Greetings from Fremont, Ohio (1959 flood)
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Fremont Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #136 (first visit 1983) THE EVENT I AM A TRACKCHASER. Are you new to the hobby of trackchasing? If so, let me give you just a little bit of background. Before I go any further I will tell you that a lot of people get pretty enthused about what I’ve been doing with trackchasing. I will offer this warning. If you try it yourself it could become addictive. I will also tell you that trackchasing is pretty much a “one and done” racing experience. Trackchasers rarely return to tracks they have seen far from their home. They visit the track once and don’t come back. That is all you need to know if you question whether or not trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. I am probably the biggest exception to that rule. The Fremont Speedway is 2,290 miles from my home in San Clemente, California. I was returning to the track but not really for my benefit. I’ll tell you why as we go along. My name is Randy Lewis (above is my buddy from South Africa, Patrick Furby when I was trackchasing in Zimbabwe). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing is a “collecting” hobby. Trackchasing is also a “counting” hobby. It’s really not all that much different than when you were a kid and you collected stamps or baseball cards or bottle caps. Trackchasing is all about visiting new auto racing tracks for the very first time. Believe it or not, trackchasing has “rules“ as to what kind of racetrack and race car and race driver count toward your lifetime totals and which ones would not. I’ll try to oversimplify the rules situation for you. Trackchasers are allowed to count racing cars and trucks that compete on ovals, road courses and Figure 8 configurations. Any class of drivers that is racing, in order to count, must be open to racers 18 years of age or older. This means that trackchasers cannot count racing down exclusively by kids. There are also various motorsports events and classes of cars that do not count. Trackchasers do not count drag racing, demolition derbies, motorcycle racing, lawnmower racing (yes, people race lawnmowers) or boat racing. Just cars and trucks on ovals, road course and figure 8 tracks. Trackchasing does not allow the counting of flat go-kart racing either. There are also a series of “Randy Rules” developed just to slow down my own trackchasing counts. You’ll run across those rules as you read my Trackchaser Reports. Before the hair on the back of your neck starts to stand straight up as you think that one or more of these rules are just preposterous let me explain. First, I didn’t set up these rules. I only count by them. The rules were set up in the 1990s by a group of white men who primarily hung out in Pennsylvania. I don’t know that any of them had ever seen any racing on a road course or figure 8 track or maybe even a drag race, with a few exceptions, when the rules were established. There is one good thing about having a common set of rules. It allows each trackchaser to compare his or her list to the next trackchaser on a level playing field. Trackchasers like to do that. For me, I need three things in order to make my hobby hunt. First, I need a race date. Then I need good weather because folks in the U.S. often cancel racing events when it rains. Finally, I need a way to get to the track. I live in Southern California. The lion’s share of racing events in the United States are located in the Midwest and east. In 2020 a fourth “obstacle” came into play when it comes to successful trackchasing. COVID-19! What? Yep. Tracks and governments have been canceling race events right and left. Sometimes a government decree allows a track to race but with only a limited number of fans or sometimes no fans at all! Some states, Alaska comes to mind, require that a traveler enter their state with proof of a recent negative COVID test. Others (Illinois and New Mexico to call out just two), have rules that limit visitors from other higher-risk COVID states from coming into their state without self-quarantining for 14 days. The COVID-19 situation really increases the uncertainty of pulling off one of my trips. Carol and I couldn’t have done much better than the Monaco Vintage Grand Prix. Additionally, I trackchase just a little bit differently than my fellow competitors. For me, there are three essential elements to the enjoyment of trackchasing. First, I like to see auto racing. I prefer to see racing on what we call “short tracks” more so than a visit to Daytona, Indianapolis or Monaco. By the way, I’ve seen racing in each of those three iconic locations. In addition to the racing part of trackchasing, I really enjoy seeing the local sights and sounds of whatever area I am visiting. I call these “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. If you go to my website at www.randylewis.org and click on the Trackchasing Tourist Attractions tab you’ll see where I’ve toured all over the world. Here’s a link to that tab. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions The third and final reason that trackchasing is a lot of fun for me is simply the logistical part of the hobby. I have been retired for nearly 20 years. During that time I have not earned a single dime of work income. That means I have to manage my money pretty closely enable in order to be able to do what I do. Logistically I have to cover seven different categories of trackchasing expenses. Those expenses include airplanes, rental cars, hotels, airport parking, gasoline, food and race tickets. You can just imagine what a simple trip from Southern California out to the Midwest for four days of racing would cost. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles. I’ll stay in hotels 150-200 nights a year, rent 50-75 rental cars every year and buy a full tank of fuel about 100 days a year just for trackchasing. After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience. My stories are not just about what happened at the track but about my visit to the area and what exactly it took to make the trip happen. That’s where the racing, the touring and the logistical challenges come from. I told you that trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. Trackchasing is ultra-competitive as well. Lots of people don’t recognize that when they are initially exposed to this hobby. Trackchasing has had all of the political drama, cheating, accusing people of cheating and other aspects of poor personal behavior that any other competitive activity might have. This is why I am NOT a member of any organized trackchasing group. The management of these groups has been so poor over the years these groups are not something I want to be associated with whatsoever. As this is written I have seen racing in 85 different countries at more than 2,630 racetracks. During all this time I have never tried to benefit financially from my hobby. This is despite being interviewed by hundreds of track announcers, newspaper reporters and radio and TV outlets as well as doing a TV pilot. I’m a volunteer. I do this 100% for the fun of it. My Trackchaser Reports are not “puff pieces” for the track or the promoter or anybody. I have never asked for a free ticket in my life. Sometimes race promoters offer me a free ticket. I never turn down their gift. I was raised to be polite. If someone ever took the time to offer me a gift the polite thing to do was accept it and thank them. That’s how I operate. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on today just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,600 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to that hobby of trackchasing. Yes, today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial 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 Sunday, July 5, 2020. Editor’s note: Today would not be my first visit to the Fremont Speedway in Ohio. I first went there in 1983. Steve Kinser was the winner of the All-Star sprint car feature that day. By the way, that race in 1983 was the first-ever All-Star sprint car race….ever. I did not begin writing my famous Trackchaser Report until I had seen about 430 racetracks. Therefore I don’t have very complete notes from that first visit to Fremont. Today was a getaway day for our group of ten. You may recall from my earlier reports we had a group of ten seeing racing in the Midwest. Today everyone was heading in the opposite direction. Becky and Bob (sister and BIL) were returning to their home in northern Illinois. Kristy (daughter) and her crew of six (including two of our grandchildren) were continuing their 61-day adventure in an attempt to visit all 48 continental states. They had a 600-mile drive to get themselves down to St. Louis, Missouri by evening. They’ve got a standard-sized Toyota SUV but with two adults and four medium-sized kids and all of their gear it fills up fast. We’re going to see them again in about two weeks when they pass through San Clemente for three days. That will be great. I’ve got some exciting news regarding the future for Kristy and the kids but I’ll hold that until a future date. Carol and I were going to stay out on the road. Tonight we had designated some time for racechasing. I guess it would be racechasing for me and trackchaser for Carol. I was returning to the Fremont Speedway in Fremont, Ohio for the very first time since a visit in 1983. This would be Carol’s first-ever trip to Fremont. However, before we could get down to the speedway there was just enough time for a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction in Toledo. I looked at all of our options and we selected the Toledo Botanical Gardens. We’ve actually seen botanical gardens all over the world. The most recent of which was the Dallas Botanical Gardens and Arboretum for me which was excellent. The Toledo botanical garden is almost more of a large good-looking city park. There is no admission price. We walked about taking photos and enjoying the shade of another warm and humid summer Midwestern day. From there we headed on down the freeway to the Fremont Speedway located on the site of the Sandusky County Fairgrounds. I had been here once before. The date was July 22, 1983. This would be Carol’s first visit to the Fremont speedway. I don’t make it a practice to return to very many tracks that I have visited in the past. There are probably 100 tracks or fewer that I have gone back willingly to see racing a second time or more. Most of those re-visits for the racing are considered “special” and highly entertaining tracks in my view. I spend a lot of time with racing via my trackchasing hobby. Trackchasing is all about seeing tracks for the very first time. When I changed from a racechaser to a trackchaser it was my official notification to the general public that I preferred going somewhere for the first time more so than the tenth time. When I visited the Fremont Speedway back in 1983 the track was my 136th-lifetime track to visit. Since that time I’ve seen nearly 2,500 ADDITIONAL tracks. When someone has seen that many tracks do you think that it’s difficult to remember one from another? Trust me. It can be. Honestly, I had absolutely no recollection of the Fremont Speedway and the fact that Steve Kinser won the feature and the fact that at the time it was the All-Star sprint car racing’s first-ever visit to Fremont. This would all come back to me later in the evening. It was Carol (above with New Hampshire racing phenom Bruce Spencer) who made the executive decision that we attend the sprint car racing tonight at the Fremont Speedway. Her theory is simple. If she’s out on the road on a trackchasing trip she wants to add to her totals. She doesn’t come on all that many trips but when she does she wants to be as productive as possible. You gotta like a girl like that. Earlier in the trip, I asked her if we should go to the sprint car races tonight or not. Has she given me a thumbs down we would’ve found something else fun and interesting to do. As it was she turned thumbs up and off to Fremont, Ohio we went. We would be staying in the Comfort Inn and Suites in Fremont located just a mile from the fairgrounds. You would think with a location like that getting from our hotel room to the grandstand would be a pretty easy situation. The first mile was easy. The last half mile not so much. Overall I’m gonna call my return visit to the Fremont Speedway a general disappointment. First of all the weather was hot and humid with a temperature in the low 90s. There’s nothing to track can do about that. It was early July. We parked in a large flat parking area where we could see the fairgrounds from our parking spot. However, I’m going to guess it was well over a half-mile walk from our car to the ticket booth. It seemed as if we had to walk around the entire fairgrounds and then the pit area before we got over to the spectator entrance. By the way, there was no fair going on at the Sandusky County Fairgrounds tonight. This was a stand-alone event. I could see from the warm-ups that things were going to be dusty. Carol hates dust. I would be in for a long evening if she got dusted down. I looked at the flags. The flags told me which way the wind was blowing and therefore which way the dust would be flying. The boy scout in me (I was never a scout but our two sons J.J. and Jim were both Eagle scouts…we are very proud of that) told me where to sit to avoid as much of the dust as possible. There is a lot of seating at this track. They have a large old grandstand that seats quite a few and separate bleacher grandstand seating as well. The wind appeared to be coming from the north. I figured if we could find a spot in the northeastern corner of the seating area we would be best situated for a reduction in dust. Our race tickets were a little pricey. General admission seating went for $25 apiece and our senior citizen discount got our price down to $23 each. From what I could tell there was no reserved seating. We found a seat in the covered grandstand fairly high up. Tonight it was an advantage, other than the increased noise level, to have a roof over the grandstand. The roof protected us from the setting sun for about an hour compared to the fan sitting in the open-air bleachers. There are very few things that really bug me about racing. One of those items is when the track constructors take the grandstand seating area and have it face a setting western sun. Sometimes given the lay of the land that is unavoidable. From what I could tell it seemed they could have built things differently for the comfort of the fans at Fremont. When it’s nearly 95° and humid and the sun is setting in your face for 2-3 hours that’s a bit much. I would nearly have to turn a thumbs down on tonight’s event simply for that egregious fact. The All-Star sprint cars are a winged sprint car division owned by former NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. I am not a huge winged sprint car fan. I do love non-winged sprint cars. I learn to watch them at Ascot Park in southern California. I don’t like winged sprint car racing primarily because I believe it limits the passing. Tony Stewart says the sport is not about passing it is about racing. To me racing is passing. Maybe to Mr. Stewart racing is only racing and passing doesn’t matter. Sorry, I wasn’t a Tony Stewart fan when he was a driver and I’m not a fan of this particular comment. I will say I hear that Tony Stewart is a nice guy with his friends. To me, he’s just a country guy who doesn’t have a lot of social skills. He’s introverted and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. He has “FU money” for living in a small town in Indiana and uses it to say “FU” to lots of people. That’s not my style. Long time sprint car driver little Jac Haudenschild was the fast time trialer tonight. Lil Jac has to be 60 years old and maybe more. His son is one of the top drivers right now in the World of Outlaws sprint car circuit. I suspect that back in 1983 when I first came here, Lil Jac was in the field. Concessions were reasonably priced. We each had a sausage dog for only four dollars apiece and Bud Lites in the can at only three dollars each. We had a couple of those. There was a nice breeze and that helped with the heat of the day. I am also more than pleased to tell you that the dust was not blowing into the grandstand. On a night like tonight with the heat and humidity getting dusted down would have been the final straw. Carol would never have forgiven me. I’m going to ask that you look at my YouTube video and SmugMug photo album to get a sense of what the racing was like tonight. A local 305 sprint car group brought nine competitors as a support class. They were about 35 all-star sprint cars in the pit area. The show was run well. The All-Stars have a great announcer. I didn’t get his name but I did meet him briefly after the A main event for the All-Stars had finished up. He was probably one of the top one or two announcers that I’ve heard in a very long time. There was a little bit of passing in the feature event. There wasn’t much passing in the heat races at all. As is often the case the main event winner came from the first row. He didn’t lead the entire race. He actually passed another driver on about lap 10 who had started on the front row as well! Maybe if winged sprint cars could pass each other a little easier it would be possible to start the fastest drivers a little bit further back in the pack than the first row. Of course, if you don’t think racing includes passing then just start your race with the fastest guys out front and let the guy in the front row win the race. That way you don’t have to worry about passing and you’re racing is complete. I don’t think anyone really needs to listen to me on this particular fact. They had a lot of butts in the seats at $25 a pop so somebody somewhere made a good chunk of change. If you’re making money no need to change right? I think that was the business model General Motors once had. MONDAY Today was the last full day of our trip. I had a special Trackchaser Tourist Attraction planned for Carol and me. We were going to take in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. I have been there one other time but this was going to be Carol’s first visit. From my first visit to the Hall of Fame nearly a decade ago I remembered it as being one of my top 10 Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. Do you ever have memories of experiences in your mind that when you try to replicate them they don’t turn out as well? That was what happened with today’s visit to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I have never seen a business more restricted by coronavirus concerns than these folks. As an example in the men’s bathroom, they had a special barrier constructed to prevent their guests from using every other urinal. I haven’t seen that yet except here. Tickets were $28 each. I had ordered them online. When I placed my order I had to tell the Rock ‘n’ Roll people what time will you be arriving. I chose 11 a.m. We ended up paying $14 for parking because we didn’t know how long we would be staying at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. In hindsight we could’ve saved a little money because we were out of there in a little more than two hours. When we arrived we had our temperatures checked and we were required to wear a mask. The crowd at the Hall of Fame was light, very light. I’m going to estimate we might have seen 60-70 guests during the time we were there. That has to be a fraction of what they would get under normal circumstances. The drawback to our visit was that several of the theaters and other interactive entertainment choices were closed. We went into one exhibit where they had audio broadcasts of different forms of music and music news of the day. The bad part of this display was the volume on all of the audio exhibits was so loud that you couldn’t hear one over the other. It was very distracting. I had remembered the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame as having a film where they featured all of the people and groups that have been inducted into the hall of fame performing. Since I wasn’t, at the time 10 years ago, 100% familiar with all of the inductees seeing this film and recognizing their songs was the highlight of my day. Sadly, for me, that film has been retired. They replaced it with a 10-minute film that could be viewed today with a restricted audience. The theater might have seated 75-100 people but only about 1/3 of that total was allowed to watch at any one time. This film showcased different inductees into the Hall of Fame. Performers considered for the Hall of Fame have been entertaining people since the 30s and 40s all the way up until today. That’s nearly a 100-year timeframe. I wasn’t familiar with all of the people who came onto the screen in the short 10 minutes. I wish they had provided some names so that I could recognize those folks that I didn’t recognize. It wouldn’t really matter if I by myself was disappointed in today’s visit. However, this was Carol’s first time here. I wanted her to have a good time. She was equally disappointed maybe even more so. Granted, we are not avid rock ‘n’ roll fans. We are not avid music fans. It’s just that when you want to do something and you remember it as being great in the past and it’s not so great there’s a disappointment. The day was saved by a late lunch! I found Tapatia’s Taqueria in downtown Cleveland using Yelp. Talk about authentic Mexican food. I judge the “authenticity” of any down-home Mexican eatery by just one thing. Do they have a small TV tuned to a channel broadcasting a soap opera in Spanish? If they do they are golden in my book. We dine on guacamole and the best street tacos I’ve had in a long time. Then we had a gourmet churro that was to die for. Remember, this is coming from a SoCal guy who eats authentic Mexican food multiple times a week when I’m home. What would I do without Yelp? TUESDAY We’ve had a good trip. The highlight was being able to see all of our relatives. We had a really good time at the fireworks show at the Whittemore Speedway in Michigan. Eating inside an old 1954 Chevy was a fun experience at Pete’s Garage in Monroe, Michigan. They say all good things must come to an end. Carol and I had purchased tickets on Spirit Airlines to fly nonstop from Detroit back to Los Angeles today. Our flight was leaving at a comfortably ordered 12:30 p.m. We were scheduled to land in Los Angeles at about three p.m. However, on the drive up to Detroit, I had a change of plans. I do that sometimes. Carol’s plans would not be changing. It’s just that I came across a very unique track that would be operating tomorrow evening in rural Wisconsin. I decided I would stay behind and go to that race and then extend my travels for another full weekend. This it would save me the hassle of flying back-and-forth to California. There’s a reason that people plan things. I believe people plan things so that they can get the best result. Sometimes changing the plan at the last minute is good but there can be drawbacks. There was a minor drawback to the date change of plans. To begin the trip Carol and I rode up in the EECU Credit Union sponsored Tesla Model X to our parking garage at the Los Angeles airport. Now that I wasn’t going to be returning to Los Angeles. Carol was going to have to drive my ELECTRIC car from the airport some 65 miles in heavy freeway traffic back to our modest seaside cottage in San Clemente. Was there a problem with that? Sort of. Carol had only driven my car one time. I pretty much twisted her arm to take the wheel at a huge unused government parking lot near our home. She probably drove my car for less than a mile for five minutes at speeds of 15-20 miles an hour. She knew just enough to go forward and to go backward. Now upon hearing today’s news she was a little freaked out. Now, without me, after flying more than 2,000 miles she was going to have to lug all of her luggage by herself from the airport to the parking garage. This was a distance of one mile. Then she had to figure out the complexities of how to operate this electric automobile. I handed over my key fog. I gave her the best instructions I could and wished her luck. I thought it was me who should be freaked out. Let me stop here for just a moment. Let’s say you were on vacation with your spouse 2,000 miles from home. Could you, on the way to the airport bound for home, inform your spouse that you would not be returning with them back to home? Your spouse would need to fend for themselves and then drive an electric car they weren’t familiar with along 12-lane freeways some 65 miles in heavy big city traffic. I gave Carol the same advice I gave our kids when they were teen age drivers. “Don’t hit anything!” In my next Trackchaser Report, I’ll tell you how she did. In the meantime just know that we had a good time visiting Ohio and Michigan and will look forward to the next trip. Good evening from Fremont, Ohio. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,620 tracks. Ohio The Buckeye State This evening I made a re-visit to an Ohio track I had first seen in 1983. In total, I have seen racing at 83 tracks in the Buckeye State, yes, the Buckeye State. I hold the #8 trackchasing ranking in Ohio but on hot on the heels of a fellow named Gordon Killian who is just one track ahead of me. Ohio ranks #11, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. 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 Ohio sayings: “You’re fine,” means “No problem” or “No worries.” We’re not complimenting you. JUST THE 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 745 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to 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. The Toledo Botanical Gardens and a sprint car in Fremont, Ohio 
