been screened for superior intelligence and caring. However the ice and snow in the parking lot was slick. Remember I was parked essentially in a gently rolling pasture. The Toyota Camry and its relatively smooth tires could not negotiate the hills that needed to be climbed. Luckily I was in the midst of NIMS country. What is NIMS country? Of course N. I. M. S. stands for Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. The folks who live in these four states are the nicest and most helpful folks you’ll find anywhere in the country. A couple of guys saw that I was having trouble and wasn’t going to make it up the hill. They got out of their truck and started to push my vehicle. The occupants of two other cars soon joined them. After some daredevil driving on my part and pushing on their part I was able to clear the parking lot. Without them….I’m still in that snow-covered parking area! At this point I was headed for Tupper Lake, New York. Tupper Lake was hosting a weekend of ice racing event beginning today and finishing up tomorrow. It’s going to be a challenge to get there but I was looking forward to that challenge as I always do. I was looking at an hour and a half or more to get back to the Minneapolis airport. I had plenty of time until my 8 PM flight. I stopped at a Culver’s restaurant, took a nap for 30 minutes and then went in for a bunless triple cheeseburger and scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. My iPhone goes everywhere I go. While in Culver’s, as I enjoyed my ice cream treat I saw an email that had just been sent from the AMEC (Adirondack Motor Enthusiasts Club) ice racing group. They were canceling tomorrow’s ice racing in Tupper Lake! Apparently after just one round of heats today the ice had deteriorated so much that they had to cancel the rest of today’s program and tomorrow as well. That was a bit disappointing. I do have to give the AMEC folks some credit here. They do an excellent job of keeping everyone informed about what’s happening with their racing. Good on them. Their cancellation was actually going to save me a good deal of travel hassle. I would have had to fly nearly three hours from Minneapolis to New York’s La Guardia Airport. I would land at midnight. Then my plan was to get a rental car and drive five hours overnight up into northern rural upstate New York. I figured they might start racing at about 11 a.m. I would get my car at 1 a.m. That gave me 10 hours to make the five hour drive. Then I would actually be at the ice races for two or three hours before making the five our return trip back to New York’s JFK airport. Once at JFK I planned to hop on a late night plane and fly six hours back to Los Angeles. I didn’t want Tupper Lake to cancel. However the fact that they did made my life a little bit easier. As soon as I saw the email from AMEC all of the leisure time I had ended. Visions of tonight’s flight to New York evaporated. Now I was in full-scale “U-turn” mode of figuring out how to get back to Los Angeles tonight. With a cup of half eaten strawberry cheesecake ice cream I hopped in the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry and headed for MSP. There was a very good chance I could make it home tonight but there was no time to dillydally. The predictability and countability of ice racing is very fragile. As mentioned earlier without my airline sponsors I would never want to try to see any ice tracks. However, because I can fly on a moment’s notice I can match up reasonably well with ice tracks and the unpredictability of their schedules. Once I did get back to the sunny climbs of southern California I was going to have to refund all kinds of airline tickets and rental car reservations. I had multiple flights reserved to both Boston and two different airports in New York. I had rental cars for all of those places as well. There’s a lot more administrative work to this hobby than one might expect. Good afternoon from Kimball, Minnesota Minnesota The Gopher state Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis What it means everywhere else: Mild chilly weather that means you might need to wear a light coat. What it means in Minnesota: You will literally freeze to death if you stand outside for more than fifteen minutes. Quick Facts LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS Total lifetime tracks seen Total Lifetime Tracks 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,294 Total Trackchasing Countries 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 74 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.37 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis 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. KIR Ice Racing….they only race here one time each year 
Alberta
Andorra
Finland
Maine
Manitoba
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New York
Ontario
Quebec
Russia
Vermont
Wisconsin
On Saturday morning I’ll grab a rental car and drive about two hours out toward Kimball, Minnesota. I will watch some afternoon ice racing there. After the racing I’ll drive back to the Minneapolis airport and wait for an 8 p.m. flight. 
It’s 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. I just slept on what amounted to the likes of a kitchen table. Nevertheless, I am raring to go. Let’s get this party started. 
This afternoon I saw my 84th lifetime track in the Gopher state, yes the Gopher state. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in Minnesota. I’ve seen 84 or more tracks in 7 separate states. Seeing another track in a state where I have a #1 ranking helps with my 2017 trackchasing goals.
World’s #1 Trackchaser
Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member
Minnesota definitions: Not that cold
The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are:
Total “trackchasing countries” seen
Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results
There are no trackchasers currently within 565 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.
There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.
Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today.
