Greetings from Buttonwillow, California
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Buttonwillow Raceway Park #18 configuration
Asphalt road course
Lifetime Track #479
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Buttonwillow Raceway Park #13 CW configuration
Asphalt road course
Lifetime Track #2,295
THE EVENT My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. Each year I will visit 25-30 American states and several foreign countries. Long ago I moved into the #1 trackchasing position in both the number of different racetracks seen as well as the number of countries where I’ve seen racing. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. It was my second visit to the Buttonwillow Raceway. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: 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! Reprinted with permission from my May 6, 2001 Trackchaser Report Greetings from Buttonwillow, California! I wasn’t supposed to go racing today but I did. Here’s the deal. We’ve got our house on the market to sell. We’ve been having a lot of work done on it to increase its marketability. We’ve recarpeted, redone the deck, etc. etc. The broker preview is in a couple of days and wife Carol wants to get the final details straight. She believes she can accomplish this by not having me in the way. You see, overall I’m not very good at household chores. She knows this. At age 52 I’m very inexperienced at doing chores. To be honest I don’t do any chores at home. I’m not bragging just stating a fact. I’ve got a big red toolbox in the garage. It’s only got one thing in it…a Visa credit card. If you need to scalp a sports ticket or get a ticket to a sold out event I’m your guy. If you need to know the tax advantages of buying versus leasing a car or swapping rental real estate I can be a big help. It’s just with chores I’m no good. I don’t know if it’s lack of talent or just the inexperience thing. Once Carol tried to get me to sweep some stuff but the broom and I just couldn’t get hooked up. I think it had something to do with me being left handed. Anyway, Carol felt it would be best if I gave here the run of the roost today so SHE could get some chores done. What could I do but oblige! I’d never been to Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow, California. It turns out BRP is just up the I-5 from my seaside town of San Clemente about 189 miles. You need to drive about 75 M.P.H. on this interstate to keep from getting shot and about 78 m.p.h. to keep from getting run over. The route goes over the Tejon Pass (Elevation 4,144 feet). It’s spring and beautiful in this part of rural California. The orange and lavender wildflowers are really pretty right now against the green backdrop of the mountains. You will also see vineyards and pumping oil wells along this drive. As I pulled into the track I noticed I was down to a little less than 1/8 of a tank of gas. This would prove to be a significant point as the day wore on (details below). BRP is a road course. The event today was called the “Vintage Auto Racing Association British Extravaganza. The VARA website states, “The primary objective of the sport of vintage and historic automobile racing is to promote the preservation of these cars in a racing format that emphasizes safety.” Founded in 1973, VARA is the largest vintage racing club in the country. Race fields are made up of Sports Cars, Sport Racers, Formula Cars from the post WWII period through the sixties, with a few cars from the seventies and later. Just to satisfy any trackchaser nay Sayers this is full competitive racing but they expect and require non-contact. Ed Montgomery, I think this is the type of racing you do in the Midwest. Correct? General admission was $10. A general admission ticket allowed you to go everywhere including the pit area and staging area. Like most road courses there is very little formal seating for fans. When I go to a road course I usually walk all over the course trying different spectator viewing points which is what I did today. The track has a good public address system with a very competent and refined announcer. Road racing is sort of the “wine and cheese” part of auto racing as opposed to stock car racing which might be the “waffles and grits” segment of racing. I entered the track just before the luncheon break. The announcer was saying something about spectators being able to take their personal cars out on the track. I didn’t catch all the details but wandered over to the staging area where wide assortments of vehicles were lining up. Most of the cars were Triumphs, MGs, a couple of Rolls Royces and just 2-3 “domestic” personal automobiles out of the 40 or so cars. Several drivers had racing helmets. I was wearing a straw hat. It seems that for $20 you could sign a release and go out on the track for 30 minutes. They would only allow you to pass on the one straightaway that was about ½ mile long. For those of you who know me well this plan had “adventure vacation” written all over it and that’s what I’m into. You should also know that Carol and I have two cars at our disposal. One is a Lexus LS 400 and the other is my company car, a Ford Taurus (thank God it’s not the same Taurus that broke down on a previous Phoenix racing trip!). Let me put it this way. I did not drive the Lexus to Buttonwillow. I’m not saying I drove the company Taurus. I do know the company car training manual says don’t drive it in Mexico, check the tire pressure every 5, 000 miles, etc. I don’t recall any mention about road racing. Regardless, you’ll just have to read between the lines. Video of my activity will be available the day after I retire from the company. I hustled over to my Taurus, er, my automobile put it in gear, paid my 20 bucks and in no time I was on the track. I settled in behind a huge Rolls Royce from the 60s that listed like a battleship going through the 18 turns of the 3-mile track. I had to wait until the straighaway before I could pass this monster of a car which I did. I was having the time of my life! In most types of racing the driver is in communication with his pit crew via a two-way radio. I didn’t have that but I did have my cell phone. Now before anyone starts laughing we really don’t know, for sure, if Jeff Gordon races with a cell phone or not do we? Maybe he does and they just don’t televise it. Nevertheless, I thought I would call my crew chief, Carol, to let her know what I was doing. I must have got her in the middle of some arduous chore. She immediately launched into some difficult to answer questions such as, “What if a stone flies up and cracks the windshield? What if you run over something and blow a tire? What if the car gets all dusty?” Now think about this. I’m driving this car hard into 18 turns trying to hold a cell phone in one hand and a video camera in the other and my crew chief is asking me these types of questions. I had to sign off. In my second lap my fuel light went on! Now what do I do. I just paid $20 for 30 minutes. I’m not pitting for fuel just 5 minutes into the event. But, what if I ran out of gas. That would be embarrassing. Maybe I should call my crew chief again and ask for advice. I did. This call was not well received. The basic jist of Carol’s feedback was “you’re an idiot!” There was no time to debate that issue. I decided to ride it out and had a blast even though the brakes were smoking toward the end and the fuel light was glowing brightly. Well, that was fun. After the amateurs pulled off the track the afternoon was spent watching the feature events. The first race called the Group 7 flag race included the following types of autos: Ford Mustangs, Corvettes, Camaros, Sunbeam Tigers, Shelby GT, and Plymouth Barcudas. The next event, Group 6, had some more exotic machinery including these: Ralt RT5, Chevron B45, McLaren M108, Lotus 69, Brabhams, Elvas, Marchs and a Tiga Sports Racer. Overall this was an entertaining afternoon of racing that was a little different from what the normal trackchaser is likely to encounter. The VARA group is back at BRP in late September. The Buttonwillow Raceway Park track was my 479th on my way to 500 this season. Eleanor Weidman (above center) is at 12th spot worldwide in the overall trackchasing standings with 485. She has not reported any new tracks in the last couple of years. I’m not sure if she’s backed off the hobby or has just not reported any new tracks. I hope to pass her by the end of this month. Tip for the week: The sweetness of the trip is in the journey not the destination. Editor’s note: The web URLs listed below were active in 2001. Are they active today? Who knows. Good luck! FOREWORD SATURDAY Yesterday I was calmly having a bunless triple cheeseburger at a Culver’s in rural Minnesota. That’s when I got some disturbing news. The ice track that I was hoping to see in upstate New York had just canceled their Sunday racing program. They cited “deteriorating ice conditions” as the reason. That being the case there would be no reason to fly from Minnesota to New York. I immediately went into plan B planning mode. What was that? Well, to begin with I would fly from Minnesota to Los Angeles and figure it out from there. When I boarded the plane I had absolutely no idea that I would be trackchasing in California today. However, as I am I wont to do when I’m on airplanes I started looking at some of my racetrack database information. Remember this is proprietary data. It comes from the hard work of the Randy Lewis Racing research department. Trackchasing is NOT a hobby where everyone gets a trophy. By golly, it looked as if there might be a trackchasing opportunity in my home state, the Golden State, California. I didn’t know for sure. When I landed I would make a few calls and message some folks. That would confirm whether I would going trackchasing in California or not. My potential trackchasing opportunity was going to be at the Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow, California. I had already seen racing once at Buttonwillow. Back in 2001 the #18 configuration (above) at Buttonwillow was my lifetime track #479. Yes, that was a long time ago. I had seen racing on the #18 configuration. How do I know that? I had that information from my Trackchaser Report written low those many years ago. The trackchasing rules, which I try to follow it as closely as humanly possible, allow trackchasers to count up to two visits at road course racing venues…..when the courses overlap. The rules essentially state that if two road course configurations overlap but have some differences then a race on one track and then a race on another configuration can each both be counted. The two tracks have to differ by a minimum of one straightaway and three turns. Previously I had researched the various track configurations of the Buttonwillow Raceway from pictures on their website. They do an excellent job of identifying exactly which courses are which. There are more than twenty of them. Configuration #13 (above), compared to configurations #18, used the “but stop” and not the “dog leg”, it uses the “Phil Hill” to add more turns and straights along the drag strip portion of configuration #18 and finally uses the “sweeper” turn rather than the Star Mazda turn. There are multiple DIFFERENT straights used by configuration #13 that sets it apart from configuration #18. Yes, I know some of this is pretty technical. I’ve had my lawyer review all the details. Why are the rules so technical and precise? It’s really pretty easy to answer that question. Trackchasing is a VERY competitive hobby. I had no idea what time the racing, sanctioned by Speed Ventures, would begin on Sunday. Remember, I had absolutely no plan to try to trackchase at Buttonwillow until just a few hours ago. When I landed I made some phone calls and messaged a few people but I didn’t get a response. Granted, it was Saturday night. That meant I was going to have to make some significant decisions without 100% of the information I really needed. Life is like that sometimes. Buttonwillow Raceway Park is 189 miles from my home’s front door in San Clemente, California. That meant a round-trip drive of about 380 miles. If you have followed my trackchasing strategy for long you know that I don’t like to use my personal vehicle for trackchasing trips at all. As noted it was Saturday night. I was at LAX. If I could determine that the race was going to be held in the late afternoon there would be enough time to go home to San Clemente and sleep there. Then I could drive up to the Orange County airport on Sunday morning, rent a car, and put all of those depreciation busting trackchasing miles on the rental car’s odometer and not mine. However, if the race started before noon it would be difficult to go back home tonight and make it all happen tomorrow morning. What should I do? There’s a reason I get paid the big bucks. I’m not afraid to make decisions. Rather than go home tonight from LAX I would simply hop in my own car, actually it is Carol’s MFunds sponsored Lexus RX 350 and drive northward. From LAX I made a hotel reservation at the Quality Inn and Suites in Bakersfield, California. With a non-refundable reservation I was committed to going trackchasing in the Golden State on Sunday. I did all my calculations and figured out that I would be driving my own personal car an incremental 188 miles to make this trip. That’s because LAX was only about 120 miles from the Buttonwillow raceway. I wouldn’t have to drive my car round-trip up to Orange County to get a rental car on Sunday morning either. That saved sixty miles. Folks, I try to think of everything. Just as I was wrapping up all of my computer paperwork at the airport a woman slipped and fell nearby. Her cries of anguish were disturbing. They was nothing that I could do as other people came to her aid. Soon a cadre of about 10 airline/airport security personnel and police were dealing with the problem. I wish her well. This evening as I drove up towards Bakersfield the dramatic change in plans and it’s effect on tomorrow’s activity raced through my mind. All of the clothes I was wearing and that were packed in my bag were designated for ice racing. Folks, now I was going to be trackchasing in California. I didn’t even have any shorts to wear. I don’t think anyone should be seen anywhere in California not wearing shorts. Nevertheless, I was going to have to rough it and actually wear blue jeans to a racing event in my home state. This was unheard of! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES SUNDAY I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t think I could recommend the Quality Inn and Suites in Bakersfield to even a member of the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. I couldn’t get the room heater to work. The shower was like those in Europe’s where it takes an advanced engineering degree to get both water to run and to be hot. To top that off the housekeeping staff came wrapping on my door at 9:45 a.m. No, I wasn’t staying at a Marriott or Sheraton with platinum status. Bakersfield, California is an interesting town. It’s a rough town. It has been home to the likes of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. As a matter fact, my hotel was located on Buck Owens Boulevard. You do not want to be in Bakersfield during the summertime. When is summertime? It runs from about May through September, maybe longer. It gets HOT up here and I do mean HOT. Nevertheless, Bakersfield and all over California for that matter has some excellent family owned authentic hole in the wall Mexican restaurants. This morning I did a quick Yelp search. Soon I found the La Tapatia restaurant. It had a 4.5 star rating on Yelp. With that high of a broad-based racing it had to be good. The place was only a mile and a half from the hotel. It wasn’t long before I was sitting in front of a beautiful serving of huevos rancheros. Yes I would give high marks to the La Tapatia restaurant. THE RACING Buttonwillow Raceway Park – Configuration #13CW – Buttonwillow, California From brunch it was a quick 30-minute drive over to the Buttonwillow Raceway. I would pay a $10 admission price, which would give me full access to the entire property. That seemed like a reasonable value. The woman who handled the admission chores told me that Buttonwillow is expecting an extensive expansion program. They’re building an entirely new track. However, that will likely be attached to the other configurations. Once a trackchaser has seen a maximum of two road course track configurations he/she can’t count anymore. The original trackchasing rule to add the countability of a second road course racing configuration was proposed by Belgium trackchaser Roland Vanden Eynde. I had some problems with this proposal. Who would the best chance to benefit from this change? Roland Vanden Eynde. What do I think of that? I’m not much for people proposing rules where they are the primary beneficiary. What do I think of the rule itself? Initially I thought it was somewhat complicated. Most of the time a trackchaser couldn’t tell you if they were seeing racing on one configuration or another at a road course. That is certainly not the case when counting two oval variations at most properties. However, there is a positive to this rule change made a few years ago. It allows Trackchasers to keep out on the long and dusty trackchasing trail. Getting people out of the house is a good thing. Once I had checked into my hotel last night I got a couple of messages from the Speed Ventures group. They confirmed that they were racing today. The one and only countable race of the day would begin at 1:25 p.m. Don’t get me wrong. I am an “oval guy”. However, for the life of me, I don’t understand how the road racing group can schedule a race for 1:25 p.m. and you pretty much know that that race will begin at 1:25 p.m. With my oval track brethren it’s difficult to get a starting time at all. I wouldn’t bet a single penny when I do have an oval track starting time that the race will begin on time or anywhere close. Oval track promoters and racers… what’s up with that? I arrived at the Buttonwillow Raceway Park about an hour before race time. That was perfect. My early arrival would give me time to walk around the grounds, get a little exercise, and take photographs of everything I found interesting. By the end of the day my iPhone pedometer told me I had walked 3 miles even. There would be three classes of racers all competing at the same time today. Those three classes would be for the Miatas, legends and thunder roadsters. The starting grid contained about fifteen Miatas. three thunder roadsters and nine legend racers. I spent some time talking to one of the three thunder roadster drivers, Dave Standridge (above). Dave was a congenial fellow. As our conversation ended I walked away with yet another idea for a new California track visit. Dave, thanks for the info! As mentioned, as a spectator, I couldn’t tell you if they were racing on trackchasing configuration #13, #18 or # one million twenty-seven! Visually, it’s nearly impossible to see the differences unless you really know what to look for. However, the Speed Ventures website told me that they would be competing on the #13CW configuration and that was good enough for me. By the way “CW” stands for “clockwise”. My plan was to watch the start of the race from the Buttonwillow control tower overlooking the start/finish line. That wasn’t the best viewing point. I was staring into a setting sun. After the start I would move around and try to catch the two extremes of the track. The race itself would last for about 30 minutes. I had enough time to walk out toward the northern section of the track. I could actually stand pretty close to where the racing was taking place. However, by the time I got to the southern end of the track the race was finished. I did my best to take photographs and videos of all of the racing for your viewing enjoyment. AFTER THE RACES I’ve said this many times. I think road course racing is a lot more fun for the participant than the spectator. Amateur road racing as well as go-kart racing in the United States are participant sports and don’t attract very many spectators. Sadly, a lot of our nation’s oval tracks are moving in that direction as well. Today I had turned a lemon, the New York ice racing cancellation, into lemonade with today’s racing at Buttonwillow. Despite the beautiful sunny winter weather in Southern California I still would have preferred being out on a lonely frozen ice track in upstate New York. I guess I understand why real estate values are so high in California. It’s called the “sunshine tax”. Most folks would rather have a sunny warm day at the end of January rather than weather that is cold enough to freeze a lake with 16 inches of ice! I figured I could get that second track at Buttonwillow at several points during 2017. They only race one weekend a year up in Tupper Lake, New York. Maybe next year for Tupper Lake. When the racing was finished I headed down Interstate 5 for the 189-mile drive home. I know what you’re asking. “Several paragraphs ago Randy you told me that the entire drive was only an incremental 188 miles. If that’s the case, how can the drive from the track back to your house be 189 miles now”? I would like you to look at it like this. First off, you need to know that I will never lie to you. Secondly, you need to know that I have thought about whatever I’ve said for a lot longer than most people who have read what I said. I could take you through the details of why it’s only 188 incremental miles but I wouldn’t want to bore other readers. For now I’ll simply say, trust me. On the drive back to San Clemente I had a nice chat with son Jim who resides in Hawaii. It made the nearly three-hour ride go much faster despite encountering some late Sunday afternoon freeway traffic. Today I was seeing my 155th lifetime track in California. One of my goals for 2017 is to expand my leadership position in the 13 Far Western states. As I begin the year I had an 87-track lead, cumulatively, in those 13 states. On the surface you might think that’s a rather aggressive goal. In reality it’s not so aggressive at all. I’ll tell you why. In some states, most notably California, the person in second place is deceased. They won’t be adding any tracks in those states and I might. In other cases the trackchaser in second place in one or more of the 13 far western states is a trackchaser who is in the twilight of their chasing career. In some cases the trackchaser in second place in a Far Western state is wife Carol herself! Finally, virtually all trackchasers live east of the Mississippi. It’s a long haul for them to come out to the west to trackchase. They just don’t do it. This is the last trackchasing that I will do in January 2017. I ended the month with three tracks. That’s not fantastic but at least it’s a start. I have some very robust plans for February. As a matter fact I expect to be trackchasing each and every weekend during the month. Even though that will take up lots of my weekend activity I’ve got a major trip planned with Carol and a few college basketball games on the planning agenda. It will be a busy time but fun. Carol is itching to get out on a frozen lake (my words) so as to help us maintain our position as the “World’s #1 Trackchasing Couple”. I’m holding her back but I don’t know for how much longer. See you on a frozen lake somewhere where the wind chill temperatures will likely not be friendly. Come prepared. Good afternoon from Buttonwillow, California. California The Golden state This afternoon I saw my 156th lifetime track in the Golden state, yes the Golden state. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in California. Seeing a track here helps with my 2017 trackchasing goal of increasing my cumulative lead in the thirteen Far West states. 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 California sayings: Post up – to stand around (often leaning against a wall) without doing much. You can use this when telling some to wait for you, “Just post up here, I’ll be right back,” or if you’re in the club, “hey let’s post up by the bar.” This is a little bit like hang out. QUICK 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 565 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 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. Buttonwillow Raceway….a second chance to visit 
RACING NEWS
New racetracks visited in 2001
