Greetings from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
.
Bahia Mar Resort & Marina – mixed surface road course
Lifetime Track #2,095
THE EVENT ON THE WAY TO THE RACES Try this day in 18 hours. I woke up this morning in a Nashville, Tennessee Wal-Mart parking lot. I went to sleep at home in the “little city by the sea” San Clemente, California. This afternoon I would trackchase at the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This is how the day turned out. Tell me about Ft. Lauderdale. Ft. Lauderdale is a town of about 165,521 residents. The town sits just 23 miles north of Miami. The entire South Florida metropolitan area has nearly six million people. Ft. Lauderdale has an average year-round temperature of 75.5 degrees and 3,000 hours of annual sunshine. Some 22% of the population was foreign-born. Ft. Lauderdale is also known for its large LGBT community. The New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals used to have their spring training homes here. The town also has the world’s largest drive-in movie theatre with 13 screens! So what happened between Friday morning and Sunday night? Some folks might think this was a pretty easy trip. I left California on Friday morning and caught a Sunday night flight back home. I was only “officially” overnight for two nights and picked up four tracks. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Sounds easy doesn’t it? Oh yes. The devil. However, the devil is in the details. This trip had lots of details. Have you ever attempted a trip like I am about to describe? Have you ever wanted to attempt a trip like this? On the other hand do you go out of your way to AVOID a trip like this? On Friday morning my alarm sounded at 3:10 a.m. I know some of you might be early risers. However, I doubt many of my readers routinely get up at 3:10 a.m. I am not an early riser. I sleep until I wakeup. Retirement will do that to a person. I was up at 3:10 p.m. on Friday. I was soon completing the 65-mile one-way drive to the airport. I quickly hopped on a jet plane headed to Charlotte, North Carolina. However, once we had boarded the flight the pilot told us there was a mechanical problem. We would be delayed an uncertain amount of time. I got off the plane with everyone else. However, I was one of the few people who noticed a non-stop flight was about to leave at the very next gate to Raleigh-Durham (RDU), North Carolina. Without giving it much thought I jumped on that plane. This little change would simply be the beginning of an exciting weekend not encumbered with hotel stays. Flying into RDU would add two hours to my driving time. However, if I had not made that change of plane choice I might never had gotten to North Carolina in time for Friday night’s racing. I had to sleep overnight in my car at an Athens, Tennessee interstate rest area. There was only 3.5 hours available for overnight slumber….if you can call it that. In less than 36 hours I would drive my Raleigh based rental car some 891 miles. On Saturday night I ended up sleeping overnight in a Nashville, Tennessee Wal-Mart parking lot. Those places are usually safe locations to get some shuteye. There was only time for two hours and forty-five minutes of sleep. I was ready for a 5:30 a.m. flight but things didn’t look good. I was standing by for a 5:30 a.m. flight from Nashville to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday. The flight had 12 open seats and I was the 18th and last standby passenger on the list. That didn’t look good. First class yes. Wait! First class no. Nevertheless, I was given the very last seat on the plane. For some reason it was a first class seat! However, I was wearing shorts. First class standby passengers cannot fly in first class with shorts. I had no long pants with me. I almost never do. I rarely wear long pants. Not wearing long pants cost me a seat in first class today. Luckily they traded my first class seat to another LUCKY passenger and I got his coach seat. I just wonder? After today’s racing I caught a 8 p.m. flight to Los Angeles from Florida. It’s a five hour and nineteen minute flight from Ft. Lauderdale to LAX. To top things off the flight was delayed by an hour. I ended up getting home at 1 a.m. Monday morning Pacific time. I wonder how many of today’s fans and competitors reached THEIR home after today’s racing at 4 a.m. Monday morning eastern time. Folks, there you have it. Would you be interested in a trip like this? No takers? I do it so you don’t have too. You won’t have to sleep overnight in your car but you can get the satisfaction of reading about someone else who does! You can’t beat that. Carol was NOT invited. By the way I cannot in good conscience invite Carol along on a trip like this. I don’t want her sleeping overnight in a car. By the way I did not have any “bed sleep” on this trip. That meant no shower time either. Carol was concerned about that. I told her it was a problem for my fellow passengers more than anything else. Will I run out of tracks anytime soon? I’m “down” to about 600-700 tracks that I have not seen in North America. I’m also closing in on 2,100 lifetime tracks. I keep a very detailed database of existing tracks that I still would like to see. There is something funny going on. However, something “funny” is happening. All kinds of non-traditional aka in some cases “novelty” tracks are opening up. To date I have seen 43 new tracks in 2015. I would estimate that nearly half of them didn’t exist in my mind or my database at the beginning of the year. I find that amazing. I mentioned I KNOW about 600-700 tracks I have not seen. What if there are ANOTHER 600-700 tracks that I don’t know about but will find out about as time goes on over the next 5-10 years? You can do the math. I never set a goal of achieving a certain number of tracks by this year or until I stop trackchasing or whenever. My only goal in that regard is to see the NEXT track. However, I’m currently at about 2,100 tracks. There could be another 1,200-1,400 tracks or even more left to see. You can do the math. THE RACING Bahia Mar Resort & Marina – Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Mexico here I come. Last week I was not even considering coming to Florida for today’s racing. In actuality I was planning to fly to Mexico City this weekend. However, when a companion California track canceled it made going to Mexico less practical. Nope. Mexico in out. The south is in. I knew that my trip would begin in North Carolina and end up in the greater Nashville area by Saturday night. From Nashville I needed to find a race that I could get too, on Sunday. For a while a race in Michigan was the leading candidate. However, when their weather forecast called for a 100% chance of rain on Sunday and temps dropping from 76 on Saturday to just 50 on Sunday Michigan was out. That pretty much left Ft. Lauderdale. I was shocked to see that Nashville had a few flights to Ft. Lauderdale. However, only two flights would get me there in time for the racing. If I didn’t make either of those flights I would simply fly home to Los Angeles from Nashville. However, as noted above I got the very last seat on a 5:30 a.m. flight from Nashville to the Sunshine state. I was surprised. I didn’t think I had any really chance of making that flight. Think about it. I was 18th and LAST on the standby list. Every standby passenger made the flight! The one-way car rental. I would land in Miami but fly home from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The two airports are 25-30 miles apart. The walk to the rental car center at the Miami airport is a long one. I have never seen one longer. By the way, Miami has a most unique airport. It makes me feel as if I am in a foreign country. The Hispanic culture is so dominant in Miami I think I’m in South America. Florida has the best beaches. I grabbed a Chrysler 300 and hot footed in from MIA to downtown Ft. Lauderdale. It was a gorgeous high 80s sunny day at the beach. Florida beaches are the very best. They are flat and have lots of white sand. Florida beaches are so much better that the craggy rock-filled California beaches. Parking was going to be difficult and expensive. I saw signs advertising parking for $40. I paid just $15 but had a good six block walk. Red Bull. Today I would be seeing the Red Bull Global Rallycross racing series. I’ve seen this group race in Los Angeles, San Pedro, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. and Austin to name a few of their locations. The good thing about this series is they race all over. I can count on them for 2-3 new tracks every year. “Rallycross” racing generally means the cars race on a “mixed” surface track. Most of the track is asphalt. Some 20% or more is dirt/gravel. The courses are laid out in a road course configuration. However, I would be remiss, and no one likes to be remiss, that the local “scenery” was much more interesting than the track surface. Today’s course had lap times of just 35 seconds. I can’t remember another Red Bull Rallycross race with such a short track. Overpriced. Tickets were a bit on the pricey side. I paid $47.94 for my general admission ticket. I would like to know how many people actually “paid” for their tickets. I’m guessing a lot of people got in today’s with sponsor supporter tickets. What do I say to that? I say “good on them”. Red Bull Rallycross – the good and the bad. Overall, I am not a big fan of Red Bull Rallycross racing. I like the idea that I can go anywhere in the paddock and get very close to the racers and racing machines. However, I don’t care much for the lack of visibility some tracks offer. Today a lap around the track took about 35 seconds. The most racing I could see from any one vantage point was about 10 seconds. I don’t care for that. At a short track oval race I can see the cars 100% of the time. Who goes to a basketball game and sees the play at only one end of the court? There are two classes of Global Rallycross racers. I can’t really tell the difference between them. They have heats, semis, last chance qualifiers and main events. However, each race seems like the last one to me. The races are short. Nope. The “racing” part of this show doesn’t turn me on. Don’t miss the visuals. Nevertheless, for your viewing enjoyment, I took lots of photos and video clips. Take a moment to see what the show was all about. You might like it. AFTER THE RACES The true zoo. My flight would not be leaving until 8:30 p.m. That was the scheduled time. However, when I got to the airport I found the flight delayed by an hour. The Ft. Lauderdale airport is older and smaller. It was a “true zoo” from people trying to get home on a Sunday night. It was time to get back now. However, when I left the race it was time to relax and kick back. On the walk back to the parking garage I noticed a “Bubba Gump” shrimp restaurant. I loved the Bubba Gump movie (Carol didn’t – I don’t think she likes the south but she denies that) and I love eating shrimp. I stopped for dinner and people watched along the Ft. Lauderdale beaches. Folks, trackchasing was meant for this kind of activity and not for sleeping overnight in cars. But wait! There’s more. Then I got to thinking. My Waze GPS told me the driving time to get to the airport. Then my “Fandango” app told me what was playing and when at the nearby movie houses. I had a new plan. I could catch a movie at the AMC Dine-In Theatres Coral Ridge 10 cinema. Not long thereafter I was sitting in a cool dark theatre watching, “The Age of Adaline”. It had an interesting premise where over a period of 100 years the heroine doesn’t age but everyone else does. When I arrived at the upscale movie theatre I discovered I could have been served dinner IN the movie theatre WHILE I watched the film. However, Bubba Gump had beat them to the punch. From there I had plenty of time to return my car to “FLL” even though I had picked it up at “MIA”. Soon, O.K., in about eight more hours I was home as if nothing had happened. Superman. Sometimes I feel I am “Superman”. I leave Lois Lane for just a moment. Then I jump in a phone booth and “do my thing”. In not too much time I am adjusting my tie and returning tableside to re-join Miss Lane. She looks up from her menu and sweetly asks, “Where have you been”? Lois, if you only knew. Florida The Gator state This evening I saw my 61st lifetime track in the Gator state, yes the Gator state. I think I’m about six tracks out of the Florida trackchasing lead. However, I have so few Florida tracks left to see I don’t think I will ever have a #1 ranking here. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Florida sayings: It’s time for Florida – “Winter” QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU) – 2,236 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Douglas (Charlotte) International Airport – trip begins Shelby, NC South Pittsburgh, TN Wartburg, TN Nashville International Airport – trip ends – 891 miles AIRPLANE Nashville, TN (BNA) – Miami, FL (MIA) – 808 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Miami International Airport – trip begins Ft. Lauderdale, FL Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport – trip ends – 54 miles AIRPLANE Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 2,341 miles Total air miles – 5,385 (3 flights) Total rental car miles – 945 (2 cars) Total miles traveled on this trip – 6,330 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway – $11 Adventure Off-Road Park – Complimentary admission Wartburg Speedway $15 ($5 extra for tier parking) Bahia Mar Resort & Marina $47.94 Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $73.94 LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 450 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. Remember to hover over the photo to see the photo caption if any. What a gorgeous weather day in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for Red Bull Rallycross 
