Greetings from Lakeside, California
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Barona Oaks Sports Center Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,686 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Today it was nice being able to wake up in San Clemente, spend the day with Carol, eat some good food, do some trackchasing and go to sleep in San Clemente. That doesn’t happen often in my world. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above hanging out with the famous Leonard Wood of the equally famous Wood Brothers Racing team). I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,680 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Saturday, March 13, 2021. Today was going to be one of those rare trackchasing events. Why so rare? Carol would be joining me. We would be driving not flying to a racetrack. That’s unusual. Today we are trackchasing in Lakeside, California. I don’t trackchase in California very often. Why? Well, I’ve already seen 174 tracks in my home state, the Golden State. There aren’t many tracks left for me to see in California. I don’t drive to racetracks very often either. Why? Well, it’s for the same reason as above. I live in the Golden State, California. To the west of me is the Pacific Ocean. There are no racetracks in that direction for about 2,500 miles. Just 74 miles to the south of San Clemente is Mexico. I have driven to a handful of Mexican racetracks just across the border. To the east to me is desert. The desert goes on for hundreds of miles all the way through Arizona and New Mexico. Not many race tracks or people for that matter in the desert. To the north is more of California but also not very many race tracks actively racing in the Central Valley all the way up through the Bay area. Of course, I saw all of the permanent racetracks with a 1,000-mile radius of me years ago. However, and luckily for me, tracks are always “popping off”. There’s a group out here called Dirt Series LLC. They race motorcycles, quads and UTVs. Today they had scheduled an event at the Barona Oaks Sports Center in Lakeside, California. The full name of the facility is the Barona Oaks Sports Center Motocross/Paintball. I’ve never done any paintballing but it sure sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe someday. The Barona Oaks Sports Center is just a mile up Wildcat Canyon Road from the Barona Speedway. I’ve seen a couple of countable tracks at the speedway. They race on a permanent quarter-mile dirt oval. They have also had figure 8 events there. Barona Speedway hosted UTV racing on the infield of their oval in the past few years. I haven’t made it to that off-road track yet. As far as I know, they are not actively doing UTV racing at the speedway at this moment in time…but stuff like that changes. Things “pop up”. To make this plan work Carol and I needed to be out of our modest seaside cottage by 8 a.m. That’s pretty early for me in my world. However, when motivated I can do it. The drive would cover 69 miles in a southeasterly direction. Interestingly if I drove northward 69 miles I would still be in Los Angeles. We grabbed breakfast at McDonald’s on the way to the track. We did that for a few reasons. There was no need for Carol to get up extra early to make breakfast at our house for an 8 a.m. departure. Secondly, I like the breakfast sandwiches offered by McDonald’s. Finally, these off-road racing events can often be rather spotty as to what kinds of concessions will be offered. Check out my new panoramic side mirrors! I guess the most memorable aspect of our visit to McDonald’s was Carol buying a senior coffee. Normally I get her a large coffee as part of the McDonald’s app program and bring it home to her after my lunch. A large coffee with that program goes for a dollar. Although the senior coffee is smaller it does ring the bell at only $.69. Compared to what we would pay for a latte at today’s racetrack Mickey D’s was the steal of the century. Initially, we considered taking the grandkids to this event. It was probably a good idea that we didn’t do that. They have a couple of friends visiting them from Texas. I can only imagine what trying to shepherd four 12-year-olds and below would have been like in today’s somewhat chaotic environment. Today as you might have imagined I was driving the Educational Employees Credit Union (EECU) sponsored Tesla Model X. We would come to find out that we were most fortunate that the car weighs 5,500 pounds and has four-wheel-drive. More on that later. As spectators, we paid $10 per person to watch today’s racing. In hindsight that was an excellent value considering we were at the track for four hours. When we entered the rolling hills and somewhat heavily treed Barona Oaks Sports Center we found a huge crowd. Maybe all of the race competitors and fans were just happy to be stretching their legs as Covid seems to be winding down. This was the first Dirt Series LLC race in about a year. I could see that the track might have been a mile and a half long or so in length. The layout was sort of built into the side of a huge hill. I could also see there were spots where spectating might be best. I headed to what I thought might be a good area to watch the races under a theory that I learned at the First Methodist Church in East Peoria, Illinois. What is that theory? There is always room for one more at the inn! I would soon learn that we would not be having a dusty environment today but a very muddy one. Southern California gets all of its rain during about four months spread over the winter season. We had gotten quite a bit of rain during the past two or three days. I learned today that the wet grounds do not always dry up as easily in the desert as they do elsewhere. We drove about a half-mile back into today’s spectator/competitor environment. I didn’t really see a single good parking spot. We did pass through a couple of wet and muddy roads that looked like we might not make it. I didn’t even wanna think about what the mud was doing to the undercarriage and wheels of my beautiful automobile. The first thing I would have to do when I got home would be to pressure wash those areas. I concluded there was not a single good parking spot high up on the hills of Lakeside layout. I did a 180-degree U-turn. We drove back all the way through the muddy slop until we were within about 20 yards on the ticket booth. This was where we had first entered the grounds. In actuality, this wasn’t a bad spot to park at all. We could see nearly half the track from inside of the car. After I tell you about today’s program you’ll know why being able to be inside our car and seeing nearly half the track was a decent idea. I had read on the Dirt Series website that racing was to begin at 9:30 a.m. As you might imagine it didn’t. The first race actually took the green flag closer to 11 a.m. No real problem there. Carol and I had all day to enjoy each other’s company. It was a good idea that we attended the driver’s/rider’s meeting. The details of today’s race program were explained by the Dirt Series race director. We were also able to get a snapshot of the complete racing schedule that was posted at the Dirt Series trailer. Because the track was so wet competitors were offered the opportunity to get a refund of their entry fees if they didn’t want to race. Off-road racing groups like this run “motos” whereas your traditional oval track might call their races “heats” or “features”. Dirt Series runs two motos for each competitor. There were a lot of different classes with today’s race program. There would be various motos for motorcycles, quads and UTVs. Today there were 21 different classes in each moto or 42 races for the day. Only TWO of those classes would feature race cars and race drivers that met trackchasing’s rules. Essentially those two classes were for UTVs where “adult” drivers were allowed to race. That meant there would be a significant amount of “downtime” as regards watching trackchasing acceptable classes. From the looks of things, the two and only two acceptable classes at the track would be racing in event #11 and event #21 of the first moto. Then in the second moto, everything would be repeated. The UTVs for adults would also race in the 32nd and 42nd races of the day. We arrived at the track at 9:30 a.m. Doing the math pretty well confirmed that these folks would be racing until sunset which would come at about 6 p.m. The track had no lights. I had no interest in being at the track for event #42 and wouldn’t be. Temperatures were in the high 50s. For you folks in the Midwest and east that’s sort of like temperatures of 10 below zero for us. We elected to watch the first five or six races from the interior of our Tesla Model X. The races were short only about four laps each. As noted we could see about 50% of the track from our position. To add some minor insult to injury it rained a bit while we were in the car. Then small hailstones fell from the sky. You won’t see hail at a 1,500 feet elevation in California very often. We were ready and waiting for race #11. This would be the UTV 1000 class. At about race #7 we got out of the car and walked all over the grounds. There were a number of porta potties and some permanent restroom areas as well. Remember I mentioned we bought a senior coffee for 69 cents at McDonald’s this morning? Carol had a latte from a food vendor at the track today. Price? $7.00. Yep, there are certainly ways to blow your money in this world. However, I concluded she was worth it. I think Carol might have been a little embarrassed. There were no price signs on the menu. Surprising to us, maybe shocking to us, the sit-down toilets in the permanent restrooms had all been removed. I guess they had been instantly been turned into Chinese-style “squat toilets” but not really. There were no pipes leading to anywhere! The grounds were super muddy. We were both glad that our shoes could handle it. Carol and I were able to walk anywhere we wanted in the paddock area. We also had the option of walking around nearly the full exterior of the racetrack. We chose to spend much of our time at the start/finish line. That being the case you’ll probably want to take a look at the video I produced from our visit today. I would guess that each event took about 15 minutes from the time one group left the starting line until the next event did the same thing. When you have 42 races and each one takes 15 minutes you’ve got a full day. I won’t spend a lot of time telling you about the racing itself. Your best bet is to look at my photo album and/or my video to see what that was like. It was all fun. Once the rain stopped we had generally clear skies. One of the reasons I can still convince Carol to come to the races after she has seen well over 600 tracks is that I don’t run things into the ground so to speak. I analyzed the situation. I came to the conclusion that after we had seen event #11 of the 42 event day we needed to be heading for more comfortable environments. As it was event #11 for the UTV 1000s drivers didn’t finish up until about 1:30 p.m. We had been at the track for four hours. That exceeded my three-hour rule. I felt we had certainly gotten our money’s worth for a $10 race ticket. By the way, several of the drivers in the UTV 1000 group were under the age of 18. No problem there. In order for a track to count we just have to see a race with a class that is open to racers 18 years of age and above. Today there were several drivers in the group that met that requirement. From the Barona Oaks Sports Center we headed west. Just a mile down the road we stopped for a moment at the Barona Speedway. They have a dragstrip there as well as their quarter-mile oval. Maybe sometime later this year we’ll take the grandkids down to see some stock car racing there. I knew that the famous Barona Casino was within 5 miles of today’s track. By the way, the race tracks and the casino are all located on the Barona Indian reservation. I’ve seen a handful of tracks situated on Indian reservations in the past. Here’s a little background from Wikipedia on the reservation and the “Mission” Indians. In 1875, the tribe along with the Viejas Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians, controls the Capitan Grande Reservation, which consisted of barren, uninhabitable mountain lands. The El Capitan Reservoir, forcibly purchased from the two tribes to provide water for San Diego, submerged what habitable land existed on the reservation. The two tribes jointly control this reservation. It is undeveloped but serves as an ecological preserve. The Barona Reservation is a federal Indian reservation located in San Diego County, California, near Lakeside and the Cleveland National Forest. It takes its name from the Mexican land grant Cañada de San Vicente y Mesa del Padre Barona, named in turn after Padre José Barona, a friar at Mission San Diego de Alcalá from 1798 until he transferred to Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1811. Founded in 1932, the reservation covers 5,181 acres. Much of the highland valley has good farmland, the reservation hosts several ranches, a chapel, tribal offices, community center, and ball park, created by the tribe. In 1973, 125 of the 156 enrolled members lived on the reservation. The nearest community is San Diego Country Estates, which adjoins the reservation’s northeast side. The Barona Casino is a huge place and one of the nicest casinos I’ve been in outside of Las Vegas. As a matter of fact they have a sign inside their establishment that says USA Today has rated them the best casino outside of Las Vegas. I could see that being true. Wikipedia helped me understand why the casino does not serve alcohol on the casino floor. Barona offers guests over 75 table games including blackjack, poker, Pai gow poker, Mississippi Stud, California-style craps (using playing cards to determine the outcome of a roll rather than only dice, as dice-only games are not allowed in California tribal casinos), roulette and over 2,500 slot and video poker machines. The legal gambling age at Barona Casino is 18. While the legal age for gambling in California is also 18, many tribal casinos in California set an age limit of 21 in order to comply with their alcohol license. Unlike most casinos, Barona does not offer alcoholic beverages on the casino floor. It does offer alcoholic beverages in the Barona Oaks Steakhouse, Italian Cucina, and the plaza restaurant. According to leaders of Barona Casino, the winding and hilly nature of Wildcat Canyon Road, which serves as the main access route into Barona Indian Reservation, is a primary factor that led to this decision. There was one very noticeable feature about today’s huge casino. They were really into Covid protection. Of course, masks were required. In the bathrooms, every other sink and urinal was blocked off. Today had been a pretty full day out in the mud and cold at the racetrack. We selected the casino’s sit-down dining room for a very upscale late lunch. In a nod to the casino ownership, they served Indian fry bread. That’s one of my favorites. It was in the restaurant that we encountered an even more unusual Covid protection measure. We weren’t expecting this. Carol and I are both fully vaccinated. Since the pandemic began we’ve probably eaten inside restaurants about 10 times. On the other hand, I’ve literally had hundreds of meals from restaurants either using a drive-through lane or picking up food since the pandemic began in March 2020. Today I encountered something I have never seen before. The restaurant’s rule was that whenever our server came to our table for whatever reason we had to be wearing our masks. This required taking our masks off to eat and drink and putting our masks back on when the server was at the table. I think our young female server was minorly embarrassed by this inconvenience. Nevertheless, it seemed that her bosses were making her enforce this very strict requirement. Why do I think that? Whenever our server came up to our table to give us our food or ask if we needed anything else she kept her distance of about 10 feet. If we weren’t wearing our masks she reminded us to put them on before she could help us. She did tell us that we could simply take our napkins and put them over our nose and mouth as we accepted or requested her service. We found this most unusual. However, Carol and I are team players and willing to make our sacrifices for the bigger group. Following our lunch we stopped in the food court. I grabbed a vanilla malt. It was outstanding as a celebration of our success today with trackchasing. I don’t need much of a reason to celebrate with a malt. In a bit more than an hour, the Educational Employee’s Credit Union sponsored Lexus 2020 Model X was pulling into the driveway of our modest seaside cottage. Even though I didn’t really feel like doing it I immediately got out my high-pressure hose and tried to wash away all of the mud we had accumulated at the Barona Oaks Sports Center. Today had been a good day of trackchasing. Every day that I trackchase is a good day. I’ll be heading to the Eastern time zone next weekend so I have to rest up. Oh, before I go…I gotta give Carol some special props here. Trackchasing is my hobby. It’s not really hers. However, she has come along on so many trackchasing trips with me to all 50 states and 49 countries. I’m lucky to have her. Good afternoon from the Barona Oaks Sports Center in Lakeside, California. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,686 tracks. California The Golden State This afternoon I saw racing at my 175th-lifetime track in the Golden, yes, the Golden State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in California. California ranks #1, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time California state trackchasing list. I have made 148 separate trackchasing trips inside California seeing these tracks. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Vague references to “the industry” might be a little confusing to people not from southern California. When someone says their husband or wife works in “the industry,” they don’t mean they’re an industrial worker, though they may belong to a different kind of labor union. Actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, art directors, film editors, and talent agents are just a few people who make up the huge entity that is “the industry.” Show business is so prominent in Los Angeles that southern Californians should immediately get the reference. JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 795 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Just a day trip in our home state…but lots of unusual scenery and sights 
California sayings: “The industry.”
