England! Returning for the first time in 10 years.
But first…
Quick Reads.
If you don’t spend it…you worked hard for nothing.
Almost all of our income comes from our IRA RMD and Social Security. It ain’t much, but it keeps food on the table. For the year ending 2025, we spent $92,000 more than we earned. Is that bad? Gosh sakes no!! We just took that 92 grand from the principal of our total savings. If you don’t spend your principal in the direction of zero, then you busted your butt earning all that money so somebody else could spend it! Why would anyone want to do that?
Now, if you’re 40 and retired with no income and have a million dollars in retirement assets and you overspend whatever income you have by $92,000, that would be a different kettle of fish. You would likely go broke!
I don’t follow the stock market.
I don’t really follow the stock market day-to-day. In the past six months, I’ve probably looked at it a couple of times. I’ve been traveling a lot lately.
Just a couple of weeks ago, on 29 March, the S&P 500 had nosedived to 6,343. On 18 April, three weeks later, I thought I might update prices in my investing spreadsheet. I was prepared to see how much money I had lost since my FY began on 11 October, 2025. Wow! Since that recent low, the S&P 500 has rebounded to 7,126, a 12% increase in less than three weeks! That put a smile on my face. Now I won’t look at the market for another few months. It doesn’t matter to me whether the market goes up or down. I’m a “buy and hold” investor.
Gonna take a look-see.
Iran has been bombing its neighbors. One of those neighbors is the country of Qatar. I’m going over to Doha, Qatar, to check things out. What’s the worst that could happen, right?
Less go!
Good afternoon, as you know, my newsletter focuses on my worldwide travels, financial strategies, and my hobby of trackchasing. I hope you will agree. This one covers all of those areas.
Trackchasing in Europe.
During this trip, I’ll be gone for a couple of weeks trackchasing in Europe. Since my trackchasing opportunities are few and far between in the U.S. now that I’ve seen racing at 3,000+ tracks, I have resorted to trackchasing all around the world. Even the world has been covered pretty well by me so far. I’ve seen racing at nearly 600 tracks outside the U.S. That’s about 300 trips to make that happen.
The Plan.
My plan is to visit the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. Please be aware that this is the plan. Almost never does the plan match what actually happens! I’m OK with that. It doesn’t bother me a bit.
As I trackchase, I expect to meet people, see sights, and make my travel experiences as unique as possible. As they say in some places, “less go, less go.”
Not sure I like this.
You may have noticed that airplanes are beginning to offer free Wi-Fi. Now, even seven miles up in the sky, you’re still tethered to the ground. It’s convenient, but overall, I don’t think I like it. Airplanes have always been a great place for me to get away from the world and watch some Netflix.
Pretty sure I don’t like this.
Recently, the U.K. introduced an “electronic travel authorization” (ETA) for people wishing to visit the country. That’s just another travel hassle for me and a revenue generator for the country, asking for more money.
I’m noticing a change.
When I travel the world, no matter what country I visit, I have always been treated like royalty. I don’t know if that is because I am an American, tall, old, or all of those things.
On the other hand, it seems that most countries are now distrustful of one another. It is the people who pay the price for that, yes, it’s the citizens of those countries. If one country charges the other 5%, the second country will soon charge the first 10%. I always thought you got more with sugar than salt, but it seems that not everyone feels that way.
I give them just enough information and no more.
Here I was, up in the air on my flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, before my trip to Europe, trying to complete my application for a British ETA. It wasn’t easy.
They wanted me to scan my passport while I was on the plane. Could I even do that? Not really! Despite multiple attempts, it never really worked. Finally, the system just told me to move on, and if they needed something I couldn’t provide, they would let me know later.
That happened again when I tried to give them another required piece of information, so I thought I would be unsuccessful. I just kept pressing next, and soon they told me I had been approved! I can’t explain it. After I was approved, all I needed to do was pay them US$22, and my visa was good in the U.K. for the next two years. That’s how we do it nowadays.
I travel a lot, but it doesn’t cost much.
I would be flying nonstop on Virgin Atlantic from Los Angeles to London Heathrow Airport. I was flying in coach because I don’t think business class or first class is a good value for the money. As a matter of fact, I think premium seating is one of the worst financial values of any product I know about. I’ve flown upfront to international destinations more than 100 times. It’s just that I have never paid for it. I’d rather put my travel dollars into nice hotels.
I know. Someone else might travel once or twice a year and swear by business class. I don’t travel once or twice a year. In 2025, I stayed away from home overnight during 49 different weeks. Even if I thought business class was a decent value, paying for business class 49 times in a year would be pricey, wouldn’t it?
I have 29 credit cards. They are like chickens. But they lay points and miles!
For my flight to London, I used “points and miles.” For this particular flight, I transferred 18,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic with a 30% transfer bonus. That gave me 25,000 points with Virgin. Another $110 paid to Virgin sealed the deal. I thought that was a good transaction.
Try these folks.
In advance, I made a rental car reservation with AutoEurope.com. for a compact car. I love those folks. They show me prices and options from 4-5 major rental car companies, and then I pick one. The charge for a compact car in the U.K. would be €410 for five days. That’s less money than I pay to rent a full-sized car in the States.
Pro tip.
I have discovered that I can rent the cheapest car available outside of the U.S., and more than nine times out of 10, when I get to the counter, they will upgrade me to something much better at no charge or a small upgrade fee. That’s what happened with Avis in London.
Because I’m a sales guy, I was able to relate quickly to the rental car agent. He gave me a Vauxhall Grantland with only 3,000 miles on the odometer. That car is huge and actually bigger than I would prefer when driving in tight spots in Europe. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, right?
Another Pro Tip.
Of course, I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve card to pay for the rental because the CSR offers primary rental car insurance. If I have any problems, the credit card insurance pays, and my own personal insurance never knows a thing about my driving indiscretions.
Yes, we have more than 25 credit cards. But we only use four of them, except when I’m trying to complete the sign-up bonus for the others.
My credit card Mount Rushmore.
We use my Bilt Palladeum card for everything, with three exceptions. It’s the Chase Sapphire Reserve card for rental cars (primary rental car insurance). It’s Costco for Costco and their 2% cash back. I don’t like cash back cards at all. I would prefer to take what I earn in transferable points. Finally, I use the Chase Hyatt card for all of my stays with that hotel chain. Hyatt gives me 4X points when I stay there.
You get one year, baby. Don’t produce, and you’re gone.
In most cases, during the second year, when a card no longer has a sign-up bonus but still has an annual fee, the card is discontinued. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s how the points and miles game is played with credit cards.
One trip after the other, and so it goes.
I plan to be in England for five nights and then another seven nights in France and Spain. I’ll spend one night flying overnight on an airplane. I have to get home on time because I need to drop off our passports at the Chinese visa center in Los Angeles. They need to review Carol’s and my 10-page passport applications. They’ll keep our passports until they decide on our visa request.
Hopefully, for $140 each, the Chinese will give us a 10-year visa with unlimited visits. I have to do all of this quickly so I can get our passports back in time for me to jet off to South Africa. This is what life looks like for me.
Welcome to London.
The first thing I did when I landed at Heathrow was to clear border control. That was easy. Took less than a minute. Then I found the one bag I had checked and was ready to go, almost.
Oh, I know you’re not supposed to take photos when you’re waiting to clear border control in foreign countries. Carol tells me that every time. Don’t you do some things just for the fun of annoying your spouse?
I couldn’t stop laughing with this one!
There was a bit of a “situation” when I went to check my bag in Los Angeles. I had one small, soft bag to check, no problem.
I wanted to take my rolling 22-inch piece of luggage and my computer briefcase on the plane. I was told that my larger piece of luggage, which I was taking on the plane, could weigh no more than 10 kg in total. Of course, I had no idea what 10 kg was in pounds, but soon found out that I was 5 kg over. That’s 11 pounds, not British pounds but “weight” pounds.
Think about this. Normally, when you’re going to check a bag, and you are overweight (not you, the bag), they make you take out a little bit to meet their requirements. Then they take your bag and put it on the plane. That’s not what they did today.
Busted!
I was planning to take my bigger bag on the airplane. It weighed 5 kg too much. When I began removing 11 pounds from the bag, the gate agent discovered that my size 15 shoes were stuffed with all kinds of things. The agent reacted with astonishment. Get in the real world, lady! Now she knows one of my secrets.
I had the bag down to 10 kg, and I was holding 11 pounds of stuff in my arms. She told me the bag was good to go. I walked AWAY from her station with everything. What was everything? My 22-inch rolling bag AND 11 pounds of my stuff. What now?
I went behind a wall just out of sight of the gate agent. There, I put the 11 pounds back in my 22-inch rolling bag and carried on. Did this really happen? Honestly, I can’t make this stuff up.
Not a fan of big time zone changes.
The time zone in England is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles, and France and Spain are nine hours ahead of the West Coast. I don’t really care for that. There’s not much I can do about it, though.
To cover my 4 miles of walking each day and keep it consistent with my California records, my England walking day runs from 8 AM to 8 AM, and central Europe will be an hour later. For the first few nights on a trip like this, I always wake up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. When I do, rather than toss and turn, I do computer work. I plan trips.
Ever done this?
In England, they drive on the left side of the road, as approximately 42% of the world’s inhabitants do. Of course, I will be operating a right-side steer car.
Overall, it’s no big deal. I’ve been to England more than a dozen times and probably driven 30-40,000 miles on the “opposite” side of the road. Nevertheless, I do have to pay attention. Carol and I always say when driving in these situations, “lefts are easy, and rights are scary.”
Hyatt or go home.
I’ll be trying to stay at Hyatt hotels and Hyatt-affiliated hotels throughout the trip. It’s easy to get Hyatts in England. In France and Spain, I may resort to using “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” hotels, which are also affiliated with Hyatt’s 30+ brands.
I landed at Heathrow at 11 o’clock in the morning. I needed to hang out in the terminal for three hours until I picked up my rental car. That would give me a 2 p.m. pickup, and I will return the car at 2 p.m., so I won’t be charged an extra day for only a couple of hours of use. When you do this kind of thing a few times every month, the strategic decisions become very routine.
Getting out of London, like any big city, was a bit of a challenge as evening rush hour approached. No problem. When I encounter circumstances like this, it just gives me more time to work the entire travel plan in my head. I don’t have any hotels booked in France or Spain right now. I’m not even sure where I will be going to see races there. I am definitely what you would call a seat-of-the-pants traveler.
I didn’t even know the day I would need to fly from London to Paris. It doesn’t cost much for that flight, but I thought I would check the points-and-miles situation anyway.
Credit cards laying points and miles again.
I found that for just 15,000 American Airlines miles plus $61, I could fly for nearly “free.” However, I know to check Alaska Airlines points as well. More often than not, Alaska will give you an award for fewer points and miles than American. In this case, they did. Alaska was charging just 7,500 miles and $74 for the very same flight. I booked with Alaska for the British Airways flight. The good thing about booking my flights with points is that I can cancel with little or no charge.
There are lots of “little” things to keep in mind when traveling in England. Much of my travel, but certainly not all, is on multi-lane freeway-type roads.
Please. Please. Don’t do this, and don’t be friends with people who do.
What I really like about traveling in England and Europe, as well as on these kinds of roads, is that nobody “parks” in the fast lane. In my opinion, European drivers are much better than American drivers in this and just about every aspect of driving.
In England and Europe, the rules and customs are simple. If you are not actively passing someone, you should move your vehicle to the slowest lane on the road.
It’s pretty easy to ascertain whether or not you’re passing someone. Passing means you are gaining on another slower car, and when you complete the pass, you move left because you’re in England. You’re driving on the left side of the road. You need to move to the slowest lane possible until it’s time to pass someone again. If you are not passing anyone, you should be driving in the slowest lane. Can this be any simpler?
Speed cameras.
There are many speed cameras in England. I don’t know whether they give drivers a grace period for a few miles over the posted limit. I do know this.
When I drive in France, and they say the speed limit is 70 km/hour, they’ll give you a ticket if you go 72 km/hour. I have several paid tickets that I can show anyone who doesn’t believe that statement as proof.
GPS. Absolutely required.
I wouldn’t want to try to drive in Europe or anywhere, really, without a good GPS or a map system in my rental car. My Vauxhall Grantland (above) has a map system. I prefer using Google Maps from my iPhone. I used to do this type of travel using paper maps. That was a hassle, but at the time, I didn’t know that something like GPS would ever exist.
Google Maps tells me when police are in the area, or there’s an obstacle on the road, and that sort of thing. Just a moment ago, I got a message saying the police were in the area. In another 10 seconds, I drove under an overpass, and there was a policeman standing alone on it with a camera in his hands, recording travelers’ speeds. I’m going to assume that there were police cars in the area to support his efforts. That wasn’t common, but I did see it.
Pro Tip: Apple CarPlay.
If you have an iPhone, you’ll want a rental car with Apple CarPlay. Your phone and the car system will match up perfectly, and it’ll be just as if you’re driving in your own hometown.
Love this plan.
I have an iPhone, and my phone service is with AT&T. When I travel outside North America, they charge me $12/day (maximum of 10 days per month) for unlimited everything. I consider this charge to be perhaps the best value among all the expenses on the trip. I never want my phone’s capabilities restricted in any way because I tried to cheap out.
Welcome Breaks rock.
In England, you’re going to see a number of “Welcome Breaks” on these major highways. Welcome Breaks are the equivalent of a rest area on an interstate in America, but 10 times better.
The Welcome Break will normally have two or three restaurants, a sundry store, a gas station, restrooms, and more. They all have a wide selection of electric car chargers. Europe is way ahead of the states in this area.
I first started noticing Welcome Breaks all the way back in 1999. Obviously, they were much newer 27 years ago! They’re still good but showing a little bit of age.
One day turned into the next.
This is not the type of trip that most “normal” people take. This was not our “big” trip of the year. I was traveling solo. Some would never do that. Last year, I spent 155 days outside the U.S. Even if this is not the type of trip you might take, there may be something you can take from my experience. I hope so.
When I was in England, I stayed at one Hyatt property or another for all five nights of my visit. The drawback to doing that was that all of the hotels were located in a downtown city-type area.
Many of the cities were under construction, so finding the hotel, especially at night, was sometimes more than challenging.
My best result in many ways.
The best hotel I stayed at in England was the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham. As a globalist within the Hyatt frequent stay program, which is the highest rating they offer, I get lots of special perks.
Do I use points or pay cash when I stay at a Hyatt? It depends. Just three days ago, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham, Alabama. The paid rate was $275. Or, I could use just 6,500 points and get that hotel for free. I used the points! That gave me a 4.22-cent-per-point redemption rate. That’s a great deal.
At the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham, ENGLAND, the daily rate was just $124 U.S. The points needed to wipe out that $124 was 12,000. That gave me a 1.03-cent redemption (hotel rate/points needed). I paid cash! When the point redemption rate is high, I use points, and when it is not, I pay cash.
If I were using any of the other hotel chains, such as Marriott, Hilton, or Holiday Inn, their point requirements would have been multiples of 12,000 points. I have yet to listen to a points-and-miles podcast that doesn’t universally agree that Hyatt has the best frequent-stay program by a factor of a few compared to any other hotel chain. Plus, their properties are upscale.
As a globalist, I had breakfast for free at the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham, England, while others were charged $38 per person. They gave me free parking (which they shouldn’t have since I was using the cash rate), and that was $36 per person. They offered a late check-out at 4 p.m. and gave me free admission to the hotel’s Regency Club, which offers complimentary drinks and snacks throughout the day.
To earn globalist status, you’re going to have to get 60 stay credits, which can come from a combination of actually staying at a Hyatt or other promotions that are offered periodically. You should know that I have spent most of my lifetime with Marriott. I hold lifetime titanium elite status with them. But Hyatt is the top chain now for frequent traveler status.
To be honest, I pretty much do just what I want.
I didn’t get to the Hyatt Regency until midnight. By that time, every one of their 26 guest parking spaces was occupied except one space.
That single “space” was right in front of the hotel’s front door. Several orange traffic cones blocked its use. When I arrived, I looked around, didn’t see anybody, and didn’t see any other option. I got out of the car, moved all of the orange cones to the side, and parked right in front of the hotel. When I checked in, and after the hotel desk clerk had made it clear she liked me, I confirmed that where I was parked would be OK at least until morning, and I left my car there. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, and if you don’t grab, you don’t get either.
Oh yeah. They upgraded me to a beautiful suite. I had all this hospitality for 124 bucks… in Europe, no less. I can’t do it much better than that.
I never take my behavior for granted.
Of course, when you ask or grab, it’s important to have a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the ability to build rapport quickly with the person who could ruin your plan.
Never…ever.
And yes, there is one more caveat to my philosophy of “You don’t ask; you don’t get, and you don’t grab; you don’t get.” All of that is done to gain an advantage. However, none of that would EVER be done to gain an advantage with family or friends. Never.
Wait. They didn’t slice the pizza?
One of my all-time favorite jokes, which the kids have heard a million times, goes like this. The restaurant server asks me how many slices I want our pizza cut into. My reply. “Make it four slices, I don’t think I can eat six!”
During the trip, I ordered pizza a couple of times. That’s a different, but still enjoyable experience in Europe. A single serving is a 14” pizza. Plus, they don’t cut it into smaller slices. Whoever heard of that? Reminder to self: I don’t make these trips, so things are just like they would be at home.
Sorry.
I probably don’t do the people who read my newsletter justice if they came here looking for trackchasing news. I’m guilty. I apologize!
I came to the United Kingdom just to visit tracks I had already been to. Coming into this trip, I had visited the U.K. eleven times and seen racing at 66 tracks.
The more I looked at the trip, the more I concluded I could see some tracks again and others for the first time.
Skegness Stadium.
The first track on the agenda was Skegness Stadium, a famous quarter-mile paved oval. I came here in 1999, when it was a dirt oval, and again in 2004, after it was paved. I even came back in 2013 just for the fun of it.
Tonight would be special on many different levels. One of my two favorite classes in the U.K was racing. That’s the BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars with my favorite driver Frankie Wainman Jr. in his famous #515. I even bought a hoodie to remind me of my return to the Skegness Stadium.
Boxed in!
Parking at these events is beyond crazy. People get “boxed in,” and when that happens, they can’t leave until all the cars around them do! I had to push and shove the system, so I didn’t get boxed in.
Holland was in the house!
I’ve made so many friends at the racetracks in the U.S. and around the world. Tonight, my good buddy Frank Oonk was visiting from Holland. He was with his son, Kevin (a banger driver), and son-in-law Remco. Three really nice guys. They have all raced cars.
We sat together in the huge grandstand. There’s an extra charge to sit in the grandstand! Most U.K. tracks don’t have any grandstands at all. These guys educated me on the race program and the drivers. I would match up with them again later in the trip.
I’ve seen racing at more than 3,100 different tracks around the world. Most of that racing was done on small oval tracks. The U.K. does so many things better at these tracks than most.
How the U.K. races differently.
There might not be all that many spectator amenities, such as grandstands. But they race in the rain, admission to the pit area is free, they don’t throw a yellow flag every other lap, and the starters and announcers are a big part of the entertainment. Plus, most of their race classes are full-contact. Very entertaining.
Just stop by and say hi.
One last thing. I mentioned to my 3,000 Facebook friends I was coming to the U.K. this week. I asked folks to look for the tall guy in the blue hat and come up and say hello. Stu Kearsley did exactly that. Nice to meet you, Stu!
Everything in life is relative.
The Iran war is going on right now, and that is driving up fuel prices. Americans are now suffering from “4-dollar gas.” Yes, Americans are whiners when it comes to gasoline prices. Gas has been at $4- $ 5 and higher per gallon in California for years.
Gas prices are high in Europe. How high? On my first fill-up, I paid £1.94 for a liter of petrol. You can do the math, or I can just tell you that that equates to $9.70 per gallon in the US. I filled up for £100, which is about $132 US. The lowest price I paid while in England was £1.81 for a liter.
Dumb.
I did make a rookie mistake. I thought E5 gas was cheaper than E10 gas, but E5 is super unleaded, and E10 is unleaded. That meant I paid about $.12 more per liter than I needed to. Even if I had bought unleaded gas, it still would’ve been about $9 per gallon equivalent.
Blyton Park Autograss Oval.
The next day was trackchasing all day long. At Blyton Park, they were holding an autocross race on a quarter-mile dirt oval.
The word “autocross” in racing often means different things. Sometimes, autocross is simply one car trying to complete a course in the fastest time possible. That type of racing doesn’t count in my trackchasing hobby.
With today’s autocross race format, they ran short 3-4 lap races with 6-8 cars. They must have had nearly 100 of these races all day long.
I roamed the pit area, taking photos of all the unique race cars that showed up to compete. I always like the big bus-race-car haulers that are so popular in Europe.
I was also joined by Frank, Kevin, and Remco from Holland. These guys are hardcore race fans. I don’t think this type of autocross racing was their cup of tea, but it gave them something to do in the afternoon before tonight’s F1 stock car racing.
Eddie Wright Raceway.
Our evening race event was only about an hour from Blyton Park. We would be seeing F1 stock-car racing on a 400-meter-or-so dirt oval. The Holland guys and I arrived about the same time. We checked out the pit area and grabbed a standing position right next to one of the turns.
They had just watered the track. When the high-powered stock cars came around the bend, we were attacked by mudballs! Remco shows how we were all wearing mud after the first race. You won’t get that experience by attending a major league baseball game!
For the next four hours, we stood at the fence watching the races. We did change to the other end of the track where the wind was at our backs. It was chilly. We enjoyed each other’s company and agreed to meet up again on the last day of my trip to England.
Solo.
I’m traveling solo on this trip. Do you even do that? I don’t want to travel by myself on every trip, but once in a while, I very much enjoy it. I have taken about 35-40 racing trips every year since I retired in 2002. About a third of those trips are with Carol (she gets the best trips), about a third are with family and friends, and the last third are by myself. I think those are perfect ratios.
The full English breakfast.
It’s still early in this 13-day trip. Hyatt gives me a complimentary breakfast every morning. Already I’m getting a little tired of the “full English breakfast.”
What’s that? Bacon and bangers (sausages), fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, and fried bread (toast). I like all of that except tomatoes, but not every day.
I’m driving a lot, maybe too much.
The next day of trackchasing would be on my own. I would see two different tracks. By the way, I am driving a lot. Since I’ve already seen racing at nearly 70 U.K. tracks, the remaining tracks are increasingly far apart.
Three Sisters Circuit.
On Easter Sunday, I went trackchasing at two different tracks. The first was the Three Sisters Circuit in Wigan, England. The main attraction at Three sisters for the general public was motorcycles.
Motorcycle racing doesn’t count in the trackchasing hobby. Why? I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. I didn’t make the rules, and I don’t have much confidence in the people who did.
In addition to the motorcycles, the superlite division was running. Superlites are a little bit like what some people might call dune buggies. This type of race class does count with trackchasing.
The weather was cold. Temperatures were in the high 40s with a 25-30 mile an hour wind blasting out of the north. It wasn’t all that comfortable.
Warton…the most unusual location?
When I had seen all of the racing that I needed to see, at Three Sisters, I motored about an hour over to the Warton Stock Car Club in Warton, England.
Folks, I’ve seen racing at more than 3,000 racetracks in 93 countries around the world. I’ve pretty much seen it all, but whenever I think that, I am reminded I haven’t seen it at all, which is why I’m still trying to see it all.
Built by crazy people.
I would like to get deep inside the brains of the people who built the track that hosts the Warton Stock Car Club. They say that the word Golf was the only four-letter word left when they had to come up with a name for that game.
Maybe the only location left in the U.K. to build a race track was where they built the Warton Stock Car Club track! I have no idea what they were thinking.
To get there, I had to drive a mile on what was essentially a one-lane road. The road was reduced to one lane by cars parked nose-to-tail on both sides in spots. At other points, it was just a one-lane road! When I encountered a car or two going in the opposite direction, we both had to slow to 5 mph and move our cars to the furthest available space to clear each other by a couple of inches.
After I completed that 1-mile drive, I could see cars parked on either side of the road, but I still couldn’t see where the race track was. Rather than try to drive uphill on a one-lane road, I found a spot to park and then walked. This was a 1-mile uphill walk into a 30-mile-an-hour wind at 48°F. No, not comfortable. Carol would’ve hated it. There are many reasons why so very few people take up the hobby of trackchasing.
Finally, when I reached the top of the hill, I could see a huge body of water. This was the entrance to the Irish Sea! It bordered the track on the west end. Then I looked down about five stories, and there was the race track built into the side of a hill.
This was a paved oval track about a quarter of a mile long, maybe a little less. Turns three and four were thirty feet lower than turns one and two. Several cars were parked on a hillside terrace where their occupants could watch the racing without being in the cold, windy weather. Sitting inside your car on a rough weather day like this seemed like a really good idea.
From here, I made my way down to the level of the race track and began to explore. By exploring, I mean walking through the pit area, taking pictures of all the cars, which were mainly F2 stock cars, mini-stocks, bangers, and bander vans.
If you have any interest in seeing one of the most unusual sites when it comes to auto racing that you will ever see, go on YouTube and do a search for “Banger Racing.” This is where demo derby meets racing. You’ll see some of the highest-speed crashes ever recorded. This video is one of the best!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6tHqz89GTI
I have never seen racing in a more rural, off-the-wall location. I will share some pictures, but I doubt they will give you a full sense of this unusually located track. Check out the bathrooms!
As it was, I spent the afternoon walking from one viewing point to the next. This was a rural track. The view out toward the Irish Sea was filled with bright green marshes. The whole thing reminded me of a British Open links course. By the way, I have played both Royal Lytham and Carnoustie, the famous Open courses.
I spent some time chatting up local people. As a kid, I spent hours playing with my cars, just like this little boy was. Everyone likes to talk, and here, if they can talk to an American, you can see the enthusiasm in their eyes. Some folks like Americans, but they don’t like America right now. That comes through very clearly.
I stood in line at the portable concession stand for 30 minutes trying to get some fish and chips. When they took my order, they were out of fish and chips! I settled for a sausage, fries, and smothered in a curry sauce. Even at a rural track like this, seemingly on the edge of the world, they still accepted my credit card for payment.
During my entire trip, I only used cash about three times. Luckily, while I waited in line for lunch, I could still have a great view of the racing. The program finished up with the banger vans and bangers. This was quite an unusual experience, even for someone like me, who has done this thousands of times.
One thing I like about England, and I think this was accelerated by COVID, is that businesses accept credit cards for virtually every payment. There is almost no need for cash. That fits my lifestyle very well. Even out here at the Warton Stock Car Club, where it seemed as if no man-made technology could ever exist, my Bilt credit card was accepted. I’ve been in England for four days now, and I’ve only had to pay cash for one purchase.
Leaving the track was just as much fun as trying to get into the track. In this part of the world, with most everyone driving a really small car, my Avis Vauxhall Grantland, classified as a mid-sized SUV, seemed like a Cadillac Escalade! Plus, the side mirrors stick out another 8-10 inches.
I have never been a guided tour traveler. Don’t get me wrong. We have done that. Back in the 80s and 90s we did take fully guided tours (get on the bus, get off the bus) to both China and Russia. We had a great time on those trips and made some lifelong friends. But for the other 99% of the trips I’ve taken, the slogan is, “Get a car and let it rip!”
My schedule called for way too much driving on this trip. For my five days in England, I drove more than 1,100 miles. When I got to France, I drove more than 2,100 miles, not kilometers, in six days. Even for me, that is way too much driving.
Petrol everywhere I went was closer to $10 a gallon than $9 a gallon. I spent $300 on tolls in France. I tried to stay within the speed limit. I’ll know in 4-6 months if speed cameras caught me anywhere.
Foxhall Stadium.
The final day of the U.K. portion of my racing trip would be at the Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich, England. This was not a new track visit. Ipswich was the 5th track I ever saw in the U.K., all the way back in the year 2000.
The weather was much better today. Clear and sunny, almost shorts weather. I wear shorts virtually every day of the year. I don’t think man was made for wearing long pants. It was a nice day to tour the pit area.
A highlight of today’s visit was meeting up with my Holland racing friends again. We all sat together and enjoyed the day.
The National Hot Rods were the top class racing today. They are similar to pavement late models. The hot rods were supported by the rookie rods and bangers. It was a good day of racechasing.
At Foxhall today, I finally got my order of fish and chips. I’m not a big fan of fish. I like shrimp, scallops, and lobster, but not fish. Nevertheless, if you come to England, you gotta have some fish and chips. I did, and I liked it.
After the race, we hung out in the pits and then all headed over to a highly recommended pizza joint. For 20 euros, they offered “bottomless” pizza. They just kept bringing whatever pizza they had just made. You could accept it or not. I couldn’t be that competitive in this pizza-eating because I had an order of fish and chips at the track. When we all finished, we made some tentative plans for another European visit later this year.
That wrapped up my first racing trip to the U.K. since 2016. I did go trackchasing in Scotland in 2022. I think you might agree. This type of trip is not for everyone.
It was now time to fly from London to Paris. I’ll rent a car in Paris and go trackchasing in Spain and France. That’s the plan. Notably, my plans frequently change, and this one did as well.
Final note. London’s Heathrow airport (LHR) has always been a stickler for airport security. They’ve made me re-run my bags several times for the smallest of things.
Frequent air travelers know that the amount of “liquids, creams, and gels” allowed through security is limited to 100 mL per container. That limit has now changed at LHR. The limit is TWO LITERS. Wow! I brought a couple of bottles of Coke Zero through security today!
Next time I talk with you it will be from France.
Cheers,
Randy
P.S. I had not been home a week from this trip when I got a message from Avis. They had been notified of an “infraction” during my rental in the United Kingdom. They would be charging me a “convenience fee” of 30 euros on top of whatever my fine would be. What did I think of that? It was just the cost of doing business. What else could I say?