Bartlett Bridge Raceway

Bartlett Bridge Raceway

Dirt oval

 Lifetime Track #2,658

 

THE EVENT

Editor’s note: After you read what I will share with you today I have just one question. If you lived in Southern California would you have come to the Jennings County Fairgrounds in Indiana for the express purpose of seeing five senior champ karts race? You can keep your answer to yourself.

 

I AM A TRACKCHASER.

My name is Randy Lewis (above with Carol and her cousin Dan following a trackchasing outing to the Madison International Speedway). I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit.

 

I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. 

 

Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me.

 

Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,670 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you?

 

I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link.

Trackchasing Tourist Attractions

 

After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month.

 

Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun!

  

If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you.

Randy’s Complete Track List

  

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!

  

Randy on Facebook

 

 

FOREWORD

 

Friday, October 9, 2020.

This weekend was going to be a fairly straightforward trackchasing trip. Of course, what I consider to be straightforward is pretty much undoable by my fellow competitors.

 

The plan was to leave late Thursday night on an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Boston. I took the exact same flight last Thursday night. I would land in Boston on Friday morning and get a few hours of sleep in my hotel. From there I would head to Bartlett Bridge Raceway in Lyman, Maine for some winged champ kart racing. I might point out that the metadata from my iPhone photos says the track is located in East Waterboro, Maine. Nevertheless, I figure the track operators should know what city they’re in. I’ll go with Lyman.

 

Then early on Saturday morning, I would fly from Boston to Dallas, Texas. I would hop in a rental car and drive nearly five hours over to the Slaton Speedway in Slaton, Texas. Not a single trackchaser had ever visited Slaton speedway.

The reader who just tuned might think these trips are unusual and one of a kind. In a way, they are one of a kind. They’re all just a little bit different. However, traveling like this is not unusual for me. As a matter of fact, this weekend marks the 19th consecutive weekend that I have flown on an airplane to trackchase somewhere in the United States.

I had a very special racing experience on Thursday afternoon in Southern California before I headed to LAX for my overnight flight. I have been a long-time listener to the “Dinner with Racers” podcast. New Hampshire race car driver and buddy Bruce Spencer (above) first turned me onto this podcast.

The guys who do the interviews for the Dinner with Racers podcast recently selected IndyCar veteran driver and car owner Dick Simon to be on their program. They liked him so much because he had so many interesting stories about how the underdog makes his way through the racing world, that they invited Dick to be part of a two-part series. I found Mr. Simon most interesting.

 

I had a little bit of a tie-in with Dick myself. About 40 years ago I met him ever so briefly at the American Airlines Admirals Club in the Chicago O’Hare airport. I had a conference room reserved at the Admirals Club. Dick had the very same conference room reserved for the hour before my reservation was to take place.

 

When his meeting ran long I ducked my head in to remind him that we all need to keep on a time schedule. Dick was in the room making a pitch for IndyCar sponsorship to a few “corporate people” aka suits. I recognized Dick Simon. I took the opportunity to tell the group of potential sponsors that if they were going to support anyone Dick Simon would be a good choice. Then I closed the door and waited for the room to clear.

 

It was with this 40-year-old remembrance married up with the Dinner with Racers podcast that motivated me to try to get in touch with Dick. This was made all the easier when I learned Dick Simon lives in the Dana Point, California area. Dana point is a border town to where I live in San Clemente.

 

Dick and I have been Facebook, “friends” for a couple of years. However, we each have such a broad network of friends we might have both forgotten that. Anyway, I sent Dick a message and almost instantly he replied with his cell phone number and told me to give him a call. A few days later I did just that.

 

Dick Simon has been the owner of Dick Simon Yachts for decades. They broker the buying and selling of luxury boats. His office is situated at Dana Point Harbor. What a beautiful location! His office is just about 5 miles from my house.

Dick was very generous with his time. We sat in his office and talked for a full hour. He was able to rattle off the statistics and race finishes of his racing teams over the years with ease. One of his top drivers was Lynn St. James who qualified sixth in the Indianapolis 500. I met Lynn at the PRI tradeshow about a year ago. She’s a very nice person. I was amazed at her achievements.

 

I was equally amazed at Dick Simon’s racing and life achievements. His best finish in the Indianapolis 500 was sixth. Dick drove in the Indy 500 at the age of 55. He was the oldest racer to compete in the big race ever at the time. I think A.J. Foyt now holds that title having done so at age 57.

 

I learned quite a bit about Dick on the Dinner with Racers podcast as well. I know that he once jumped out of a plane without a parachute! Of course, he met a buddy in midair and was able to get his chute on and successfully deployed. It was parachuting that actually got him into racing. One day he parachuted into the Salt Lake City fairgrounds. When he landed they asked him if he wanted to race one of the cars that were competing that night. He did just that and later on, ended up in the Indianapolis 500! If that doesn’t prove that just about anything can be done I don’t know what does.

On Thursday when we finished up our conversation I gave Dick a copy of my current track list which includes listings for 2,658 tracks that were seen in a total of 85 countries. He was pretty impressed by that. Then I presented him with one of my Randy Lewis Racing trackchasing T-shirts. I think he liked that a lot as well. As we were leaving his son Tim took a photograph of us in front of his “oldest driver” Indianapolis 500 trophy.

 

Later on Thursday Carol and I stopped by our favorite pizza place in San Clemente from over the years, Stuffed Pizza. We had one of our favorites called, “stuft sticks”. We ate our food in the car as we have done many times during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dinner method allows us to catch up on the events of the day. From there I headed on up to LAX for my five-hour overnight flight from Los Angeles to Boston.

 

FRIDAY

I landed at Boston Logan International Airport at 7 a.m. Eastern time at just past sunrise. I am not a huge fan of taking redeye overnight flights. However, sometimes it’s just the best alternative. When that happens you pretty much know that all of the alternatives to get from point A to point B were not that great.

 

I had a plan which would let me get some quality rest during the day. First, I would check Priceline. There I would look for an upscale hotel at a very reasonable price. Before I made my reservation I would call the hotel and confirm I could check-in as early as 9 a.m. this morning. I did just that. I found a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the nearby town of Woburn, Massachusetts. The desk clerk told me there be no problem with my checking in at such an early hour. When I arrived I slept in for five hours until the early afternoon.

From the hotel, I drove the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry northward into the state of Maine. On the one hand, I’ve been to Maine quite a few times. But on the other hand, I’ve only seen 13 tracks until today in the Pine Tree State.

I checked it to see if there might be any interesting Trackchasing Tourist Attractions along the drive. There were. I was going to stop at the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine. This is a lighthouse that sits on its own island and is viewed from afar. It was a cool windy fall day in Maine. I took a few pictures of the lighthouse and did a little bit of powerwalking as well.

There just happened to be a place serving lobster rolls near the lighthouse. This restaurant was called Fox’s Lobster House. I have never been a big fan of lobster rolls even though I love lobster. I’ve always felt the rolls were way overpriced and a very poor value. After trying one again today my thoughts haven’t changed.

Today I ordered a lobster roll for $19.95 as well as a slice of Maine blueberry pie for $6.50 and topped it off à la mode for another $3.50. A medium Diet Pepsi set me back four bucks. My meal was now totaling more than $35.

 

I got to be honest…because I’m just honest. I can’t see paying $20 for a lobster roll with a small amount of lobster that frankly isn’t all that tasty. The highlight of today’s meal was easily the blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream. Even the piece of “Texas toast” was a bigger highlight of the sandwich than the small amount of marginally good tasting lobster. Nope. I’ve tried lobster rolls many times. Each time I’ve come away disappointed. My kids think differently. That’s O.K. They’ve been wrong before.

From the Nubble Lighthouse, I was headed directly to the Bartlett Bridge Raceway in Lyman (wink!), Maine. I didn’t even know these folks ran trackchasing countable events until a couple of weeks ago. At that time a fellow by the name of Brian Hickey and his girlfriend attended the event.

 

I would’ve known much about that activity except that I have some spies and a fantom email address. I use this deadly combination to access the trackchaser forum even though the person who runs that forum, Guy Smith, thinks he kicked me out of the forum. Sorry guy. Wrong again.

 

I have met Brian Hickey a couple of times. However, I have never spent very much time being able to talk to him personally. I know that he is a strong trackchaser in the state of Maine. Today I thank Brian for the information he had shared about the winged champ cart racing up in Maine. I appreciated that very much.

 

As soon as I got word from Brian that he had seen racing at this track I got in touch with the people who run Bartlett. They have a Facebook page for the track.

Ultimately I would get in touch with Eddie Pettengill. Eddie is the promoter at Bartlett Bridge Raceway. Once he learned I was a trackchaser and willing to come all the way from California to see racing at his track he couldn’t do enough for me. He even offered me a complimentary pit pass upon my arrival.

The Bartlett Bridge Raceway is on the grounds of the MX 207 Motocross property (above). They’ve had a few countable road course races using UTVs I think in the past at MX 207. But I’ve never seen them.

 

Tonight when I pulled onto the grounds of Bartlett Bridge they were expecting me. The woman running the pit shack was ready for my arrival. All I had to do was sign a release to get a wristband for the pit area. Then when I parked my car I could hear tonight’s track announcer explaining to the crowd that I was expected to attend and might already be on the grounds. He was correct.

For whatever reason, the Bartlett Bridge Raceway exceeded my expectations by a good deal. I’ve seen quite a bit of go-kart racing both flat kart and caged kart in my time. If I had to guess I think I’ve seen somewhere around 300 different go-kart tracks.

 

I have never ever seen any go-kart racing better than what I saw tonight at Bartlett Bridge Raceway. I think coming from someone with my experience that’s a pretty strong and positive statement.

 

It didn’t take me long to be introduced to Eddie the track promoter. As a matter of fact when I signed my pit release the woman yelled over to Eddie to come over and say hello. Later in the night he and I would spend quite a bit of time talking. He explained the background he has had with Bartlett bridge.

He told me that he didn’t own the property but he had built the entire kart track. The facility was outstanding. It seems like Eddie approached the owner of MX 207 and convinced him that he could be a good go-kart track promoter.

 

The owner of MX 207 told Eddie that he would provide and pay for all of the equipment needed to make a quality go-kart track. All Eddie had to do was supply the labor. That program started eight years ago.

The track is a minorly banked dirt oval racetrack. The lighting is good. They have a small amount of grandstand seating as well as a food trailer that permanently sits on the site.

In addition to the racing, I was super impressed by the tracker announcer and the track’s PA system. The announcer was pretty much as good as any announcer I would hear at any other short track all season long. During intermission, I stopped by to talk to the track announcer, Charlie.

 

I asked Eddie why they chose Friday night for their racing. It turns out that quite a few of the track officials, as well as go-kart drivers and go-kart team members race somewhere around New Hampshire or Maine on Saturday nights. That made Friday night the default choice for karting.

They were racing about six classes of karts at Bartlett Bridge. Only one of those classes met trackchasing’s rules. That would be the winged champ kart division which is new this year. Tonight the winged champ cards brought eight competitors.

The pro stock flat kart class is the only flat kart group that competes at this track. They also have a number of “rocker” carts that are caged. These cages are bolted on to the chassis and not built into the chassis like a champ cart would be. A flat kart with a bolt-on cage is not a countable class. Why? I don’t really know!

I must admit that I am truly embarrassed when I talk with a flat kart race promoter and have to tell him or her that flat karts were not approved by trackchasing’s founding fathers. I can see the race promoters react with a furrowed brow to that news. They are certainly not understanding where the trackchasing founding fathers were coming from. I’ve got to tell you this. I’m with the promoters 100% on this one. It’s just downright embarrassing to tell someone who’s got a very successful kart program that this kind of racing isn’t even considered racing by the trackchasers who started the hobby. Shameful.

 

Eddie told me the track’s average crowd is about 500 people. For local go-kart racing that is simply outstanding. Right off the bat I can’t think of a single other kart track that gets 500 people on a normal night. Tonight was not exactly a normal night because the weather was so cold. When the features pulled onto the track I checked the temperature. It was 41°. That’s the coldest non-ice racing trackchasing I’ve done in 2020.

 

I’ll ask that you take a close look at my YouTube video as well as the photo album that I will submit with this report. The video clips will give you a strong understanding as to why I can say that I have never seen better go-kart racing than what they were doing tonight. Please don’t misunderstand. I’ve seen a lot of quality go-kart racing that could be as good as what was offered tonight. It’s just that when someone has a really good program it’s difficult to say that one outstanding program is better than the next.

The race program started on time at 7:15 p.m. They kept everything moving. There were a couple of spins but not really very many. The karts ran just one heat race and one feature race. They took a short intermission between the two. Everything was wrapped up by 9:30 p.m. which was fine for me because I had not dressed all that warmly.

 

I’ve had a lot of unusual trackchasing trips in my time. I’d have to check if I’ve ever seen racing in Maine and then the very next day racing in Texas or vice versa. If I had to guess I would say I’ve never done that. However, that’s the plan for this weekend. I’ll get about five hours of sleep in the hotel tonight and then get up early tomorrow morning and catch a flight to Dallas, Texas.

I want to thank Eddie for all of his hospitality tonight. It was really nice having full access to the facilities at the Bartlett Bridge Raceway here in Lyman, Maine. It was great being able to talk to the announcer, Charlie, who is also a racer on Saturday nights in the area. All nice folks and excellent racing at a very solid and well above average facility. If they didn’t have all of this going for them they couldn’t attract 500 people a night. They’ve got it going.

 

 

Good evening from the Bartlett Bridge Raceway in Lyman, Maine

 

Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,658 tracks.

Maine

 

The Pine Tree State

This evening I saw racing at my 14^th-lifetime track in the Pine Tree, yes, the Pine Tree State.  I hold the #5 trackchasing ranking in Maine. Maine ranks #42, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S.

 

Here’s a link to my all-time Maine state trackchasing list. I have made 9 separate trips to Maine seeing these tracks.

Maine state track list

 

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

Maine sayings:  “All stove to hell!”

 

If you hit a moose in Rangeley and someone’s talking about it they might say this. “He hit a moose and how the cah’s all stove to hell!”

 

JUST THE FACTS

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS 

The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are:

 

Total lifetime tracks seen

Total “trackchasing countries” seen

Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

Total Lifetime Tracks

There are no trackchasers currently within 780 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,658

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.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 85

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 3.96

 

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.

 

 

My first visit to Maine in a long time…lobster rolls, lighthouses and racing