I have now been to Austria three separate times (2008, 2012, 2014) to see racing in this beautiful country.  By clicking on the tabs above you can see photo albums, YouTube videos and my Trackchaser Reports from each of these visits.  I hope you enjoy seeing what auto racing and touring is all about in Austria.

 

 

Reprinted with permission from my September 8, 2008 Trackchaser Report

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

 

You are about to read about my European trackchasing adventures. As with all RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Reports everything presented as fact is, well, a fact. On the other hand, everything presented as an opinion is in fact MY opinion. As you know opinions are like elbows, almost everyone has one.

 

 

If you feel that the graphic and straight talk presented below might be so realistic as to take the luster off of a future European visit for yourself…….do not read any further.

 

 

However, if you feel comfortable regarding the warnings issued above, sit back and come along on a journey through the “old country”. You may pick up an idea or two for a future journey of your own. At the very least, you will see how one fellow runs all over the world and you will not have to spend a dime of your own money “experiencing” Europe.

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES 

 

Don’t forget to check out the “uniques” list……………….more in “International Big 3 Unique Country List”.

 

I met some very interesting people on the way home from my trip. The meetings were life changing …………..details in “Day 5 – Monday, September 15, 2008”.

 

What were some of my “takeaways” from my 5-day European trackchasing trip?…………..details in “Conclusion”.

 

 

GREETINGS FROM LAMBRECHTEN, AUSTRIA

 

International ‘Big 3’ unique country list

 

In addition to the fun of international travel that involves sightseeing, observing other cultures and just plain fun, I came to the Czech Republic and Austria for a trackchasing specific reason. I’m competing against two trackchasers who have seen races in more countries than I have. Roland Vanden Eynde of Vilvoorde, Belgium has seen racing in 38 countries. Will White of Quakertown, Pennsylvania has seen racing in 20 countries. I’m now up to eighteen and gaining rapidly.

 

I thought you might be interested in seeing a list of countries that each of us has seen racing in where the other two have not. Roland’s list is long. Will and I have a much smaller “unique” list, but at least we have one. These are the countries that each of us has trackchased in where the others have not.

 

 

Roland Vanden Eynde (21)

 

Andorra

Argentina

Croatia

Czechoslovakia

East Germany

Estonia

Finland

Greece

Hungary

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Malaysia

Monaco

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Tunisia

 

 

Will White (6)

 

Bahrain

Costa Rica

Dominican Republic

Guatemala

Guyana

Malta

 

 

Randy Lewis (3)

 

Barbados

South Africa

Thailand

 

 

Day 1 – Friday, October 24, 2008

 

Following the afternoon road racing at the Automotodrom in Brno, Czech Republic I had a pleasant drive over to neighboring Austria. I was still feeling under the weather. Therefore, I took a short nap every 50 miles or so in the highway rest areas.

 

 

I came across an unusual circumstance just as I was leaving the Czech Republic (CZ). About two miles from the border with Austria, I noticed a young woman in her 20s hitchhiking. At first I didn’t think much of it. Then, about a quarter mile down the road, I noticed another woman standing along the road in something similar to a cheerleading outfit. She waved at me. Still further down the road was another woman in a similar outfit smiling and waving. I wondered if maybe the local school was having a fund-raising car wash or something.

 

 

I continued on. I passed another 4-5 woman dressed somewhat provocatively along side of the road. Hey, I was born at night but not last night. I think these woman might have been “ladies of the night”.

 

 

When you leave one European Union country and enter another one you simply drive across the border. You don’t have to stop. You don’t have to show your passport. It’s as simple as crossing from Illinois into Kansas. The former border checkpoint buildings are deserted as if a nuclear bomb has evaporated everyone.

 

 

Weather.com had predicted a 60% chance of rain hourly from now through the end of tomorrow afternoon when I was supposed to see my race in Lambrechten, Austria. Right now the skies looked good. I had an uncomfortable feeling, because www.weather.com is right 98% of the time that I was going to be rained out. I had been led to believe by my Austrian on the ground contact that they might cancel the program if it rained.

 

 

Lambrechten is a small town in Austrian farm country. It’s only a few miles from the German border. Imagine farm country out in the middle of the American Midwest. Then brighten up your mental picture for scenery that is far more interesting, diverse and beautiful than anything you’re likely to see in the U.S.

 

 

The sun was setting but I had time to try to find the track. My GPS took me to the town of Lambrechten. From there I followed the numerous “stock car” signposts to a local gravel pit. The track was back in there.

 

 

It was now getting dark. I was out in the country. I needed a hotel. I didn’t have a reservation anywhere. I didn’t have a cell phone and wasn’t using any paper maps. There was no billboard advertising in the area. How was I going to find a place to stay?

 

 

I simply punched the “lodging” button on my GPS. Soon I was headed to a place less than ten miles away. They had a very nice room that included breakfast for the reasonable price, by European standards, of 66 Euros (about 100 bucks U.S.). I took it.

 

 

The room was large and had two twin beds. Twin beds are much more popular than the double, queen or king-sized bed you would likely find in a U.S. hotel. Frankly, you would have a hard time even finding a twin bed in a major U.S. hotel.

 

 

I was still reeling from my food poisoning episode (my diagnosis). I went to sleep at 8 p.m. I had been lucky to even get through today without filling my rental car with large quantities of smelly undigested food.

 

 

Day 4 – Sunday, September 14, 2008

 

 

Sunday morning, my race day in Austria, dawned minorly cloudy but it wasn’t raining. Was I going to beat a 60% chance of rain all day? I had my first real meal in nearly two days with a fried eggs and ham breakfast that came with my purchase of a hotel room. Hence, the name bed and breakfast.

 

 

The Austria farm landscape is right out of a picture book. The farmhouses are large. Unlike American farms, the farmhouse does not sit by itself with the farm barn and other buildings “out back”. In Austria the farm houses are very large and colorfully painted. Other buildings such as the barn are next to the farmhouse as they form sort of a square. Inside the square is a courtyard where vehicles are parked. I couldn’t see inside these courtyards all that well but Austrian farms are beautiful. 

 

 

I never understand why certain words are printed in English in some countries where there is almost nothing else written in English. At intersections signs read “Stop”. Don’t the Germans (language spoken in Austria) have a word for “stop”? Same thing with “for sale” and “look before you cross” in Japan.

 

 

Following the race, I had a four-hour drive back to Frankfurt. As noted elsewhere, Tonto moved me around a major highway traffic jam. I am rarely in heavy traffic either at home or on these trips. I discovered a new Tonto capability to avoid these problems.

 

 

Although I was still too sick to eat anything at the track today, I was improving. I was improving so much that I wanted to stop at a German McDonalds. Normally, when I travel internationally I will stop at a Mickey Ds just to see what unusual menu item they might have. I’ll also try to pick up an international McDonald’s toy for Miss Lillian’s collection at the golf club.

 

 

However, tonight I was stopping there for the food. Although McDonalds are everywhere in Europe, it can be hard to find one when you want one. In seconds, Tonto had me on the trail. Some chicken McNuggets and a fish sandwich tasted good to someone who had eaten very little in the past 48 hours.

 

 

I was within 5 miles of where I needed to drop my rental car tomorrow morning. I consulted Tonto and he found me a very nice hotel, the Landhotel Johanneshof  within a block of the McDonalds I had used. They offered a modern and large room (similar to a Sheraton hotel) with breakfast for 61 Euros. The desk clerk turned up her nose at my request for a senior discount. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I always ask.

 

 

Day 5 – Monday, September 15, 2008

 

Today is the final day of my brief five-day trip to Europe. After breakfast at the hotel, I made my final petrol stop. My car’s tank is small and the petrol prices are high. I only wish I had the opportunity to bring the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS430 over here to compete with those big German cars. However, the Lexus is destined to drive me around sunny Southern California and won’t ever set foot on European soil with Carol as the owner.

 

 

When I arrived at the Frankfurt airport, I learned my flight to Cincinnati had been canceled. That meant I would not be trackchasing in Ohio on Monday night as originally planned. That was probably a good thing as pulling that off after a flight back from Europe would have been masochistic.

 

 

With the help of my airline partners I simply took a tram to terminal two and hopped on a flight to San Francisco (business class) and then a flight to Los Angeles (first class). The Frankfurt airport is a little spartan and rundown, most notably in terminal two.

 

 

I enjoyed meeting the non-revving Pfeiffers, Pam and John from the Bay area. They were a fun-loving couple to talk too. They convinced me to take a “bird in the hand” (San Francisco) rather than wait for a flight to Los Angeles a few hours later. I didn’t know it at the time but their recommendation was solid gold.

 

 

Little did I know it, but I met a woman on the plane ride home, Bea, who was the most caring and insightful person I have ever met. Of course, I’m not putting Carol into this category or comparison.

 

 

Bea and I talked for several hours about subjects very important to me. I hope I can put her knowledge, wisdom and advice to good use. God willing she and I will meet up again to share success stories. Bea, thank you!!

 

 

I arrived home a day early to find Carol washing dishes at the kitchen sink. It was great to see her. It’s probably a good idea she doesn’t make every one of these trips with me (she might have as many tracks as I do). On the other hand, I feel badly for those folks who don’t have any of their family members to travel with along the trackchasing trail.

 

 

Just 12 hours later I headed to the golf course. When I arrived I discovered that I had left my golf clubs in the garage. They were in the garage and not in my car trunk as part of my long-term parking at the airport preparation. I beat a hasty retreat back home (it’s a 10-minute one-way drive) to get them while calling the club to tell them I would be late. Of course, my golf guys were more than willing to accommodate my organizational shortcomings. They let me play in the last group of the day. To my surprise, I ended up shooting my low round of the year, a 73. Although it’s always best to focus on the positive aspects of a golf round, most people don’t. I ended up making bogey on holes 15, 16 and 17 and then missing a 6-foot birdie putt for an even par round of 72. My golf instructor and the RANLAY Golf Academy practice range are the reasons for my success.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Prices were not as expensive as I remembered or as expensive as I expected. I think our Denmark trip scarred me for life! 

 

My hotels were very nice and cost an average of less than $100 U.S. per night. Each hotel included a sumptuous breakfast I thought I got good value for money. 

 

During my entire 1,100-mile drive I never encountered a toll road even once. 

 

My rental car expense at just over $100 dollars, all-inclusive, was a fantastic bargain for four days.

 

Tonto (my faithful GPS partner) did his job perfectly. Not only did he provide expert road directions but he told me where to find gas stations, restaurants and hotels. One of the best features of all was when I got the idea to have him help me avoid a traffic jam. Tonto took me out into the German countryside for a few minutes. The scenery was right out of a Disney movie. It made me feel bad I had spent so much time on the autobahn. Thanks very much to the Peters clan for lending me their European mapping software.

 

 

What in the world is up with European showers and bathrooms in general? Are the architects some demented demons or were they simply trying to win the “most unusual” design award in architectural school. Although the operation of European bathroom showers has gotten minorly easier to operate over the years, they still normally take a masters in engineering to figure out. I ran into some of the most unusual and complicated contraptions that defy description and are difficult to photograph. You’ll just have to trust me on this one.

 

 

The people were nice everywhere I went. They always are. They love Americans on an individual basis. It’s sort of like congress. Everyone dislikes the ENTIRE congress but they like THEIR congressperson.

 

 

About half of my 18 trackchasing countries speak English as their primary language. For the countries that don’t speak English as their primary language I have always needed lots of help from friends of my trackchasing. For that aid I am eternally grateful. However, it was even more fun to take on a trip to the Czech Republic and Austria with zero aid from anyone associated with the trackchasing community. It proved I can successfully trackchase just about anywhere in the world on my own.

 

 

I was surprised at how little English was spoken during my trip. I almost never heard English once I left the airport and surrounding area. When I checked into a hotel or bought gas, speaking English was doable but not easy with the folks I met.

 

 

Traffic was as heavy or more so when I passed through cities than it is in the United States. With Europeans paying more than $8 per gallon for gas, this surprised me.

 

 

I can’t wait to have more weekend events where I can see racing in two foreign countries. I have several future combos identified.

 

 

It’s nice to be a legitimate member of trackchasing “International Big 3”.

 

 

Lots of things made this trip easier than expected not the least of which was having my airline sponsors provide round-trip business class seats to Europe.

 

 

On this trip I went over 177,000 miles of travel for my 2008 trackchasing season. That would be more than TWICE as many miles as any other trackchaser has covered this year. However, I’m still short of my all-time annual record of 208,000 miles. Will I travel another 31,000 miles during the final three months of the year to break that record? I just might! Trackchasing’s First Mother is busily packing not only my bags but hers in preparation for this eventuality.

 

 

RACE REVIEW

 

LAMBRECHTEN STOCK CAR TRACK, LAMBRECHTEN, AUSTRIA

 

 

I arrived at today’s track a full two hours before the 1 p.m. start time. It was cool with temps in the low 50s. It was overcast but there had been no rain. The ticket taking operation was located on the entrance road to the track’s location. A man and a woman were collecting the admission money. For a fee of 5 Euros I was admitted to the proceedings and given a small program that identified the drivers.

 

However, I was surprised when the woman taking my ticket money said, “Are you Randy”? I looked down at my shirt. No, I was not wearing a nametag. My Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chevrolet Kalos did not identify me as “Randy”. What was going on here?

 

It turns out I was being addressed by Dani (Danieli), a woman who had become aware of my attendance through some advance email correspondence. I didn’t know what Dani’s responsibilities were at the races until today. She was most pleased that an American had come this far to see their rural stock car racing program. I was as well.

 

There were about 100, mainly homemade, stock cars in the pit area today. I would learn there were nine classes racing today. Most of the classes had 6-10 competitors. There was one very unique thing about the cars and the classes. Various stock car “teams” had an entry in each class. All of the cars from one team were painted in the same color scheme only with different car numbers. I’m sure there were points, trophies and/or rewards for the team that did the best.

 

 

As I continued to walk the pits, a young man came up to say hello. This man’s name was “Space,” at least that was what I knew him as via email. Space (pictured above) had been my behind the scenes contact for today’s Austrian races. I tried to communicate with him in German and he did a better job communicating back to me in English.

 

We spent several minutes in the pit area talking. Space was just 22 years old, but he acted older. He runs the website for one of the racing teams here today. Space told me that Austria has some 90 racetracks. He asked me if I had traveled all this way on my own today. I told him I had. Space seemed concerned about my being able to communicate with my family while I was gone. I told him I was staying in contact, but would only be gone from home for five days.

 

He continued to tell me about the class structure, the race plan and the various cars that were in the pit area. It is on the ground people like Space that really open up my understanding of what I’m seeing on the track and in the country in general a good deal of the time.

 

 

The track had a working P.A. but with all communication in German I had no idea about what they were talking about. Space had mentioned that no racing could take place without an ambulance and fire personnel in place. Those folks would be needed from time to time as nearly every race had a car or cars turning over.

 

 

The track’s distance might have been ½-mile in length. The track surface with a mix of dirt and gravel. The track’s elevation followed the natural contour of the pasture it used to be. I had to make a decision between classifying this as an oval or a road course. I ended up deciding it was a road course. In some ways the shape seemed like sort of a “square oval”. However, the backstretch had a couple of “chicanes” that made the drivers turn left and ride. It was these sudden directional turns, along with some coinciding dirt banks, that made for some really wild flips.

 

I was still under the influence of my food poisoning episode. After I had toured the pit area for a good amount of time, I returned to the car for a short nap. I awoke to the pitter patter of rain. Yes, that “60% chance of light rain” was rearing its ugly head just at the 1 p.m. start time. It didn’t take long for the light rain to turn into a steady rain shower.

 

Standing out in breezy, 50-degree weather when it’s raining and you don’t feel well doesn’t seem like the brightest idea. Nevertheless, I was somewhat prepared. I had my best golf rain outfit (purchased in preparation for a golfing trip to Scotland a few seasons back). The races were all 10 laps long. Except in the woman’s division the races continued despite cars being stranded in the middle of the track. Often those disabled cars acted like magnets drawing in even more cars to the mayhem. I think some of my best racing pictures of the season came from this event. Check ‘em out at www.ranlayracing.com.

 

After awhile the rain became too much. There was no formal grandstand seating area. There was no shelter from the rain. My rain outfit was beginning to be overwhelmed with the water. It was with regret that I had to pack it in and head on back to Frankfurt. I strongly prefer this type of local racing to what I had attempted to see on the road course in Brno, Czech Republic yesterday.

 

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

 

Frankfurt International Airport – Thursday/Monday 

 

I’ll be driving the Thrifty Rental Car Halos Chevrolet. This is really not a bad little car, it is just very small. I can’t believe how small the tires are. It’s also hard to believe those tires will transport me at 85 M.P.H. I like the 5-speed manual transmission. The radio is difficult to operate and I can only get foreign language stations. Therefore, I didn’t use it at all.

 

 

I drove the Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chevrolet Kalos 1,760 kilometers (1,100 miles) in the four days I had it. I paid an average price of $8.18 per gallon (gas was more expensive in Austria and Germany than in the Czech Republic) for petrol. The little Kalos gave me 31.63 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 25.9 cents (U.S.) per mile. I might have gotten better mileage, but I had to drive at breakneck speeds during the entire trip just to keep from getting run over. The car cost an incredibly low 72.97 Euros to rent for four days ($103.80 U.S.) which was about 9.4 cents U.S. per mile to rent, all taxes included.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

God, please protect me from your followers.

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA – Frankfurt, Germany – 5,804 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR

 

Frankfurt International Airport – trip begins

Brno, Czech Republic – 421 miles

Lambrechten, Austria – 697 miles

Frankfurt International Airport – 1,100 miles

 

 

 

AIRPLANE

 

Frankfurt, Germany – San Francisco, CA – 5,698 miles

San Francisco, CA – Los Angeles, CA – 363 miles

 

 

Total Air miles – 12,965 miles (3 flights)

 

 

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip –   14,065 miles

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Automotodrom Brno – 6 Euros

Lambrechten Stock Car Track – 5 Euros

 

 

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $11 Euros

 

 

 

RANKINGS

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. I’m telling you, it’s not my fault!

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,382

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

No more trackchasing from me for a while.  Next weekend Carol and I will be cheering on the high-powered offensive minded UCLA Bruins against the Arizona Wildcats in the Rose Bowl.  The Bruins lost a squeaker to BYU last weekend.  If you have never seen a football game in the Rose Bowl I wish you could.

 

 

The next day we’ll be attending the baptism ceremony for Astrid and Mitchell, our three-month old grandchildren.  However as my good Austrian friend and California elected governor says, “I’ll be baaaaaack!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted with permission from my April 28 & 29, 2012 Trackchaser Report

 

My 2012 trackchasing visit to Austria was a warm-up act before I headed off to see racing in Slovakia for the first time.

 

 

“Just a long weekend in Europe or…. everybody’s gotta be somewhere”

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM AUSTRIA ON THE WAY TO ORECHOVA POTON, SLOVAKIA

 

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

 

Global Entry and TSA Pre-Check……..details in “The Visa and Thursday – Day 1”.

 

 

Show me the ‘couchette’……..details in “Friday – Day 2 – Frankfurt, Germany”

 

 

Do they really need to charge you to pee? ……..details in “Friday – Day 2 – Frankfurt, Germany”

 

 

PRE-TRIP 

 

ADVANCE PREPARATION

 

 

THE RACE

 

You can count on the big boys to show up on time.

 

I was actually planning to come to Slovakia in May for something called the “Carbonia Cup”. However, when the World Touring Car Championship  series made an early season decision to come here I altered my plans. For the most part, the best thing about seeing a major race sanction group in a foreign country is that they will actually hold their race event with no last minute changes. Confirming this event would be held was one of the easiest foreign country plans I’ve ever made.

 

  

THE VISA

 

This is getting pretty easy by now.

 

Traveling to Europe is a piece of cake compared to Asia, Africa or South America. Eastern Europe can be a little more challenging but it’s coming along nicely in terms of tourist conveniences.

 

 

They won’t ever catch up.

 

Just to make things even easier, I enrolled and was accepted into the U.S. government’s “Global Entry”  program. This makes it simple and fast to clear customs upon returning to the U.S. When I return from Slovakia I will use it for the first time. Yes, those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” are late adapters when it comes to technology and “ease of use” ideas. However, sooner or later they finally break down and buy a used iPhone and/or GPS unit. Things like “Global Entry” allow me to stay ahead of them in the all important technology/convenience arms race.

  

 

TIME ZONES

 

What time is it?

 

Everywhere I will be heading in Europe will be in the same time zone. That time zone will be ahead of California by nine hours. However, I will only be overnight for four evenings. That won’t give me much time to get used to the time zone. I’ve read it takes one day for each hour of time zone change to get acclimated. I’ll be there just long enough to cause some minor inconveniences when I return to our home in San Clemente, California. 

 

 

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

 

I can always count on TripAdvisor.

 

I didn’t have a lot of help locally with this trip. David, who resides in Slovakia, tried to help. I did send out some emails to the track personnel. They either didn’t understand English or weren’t too impressed that the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” was coming to visit.

However, I had a good deal of help from a consistent source, TripAdvisor.com. If you travel anywhere in the world, you’ll do better asking the contributors to TripAdvisor forums “What’s Up?”.

 

 

THE TRANSPORTATION

 

Los Angeles to San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany to Vienna, Austria to Orechova Poton, Slovakia.

 

When this trip to Slovakia is complete I will have seen racing in 59 different countries. What’s the big deal with that? Almost all of them were a heck of a long way from where I live in Southern California. O.K., all let’s be honest. All of them were! It takes a lot of resources (all kinds of resources) to make that happen.

 

Getting to Europe before about May 15 is pretty easy. Did you know that the American Airlines frequent flyer program will let you fly to Europe from October 15 to May 15 each year for 40,000 miles. However, from May 15 to October 15 the charge is 80,000 miles. That might give you some indication about the demand from one season to the next. However, I was not traveling on American Airlines nor was I traveling on a frequent flyer ticket for this trip. 

 

 

CURRENCY

 

Naw, it couldn’t be true.

 

Carol came through again. The official currency in Slovakia is the Euro. Right now it takes about $1.32 U.S. to buy a single Euro. I didn’t have to buy any for this trip. A simple request to Carol had her dropping a cellophane bag full of Euros in my inbox on my desk. As the days roll on I truly wonder if she really is a drug dealer. 

 

 

WEATHER

 

Just right!

 

The weather could have been cold and rainy during this time in Europe. However, it wasn’t. The forecast called for temperatures in the 70s with no rain. Heck, that’s pretty much San Clemente weather every day of the year. It is also the kind of weather I like the very best. 

 

 

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS

 

A little bit of everything.

 

 

I would be gone for just four nights. The first night would be spent on an airplane. The second night would be on a train. I was REALLY looking forward to that. The final two evenings would be spent in a lovely little hotel on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria. 

 

 

THE RENTAL CAR

 

When is there no difference between little and big?

 

Although I would be taking planes and trains I would also need a rental car. I use Kayak.com for my international rental car needs. Their site is clear and clean and easy to figure out.

 

I would be renting from SIXT. We rented a car from those folks in Poland and the experience was great. I rented an economy class car with unlimited kilometers for just 66 Euros for the two days for this trip.

 

The car will have a manual transmission. I like “driving stick” for short durations like this trip will be. The economy class car costs only a euro or two per day over the one or two smaller class cars. I can’t tell the difference between a “big” car and a “small” car in Europe. They all look the same to me with the $100,000 U.S. Mercedes and the like excepted.

 

Hopefully, I won’t be hassled by the “Insurance scam” perpetrated by Thrifty Rental Car in Frankfurt the last time Carol and I came passing through. I have learned to print out my MasterCard rental car coverage details for foreign country rentals.

 

 

NAVIGATION

 

I’m back with my buddy Garth.

 

“Garth”, my loyal and reliable GPS buddy, will be riding shotgun with me. Of course, in Europe, Garth is sponsored. The Peters family clan provides me with European GPS support. For the most part Garth works as well in Europe as he does in the U.S. Sometimes Eastern Europe gets a little sketchy so we’ll see how he does in Slovakia. 

 

 

THE TRAVELING COMPANION

 

Carol makes her own decisions.

 

Carol won’t be coming on this trip. Just twelve days ago she came back from an 11-day trip to Maui, Hawaii. A week after I return from this trip she will leave with me for a 8-10 day trip on what could very well be trackchasing country #60 for me and #29 or more for her. I can’t fault her a bit. She does her part. 

 

 

THE SUMMARY

 

I had nothing to worry about….that’s what worried me.

 

I had a firm race date. The weather was going to be great. I also had no major worries on how I would get to my destination. I had absolutely nothing to worry about. That’s what worried me! I put hours and hours into planning these adventures, both foreign and domestic. Nevertheless, only about one in fifty comes off without a hitch. This plan was one of the simpler that I had ever concocted internationally. What could go wrong? 

 

 

Thursday – Day 1 – Los Angeles, California to Frankfurt, Germany via San Francisco, California

 

Up and at ‘em I’m on my way.

 

I lead an active lifestyle. Yesterday, for the first time ever, Carol and I went with our grandbaby twins, Astrid and Mitch to Disneyland. Of course, parents Kristy and James came along as well as son, J.J. Unfortunately, our son Jim, who lives in Hawaii, could not complete the family outing.

 

 

Do you know any ‘Disney’ families?

 

We have been a “heavy-duty” Disney family for a long time. Of course as a child growing up in Illinois going to Disneyland was never a reality. However, Carol and I honeymooned at Disneyworld in Florida in 1972 just three months after the park opened. We moved to California in 1974 for four years and then moved back to SoCal in 1983 for good. When you live in a nice place all kinds of friends and family want to visit you. They not only want to visit YOU but they want to visit the local tourist attractions. In Southern California that means Disneyland.

 

For awhile we had people visiting every month or two and everyone wanted to go to Disneyland. If I had to guess, we’ve been to Disneyland twenty-five times or more. Son J.J. even worked at Disneyland during his high school and college years.

 

Yesterday we entered the park when it opened at 9 a.m. We left at near closing time. For us the main attraction was the very same as when we took our kids some thirty years ago. Back then we simply wanted to watch the kids watching Disneyland. Today we wanted to watch our grandbabies watch Disneyland.

 

However, for the “older children” they were watching Carol and me celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary. They had all chipped in to “fund” the day’s outing. We didn’t have to pay for a thing.

 

 

Club 33….we finally made it.

 

The “non-people” highlight of the day was a special lunch reservation at Club 33 at Disneyland. Club 33 is a very special place that few people know about. Even fewer people have ever been inside this club/restaurant. It carries a $25,000 club initiation fee and $10,000 annual dues. Even at those rates there is a 14-year waiting list to become a member!

 

At Club 33, Carol and I relaxed above the fray of the park while getting the best service one could ever expect. We dined on salmon in an old world atmosphere so different from what anyone could possibly expect from a visit to Disneyland. The menu was specially printed for us commemorating our 40 wedding anniversary. The dessert bar was over the top. I had committed to trying everything because I didn’t know if I would ever make it back to Club 33. Just when I had gorged myself with every dessert imaginable our waiter came calling with a double-barreled chocolate mouse dish, with candles, commemorating even further our wedding anniversary. Don’t miss the pictures.

 

 

We didn’t get home until nearly 10 p.m. from Disneyland. My wakeup call for my trip to Slovakia would come at 3:40 a.m. to begin this adventure. For folks our age, we push the limit don’t we.

 

 

I couldn’t let Carol sleep through my bon voyage.

 

I woke up on Thursday morning at 3:37 a.m. three minutes ahead of my alarm. That was a good thing. That meant Carol wouldn’t be disturbed by the alarm. Everything had been packed the night before. I simply needed to shower and to get dressed. Carol normally wakes up when I go about my early morning business but not this morning. I think Disneyland wore her out!

 

Yes, Disneyland can wear a person out. She was still sleeping when I was ready to leave. I contemplated letting her sleep…..just like Sleeping Beauty. However, our tradition has always been for me to give her a kiss and she can wish me a bon voyage before I leave on one of these trips. We maintained that commitment and I bade her farewell.

 

 

It’s nice to see people doing the right thing.

 

Then I was off on the 65-mile drive to the Los Angeles International Airport. We were experiencing our likely last rain of the “season”. It probably won’t rain again until November.

 

When I arrive at my parking garage at LAX I have two options. I can take a 20-minute walk or ride the hotel shuttle across the street from the parking garage. I normally walk and I did this morning. However just after I started walking it began to rain. Luckily, a parking shuttle driver took pity and picked me up. Good things on him.

 

I was taking the first flight of the day to San Francisco. During this time of year the San Francisco airport (SFO) can get fogged in. I couldn’t chance missing my 2 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany. If there were no delays getting into SFO I would have a nearly six-hour layover in San Francisco. There were no delays and I simply hung out at the airport sorting photos from my most recent trackchasing visits.

 

 

My latest efficiency activity.

 

The highlight of the morning was using the new “TSA Pre-Check” program. This allows passengers, like me, who have been pre-screened to pass through airport security without removing my shoes, removing my laptop from its case, removing my belt or taking my “liquids” out of carryon luggage.

 

I simply removed the metal from my pockets, put all of my carry-on stuff (Bose headset, camera, neck pillow and rolling carry-on bag) on the conveyer belt and walked through the metal detector. I am usually well ahead of the technology curve. I am on this too. Someday, but probably not too soon, even those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” will figure this one out…..but it probably won’t be THAT soon.

 

I would fly to Frankfurt, Germany from San Francisco in coach. Coach for a 12-hour flight isn’t that great….but it’s beats the alternatives. I don’t mind flying coach for any distance. I’m more interested in what will be happening when I land.

 

 

Friday – Day 2 – Frankfurt, Germany to Vienna, Austria

 

Ingenuity is the mother of invention.

 

This morning I landed in Frankfurt, Germany at 10 a.m. local time. Frankfurt is nine hours ahead of our time zone in Los Angeles. I’ll only be in Europe for three evenings. That won’t be long enough to get used to the time zone. I’ll just fight through it and nap when I can.

 

My final destination on the outbound portion of this trip is Vienna, Austria. Several weeks ago I purchased a one-way ticket for the backend of this trip from Vienna back to Frankfurt. The fare was just $65 U.S. one-way for the flight. That was a steal. I could have purchased the outbound flight from Frankfurt to Vienna for the same price….but I waited. I was trying to get something special set up where I wouldn’t need that flight from FRA-VIE. That never happened and by the time I decided to purchase the Frankfurt-Vienna flight the fare had gone up from $65 to $199 U.S. I didn’t like that idea so it got me to thinking.

 

 

Why not take the train!

 

Why not take the train from Frankfurt to Vienna? I had never done that by myself. Years ago Carol and I rode a train overnight in a sleeper car while touring Russia (Moscow to St. Petersburg). This trip would be special because I would have the chance to use a sleeper car by myself. Anything that I’ve never done I want to do. This was one of those things. More on that later.

 

After a 12-hour fight from SFO I cleared customs easily in Frankfurt. I had 13 hours to kill until tonight’s train ride to Vienna, Austria. This morning I had to get to the train station in downtown Frankfurt to be in position to catch the evening train to Vienna. The boys and girls over at TripAdvisor.com had given me their best advice on how to make this happen.

 

They told me to grab a train in terminal 1 of the Frankfurt airport. There, for a small fee of 4.10 euro, I could make the 14-minute ride to the Frankfurt train station in central Frankfurt. It was a fun challenge to see if I could buy my own train ticket via a central kiosk for the train in the airport. I could!

 

I did make the error of first stepping inside a first class train car. Other passengers corrected my mistake. On that train it certainly didn’t look like buying a first class train ticket was worth it.

 

 

Was there a place I could store my bags?

 

The Frankfurt train station was huge and somewhat old. TripAdvisor advice told me that I could store my bags in the station’s storage lockers. For three euros (it was five for a larger locker) I could squeeze my stuff into one of the smaller storage lockers. Toting nothing more than my camera the next several hours would be much more comfortable in Frankfurt.

 

By the way I don’t tell you these stories by memory. I simply look at my pictures to confirm what did and did not take place. That’s why I think if you’re interested in reading this the pictures will put a whole new spin on bridging any “understanding gap” that might exist between what I write and what you the reader understands.

 

 

Lunch like the locals.

 

Lunch was a “chili” bratwurst at a “Wursthelden” store in the train station. How could I come to Germany and not have a bratwurst. Just as my server had predicted it was hot!

 

It was a beautiful spring day in Frankfurt. The temps were in the high 70s. I grabbed a City Tour Sightseeing “hop on/hop off” sightseeing bus for 15 euros. It was one of those “open air” double decker buses you see on the Travel channel. A complete loop around the city took one hour at a price of 12 euros. The higher price I paid allowed me to ride the bus all day if I wanted. I ended up taking three loops around the city.

 

Overall, I was not that much impressed with the architecture or attractions of the city. Nevertheless, on a beautiful day it was relaxing to see Frankfurt this way. After three times around I was beginning to really get to know the place!

 

 

Come on….is this really necessary?

 

For a short time it was back to the train station. There I met up with one of my pet peeves about Europe. In many places they charge to use the public bathrooms. In the train station they charged 0.70 euros (about a dollar). I guess the locals are used to it but I’m not.

 

I still had six hours before my train left. I decided to take my own walking tour. This was when I came across the “Occupy Frankfurt”  tent city. I’ve read about these “sit-ins” in the U.S. but this was the first time I had seen one first hand. Don’t miss the pictures.

 

 

The right time and the right place.

 

On the way back toward the train station I stumbled across the “English Theatre of Frankfurt”. They were having a theatrical run of the 1988 movie, “Rain Man”. This would be an excellent way to spend my remaining hours in Frankfurt.

 

The timing could not have been more perfect. The play started at 7:30 p.m. and would finish up at 10 p.m. You’ve got to love the preciseness of the Germans. A sign indicated exactly how long act one would be, how long intermission would be and how long the last act was going to be. The theatre was a 10-minute walk to the train station. Often times the timing doesn’t work out this well when multiple events present themselves. Today it was perfect.

 

 

Gourmet dining is a big part of this.

 

There was just enough time to have a gourmet meal. Traveling to foreign places allows me the opportunity to eat great food at fantastic restaurants. I discovered an Indian restaurant called Spice near the train station. They served delightful spicy chicken tikka masala. I’ve grown to be a big Indian food lover.

 

U.S. English speaking actors as the theatre’s name indicated, performed tonight’s play in English. The audience was 100% German as far as I could tell. Despite some of the roughest language I could imagine (I play golf so I know rough language) everyone seemed to enjoy the performance.

 

 

Puzzling?

 

The German audience puzzled me to some degree. Within each act their were several scenes where the lights went dark and the set was rearranged. These would have been perfect opportunities for the crowd to applaud the actor’s performances. However, the audience did not applaud a single time until the entire production was finished. Then they kept applauding until the actors had made five curtain calls. Surprising!

 

 

This was going to be fun.

 

I was very much looking forward to my overnight train ride. It would rank just behind my staying in a “coffin” hotel  in Tokyo. The train ride from Frankfurt, Germany to Vienna, Austria would be about nine hours long covering somewhere around 345 miles.

 

I had fleshed out this idea with the people at TripAdvisor. Google helped too. I bought my ticket online in advance. For just 79 euros I could make the trip. I figured the overall expense of $105 U.S. was a bargain for both a night’s accommodation AND transportation for this distance.

 

I had reserved a sleeping car. However, it was not a private sleeping car. There would be six of us in one compartment. Our section was not that large. Check out this link and some train riding advice provided by reader Louis Skypala to see what a compartment with six “couchettes” looks like.

 

Show me the couchette!

 

“I would make sure that you sleep with any valuables, computers, cameras phones (in general all electronics) as well as money and any jewelry and your passport.  When I was in Europe in 2006 using a first class Eurail pass I always upgraded to a first class sleeper,  It usually cost me an extra $100.00 a night.  It was well worth the peace of mind since I did not want anything happening that would force me to change plans or worse yet return home early.

 

Based on what I just read you should be fine especially if you are on a newer train.  However, once you get into your couchette check it out and if you’re not sure sleep with your valuables just to be on the safe side.  Going from Frankfurt to Vienna should not pose a problem.  The only complaint I have ever heard from people who slept in a six person couchette was that sometimes the younger folks were more interested in staying up all night and making noise which isn’t fun if you’re trying to get some sleep.  Other than that its all quite harmless.  Never once did I ever hear of anyone being robbed.  Hope this helps.”

 

 

This was a cozy place with five (six) of my closest friends whom I had yet to meet.

 

The space was about seven feet square and maybe ten feet in height. There were three bunks that came out of the walls on each side. I soon discovered that my bunk had been pre-assigned. I was lucky enough to get a top bunk. A more experienced traveler told me this was a good idea because “if you’re on the lower bunk people bother you during the night when they go to the toilet”. That made sense to me especially after I had spent a night on the train.

 

When I entered my compartment the two lower bunks were already occupied by a middle aged couple. That’s when I first discovered I was in a co-ed car! This couple had gotten on the train at the stop before Frankfurt.

 

The middle bunks were occupied by an older single woman who was going to Vienna for the day and returning the next evening. Opposite her was an attractive young woman who shared her bed with her two-year old son. Then opposite me on the top bunks was a 40ish man who was traveling back to Budapest for a holiday. The next morning we all got to know each other.

 

My space was a little claustrophobic. With my right shoulder on the bed I could touch the ceiling of our compartment with my left elbow. The space from my mattress to the ceiling might have been 24-30 inches.

 

In the middle of the night I did have to walk some eight rungs down a metal ladder to visit the toilet (that’s what they call it in Europe). I would not want to be in a small confined place like this if there was a rip roarer of a snorer in the group.

 

 

Let’s do this again.

 

Would I do this again? Yes, I would. I would love to have Carol experience a “sleeper” car. Maybe she will. I could have paid ten more euros to have just four bunks in the compartment. I figured there wasn’t much difference between four people in a cabin and six. When I was in Marine Corps boot camp I slept with 18 guys in a “Gomer Pyle” metal Quonset hut for three months. Six folks in a train car for one evening was a piece of cake.

 

 

AUSTRIAN RACING ACTION – 2012 STYLE

 

Saturday – Day 3 – Fuglau, Austria

 

What if?

 

I was in Europe to see racing in the country of Slovakia, my 59^th trackchasing country. The racing in Slovakia would take place on Sunday. That left Saturday open!

 

 

What if I could find another race “on the Saturday” that was somewhat nearby Sunday’s race in Orechova Poten, Slovakia? That would be somewhat easier said that done. Racing in this part of the world happens much more on Sunday than Saturday.

 

 

I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

 

Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine. Any racing beyond these countries would probably be too far away from Sunday’s racing in Slovakia. Therefore I went about trying to find some Saturday racing in one of the five countries listed above.

 

Folks, this is not like researching a race in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin! These people don’t speak much English. Their websites, when they exist, are all written in the foreign (to me) language of their country. Nevertheless, with a few hours of nosing around on the internet and some help from friends in Austria and Slovakia I found a race. Yes, a track called “Nordring” in the small village of Fuglau, Austria was racing on Saturday. There was something that made this connection extra special. The entire amount of driving from my hotel in Austria to the track in Austria, back to my hotel in Austria and then to the race in Slovakia and back to the airport……was only FOUR hours. I had hit the jackpot.

 

 

No rain for nearly a year!

 

 

The springtime weather was spectacular. I was last rained out on June 3, 2011. There would be no rainouts on this trip. The farm fields were a beautiful green and often yellow the color of “rapeseed” fields.

 

Garth got me to the village of Fuglau in Austria in plenty of time. I simply flashed my “World’s #1 Trackchaser” business card and the seas parted at the admission gate. My first stop was at the concession stand. There I consumed a large spicy bratwurst. Then I went about exploring the paddock area.

 

 

One of the advantages of European racing.

 

One of the main advantages of European racing is that the paddock area is open to spectators, normally at no extra charge. This allows fans to get “up close and personal” with the cars and drivers. I like that. In the U.S. they often try to rip off patrons with a pit pass that is 2-3 times the price of a general admission ticket.

 

 

What did the timetable say?

 

The “timetable” i.e., race schedule for the weekend called for practice and then “timed practice” for all of Saturday up until 5 p.m. Then they would have “heat 1” for all divisions. On Sunday, when I would be trackchasing in Slovakia there would be racing for heats 2 and 3 at the Nordring.

 

 

The paddock area was full of three main classes of racecars. There were sedans, dune buggies and crosskarts. I would guess there were 75 competitors in the pits maybe more. It seemed as if nearby Czech Republic had the most racers in the pits.

 

 

When is gravel dirt and tarmac asphalt?

 

The Nordring track itself was a relatively flat road course. The racing surface was a combination of “gravel” i.e., dirt and “tarmac” i.e., asphalt. All of the announcing was done in a foreign tongue. That made finding out exactly where they were in the “timetable” somewhat difficult.

 

 

I wouldn’t starve but I could go broke just taking care of my bodily functions.

 

That didn’t bother me too much. I could find the concession stand to feed myself. I also found the “toilet” where they wanted 0.30 cents euro for each visit. As an English speaking person I pleaded “language deficit” (not difficult for me to do) and did my business for no charge. I do get a major kick out of seeing so many places in Europe charging to use the bathroom. They get an equal kick out of seeing that the U.S. doesn’t offer some form of national health care to each of their citizens!

 

 

What is a ‘driver liaison officer’?

 

I struck up a conversation with the “driver liaison officer” of the track. This fellow’s job was to keep the driver’s happy. Luckily for me he spoke English and was willing to get me up to speed on the racing program.

 

 

He was kidding right?

 

 

Too my utter delight he explained they would be racing on two tracks. The first track would be for “rallycross” racing. Rallycross is done on a mixed surface of gravel and tarmac. There would also be autocross racing for the dune buggy type class and crosskarts. Except for the starting grid autocross racing is contested on the gravel/dirt course. Based on the “different surfaces” trackchasing rules this would count as two tracks.

 

I must have arrived about 2 p.m. I scoured every inch of the paddock area. You won’t want to miss the pictures of the unusual (to me) racecars and haulers. Then I headed out to the track to see the racing activity. For what seemed like forever, they practiced and then they had timed practice.

 

 

No, now I KNEW I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

 

They would bring out 4-5 cars, line them up as if they were going to have a race and then let one car go at a time for practice and qualifying. Since I couldn’t understand the announcer I didn’t know when, if ever, they were going to have a real race. That was until my English-speaking friend gave me the low down.

 

Wheel to wheel racing was supposed to begin at 5 p.m. he told me. However, like so many of their tardy U.S. counterparts they didn’t really have their act together. The first race, on the rallycross course started at 7:15 p.m. Sunset was at about 8:30 p.m.

 

The track did have a few lights but probably not enough to cover the entire track. At sundown, they called it a day after running ten or more rallycross races.

 

The races only included 4-5 cars for a distance of 3-4 laps. It wasn’t exactly like a 100-lapper for 30 dirt late models! Nevertheless, track #1,743 was in the books.

 

 

Expectations can be a difficult thing to handle in life.

 

I had come to the Nordring expecting to see racing on ONE track. However, once I knew they had TWO tracks I was disappointed in seeing racing on only one. My “driver liaison officer” told me they would be back here bright and early on Sunday morning, at 8 a.m. to resume racing. That would include racing on the autocross course.

 

 

How much risk was I willing to take?

 

This presented a minor dilemma for me. The Sunday afternoon racing in Slovakia, my main reason for being here, would not begin until about 2 p.m. I COULD return to Nordring in Austria for the early Sunday morning race but it would add about 125 miles of extra driving.

 

I headed out of the track wondering what I should do. I certainly didn’t want to risk seeing a second track in Austria and then somehow miss seeing the Sunday afternoon race in Slovakia.

 

 

This was not my first Austrian rodeo.

 

By the way, I had first come to see racing in Austria back in 2008. Austria was my 18^th trackchasing country. I saw some country stock car racing the day after I made my first ever trackchasing visit to the Czech Republic. I frequently return to foreign countries to see racing after I have made an initial trackchasing visit. Here’s a list of places where I’ve done exactly that.

 

United States

Canada

Australia

United Kingdom

Belgium

France

Mexico

Austria

 

On the way home I stopped at a roadside pizza restaurant. Wearing shorts, like I always do and like most Europeans rarely too I waltzed in and placed my order in English. My pepperoni pizza was really what I would call ham. Nevertheless, it hit the spot and completed my day.

 

 

 

Sunday – Day 4 – Orechova Poton, Slovakia

 

It’s race day!

 

Today is the BIG day. In more than 63 years of living I have only been able to say that, trackchasing wise, 59 times. Yes, Slovakia will be the 59^th country where I have trackchased. I have been to another 10-15 countries but they don’t “count” in this analysis.

 

 

On country #59 day, I didn’t start trackchasing in Slovakia, I started in Austria!

 

However, my first trackchasing event of the day would not be in Slovakia. I had an early morning appointment to return to Nordring in Fuglau, Austria for their autocross race event.

 

By first going to Austria I was adding some risk to the plan to add country #59 in Slovakia. What if something happened? It could be a flat tire, an accident or a traffic problem. However, if I worried about all the possible bad things that COULD happen I would be better off staying on the porch back on the block.

 

 

I thought you were going to Slovakia Ring.

 

I arrived at Nordring at 8:15 a.m. after an hour and one-half drive. Again, I was admitted for free as a working member of the press. Soon I saw my English-speaking friend, the track’s “Driver Liaison Officer”. I said hello and his comment was “I thought you were going to Slovakia Ring today!”.

 

I quickly explained that I was back to see the “second” track of Nordring. Yesterday I had seen racing on their rallycross “mixed surface” track of asphalt and gravel. Today I would see racing on the autocross (all gravel) track. In reality “all gravel” really means a dirt surface with a good deal of rocks in the dirt.

 

 

I didn’t write the rules, I don’t agree with a lot of the rules. Nevertheless, I play by all of them.

 

Frankly, I never would have come up with some of the rules that our trackchasing “Founding Fathers” did or even several of the ones that modern trackchasers have approved. However, I do my very best to trackchase according to those rules. Why? It allows the observer of the hobby to compare the results of one trackchaser and another. As an example, I have now seen 1,745 tracks. No one else, working under the same rules that most trackchasers follow, has come within 300 tracks and climbing of that total.

 

 

What do you call a track with right AND left turns?

 

Today’s autocross track was a road course. That means it had multiple right and left turns. There were some minor elevation changes. From most spectating positions I could see nearly all of the 1-mile (my guess) track.

 

I stayed for an hour of racing. I saw some six races. The crosskart group started 11 racers. The buggies started just 3-5 competitors. The races were short just four laps each. Races in America are much longer. However, in today’s racing it seemed that after 3-4 laps the running order had been decided.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, 

Randy Lewis

World’s #1 Trackchaser (semi-retired)

Life should NOT be a journey to your grave with the intention of arriving with a well-chiseled and honed body but rather to crash in, riding your golf cart up the 18th fairway with a glass of single malt in one hand and a brownie in the other. You should be totally worn out and used up with a tattoo on your chest proclaiming, “What a ride”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – San Francisco, CA (SFO) – 338 miles

San Francisco, CA (SFO) – Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) – 5,680 miles

 

 

TRAIN

 

Frankfurt, Germany – Vienna, Austria – 385 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR

 

Vienna International Airport – trip begins

 

 

 

Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

Editor’s note:  Before heading out to the Speedway Natschbach track on Saturday we would have four full days of Austrian touring.  That was fun as you will soon read about.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

 

 

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  We’ll stay here tonight as well.  This is what the day looked like.

 

 

When we take these long trips to foreign countries we made sure there is plenty of time for sightseeing.  The next four days were reserved for that.

 

This vacation truly did feel as if we were on a cruise ship.  The day started off with a “cruise ship” style breakfast.  Most days finished off with a gourmet “cruise ship” type dinner.  During the day we toured just as if we were on a cruise ship day tour albeit in our rental car.

 

The people in Austria were not nearly as friendly as those we met in Italy.  Remember, my comments are based upon only the people we met.  Your experience might be different….but I doubt it.

 

 

Our servers didn’t speak much English.  However, they knew enough to cook my made to order omelet well.  Then we sauntered over to the “concierge” desk to see what types of tours might be to our liking.  It turned out the “concierge” was the same person as the desk clerk!  She didn’t speak or understand English any better in the concierge role than she did as a desk clerk.

 

 

Please understand one thing.  Most people I ran into couldn’t speak my language very well.  However, I could not speak THEIR language at all.  I have never felt it worthwhile to put much effort into learning a foreign language that I wouldn’t be using very much.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask my high school Spanish teacher Mrs. Corngiebel.

 

 

Even the store signs in town had little to no English identifying their purpose.  Nevertheless, we soon found the post office, bus station, shoe store and pizza restaurant. 

 

By the way it seems as if “pizza” is the default food of Europe.  Everyone serves pizza.  Pizza is good in Italy and other places here.  However, I think American pizza at the places I know about is the best in the world.

 

 

We ran into two women American tourists from Illinois (Kankakee).  They were commenting on how tough it was to navigate Austria.  I told them they needed GPS.  One thing led to another and I soon was lending them my Garmin GPS unit, which is backup to my iPhone.  They seemed most pleased with this idea.  Frankly, I can’t imagine trying to navigate these areas WITHOUT GPS given the lack of English on virtually all signs.

 

 

It wasn’t long before Carol and I were headed to downtown Salzburg, Austria.  We weren’t all that prepared but that did not stop us.  It probably should have.

 

 

It was difficult to navigate Salzburg’s stop and go construction laden traffic during the middle of a work day.  Carol is probably not as “adventuresome” as me.  O.K. permit me to explain this is a different way.  Carol is NOT as adventuresome as me and doesn’t seem to appreciate that a difficult journey can be an enjoyable journey.

 

Nevertheless, the weather was picture perfect and Salzburg is a great place to take pictures.  Someone told us it is said that “Salzburg is the most beautiful city in Europe”.  That statement can be debated until the cows come home.  However, Salzburg is a beautiful place as my photos will indicate.

 

 

We ended up in the “old town” section of Salzburg.  That’s the place to be.  We had an Indian food dinner.  We both asked for the food to be on the spicy side.  Mind was spicy enough to make my bald spot itch and I don’t really think I have a bald spot!

 

 

Carol was starting to come around now.  We found a couple of good sources for postcards and that means a lot to her.  Over a glass of wine we planned the rest of our touring week.  We’ll be back in Salzburg to begin our touring in earnest tomorrow.

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  We’ll stay here tonight as well.  This is what the day looked like.

 

It was a 30-40 minute drive from our hotel into Salzburg.  The driver took us through tunnels and beautiful views of the snow-covered Austrian Alps.  Yes, Austria is beautiful.

 

First up on the touring agenda was the Fortress Hohensalzburg Fortress.  Some call it the Castle Hohensalzburg.  With a length of 820 feet and width of 490 feet this is one of the largest mid-evil castles in Europe.

 

 

I find these structures look a lot more impressive from the outside than inside.  Most of whatever “decoration” existed on the interior has been destroyed or just worn away after 400-500 years or more.  However, the exterior stone structures can hang in there for just about ever.

 

 

We rode a “funicular” to the top of the castle.  From there the views of Salzburg are the best.  Don’t miss the photos.

 

 

During the afternoon we took a “Mountains” tour on a bonafide tour bus.  It was part of the “Bavarian Mountains and Salt Mines Tour”.  The bus actually took us to Germany from Salzburg, Austria.  However, our tour did not include the salt mines.  We drank German beer in a local beer garden before returning “home” to St. Johann’s in the evening.

 

From the hotel we took an adventure walk to the somewhat nearby Lotus China (yes, “China” not Chinese”) restaurant.  We ate outside on the patio on a beautiful spring evening.  All of the food was good highlighted by the “shrimp puffs” and fried pineapples with honey and ice cream for dessert.

 

 

Most international (especially Europe) races are in the day.  Most U.S. races (ovals anyway) are in the night.  What does this mean?  It means gourmet evening dining while trackchasing in Europe.  With mainly night racing in the U.S. it’s racetrack food for dinner when trackchasing there.  European trackchasers have a big advantage over us in that area.

 

 

It had been much easier navigating Salzburg today.  There’s a lot to be said for understanding and appreciating the difficulties and opportunities associated with the “learning curve”.

 

 

Today I had a “first”.  I made my first international text.  I hope you text.  If you don’t I feel you are missing out on a real opportunity.  Would you still own a black & white TV.  Would you want a car without power windows?  The funny thing is that people who don’t text think that’s a “right on” idea.  I guess I ain’t gonna change ‘em.

 

 

Anyway my first international text went to a Bosnian friend of mine who is now living in Switzerland.  His name is Boris Miljevic.  You’ll be hearing more about Boris soon. 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 22, 2014

 

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  We’ll stay here tonight as well.  This is what the day looked like.

 

 

This was planned to be just a “kick back” day.  It was warm at nearly 95 degrees Fahrenheit.  We go at most of these trips pretty hard with all of the driving and such.  It was good to have a day where we didn’t have a whole lot planned. 

 

 

It was also today that I learned officially that the Bosnia race was canceled.  The flooding in BiH was called the worst in the history of the country.  I’ve had a large number of natural disasters including hurricanes and tornadoes cancel races.  Severe flooding might have been a first especially when it comes to my international trackchasing schedule.

 

 

I had been busy planning replacement tracks in Germany and the Netherlands for the upcoming weekend.  I had some really good sources from all over Europe helping me.  In the end I would have to decide which tracks I was going too visit and how to get there.  This is not a simple thing to do especially with the language barriers.  However, it really is a lot of the fun.

 

 

I would have to cancel two rental car reservations as well as several advance hotel reservations made in first Serbia and then Bosnia & Herzegovina.  During my advance research for this trip I came across a travel agency that specializes in renting cars in foreign countries.

 

 

I don’t normally use travel agencies.  I feel I can do everything they can do in just about every case with the information now available on the net.  However, renting cars in Eastern Europe is a different story.

 

 

Our main rental car, which we would have for 20 days, was rented in Munich, Germany.  However, I would not be allowed to drive that car in either Serbia or Bosnia.  Had we kept those countries on the trackchasing schedule I would have had to rent a separate car in each of those locations.  I was going to park my Munich car in Croatia and pick up the new cars for 2-3 days while we traveled into Serbia and Bosnia.  When those trips were scuttled I no longer needed the extra rental cars.  If you need help with a plan like this I highly recommend Gemut.com.  They are based in Oregon of all places!

 

On the language front I continue to be surprised at how little English is spoken and/or understood.  We can communicate but not really converse…there’s a difference.

 

During the morning hours we visited a local electronics store.  It was interesting to see their array of brightly colored toasters and sharp dark green refrigerators.  We also stopped a shoe store where Carol picked up a couple of pair of U.S.A. themed casual shoes.  They featured the red, white and blue with stars of our U.S.A. flag.

 

In the afternoon we took in a local attraction called “Lichtensteinklamm”.  This is a very narrow gorge with vertical rock walls up to three hundred meters in height.  The rapids flowing down from the Austrian Alps were one of the more amazing things I had ever seen.  Carol and I walked back into the gorge for about two miles to the end of the trail.  You won’t want to miss the video of these powerful rapids.  I’ve done the American Grand Canyon rafting tour with son J.J. many years ago.  I have never seen anything like the rapids of Lichtensteinklamm.  It was one of the best things we’ve done on the trip.

 

 

We capped off the evening with another fine dinner this time at a local Italian restaurant.  That was followed by a nighttime stroll around the town of St. Johann im Pongau.  St. Johann, where we are staying for a week, relies on tourism for its economic lifeblood.  In the winter it’s Alpine skiing and in the summer it’s hiking and bicycle riding.  The scenery, which rings the area with snow-capped mountains, is beyond fantastic.  If you want to see some of that scenery please check out my Picasa photo albums.

 

 

Friday, May 23, 2014

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  We’ll stay here tonight as well.  This is what the day looked like.

 

 

 

Today would be a full touring day.  In the morning we headed down to the city of Salzburg as we had done on other mornings this week.  Salzburg is a city of only 150,000 people.  However, they get some three million tourists to the city each year.  Not many cities can boast of those tourism ratios.

 

 

Our first stop was at the Mirabell Gardens.  This was attached to the Mirabell Palace and featured a huge arboretum.  The gardens were just across the street from the point where we would grab a tour bus as we had done a couple of days ago.

 

We would be taking the four-hour tour titled “Sound of Music” tour.  Of course you know that Sound of Music debuted as a movie musical back in 1965.  The outdoor scenes were filmed in Salzburg and based upon a true story featuring the von Trapp family.  Before you write this type of touring off realize that more people come to Salzburg every year for the Sound of Music tour than for any other reason.  It is estimated that 300,000 people take this tour annually.  I haven’t seen the movie in a very very long time but we’re going to have to rent it now.

 

Following the Sound of Music tour it was off to the old town section of Salzburg.  We had an evening reservation at the Mozart Dinner Concert.  We weren’t exactly sure how this was going to be presented.

 

 

We (I) were wearing shorts and casual gear for this afternoon’s tour.  There wasn’t time to go back and change into more formal attire.  This was troublesome for Carol but not so much for me.  I didn’t know anyone else who was going to the Mozart concert and was quite comfortable in my casual clothing.

 

 

What we found was very remarkable.  We entered a huge room that seated more than 100 people.  Antique chandeliers lit the interior.  The tables were all set with white table clothes and enough silverware and glassware to supply the city of Salzburg for a very long time.

 

We were seated at a table for eight people.  We soon were meeting couples from Denver, San Antonio and Connecticut.  It was fun to finally speak English with people.  Each of these couples had done a lot of traveling.  It was fun to swap travel war stories with each of them.

 

 

A five piece musical ensemble presented the entertainment for the evening, between gourmet courses of delightful food.  Two operatic singers sang in what I assume was German some of Mozart’s greatest hits.  They sang in three separate performances.  Two would have been fine.  Our dinner companions and the exquisite food made for a special evening.  Soon it was time to head back to the hotel after one of our best touring days of the trip.

 

 

 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

 

 

 

Today’s Racing Activity

 

Speedway Natschbach, Loipersbach, Austria

 

 

 

 

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  We’ll stay here tonight as well.  This is what the day looked like.

 

Today we were looking at a 170-mile drive over toward Vienna, Austria.  This took us away from the Austrian Alps into an area, which was pretty but not as scenically advantaged as where we were staying.

 

 

Time to go racing….

 

 

We were headed to the Speedway Natschbach.  The manager of the track, Manfred Stohl, had helped me with advance information for this track visit.  The two racetracks that I will tell you about in this report for this weekend were on our original schedule.  Everything else we came up with during the 20-day trip, after both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina cancelled, would be a new idea!

 

The Speedway Natschbach layout in patterned after tracks in the United Kingdom.  Today they were racing Formula 2 stock cars with some local 4-cylinder stock cars.

After paying our admission our first stop was the concession stand.  There we ordered up a couple of Austrian beers, Puntigamer, and two schnitzel (sort of like pork tenderloins) for lunch.   Puntigamer’s slogan is the “Beery Beer”! 

 

 

I took a moment to track down Manfred.  Not only was he the promoter but he was driving in the F2 stock car division as well.  He told me he had purchased the property out of bankruptcy some three years ago.

 

 

Cars and crowds were increasing each year.  This was about as similar to an American oval track as you will find in Europe.  Today was the last afternoon show of the season as they will be racing at night once a month for the rest of the summer. 

 

There were more than 30 races on the “zeitplan” for the day.  The races were short, 5-8 laps with the finale events scheduled for 8-15 laps. 

 

Manfred, although busy with his racing and managing, took me up to the announcing tower to meet the track commentator.  All of the announcing was done in German today.  However, Carol was able to pick up the mention of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser, Randy Lewis” being in attendance today.  The announcer even told of my current track count in English.

 

A few days ago Carol and I had made a 10-hour round-trip drive to Slovakia just so she could see racing in her 36^th different country.  Today we were standing in the tall grass overlooking turn one of the dirt oval.  I was thinking how this was my third trackchasing trip to Austria.  Then it dawned on me.  This was Carol’s FIRST trackchasing trip to Austria!  It was her country #37.  She was as pleasantly surprised by this news as I was.

 

This is one track where you won’t want to miss the photos and YouTube video.  If you’re an American oval fan of dirt tracks you see a lot of similarities to your local track.  I was told there are more plans for this type of facility in Austria.

 

 

After the races….

 

 

After being at the track for more than three hours it began to rain lightly.  That was God’s way of telling us it was time to head on down the trackchasing road. 

 

On the way back we stopped at a rest area restaurant named “Landzeit”.  Wow!  This looked more like a Trader Joe’s from back home in California than anything else.  They had all kinds of fresh food and we were at a highway rest area.  Don’t miss the photos!

 

 

 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

 

 

Today’s Racing Activity

 

 

 

Salzburgring, Plainfield, Austria

 

We woke up in the Alpenland Sport Hotel in St. Johann im Pongau, Austria.  Today it was time to hit the road again after seven glorious days of staying in the midst of the Austrian Alps.  We would end up staying at the Hotel & Hostel Hallbergerhof in Hallbergermoss, Germany just a few miles from the Munich airport tonight.  This is what the day looked like.

 

 

The Salzburgring would be an easy drive of just over 30 minutes from our hotel.  This was going to be a special day.  We had both now seen racing in Austria.  That meant the track was going to count simply as another single track no more or less important than a visit to a county fair figure 8 race in Nebraska.

 

 

However, today was going to be special for another reason.  Carol and I would be meeting up, in person, with my friend of more than one year, Bosnian racing driver Boris Miljevic.  I first found Boris on line when searching for more information on racing in his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

 

It’s somewhat challenging to find people who can both speak and write well in English and who show an interest in helping a foreign trackchaser.  Boris was that man.  He and I had exchanged emails many many times.  Today we would get the opportunity to finally meet.  I was looking forward to that.

 

 

Time to go racing….

 

 

 

 

 

I found this interesting information, from Wikipedia, about the track we would visit today.

 

 

“The Salzburgring is a 4.225 kilometres (2.63 mi) motorsport race track in Austria, east of Salzburg.

 

 

The race track was first opened in 1968. Lying in a narrow, alpine valley, it has a rather simple layout, with two long straights plus the sweeping and fast “Fahrerlagerkurve” (“paddock turn”) at the bottom, and the narrow “Nockstein-Kehre” on the top. In spite of its simple layout, it garnered a fearsome reputation for the high speeds reached on the straights and the “Fahrerlagerkurve”. Michael Doohan describes the section between 7 and 10 as his all time favorite piece of racetrack, likening it to “threading a motorcycle through the eye of a needle at 180mph whilst banging fairings with your competitors with armco barriers on each side”. He continues “Sure it was fast and dangerous, but also enormous fun. To me it’s what motorcycle racing is all about”.

 

 

The Salzburgring track hosts touring car races like the German ADAC Procar Series, Deutsche Producktionswagen Meisterschaft, Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge and Supper Cup Tourenwagen Cup.  It was also the home of the Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix from 1971 to 1994, except for the 1980 ad 1992 seasons.  Sidecar motorcycle races were also held at the venue. The track has also hosted the Old-timer Grand Prix as well as during the last years a ” Rupert Hollaus Memorial” organized by Ex-Grand Prix motorcycle and sidecar racer, Wolfgang Stropek. In 2008, the circuit played host to the then one-off European Touring Car Cup, with the event being won by Michel Nykjaer.”

 

 

The Salzburgring was a unique track situated in a beautiful setting.  We chose an entrance at random from several different options.  Admission was 25 euros per person.  A paddock pass for today’s World Touring Car Championship event was 60 euros.  We would not need a paddock pass.  Boris had texted me yesterday that he had complimentary passes into the paddock for us.

 

 

The featured race group, WTCC, would be having two races today.  The first started at 10 a.m.  We arrived a few minutes before the start of the race.  At that point I texted Boris that we had arrived.  I didn’t hear back from him immediately.  That being the case I decided that Carol and I should take a walk around the 2.63-mile race circuit.  When we found the entrance to the paddock I would get more serious about finding my friend.

 

 

In the back of my mind I was somewhat concerned about our connecting via international text messages.  I didn’t have a lot of experience doing this.  If the texting plan did not work there was no way we were going to be able to find Boris in the large crowd of fans both outside of the track walls and in the paddock area.

 

 

We parked next to a grandstand seating area perched on the side of a steep hill.  We could have sat there.  However, since I didn’t know where the paddock entrance was I didn’t want to sit in a place where we might not be able to meet up with Boris quickly.

 

We had a choice.  We could start walking left or right.  Since all signs were in Austrian/German and everyone I overheard was speaking something other than English we had no help from the traditional sources. 

 

 

I figured how hard can it be to find the entrance to the paddock area, which sits inside the racetrack itself.  All of those big car hauler semi-trailers had to get in there somehow right.  Folks, it was a lot harder than I thought!

 

 

We (I) decided we would walk left.  Had we walked right the paddock entrance (tunnel underneath the track) would have been a couple hundred meters away.  As it was our walk took us more than three miles around the 2.63-mile track in some of the most difficult to navigate terrain imaginable.

 

Carol is not only “Trackchasing’s First Mother”.  She is also the best trained and in the best shape of any woman to ever be classified as a “trackchaser”.  That would be important today.

 

 

I wasn’t really well prepared for a hike through the woods.  I was wearing my blue suede deck shoes, without socks, as I am apt to do.  I didn’t see another person wearing these types of shoes.  I also saw very few people wearing shorts.  Shorts are not nearly as popular in Europe as they are in San Clemente.  I wear cargo shorts pretty much 24/7 365 days a year.

 

The pictures and even the video don’t fully pictate (my word) the severity of this walk.  To be honest in the heavily wooded area we didn’t even know if the “path” went completely around the track.  I could only envision us walking 2.5-miles of the three mile distance only to encounter a fence preventing us from going any further.  Then we would have to backtrack and, in this nightmarish scenario would have walked five miles over hill, dale and wet grounds only to be back where we started.

 

The best thing about the walk (trying to find a positive) was our ability to see the race track up close from every square meter that surrounded the track.  Sometimes the woods were so thick, and the path was 50-100 meters from the track we could barely see the track at all.  At other points the elevation drop off was so severe and wet that I feared on or both of us would go sliding down the wet slope on our butts and magically fly onto the racing surface.

 

 

From time to time we would come across a spectator viewing area.  Many of these people had parked near these spots.  Few had walked the path we did to get there.  Don’t miss the photos.

 

Nearly three hours after we arrived we had circled the track.  My blue suede deck shoes were looking a little worse for the wear.  We were both pretty tired and somewhat sore by this point.  Additionally I had heard nothing from Boris. 

 

 

It was at this point that we came upon the tunnel leading into the paddock area.  That tunnel was within conversational distance to where we had first entered the track.  Without a paddock pass we would not be going through that tunnel.

 

It was about this time that I received a text from Boris.  He had left his phone in his car and was texting me from a friend’s phone.  I texted back to this new number and soon Boris and his friend Kresimir Sauerbrunn were meeting up with Carol and me.

 

 

Although Boris was young enough to be my son at age 29, we both felt we knew each other pretty well at this point.  We got on very well.

 

 

Boris has won several racing championships in formula cars in Bosnia and beyond.  He has been the factory driver for Seat and driven in the highly competitive WTCC series that we were watching today.  Boris is now living in Switzerland while working on sponsorship opportunities for his full-time racing career.

 

 

Boris then led us on a complete tour of the paddock area.  From time to time he stopped to chat with friends of his from the international racing world.

 

We stopped in the pit of a fellow Bosnian racer.  Boris showed us the car’s race interior.  Then he took the steering wheel off and explained what each of about a dozen buttons did.  That was most educational.  Don’t miss the video you’ll learn something too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit later we met up with Boris’ dad Damir Miljevic and Kresimir’s girlfriend Danijela Krajina.  From that point the six of us explored the paddock some more.  We watched the races from the garage area just like when you see Formula 1 crews cheering on their team.  That was fun and something I had never done before.

 

 

Following several races we all sat down for lunch.  Everyone spoke English well.  We had a good time getting to know each other.  Boris’ dad had been a graduate student studying economics for six months back in 1984 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Kresimir and Danijela run a racecar building business in Croatia.  Croatia has just one race track, the Automotodrom Grobnic in Rijeka, Croatia.  I was there in 2012.

 

 

Over time I’ve had several opportunities to spend quality time with foreign-based friends.  I’ve been invited into people’s homes.  I’m met their friends.  I’ve been able share meals with my racing contacts in several countries including these:  Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Malta, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.  I hope I didn’t leave anybody out!  That’s makes trackchasing the most fun.

 

 

After the races….

 

When the racing was finished we were one of the last groups to leave the track.  Boris had invited us to see something called “Hanger 7”.  I had never heard of this place but Boris insisted it would be worth a look.

 

I am sure that most of my readers are familiar with the energy drink product “Red Bull”.  Did you know the corporate headquarters of Red Bull is located just outside Salzburg, Austria?  Do you know the “story” behind Red Bull and how it got to be such a popular worldwide brand? 

 

 

Dietrich Mateschitz is a 49% stakeholder in Red Bull.  He lives in the Salzburg area.  As the story goes Mr. Mateschitz discovered the drink’s originator in Thailand.  He found the drink helped him overcome jet lag.  He made an agreement with the owner to give each of them 49% of what would become Red Bull.  The other 2% went to Chaleo Yoovidhya’s (the drink’s originator) son.  Today Dietrich Mateschitz and Chaleo Youvidhya are both worth $4 billion each and among the richest people in the world.  Red Bull was introduced into the U.S. in 1997. 

 

 

During our Sound of Music tour our tour bus drove past the headquarters of Red Bull.  It was most impressive!

 

Mateschitz and Red Bull are responsible for the most unusual looking airport hanger, by a factor of hundreds, called “Hanger 7”.  I suggest you Google it to find out the details. 

 

I don’t believe I have ever seen such a structure.  It is home to all kinds of working aircraft and race cars each brightly painted with the Red Bull logo.

 

 

Damir Miljevic, Boris’ day, told us how Red Bull started sponsoring sports teams.  First, they would only be associated with championship caliber groups.  They didn’t pay these folks sponsorship money to get their product featured.  They GAVE them Red Bull product!  The teams would them have to find ways to sell the product to get their financial return.  What a creative way to sponsor the world’s most elite sporting competitors.  By the way, in 2013, Red Bull sold more than five billion cases of the stuff.  I’ve tried it once and didn’t much care for it.  However, I will use 5-Hour Energy drink from time to time.

 

 

 

 

Even though Boris and his dad were driving back to Switzerland and Kresimir and Danijela were heading home to Croatia they weren’t in a rush.  We had drinks at the Hanger 7 restaurant and bar and just relaxed after a beautiful day of racing.

 

 

When it was time for everyone to head their separate ways we all bid each other farewell as newly found friends.  I’m sure we’ll meet up again.  Maybe in Bosnia or Croatia or Serbia.  Who knows?  I can’t wait for the opportunity.

 

 

Trackchasing truly has taken me all over the world!



THE COUNTRY LIST

#18!

 

 

RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Lifetime Trackchasing Countries

 

 

# 1 – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Peoria Speedway – Mt. Hawley, (oval) – Track #1, Peoria, Illinois – circa 1954 (age 5)

 

# 2 – CANADA – Cayuga Speedway (oval) – Track #174, Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada – July 31, 1988 (Dick Trickle winner)

 

# 3 – AUSTRALIA – Parramatta City Raceway (oval) – Track #180, Granville, New South Wales, Australia – November 17, 1989 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 4 – UNITED KINGDOM – Northhampton International Raceway (oval) – Track #378, Northhampton – June 26, 1999 (accompanied by Carol, Kristy, Jim)

 

# 5 – NETHERLANDS – Driesum Racetrack (oval) – Track #839, Driesum – May 5, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 6 – BELGIUM – Bellekouter oval (oval) – Track #841, Affligem – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 7 – FRANCE – Circuit de Croix en Ternois (road course) – Track #843, Saint-Pol sur-Ternoise – May 8, 2005 (accompanied by Roland Vanden Eynde – 2^nd new country in one day!)

 

# 8 – GERMANY – Nurburgring (road course) – Track #844, Nurburg – May 13, 2005 (accompanied by Carol, Roland Vanden Eynde)

 

# 9 – NEW ZEALAND – Western Springs Speedway (oval) – Track #1,134, Western Springs – December 26, 2006 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 10 – MEXICO – Triovalo Bernardo Obregon (oval) – Track #1,281, Tiajamulco de Zuniga, Jalisco – October 14, 2007 (accompanied by Carol, J.J., Roger Ward)

 

# 11 – BARBADOS – Bushy Park Racing Circuit (road course) – Track #1,296, Bushy Park – December 9, 2007

 

# 12 – THAILAND – Bira Circuit (road course) – Track #1,300, Pattaya – January 19, 2008

 

# 13 – SOUTH AFRICA – Durban Grand Prix (road course) – Track #1,315, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal – February 24, 2008 (accompanied by J.J. and Will Van Horne)

 

# 14 – JAMAICA – Dover Raceway (road course) – Track #1,322, Brown’s Town St. Ann – March 24, 2008

 

# 15 – SWEDEN – Sturup Raceway (road course) – Track #1,335, Malmo – May 10, 2008 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 16 – DENMARK – Ring Djursland (road course) – Track #1,336, Tirstrup – May 11, 2008 (accompanied by Carol)

 

# 17 – CZECH REPUBLIC – Automotodrome BRNO (road course) – Track #1,381, Brno – September 13, 2008

 

# 18 – AUSTRIA – Lambrechten Stock Car Track (road course) – Track #1,382, Lambrechten – September 14, 2008

 

 

2012 – Nordring – racing action

 

 

 

2012 – Nordring

 

2014 – Speedway Natschbach

 

 

2014 – Salzburgring

 

 

Please wait while photos load.

 

 

2008 – Lambrechten Stock Car Track

 

 

 

2012 – Nordring

 

 

2014 – Speedway Natschbach

 

 

2014 – Salzburgring