California Speedway aka Auto Club Speedway

 

 

THE EVENT

 

 

My multiple visits to the California Speedway aka Auto Club Speedway were just a few of the more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link:

 

 

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

 

 

 

Inaugural events create excitement…………..more in “The Details”.

 

 

Our train ride to the track wasn’t a good idea for everyone………….more in “The Details”.

 

The historical perspective behind the California Speedway………….more in “Race Review”.

 

 

The fickle sports fan of Southern California………….more in “Race Review”.

 

Southern California Sports Failures……..details in “Race Review”.

 

Who raced on that day?……..details in “Race Review”.

 

What about the California Speedway road course?……..details in “Race Review”.

  

 

 

 

 

Inaugural events create excitement.

The California Speedway opened for business in 1997.  We were there for their first ever NASCAR Cup race.  Like many first time events the enthusiasm and excitement were at a fever pitch.

 

 

Who gets to ride a train to the parking lot of a NASCAR event?

The demand was so great that the Metrolink train system scheduled special trains to take folks into the track.  Having the opportunity to take a train from our hometown of San Clemente to the parking lot of the California Speedway seemed like a fantastic idea.  How many people ride a train to a NASCAR event?

 

 

The train wasn’t a good idea for everyone.

Sadly the idea of a special train running at a time when it wasn’t expected would be fatal to two joggers.  They were running along the tracks on the morning of the race.  Here’s a story from the Los Angeles Times regarding the incident.

 

 

 

 

Metrolink Train Kills 2 Joggers

Accident: Both were running on the railroad tracks in Corona; one was wearing stereo headphones. Trains usually do not operate on Sundays.

 

 

CORONA — A Metrolink train carrying motor racing fans Sunday morning to the California Speedway struck and killed two joggers who were running on the railroad tracks, authorities said.

One of the two joggers, Corona police said, was wearing stereo headphones and may not have heard the train as it roared around a bend, approaching from behind.

 

Both joggers were killed instantly.

The Riverside County coroner’s office late Sunday identified them as Raymond Votaw, 53, and Michael Grady, 45, both of Corona.

A third jogger–running near but not on the tracks–escaped injury, police said. Officers did not say which of the two dead men had been wearing headphones.

A Metrolink spokesman, Peter Hidalgo, said with frustration that the two deaths could easily have been avoided–and that the incident underscored the “casual attitude” that Metrolink officials believe many Southern Californians hold about the danger inherent in being on or near railroad tracks.

“These people who were on the tracks should never have been there in the first place,” Hidalgo said. “It’s these kinds of senseless acts that are incomprehensible and, quite frankly, Metrolink feels we don’t need to apologize for these kinds of incidents.

“You would never even think of running with a headset on a busy roadway or freeway,” Hidalgo said.

Metrolink trains do not normally operate on Sundays. Over the weekend, however, the agency provided special service to the speedway in Fontana. On Sunday, 22 trains carried 14,000 racing fans to and from the track, he said.

The joggers were hit at 8:06 a.m., police said.

Officers said the joggers were en route to a nearby park to meet other members of the Greyhound Jogging Club.

As Votaw and Grady ran east on the tracks, the third jogger–Jeffrey Shepard, 45, of Norco–was running about 15 feet ahead, on a dirt path alongside the tracks, police Sgt. Shawn Dredla said.

Shepard heard the train, its horn and the loud squeal of brakes, Dredla said.

Turning around, Shepard saw the other two joggers lying alongside the tracks, Dredla said, adding, “They were obviously deceased.”

No one answered the phone later Sunday at Shepard’s home.

None of the 700 passengers aboard the train was hurt. The train resumed its journey after about a half-hour delay, Hidalgo said.

The six-car train had been hurtling along at 60 mph when the engineer saw the joggers, Hidalgo said.

The engineer blew the horn and threw the train into an emergency stop, he said. It takes about a third of a mile to stop a train that long going that fast, and it proved impossible to stop in time, he said.

Hidalgo said the engineer was not at fault.

“He repeatedly blew the train’s horn,” and he “put the train into an emergency stop,” Hidalgo said.

Noting that “it’s illegal to be on or near tracks because it’s private property,” Hidalgo said of the engineer: “What could he do when the trespassers were not heeding his warnings?”

 

 

 

 

 

California Speedway – Fontana, California

 

 

Historical perspective.

Editor’s note:  For additional historical perspective I have included some information about the background of the California Speedway I found on Wikipedia.

 

 

“Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) is a two-mile (3 km), low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997.  The racetrack is located near the former locations of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Speedway.  The track is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation and is the only track owned by ISC to have naming rights sold.

 

 

Construction of the track, on the site of the former Kaiser Steel Mill, began in 1995 and was completed in late 1996. The speedway has a grandstand capacity of 91,200 and 28 skyboxes. In 2006, a fanzone was added behind the main grandstand. Lights were added to the speedway in 2004 with the addition of a second annual NASCAR weekend. Since 2011, the track has hosted only one NASCAR weekend. The IZOD Indycar Series returned to the track in 2012 with the season finale race (a 500 mile night race); it ran a 400 mile race from 2002–05 at the track.

 

 

 

On April 20, 1994, Roger Penske and Kaiser announced the construction of a racetrack on the site of the abandoned Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana, California.  A day after the announcement CART announced it would hold an annual race at the speedway. Three months later NASCAR President Bill France Jr. agreed to sanction Winston Cup Series races at the speedway upon completion, marking the first time NASCAR has made a commitment to run a race at a track that had yet to be built.

 

 

Community meetings were held to discuss issues related to the construction of the track and the local effects of events held. The local community largely supported construction of the speedway citing potentially increased land values and rejuvenation of the community.  The California Environment Protection gave Penske permission to begin construction after Kaiser agreed to pay $6 million to remove hazardous waste from the site.  Construction on the site began on November 22, 1995 with the demolition of the Kaiser Steel Mill.  The 100-foot water tower, a landmark of the Kaiser property, was preserved in the center of the track to be used as a scoreboard. 3,000 cubic yards (2,300 m³) of contaminated dirt was removed and transported to a toxic waste landfill. To prevent remaining impurities from rising to the surface, a cap of non-porous polyethylene was put down and covered with 2 feet (0.61 m) of clean soil.  Construction of the track was completed in late 1996.

 

 

With early success following the opening of the track, the speedway began to expand reserved grandstand seating along the front stretch with an additional 15,777 seats. In May 1999, an additional 28 skyboxes were added to the top of the main grandstand. In 2001 the Auto Club Dragway, a 1/4 mile dragstrip, was built outside of the backstretch of the main speedway. That same year, the infield of the speedway was reconfigured to hold a multipurpose road course. On April 24, 2003 The San Bernardino County Planning Commission approved the changing of the speedway’s conditional use permit to allow the installation of lights around the track.

Later that year NASCAR announced a second annual Sprint Cup Series race at the track for the 2004 season, with the second race being run “under the lights”.  NASCAR ran two weekends of racing annually until the 2011 season when the track returned to a single annual race weekend.

 

 

Upon the addition of a second NASCAR weekend at the track in 2004, attendance at the races dropped off dramatically, by as much as 20,000. With such a large attendance swing, drivers and media began to doubt if the track deserved two dates, even if the track was near Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest media market.  Weather also became a concern with either extremely hot days or with rain threatening the races.  All of this factored into NASCAR’s decision to remove a second race from the track with the realignment of the 2011 NASCAR schedule. Former track owner Roger Penske said the track may be located in a one-race market. Track president Gillian Zucker cited bad weather windows and fans having other entertainment options as reasons for the attendance decline.

 

 

The facility is often used for filming television shows, commercials and films. In 2000, portions of Charlie’s Angels were filmed at the speedway, and in 2004, portions of Herbie: Fully Loaded were filmed there.  In 2007, The Bucket List saw Jack Nicholson and Morgan drive a vintage Shelby Mustang and Dodge Challenger around the 2-mile (3.2 km) speedway.”

 

 

 

My memories of our visit.

With this report being posted in 2014 my memory of our visit to the California Speedway might be a bit foggy after 17 years.  I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #400.  Therefore all I have to go on is my memory of the day’s activity.  I also didn’t begin doing much in the way of photos or videos at that time either.  It was “pre-technology”.

 

 

When will I return?

Every year for the past few years I’ve been thinking about making a return to the track.  For one reason of the other I haven’t done it.  However, this year might be the time!  We’ll see.

 

 

The fickle fan of Southern California.

As mentioned above the initial popularity of NASCAR racing resulted in two Cup races dates.  Now, due to lack of support, they have cut back to one.  For Southern California that is not unusual.  The SoCal sports fan is just a little bit different.

 

 

So many folks have relocated from “back east” over the years.  Many of those fans never gave up their loyalties to the teams they supported back home.  Therefore they don’t support the local teams of SoCal. 

 

 

Southern California Sports Failures.

The Ontario Motor Speedway (lifetime track #56) was built in 1970.  It was a state of the art racing facility that attracted all of the top sanctioning bodies at the time.  By 1980, just ten years later, the track was demolished!  It would not be replaced with any local track, suitable for NASCAR Cup racing for 17 years.

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Rams began playing in the National Football League in 1946.  They left SoCal after the 1994 season bound to become the St. Louis Rams.  The “Los Angeles” Raiders returned to Oakland after the 1994 season as well.  I NEVER hear anyone saying they miss the NFL and the greater SoCal area hasn’t had a team in 20 years!

 

 

The Southern California sport fans is different.  There’s so much to do on any given day with our beautiful weather than being a die-hard sports fan isn’t one of them.  The Angels and Dodgers do well along with the Lakers.  However, every other sporting franchise fares much worse.  The UCLA basketball Bruins, with their storied history of 11 NCAA basketball championships, virtually never sell out one of their games.  It doesn’t surprise me in the least that SoCal is one of NASCAR’s weakest markets.

 

So what happened on the day Carol and I went to Fontana?

From my records I know that Jeff Gordon in the DuPont Chevrolet #24 was the winner.  I noted that the track was too big for my tastes but had nice facilities. 

 

 

I enjoy NASCAR racing on TV.  However, the California Speedway in not one of my favorite TV races.  The track is so wide (5 lanes?) there is not much side by side or close racing to be seen.

 

 

Who raced on that day?

It is fun to go back a number of years to see who raced “back in the day”. 

 

 

Some 42 cars started the race with nine finishing on the lead lap.  Jeff Gordon won $144,600 for his first place finish.  Gordon led nearly half the race.

 

 

Several drivers, who raced that day, are no longer active as NASCAR racers including Ricky Rudd, Ted Musgrave, Jimmy Spencer, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Craven, Johnny Benson, Rusty Wallace, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Chad Little, Dick Trickle, Brett Bodine, Ward Burton, Derrick Cope, Kyle Petty, Bill Elliott, Geoffrey Bodine, Sterling Marline, Ernie Irvan, Wally Dalenbach Jr., Rick Mast and Dave Marcis.

 

 

Fame is fleeting so they say.

Seventeen years since my first and only visit to the California Speedway doesn’t seem like that long.  I find it surprising that such a long list of drivers as those noted above are no longer active.  I guess it proves the point that everyone’s moment in the spotlight is truly temporary. 

 

 

For me my visit to the track has been succeeded by more than 1,600 visits to other tracks.  Maybe it is time to go back to one of the close racetracks to my home.

 

 

The road course…

In February of 2000 I visited the 3-mile road course at the California Speedway.  This was my 407th lifetime track to see.  Records show that I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until a few months later at track #432, the Central Washington State Fairgrounds Speedway.  I saw the Skip Barber Racing School holding an event at the Fontana road course.  John Knudson, driving car #74, was the winner.  

 

 

You might have remembrances about the California Speedway.  If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them 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

California sayings:  Dude….

 

 

 

 

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

 

 

SUNDAY

 

 

I am more than willing to change the plan.

I like to do things in the trackchasing hobby that have never been done before. It’s always an interesting challenge to live on the edge. This weekend probably satisfied that requirement.

 

 

I got out of the races on Saturday night at a relatively early 9 p.m. They started racing at about 6:30 p.m. at the Greenwood Valley Action Tracks in Orangeville, Pennsylvania. When the temperature reached 56° it seemed like it was about thirty-six. I decided to pass on the last feature race of the night.

 

 

My original plan called for me to see a race up in Maine on Sunday afternoon. However if I was going to do that it would be a 8-9 hour drive from Saturday night’s race in Pennsy for the 2 p.m. start in the Pine Tree state. When the weather forecast began to look bad the 16-18 hour round-trip drive northward didn’t seem like a very good idea.

 

 

Decision time.

When Saturday’s night’s racing had wrapped up I made my final decision. I was going to try for a Sunday afternoon race in California and not Maine.

 

 

Yes! A first.

How many trackchasers have seen racing at Pocono on one day and then gone to the Auto Club Speedway the next afternoon? None? Right!

 

 

Under the circumstances who wouldn’t think of that option? However getting to California from rural Pennsylvania in time for a Sunday afternoon race was going to take some doing.

 

 

From Orangeville, Pennsylvania I would need to drive three hours southward to the Baltimore–Washington International airport. I would arrive into the general area at about 1 a.m. Then I would need to be returning my rental car by about 6 a.m.

 

 

The Hyundai Sonata Motor Inn.

On Friday night I had slept overnight in my rental car at an interstate highway rest area along I-83. I did that for just one reason. I had I finished up Friday night’s racing in southern Virginia. It was going to be a very long drive up to Pocono for a 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon race. There wouldn’t be enough time to justify getting a hotel. Sometimes I just have to do what I have to do.

 

 

Can I be direct with you?

Let’s be clear about one thing. I don’t sleep in my car to save money although that is a secondary benefit. I will only sleep in my car or sleep overnight in an airport if there’s not enough time to get at least eight hours of sleep in a hotel. As my remaining tracks get further and further apart I can see myself doing this more and more often.

 

 

As I drove down interstate 83 I figured that sooner or later I would come across a rest area. When I did I would try to get about five hours of sleep. However, there was one big problem. During the 80 miles or so of driving south there were no rest area. On the north side I saw the Pennsylvania Welcome Area rest area. However the state of Maryland had no such hospitality for southbound travelers.

 

 

On no! Not at 1 a.m.

I kept driving and driving. It looked as if I was going to get all the way to the BWI airport without finding a place to sleep. It was about this time that my Waze GPS system gave me some disturbing news. Just five miles ahead all lanes were closed due to a 1 a.m. accident.

 

 

I didn’t need to be sitting in stopped traffic at that time of the early morning. I made the executive decision to take the next exit and look for a hotel. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to stay in a hotel right?

 

 

So what is the real meaning of “stayed”?

I ended up staying overnight at a Holiday Inn. However the word “stay” is being used loosely here. I didn’t actually stay inside the Holiday Inn like their other quests were doing. I would sleep overnight in the Holiday Inn’s parking lot.

 

 

Parking overnight in the hotel parking lot seemed like a fairly safe idea to me. Do you know anyone else who might think this was a bright idea?

 

 

I simply leaned back the driver’s seat of my National Car Rental Racing Hyundai Sonata and slept for about four hours. My alarm came at 5:09 a.m. Eastern time. Of course I will be spending the balance of my day in California. I guess my day really started at 2:09 a.m. according to Golden State time.

 

 

I was counting on unprepared folks to deliver.

When I awoke in the Holiday Inn parking lot it was still dark out. I had about thirty more miles to go to reach the airport. I was flying standby on a plane that was overbooked. However, I suspected there would be a few ne’er-do-wells who wouldn’t answer the bell for a 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning departure back to Los Angeles. I was correct. I usually get on the plane under these circumstances. Then, just 5 1/2 hours later I was landing in Los Angeles at 10:30 a.m.

 

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Auto Club Speedway – Fontana, California

 

 

My California triangle.

My home in San Clemente is 65 miles south of Los Angeles international Airport. The Auto Club Speedway, the major NASCAR track for Southern California, is 65 miles to the east of LAX. I was headed to the Auto Club Speedway for their afternoon of SVRA racing.

 

 

Could I count this track?

I was going to see racing on the track’s 2.8-mile road course. However there was some uncertainty as to whether or not this was going to count as a new track for me.

 

 

Here’s the nitty gritty.

If you have followed the trackchasing rules closely you know that trackchasers can count two versions of a road course if a special circumstances exist. Essentially, if the tracks overlap their configurations, the two layouts have to be at least minorly different. If one configuration has at least a straightaway and three turns that are not in common with the second configuration each of those configurations or tracks may be counted separately. No, the IRS did not come up with these rules but it sounds like it doesn’t it?

 

 

Houston, we might have a problem.

Here was the problem. I had first seen road course racing at what was then called the California Speedway all the way back in the year 2000. Yes, that was 16 years ago.

 

 

At the time the California Speedway road course was my 407th lifetime track. I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had seen about 430 tracks. Therefore I didn’t have the complete notes from that track visit like I do for most of the tracks I’ve seen since #430.

 

 

So what DID I know?

I did have a couple of short notes. I knew I had seen the Skip Barber racing school competing on the road course in 2000. I also knew the track I visited back then was 3.0 miles long. Beyond that I didn’t have much to go on in my memory from a track that I had seen 16 years ago. However, I did have some resources that could help solve this puzzle.

 

 

These folks could solve this problem.

Last year I had run into a fellow by the name of Bill W. Bill is the president of the West Coast chump car group. He told me that the current road course, at the now named Auto Club Speedway, was dramatically different than the course I had seen back in 2000. However he couldn’t tell me exactly how it was different.

 

 

I also consulted former trackchasing commissioner Will White’s website. His URL is www.autoracingrecords.com. Will tries to identify various tracks all across the world with their historical race dates. His site shows the 3.0-mile road course at the California Speedway ran from 1997-2000. His research told me the 2.8-mile road course began in 2001 and continues until today.

 

 

I had also contacted the SVRA sanctioning group to ask them what they knew about the situation back in 2000 and what it was like today. Alex M., the SVRA National Licensing Director, came back with this, “The course is quite different than it was in 2000. That was an unfinished version, back then. In 2002 we ran the first real race on the proper configuration. Hope you enjoy the weekend.”

 

 

The pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together. I wish every trackchaser was this diligent.

 

 

We were there for their very fist NASCAR race.

The California Speedway first opened in 1997. Carol and I saw a race on their oval track in 1997. Jeff Gordon was the winner. It took me another three years to get back to see racing on their road course.

 

 

This was a pretty distinguished crew.

I had people in leadership positions from ChumpCar and SVRA telling me the track being used in today’s world was quite a bit different than the road course used in the year 2000. Will White’s research tended to support this view as well.

 

 

I have high standards.

I still didn’t have, in my mind, a perfectly defined confirmation that the differences in the two configurations met the trackchasing rule requirement of one straight and three turns being different. I searched on the Internet for a map of the 2000 circuit but couldn’t find one.

 

 

I hope the research up to this point makes one thing perfectly clear. I go out of my way to make sure every track I see meets the rules of trackchasing. Has everyone done it this way all the time? Ask them.

 

 

This was the final word. Success!

When I arrived at the track today I tried to get more information. I was referred to a more experienced driver named Ed Swart (#45 above). I was told Ed would likely be able to conclusively answer the question for me. He did.

 

 

Ed told me that in 2002 the road circuit at the California Speedway began to include racing on the oval. Prior to that all of the road course racing was done in the infield. This confirmed things for me. My research was complete.

 

 

So what was today’s layout like?

This is what today’s Auto Club Speedway road course looks like today. The cars take the green flag at the same spot on the two-mile oval as the NASCAR Sprint car drivers do.

 

 

The road course racers then drive into turn one and out of turn two of the larger oval. A little bit beyond midway in the backstretch they make a left-hand U-turn into the track’s infield. They race over a couple of straights and more U-turns in the track’s infield. All of this ultimately takes the racers back onto the big track’s oval at the exit of turn four. Bingo!

 

 

The track I saw in 2000 based upon the feedback I was given today did not include any racing on the oval. With today’s track including racing on two straightaways on the oval as well as turns one and two of the oval and the additional turns getting off of the backstretch and back onto turn four of the oval I had covered the trackchasing rule’s requirement. Yes, the two configurations had at least one straightaway and three turns that were different on the overlapping road course configurations.

 

 

After sleeping in my car overnight, and flying five hours back to the West Coast, this made my afternoon visit all worthwhile. I was seeing my fourth track of the weekend and my 2,212th lifetime track.

 

 

I’m retired. Twenty bucks?

I paid my somewhat steep $20 general admission fee for the SVRA sanctioned races. However there was a benefit beyond just seeing the actual racing today. Events like this don’t draw many spectators but the spectators who do attend have full run of the facility. If I were to come here on a NASCAR Sprint cup weekend there’s no way I would have access like I did today.

 

 

There was plenty of time for me to tour the garages, sit in all the VIP boxes and even peek into the VIP suites and driver workout areas. It was exactly what I was able to do yesterday at the Pocono International Raceway.

 

 

Who does this? No, really. Who does this?

I wonder how many trackchasers had ever gone to Pocono on Saturday and followed up with a visit to the Auto Club Speedway on Sunday. I wonder how many trackchasers have “stayed” in a Holiday Inn in the fashion that I did? I told you I do this hobby just a bit differently than everyone else.

 

 

What about the racing?

Today’s racing consisted of “vintage” race events. The first one was a series of Indy cars, about 15 in total. The California Speedway has a checkered history with IndyCar racing. The Indy cars have come and gone a time or two. There have also been some significant tragedies with an IndyCar driver being killed on the opening weekend of the speedway’s existence.

 

 

Video. Photos.

You won’t want to miss my video of the IndyCar racing action today. The second feature was for a series of NASCAR vintage Sprint Cup cars. These cars actually raced in competition. When their “real” racing lives were over hobbyists purchased the cars. Now they race them with the exact paint jobs and sponsorship signage as when the cars were actively racing in NASCAR. I wonder how that works legally with the sponsors?

 

 

I thought these were the two best races of the day even though there were five on the total card. I tried to take photographs and video of all the things that you may or may not have seen up close in the past. Take a look and enjoy what I have shared with you.

 

 

Before I sign off I’ll apologize and hope that I haven’t been to technical in explaining what it took to be able to “count” today’s race track. However the trackchasing hobby is all about “counting”. If the track doesn’t count it’s rare that a trackchaser will have a strong interest in attending a race event.

 

 

I was pretty certain that the 2016 version of the Auto Club Speedway road course was different enough from the 2000 road course to meet trackchasing’s requirements. However, I’m glad I had the experts mentioned above to confirm the facts.

 

 

Walking the gray line.

Sometimes I do walk the gray line of the allowable rules in trackchasing. This dramatically annoys the trackchasing hierarchy. Whenever I do that they are quick to tighten up the rulebook to prevent me from doing that again. I guess I’m the Chad Knouse of trackchasing.

 

 

Staying flexible.

It had been a productive weekend. The original plan called for me to see four different events in Pennsylvania. Because of the weather forecast I ended up seeing one race in Virginia two in Pennsylvania and one in California.

 

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

Mother’s Day is coming.

Next weekend is Mother’s Day. I’m planning on taking Carol to the Kentucky Derby for the very first time in Louisville, Kentucky. If all goes well we might see a race or two over the weekend. However the primary focus is the Kentucky Derby. I want to add it to my major sports resume, which includes World Series, Super Bowls and the like.

 

 

I am glad I made the decision to trackchase in California today rather than Maine.  I was home in time for dinner.  Carol and I grabbed some Mexican food (there’s a lot to choose from in San Clemente) and headed down to the beach.  There we watched the sunset over burritos and tacos.  It don’t get no better than that.

 

 

That’s it from Fontana, California. Good afternoon.

 

 

 

 

California

 

 

The Golden state

This afternoon I saw my 148th lifetime track in the Golden state, yes the Golden state. I’ve seen more tracks in California than in any other state. That’s not too surprising. I’ve lived in California on three different occasions for about 37 years. Of note is that I am just one track short of tying Gary Jacob’s lifetime total of 149 California tracks.

 

 

Gary is now deceased. Gary wasn’t even a trackchaser. He was a racechaser. He didn’t visit tracks to add a new track. He visited tracks to see the racing. He was a racechaser. He was the most avid racechaser, anywhere in the world, that I have ever met or known about. That’s saying something.

 

 

 

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: “I’ll take a number 2, animal style.”

 

Californians are deeply proud of their In N’ Out, a fast food burger chain that comes with its own jargon and a secret menu not advertised in stores. A burger served “animal style” has mustard fried into the patty and comes with extra spread and grilled onions. 

You can also order your fries animal style, or if you’re especially hungry, try a 3×3 burger, which comes with three beef patties, or even a 4×4. 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Rolling Thunder Speedway – $10

Pocono International Raceway – No charge

Greenwood Valley Action Track – $8

Auto Club Speedway – $20

 

 

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $38

 

 

 

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 525 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,212

 

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 70

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.47

 

 

 

That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

 

 

Greetings from Fontana, California

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From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”

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Auto Club Speedway

Asphalt oval

  Originally Track #339 in 1997

Today – 2019 re-visit

 

 

 

 

I’ve got a little bit of history with the California Speedway, now known as the Auto Club Speedway. The place opened in 1997.

 

 

During that inaugural year Carol and I went to the NASCAR Winston Cup race as well as the IndyCar race at the California Speedway. Jeff Gordon was the winner in NASCAR. Mark Blundell won the IndyCar event.

 

 

That very first California Speedway race in June, 1997 was memorable for another reason as well. We rode the train from our home in San Clemente up to the track in Fontana, California. About midway during the ride the train stopped and never moved again for an hour. We later learned that the train had run over and killed two joggers who were running along the train tracks. Since this was the first time the train had ever used these tracks on a Sunday the runners weren’t expecting that outcome!

 

 

I have since been back to see racing on the large oval in 2014 and now again in 2019. I’ve also seen racing, for trackchasing purposes, on two of their road course configurations.

 

 

Today’s track location was only 68 miles north of our home in San Clemente. You might think it would be a simple procedure to make it up to the Auto Club Speedway in a situation like that. Not so fast. Logistics is a huge challenge for my trackchasing and it was again today.

 

 

You see I wasn’t coming from San Clemente to the track today. I was coming from the eastern part of the Louisiana bayou! I had to drive all night after an ice cold experience at the Chatham Speedway on the Saturday night before Fontana. I arrived just in time on Sunday morning to catch one of the very last seats, on a standby basis out of the New Orleans airport (above). My flight departed at 6 a.m. I was suspecting when I showed up at the Auto Club Speedway that not many people had spent the night the way I had.

 

 

These big NASCAR races are very fan friendly compared to other professional stick and ball sports. There is no charge to park at NASCAR racetracks. I certainly couldn’t go to Angel Stadium or Dodger Stadium and park for free at those places.

 

 

At NASCAR races fans can bring in small coolers filled with beer, soda and food. Where is the last major pro sports stadium that you’ve been to that allows that?

 

 

The Auto Club Speedway is a 2.0-mile D-shaped oval. It’s seating capacity is 122,000. The main grandstand seats 68,028. Skyboxes as well as the camping areas bring the total to almost twice that.

 

 

The Auto Club Speedway has experienced a rebirth in spectator interest over the last few years. To be honest racing at this track is not my most favorite, which is why I haven’t been here more than I have. Nevertheless today I had a “open day”. I figured I would give it a shot.

 

 

I came to the track without a ticket. I NEVER come to a NASCAR cup race with a ticket. Over the past several years, including about a dozen events, I’ve never paid more than $20 for a ticket. About half the time I haven’t paid anything. My ticket was free.

 

 

Some people complain that NASCAR racing is too expensive to attend as a spectator. I’m here to tell you those people don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.

 

 

My average cost for a ticket over my last dozen races is $10. I could sit anywhere with that ticket. I have parked for free at all of those events. Although I never have I could bring in a cooler filled with drinks and food at no charge. I went to the race at Martinsville the week following my visit to the Auto Club Speedway. The night before Martinsville I paid $75 for my hotel room. Martinsville hotdogs were two dollars! Today a bottled soft drink was five dollars about what you would pay at a major league baseball game. Where in all of the above is “NASCAR too expensive”?

 

 

Today I would be using my RE 3000 race scanner for the very first time. I bought it on Amazon just a couple of days ago. Being able to test out that scanner immediately was probably the number one reason I came to the Auto Club Speedway today.

 

 

After flying in from New Orleans and making the drive over to the racetrack from LAX I was in a little bit of a hurry. I wanted to make sure I could get my race scanner programmed properly. I accepted the first offer for a ticket and paid 20 bucks. The ticket had a face value of $45. The seller first offered it to me at $35. I told him I couldn’t pay any more than twenty dollars. He accepted my offer. Had I exercised more patience I would not have been surprised to have been given a ticket. Of course, I used to my “need one” sign to speed up the process and get a good result.

 

 

My race scanner is pretty cool. I can stand about 20 yards from the RE radio trailer and get all of the driver and track frequencies downloaded to my scanner wirelessly. That is pretty cool isn’t it? 

 

 

It was fun driving into the track today on a crystal clear blue-sky southern California winter day. The mountains were snowcapped. When I arrived at the track I saw the Goodyear blimp flying overhead.

 

 

I took a little bit of time to explore each of the drivers’ souvenir trailers. I like it a lot better now that they’ve gone back to that method of selling their goods compared to the “mall-like“ atmosphere where all the drivers’ merchandise was in one central location.

 

 

Where was the seat location of the ticket I purchased? I have absolutely no idea. I always take the seat location printed on the ticket as a “recommendation”. Today I would sit where I wanted to.

 

 

I’m going to estimate that the grandstands were about 80% full. It was a good crowd but it was not a sell-out. I found a great seat location near the top of the grandstands in front of pit road. It was quite a hike up there. I suspect some people who had tickets in that part of the grandstand couldn’t make the walk!

 

 

I would classify myself as a pretty strong NASCAR fan. I attend one or two of the cup races each year. I’ve seen racing at every one of the tracks that NASCAR uses. I watch every NASCAR race on TV from start to finish albeit on a recorded basis so I can skip the commercials. I also tune into a NASCAR show or two during the week just to enjoy the commentators analysis and the driver interviews.

 

 

I think seeing a NASCAR cup race without a scanner is a poor choice. First of all the noise would likely blast your eardrums. Secondly, a fan without a scanner doesn’t have nearly as good of an understanding of what’s happening on the track as if they had a radio.

 

 

All that being the case I got to suspect that the other 50,000 people who were in the grandstand, and who were not as big NASCAR fans as I was AND who didn’t have a radio must get bored during a 400-mile 200-lap race where the spectator viewing of the cars isn’t all that great.

 

 

I’m not surprised that some fans no longer have an interest in watching this type of NASCAR racing. My favorite tracks are the short tracks such as Martinsville, Richmond and Bristol. I like the longest track on the circuit Talladega as well simply because of its action.

 

 

I know that NASCAR built these 1 1/2 and 2-mile tracks because the crowds were huge in the 90s and early 2000‘s. That ship has sailed. They need to be racing on more short tracks where there is bumping and rubbing and the fans can see the cars well all over the track. If they did that what would they do with all of the bigger tracks? I’m sure they have asked themselves that question many times!

 

 

Today driver Kyle Busch won the event. It was his 200^thlifetime NASCAR win in one of their three national series. Those series include the trucks, Xfinity series and NASCAR Cup. That is a super major accomplishment.

 

 

I am not a Kyle Busch fan for one major reason. He is such a poor loser. He’s in the mold of Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Sr.. They all loved it when they won but we’re pretty well pissed off when they lost.

 

 

I’ll go with the more mild-mannered drivers such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Richard Petty, Chase Elliot and Kyle Larson. Those guys are pretty even keeled whether they’re winning or losing. They’re also very rational and rarely are blaming others for whatever happened on the racetrack.

 

 

A day of NASCAR Cup racing can be a full day and a tiring day. For me that was even more true considering that I slept in my car the last two nights in first Texas and then Louisiana. It’s going to be nice to get home.

 

I used Yelp to find a nearby authentic Mexican restaurant for a quick dinner. Then in almost no time I was home. I would have a few days back in San Clemente before hitting the road again for trackchasing first in Illinois and then North Carolina before finally going to another cup race in Martinsville, Virginia just one week after my visit to the Auto Club Speedway.

 

 

Good afternoon from Fontana, California

 

Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today.

 

 

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2019 NASCAR Cup racing

 

 

 

 

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.

 

From Baltimore to the Auto Club Speedway to San Clemente

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Auto Club Speedway re-visit – 2019