Greetings from Wapakoneta, Ohio
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Cridersville Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,657 THE EVENT Editor’s note: There are probably more than one thousand go-kart tracks in the U.S. The lion’s share of them race only flat karts. Trackchasing rules forbid the counting of flat karts. Don’t complain to me about that. Take it up with trackchasing’s founding fathers. However, once in a while like tonight at the Cridersville Speedway some caged karts are invited to race. That’s when I just on the opportunity like a cat on a mouse. Check out my story for this almost once in a lifetime chance to see some trackchasing countable racing at the Cridersville Speedway. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above trackchasing with my sister and brother-in-law, Becky and Bob, up in Wisconsin). I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,670 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions 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 on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. 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 today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. 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 Saturday, October 3, 2020. This morning I woke up just north of Cincinnati, Ohio. Did you know that Carol and I lived in the greater Cincinnati area for a year back in the 70s? Yep. It was my first corporate relocation assignment. We moved from Peoria, Illinois. We had been offered a job in Memphis, Tennessee but I turned it down. A month later they asked me to go to Cincinnati. A year after that we were relocated corporately to Phoenix, Arizona. We moved several times earlier in our married life. It was a rare occurrence but this morning I could sleep in as long as I wanted. I was staying in a Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott property. Because I have stayed in Marriott hotels for nearly 50 years I have earned an elite status in their frequent state program. This allows me, when I need it, to check out as late as 4 p.m. A late check out was going to be important today because I wasn’t planning on getting a hotel this evening. I was only going to have a chance to sleep for about five hours this evening, Saturday. I figured I might as well just sleep in the driver’s seat back in the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. There are several nights each year when the time I can go to bed and the time I must get up just don’t justify getting a hotel room. During the day today that plan would change. Tonight I was heading to a racetrack called Cridersville Speedway located in Cridersville, Ohio. I’ve known about racing at this track for well over a decade. Why haven’t I been here sooner? They race go-karts at Cridersville Speedway. More specifically, they race flat karts. Flat karts (above) are banned by the trackchasing hierarchy and trackchasing’s founding fathers. No trackchaser consciously goes to a flat kart only track. Why? Because they know it’s not going to count in their lifetime totals. Then why was I coming to Cridersville tonight? Here’s the answer to that question. A special group was going to make an appearance at the track. I’m talking about the Buckeye Outlaw Kart Racing club. I’ve gotten to know the guys that race in this club. Every one of them is a nice guy. I have seen the Buckeye club race at their farm track, the McClure Raceway. I’ve also seen them race over at Lion’s Park. Both of these tracks are located in West liberty, Ohio. Once in a while the Buckeye club gets an invitation to race at Cridersville. Tonight was one of those nights. The only reason I came to the Cridersville Speedway tonight was to see the caged carts of the Buckeye Outlaw Kart Racing club compete. It was nice being able to sleep in at the hotel this morning. I rarely get to do that. When I did get up I did quite a bit of “trackchasing maintenance”. What’s that?? It’s simply planning for the future and documenting the past. How do I document the past? Well one example is what you’re reading right now. I produce a very thorough, illustrated Trackchaser Report which is a summary of my entire day’s trackchasing experience. It includes not only the racing but the restaurants and the touring attractions and the travel. Additionally I’ll take 50-100 or more photos each and every day that I’m on the long and dusty trackchasing trail. I crop, color and organize those photos into a photo album that is managed by a company called SmugMug. I also produce a YouTube video from each track that I visit. I now have more than 1,300 of these videos on my YouTube channel which is named, “ranlay”. Those 1,300 videos have generated a little bit more than 1.3 million views. My YouTube channel has more than 2,000 subscribers. I am constantly running into people who have followed me using these social these media choices, including my website at www.randylewis.org. A true highlight of my day was visiting Skyline Chili in the greater Cincinnati area today. Did you know that Cincinnati is the chili capital of the world? Everyone has a different view of what “chili” is. I don’t consider one view better than the other. Cincinnati chili is Cincinnati chili. Today I added a piece of pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream to my order. Because I had covered more than 4 miles of powerwalking of felt I deserved it. It’s that kind of thinking that can cause you to gain weight! Tonight’s racing up in Cridersville, Ohio was going to be held in chilly but probably not cold conditions. The low temperature would be in the low to mid 50s. I dressed warm because I didn’t know exactly how cold and windy it might get. As I was driving up to the track I took a look at my smartphone weather radar app, Weather Underground. I was surprised at what I saw. A massive amount of green rain radar appeared on my screen. There didn’t appear to be any serious yellow and red radar but the green was a dominating feature. I was guessing racing might start about 7 p.m. tonight. It didn’t look like the rain would get to the track until about 10 p.m. It’s always exciting for me to get my first glimpse of a new racetrack. That excitement has never worn off despite my having seen racing at more than 2,600 race tracks. I hope it never does. Tonight there was a large amount of parked cars and a large number of racing go karts at the track. The best I could do was to pull through the overflow pit area and find a spot to park near the highway. I thought I had parked safely but later on when I decided to exit the track I found I was nearly boxed in. Some deft Joey Chitwood driving got me into the clear and on down the road. Tonight’s spectator pricing was more than reasonable. For just $10 I could watch the races and walk through the entire pit area. The concession prices were extremely low. A hotdog could be purchased for just one dollar. At that price I should’ve bought 100 and took them home and froze ‘em. They also offered a Coney dog. I guess the Coney dog was giving some reference to Cincinnati being the chili capital of the world because Coney dogs are served in every chili parlor in Cincinnati. When I arrived the young woman who gave me my wristband told me they had 20 classes of karts on the racing agenda tonight. Each class would run two heat races for every driver in that particular class and a feature race. Some classes had enough karts that they needed to run two heat races in each round. This added up to more than 65 individual races for the evening. That’s a lot. It didn’t take me long to find the Buckeye outlaw kart “guys”. I was able to talk a little bit with Robert McClure (above) who was driving in both the stock and the outlaw/mod divisions. Robert has been my primary contact for Buckeye information all this year. Robert’s dad Bob was celebrating his birthday. I was able to give him my best wishes. I also had quite a bit of time to talk with a couple of other drivers that I’ve met in the past, Nick Hostetler (above) and Dallas Rose. Nick been racing these types of karts for years. He’s a five-time champion. Tonight I learned Nick served in Vietnam with the United States Army. Thanks for that. It was also fun talking with Dallas Rose driver of kart #07. Dallas is a very outgoing talkative guy. Tonight I learned that he drives the number 07 because that was the number his father used back in his dad’s stock car days. Dallas’ father drove stock cars all around this part of Ohio for 31 years. He passed away in the year 2013. Now Dallas races to honor him with the car number 07. I also got a chance to say hello to the driver of the number 87 in the stock division. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the driver’s name. When I first found out about the Buckeye Outlaw Kart Racing club, I traveled to the tiny town of West liberty, Ohio to see them race at the McClure Raceway. Yes, Robert and his dad Bob (standing right) are part of the McClure family farm and founders and organizers of the McClure Raceway tri-oval. During that very first visit the guys from McClure told me about racing at three additional tracks that I had never ever heard of! They all hosted caged kart racing from time to time. I have now knocked off two of those offerings, Lion’s Park in West liberty and Cridersville Speedway in Cridersville. I have just one of their recommendations left to see. Tonight when I started talking to Dallas and Nick they offered up one more new trackchasing opportunity. We’ll see if this one comes off. It’s an indoor winter time track. I’m always looking for karting shows in the winter. I’ll keep you posted. I got some really good photos and videos from all over Cridersville Speedway tonight. They had some excellent flat kart racing just like they did last night at the Jennings County Fairgrounds down in North Vernon, Indiana. My plan was to see the Buckeye outlaw group run their heat races. In order to do that I would need to see 15-20 different flat kart classes racing in their heat races as well. The above lineup board covers just half of the entries. I had a couple of good reasons for leaving early. First, I needed to be down at the Cincinnati airport at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. From the Cridersville Speedway I was about two hours north of the airport’s location. Even if I left after the first round of heats I was only going to get five hours of sleep in my hotel. That’s right. Late last night on the drive back from Indiana to my hotel in Ohio I made the executive decision to get another night’s hotel reservation. I would only get to use the hotel for sleeping for five hours on Saturday night. If the temperatures got down into the 40s, which they were expected to, that might not be a bad choice compared to sleeping in my car. Then Priceline gave me a fantastically hot deal on the Fairfield by Marriott hotel so that decision was made. There was another reason why I thought leaving the track early might be a good idea. It looked like rain was going to be hitting the track within 30-45 minutes of my departure. Once I saw the Buckeye kart classes race I knew they wouldn’t be back on the track for another two hours for their second heat race. In the interim I would have to wait for another 18 classes of flat karts to race. I guess the third and final reason for supporting my departure was trackchasing historical protocol. Trackchasers long before me made it a practice when only one or two classes out of an entire hundred plus kart field were caged karts to accept the first heat races for the countable class to be sufficient to count the track. I support that line of thinking. It’s especially true for me when I am normally traveling long-distances from one track to the next or trying to get home and minimize my days on the road. Today I had only eaten lunch at Skyline Chili. I was saving myself for a quick trip to the Waffle House after tonight‘s races. I was surprised when I pulled off the interstate exit only to find the advertised Waffle House closed at just before 9 p.m. That was unusual. However I continued down to the next exit and ultimately had a late night dinner just like I saw Sammy Swindell do many decades ago at the Waffle House. Probably the best value item on the Waffle House menu is the All-Star breakfast. The All-Star includes a waffle, bowl of grits, two eggs of your choice, two pieces of toast, and your choice of sausage, bacon or country ham. That all goes for $8.10, a real bargain at the Waffle House. I don’t know that people realize that the WH can actually be quite expensive when every individual item gets added up. I’m been known to spend $15 or more in a single Waffle House visit. I left on this trip late on Thursday night. If all went well I would arrive back into Los Angeles at about 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. That’s about as efficient of a trackchasing trip as you’re going to get if you’re planning to trackchase in Indiana and then Ohio on two consecutive night. I drove my rental car nearly 500 miles once I arrived in the Midwest. It’s a lot of fun to be able to walk into the pit area of a track that I’m visiting and know several of the people who are racing that evening. That was the case tonight. It’s also fun to watch drivers who you know personally competing out on the track. I’m very grateful to have met the fine people who are part of the Buckeye Outlaw Kart Racing club. That includes my buddy Darius and his wife as well. I had the chance to bump into them just briefly tonight. My trackchasing season is definitely winding down. I got off to a fast start in January and February with trackchasing visits to France, Italy, Sweden and Mexico. I checked off a few ice tracks as well. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. That knocked me off the trackchasing trail during the rest of March, April and May. However I decided that the world was safe enough for me to return to the long and dusty trackchasing trail during the first week of June. Since then I have trackchased for 18 consecutive weekends. For every one of those weekends I jumped on an airplane and watched racing a long way from home. Almost all of the county fairs were canceled this year. That meant that most of my trackchasing was limited to Friday, Saturday and Sunday weekends. In the past I’ve seen quite a few county fairs when they’ve raced during the week all summer long. At the end of tonight I have seen racing at 58 tracks for the very first time during my 2020 trackchasing season. I think that’s an excellent result considering two important situations. First I couldn’t trackchase for 85 days with the Covid shutdown during the first half of the year. Secondly, having seen so many tracks previously my options for visiting new tracks are declining all of the time. There just aren’t that many tracks for me to see at this point. I will always be able to see a few but my days of seeing 100 tracks or more in a given year like I’ve done in 13 previous years are finished. I don’t think I mind that at all. SUNDAY My wake-up call came at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time. That’s a very early 1:30 a.m. California time wake up call. It was nice getting on a wide-open 5-hour flight from Cincinnati back to Los Angeles. That plane ride was the only nonstop flight from Cincinnati back to Southern California all day long. When I return to LAX I often pass over the recently completed SoFi Stadium, home to the LA Rams and LA Chargers. I’m planning another two or three strong trackchasing weekends before the season falls off a cliff for me in November and December. Good evening from the Cridersville Speedway in Cridersville, Ohio. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,657 tracks. Ohio The Buckeye State This evening I saw racing at my 86th-lifetime track in the Buckeye, yes, the Buckeye State. I hold the #6 trackchasing ranking in Ohio. Ohio ranks #10, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Ohio state trackchasing list. I have made 62 separate trips to Ohio seeing these tracks. 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: Sneakers and athletic footwear are strictly “tennis shoes” here. 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 780 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. Finally…I made it to Cridersville! 
