Greetings from Canaan, New Hampshire
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Canaan Speedway – asphalt oval – Lifetime Track #1,075
Canaan Dirt Speedway – dirt oval – Lifetime Track #1,431
Canaan Speedway (asphalt oval) – Reprinted with permission from my July 14, 2006 Trackchaser Report Editor’s note: On July 14, 2006 I also made a visit to the Claremont Speedway to see racing on their figure 8 track. This post includes the stories from both Claremont and the Canaan Speedway. Canaan Dirt Speedway – Reprinted with permission from my May 22, 2009 Trackchaser Report GREETINGS FROM CLAREMONT AND THEN CANAAN, BOTH FINE CITIES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE REALLY IMPORTANT Don’t miss the people section today. I ran into a lot of interesting folks. THIS MORNING CAROL AND I WOKE UP IN VICTOR, NEW YORK. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS The Strategy Did you know that more than 90% of the 1,000+ Trackchaser Report readers are not official trackchasers? I always need to keep that in mind when I write. I suspect non-trackchasers may think somewhat differently than a full-fledged trackchaser. As a non-trackchaser, can you ever imagine planning a family vacation to Disneyland? When you arrive at Disneyland, you find it is raining. Alternatively, maybe there were not enough employees that showed up for work to staff all of the Disney characters. Therefore, because it was raining or there weren’t enough people to run Disneyland, the entire park closed for the day. It’s always a tough conversation with the kids when you have to say, “You know kids, we’ve been planning our trip to Disneyland for a long time. Disney isn’t going to open today, so we’re going somewhere else. The Grand Canyon is running today. It’s only 550 miles up the road. Get in the car, we’ll be there in no time.” In the above example, you have just experienced the thought process of the trackchaser. Of course, the above “Civilian” example would never happen in real life. In trackchasing, it happens on nearly every trip. Virtually none of my 25-30 annual trackchasing trips goes exactly as I planned it once my plane touches down. We were supposed to be in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada tonight. I had sold Carol on the idea of making a New England trip with stops in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Just as the parent must sit down with their child and tell them that Disneyland will not be opening today, I needed to sit down with Carol and give her the bad news. I picked a quiet and secluded spot to explain that Nova Scotia was going to be wet this weekend. Even though we could not go there, we could visit lovely New Hampshire, the granite state. I went on to extol the virtues of a New Hampshire vacation for several minutes. When I paused to take a breath, Carol asked just one question, “How many tracks?” It was then that I knew that we were still going to have a successful trackchasing trip, despite our change in venues. The Trip When I go trackchasing with Carol, I do my best to keep our driving distances to a minimum. Nevertheless, the “Trip A” trip odometer on the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix read 1,037 miles when we pulled into the Twin State Speedway parking lot. At that very moment, we had driven more than 1,000 miles and seen one countable track! I’ve been using www.factorytoursusa.com as a source for our TTAs. Yes, that’s Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. We’ve taken our share of brewery tours. We’ve done the Heineken tour in Amsterdam and the Budweiser tour in St. Louis among others. Today, we were going on another brewery tour. This time, we would be visiting the Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York. The Matt Brewing Company (http://www.saranac.com/) is the oldest family owned brewer in the world. I have a unique connection to the company. I worked with Nick Matt during my 13 years with the Richardson-Vicks (makers of Vaporub, Vicks Nyquil, Clearasil, Oil of Olay, etc.) Nick worked in our marketing department after serving as a naval officer and graduating with a Cornell M.B.A. In the late 80s, he left the Vicks organization as the President of the Health Care division to run the family business. He left our company to return to his family’s brewing company in Utica, New York. Today, Nick is the President of the Matt Brewing Company. I was looking forward to seeing Nick again after more than 20 years. Unfortunately, he was out of town for a wedding, so the best I could do was leave a message on his voicemail. I’m sure he’ll be surprised to hear from me. The brewery tour was great. It’s free and lasts about an hour. At the end of the tour, you’ll get coupons for two full sized beers. You’ll see some photos of their production in the album below. The company’s leading brands are Saranac and Utica Club beer. To promote the Matt Brewing Company brands as well as reward the loyal readers of the Trackchaser Report, I have a special offer for you. If you are a primary recipient of the TR, you can get up to two free six-packs of either Saranac or Utica Club beer. Simply send me your receipt with the brand name circled by no later than August 31, 2006. My mailing address is: RANLAY Racing P.O. Box 4275 San Clemente, CA 92674 You will be reimbursed for up to two six packs of these Matt Brewing Company brands. Please allow six weeks for processing and handling. If you are in Utica, New York for the tour, please don’t miss Stanley’s corner bar located just a block or two from the Matt Brewing headquarters. Carol and I had lunch here. They offer only two menu choices, a ham and cheese sandwich or a Kielbasa sandwich. We went with Kielbasas and Utica Clubs. This is a true corner bar. The locals recognized that we “Weren’t from around here”. I may have been the first person ever to darken their door wearing an Aloha shirt. They made us feel welcome anyway. For a great local experience go to Stanley’s. You might enjoy Utica as well. It is an old old town. Following our tour of the Matt brewery, we headed toward New Hampshire. This area has been getting a ton of rain over the past few weeks. We passed the Fonda Speedway, which was totally under water just a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to stop to see what kind of shape it was in today. From the looks of things, the track surface is back to normal and they can run right now. While getting gas across the street from the Fonda Speedway, we noticed the McDonalds next door. This McDonalds is home to the Fonda Speedway Museum. We couldn’t miss that. They have lots of photos, model cars and Fonda Speedway memorabilia from the 50s to now. It’s definitely worth a stop. Our first planned racing stop of the day was going to be at the New Hampshire International Speedway. I visited the track in 2002, but Carol had never been there. However, we were stuck in some very slow traffic in Vermont on Route 9 and bagged the idea of a visit to NHIS. We motored on to the Twin State Speedway in Claremont, New Hampshire. The People We met some interesting people today and yesterday. Let me tell you about them. #1 Local Utica, New York residents When we was within three blocks of the Matt Brewing Company, I took a wrong turn and got lost. A brief stop into a convenience store hooked me up with the local culture. My request for directions quickly had three different New York young men competing to give me directions. Two were wearing a shirt and tie. It reminded me of three wild animals fighting over a piece of meat, until two were shoved out of the way by the strongest of the three. In heavy New York accents, they each spoke louder than the other, while waving their hands and painting a directional word picture. After a few moments I had to take charge of the group and told them I couldn’t hear anyone’s directions when they were all speaking at the same time. This prompted the largest guy to put his arm around me in a “Have I got a deal for you” fashion. He walked me over to a corner of the store and used a Budweiser beer display to quickly sketch out a map. My conclusion of my convenience store encounter? All three of these people were trying to help. I grew up in a small town in Illinois. People in Illinois didn’t act like these fellas. However, that didn’t matter, I wasn’t in Illinois or California for that matter. These people were in their home environment and acting like they do at home, as they attempted to help a stranger. I was pleased they took the time to offer their unusual (to me) form of help. Encounters like this help me better understand and appreciate the died in the wool New Yorkers who are members of our golf club. #2 Mike Knappenberger and his racing buddy, Jeff Yesterday’s TR did not permit me to explain the various people contacts I had at the Little Valley Speedway. With a bad weather forecast for our planned track in Maine on Thursday night, Carol and I were planning a lovely Maine lobster (O.K. not really a Maine lobster, but maybe Alaskan lobster tail dinner), when we I came across an email from trackchaser Mike Knappenberger. I had not done any trackchasing research for New York tracks. I was not planning to visit New York on this trip. Mike’s message told me about a special Thursday night show in New York. Now our leisurely dinner in Maine would be replaced by long and torturous drive to New York. Thanks, Mike! I expected to see Mike at the race. As soon as I peeked into the nearly full grandstand of 2,000 people, a hatless (this would soon be remedied) Mike Knappenberger spotted me and motioned for Carol and me to join him in the stands. Mike was with his trackchasing buddy, Jeff. This was Carol’s first meeting with Mike. It was important for Carol to meet Mike for one big reason. Mike is on Carol’s radar list of trackchasers to pass. Now that she has met up with Mike, she can imagine just what it is going to take to pass up Mr. Knappenberger. Although she will be trying to beat him into the trackchasing ground, she did admit as I had suggested, that Mike is a very nice guy. #3 Marcia & Dave Sully Just as we were saying hello to Mike, a young couple sitting just two rows behind Mike and Jeff yelled a greeting our way. It was Dave and Marcia Sully. Dave is the Media Relations person for the Little Valley Speedway. Dave was also the first person to ever write a major trackchasing story about my hobby. He did a very complete write-up (check it out at www.ranlayracing.com and click on “Media contacts”) in the Buffalo Sports & Leisure Magazine. Carol and I have been out socially with the Sullys during a trip to Niagara Falls and the Sullys have visited our home during its construction stages in Southern California. It was great seeing Dave and Marcia. During intermission, Dave and I recorded a radio interview for his one-hour racing radio program. I didn’t get the channel his program airs on, but maybe Dave will share that with us. #4 Little Valley Speedway congregation At intermission, the Little Valley Speedway track announcer invited me down for an interview. I’ve revamped my trackchaser press release and the results were the best ever during this trip. The Little Valley Speedway has a covered grandstand. The announcers sit out in the open at the very bottom of the grandstand between the crowd and the racetrack. The announcer had a creative way of introducing his trackchasing guest. First, he asked everyone in the crowd to raise their hand if they had been to 5 different tracks, 10 different tracks, 25 different tracks, 100 different tracks. Finally, he asked if anyone had been to more than 500 different tracks before offering his introduction. In some ways, the announcer wasn’t much of an interviewer. He simply told the crowd, “We have a celebrity in the crowd tonight. He’s Randy Lewis from San Clemente, California. He is the world’s #1 ranked trackchaser. Randy, tell us about your trackchasing.” With that, he handed me the microphone and it was just me and 2,000 of my closest friends. Of course, I have been trained for just these encounters. First, I thanked Mike K. for his Little Valley heads-up. I went on to explain about the trackchasing group and, loosely, how the hobby and competition works. I invited anyone in the crowd who might have 200 or more tracks to come down and meet me. They could be eligible to become a listed trackchaser. I mentioned that such racing luminaries as Chris Economacki, Kenny Schrader, Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell were members of the worldwide trackchasing crowd. These crusty old Eastern race fans were starting to warm up to this brash California trackchaser. After I finished speaking, several people came down to talk. I’m not sure if the racing program was delayed because of so many people milling about the announcing stand or not. One nice fellow came down to chat. He told me he was just two days shy of his 69th birthday and was proud of the 33 tracks he had attended. I quickly shoved him aside since he was such an unaccomplished trackchaser. Of course, I’m kidding! He was a very nice guy. Another fellow told me he had 215 tracks to his credit. I gave him my card and asked him to send me his list. If he does, I will work with him to get it in an acceptable format for submission to www.trackchaser.com. #5 Grant Young There was a guy in the stands who just kept looking at me after I returned from my trackchaser interview. He bore a striking resemblance to top 10 trackchaser Gordon Killian. After a while, I was starting to feel uncomfortable, just like I would if Mr. Killian were here. Finally, the man spoke up. He told me he had been to a large number of tracks. Actually, he said, “I’ve been to 2,021 tracks.” Wow! Extra wow! I’ve been trackchasing like crazy for a very long time. I have only 1,075 tracks. This fellow was telling me he had nearly twice as many as I had or any other known trackchaser. The man introduced himself as Grant Young. I’m pretty sure he’s from Ontario, Canada. Grant Young is known to some other trackchasers as a critic of the trackchasing process. I will say that Grant appears to be both sincere and genuine. On the other hand, his claim might not be genuine or at the very least accurate. Grant is 55 years old and saw his first track when he was five. He told me his father would take him to races in “Farmer’s fields” nearly every day of the week when he was a child. Apparently, his father kept records of the visits. There were several things that Mr. Young said, that led me to question his claims. You the reader will have to decide on the validity of his data. For comparison purposes, I have been to approximately, 960 different facilities while seeing 1,075 countable tracks. This means I’ve seen about 1.12 countable tracks per facility. Mr. Young’s numbers indicated his incidence of multi-tracks per facility is nearly three times greater than mine. I may have seen more multi-tracks than any other trackchaser known at this time and my ratio is only 1.12. #6 P.J. Hollebrand My next “People” contact came at the Twin State Speedway. Carol and I had just entered the gate and we were approached by an unshaven man wearing a v-neck white t-shirt. It was none other than Mr. P.J. Hollebrand. P.J., just one day after celebrating his 57th birthday was making a cameo appearance at Twin State for the figure 8 track only. Mr. Hollebrand is the #9 ranked trackchaser in the entire world. This was my 83rd track of the 2006 season. It was only my third track of the season where I had unexpectedly run into another trackchaser when we were both trackchasing. The others were both with Ed Esser in Ocala, Florida and Grand Bay, Alabama. The incidence of top trackchasers running into each other on an unannounced basis is rare and will become even rarer in the future. This was Carol’s first meeting with the Mr. P.J. They hit it off immediately. P.J. had driven nearly seven hours ONE WAY for the five car, five minute figure 8 race. He had already seen the track’s oval and just needed to see the figure 8 race. When the race was over, he bade us farewell with the words, “I hope to get back home (Webster, New York) by 3 a.m. or so. Yes, that’s a 14-hour drive for a five-minute race.” P.J., recounted his 2006 trackchasing activity. I promised not to share the specifics, although P.J. has been out on the trackchasing trail. P.J. will share his season information when the time is right. #7 Colonel Sanders Our final people contact was most unusual. We were out in the New Hampshire countryside with the sun rapidly going behind the White Mountains. I was minorly lost while trying to get from the Twin State Speedway to the Canaan Speedway and a blended double with features on both ends. As a last minute timesaving idea, I turned on my laptop to get street-by-street directions. As we were sitting at a stop sign on this rural road in the fading twilight, a motorcyclist pulled up beside us. Had the fellow been a Hell’s Angel type rider our reaction would have been different. As it was, the rider looked more like Colonel Sanders with a big bike and leather saddlebags with lots of leather streamers. I’m sure you know the type. We lowered our window. In a heavy New England accent, he asked “Where ya goin.” I replied, “Canaan Speedway.” His response was, “I’m headin’ up to Goose Creek, and Canaan is on the way. I’ll lead you up there. When I turn left, you go straight.” With a nod of his head, the conversation ended with him saying, “Let’s go!” We were off. The cyclist drove the roads like he knew where he was going. He also did not seem to mind breaking the local speed laws on the winding and up and down hill two lane roads. In what seemed like no time we were pulling into the Canaan Speedway parking lot just in time for their 100-lap open competition modified feature event. Whew! That’s a lot of people contact in just a couple of days. I was hoping to spend some personal time with Carol, but we’ve been so busy visiting with folks it’s been difficult. RACE TRACK STATS: TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY (FIGURE 8), CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE – TRACK #1,074 – 7/14/06 & CAANAN FAIR SPEEDWAY (ASPHALT OVAL), CAANAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE – TRACK #1,075 – 7/14/06 CAROL’S TRACKS INCLUDED –TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY (OVAL) – TRACK #261 & TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY (FIGURE 8) – TRACK #262 & CAANAN FAIR SPEEDWAY (ASPHALT OVAL) – TRACK #263 – ALL ON 7/14/06 These tracks were only my fourth and fifth to see in the Granite state. This gives me a 22nd place state ranking, again one track behind Andy Ritter’s 21st place total. I’m happy to announce that this was Carol’s first ever trackchasing trip to New Hampshire. She now has been trackchasing in 39 states. Carol’s three tracks vault her from nowhere to a 23rd place tie with several people including fellow gender mate, Nancy Brown. Paul Weidman leads his wife Eleanor for the state lead 27-25. Maybe Eleanor will tell us how Paul got the jump on her in New Hampshire (referring to trackchasing here.) RACE TRACK NEWS: TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY (OVAL & FIGURE 8), CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE I went to the Twin State Speedway oval track, which was called the Claremont International Speedway back in 1988. For all I now I may have seen the figure 8 track back then, but since we weren’t counting figure 8 tracks back then, I have no recollection of it. Carol and her three children (mine too) were with me on that trip. We were on a New England family vacation where we stayed in a different state for each of seven consecutive nights. The family decided to hang out at the hotel while I made a quick visit to the Claremont track on Saturday, September 3. This was the only race I went too during the entire vacation. Today, Carol and I arrived at the track at 4 p.m. It was really hot and very humid. The track wasn’t open for spectators yet, but we did run into a track employee on our way to use their portapotties. He was able to give us a great restaurant recommendation. First, he tried to pawn us off on a Pizza Hut. I told him that we really wanted to avoid chain restaurants. He then shared his hidden gem, the China Delight sit down restaurant in downtown Claremont. Their only Chinese employee is the cook, but that’s enough. The food was very good and eaten with chopsticks. It gets a recommendation from us. The racetrack in Claremont is a country track in good condition. There is ample board seating (meaning 2’by 10” boards attached to one foot round poles placed in the ground.) The announcer and speaker system is solid. The announcer got really enthused about our trackchasing visit. He gave us multiple mentions. P.J. Hollebrand and I are both 57 years old. On a combined basis, we have seen nearly 2,000 tracks. We’ve both been trackchasing all over the U.S. and the world. What are the odds that on this night we would both choose to come to the Twin State Speedway for just the figure 8 race? Incredible! The racing was O.K. on the oval track. I’ve got some great photos of the facility. It’s very unique. The heat and humidity bordered on unbearable. We sat in the turn one and two bleachers because the shade would visit this part of the track the soonest. Following the oval heats, they ran the five-car figure 8 feature race. There are no figure 8 heats. This barnburner of an event ended about five minutes after it started at 8:05 p.m. This signaled both P.J.’s and our departure. The track was going to intermission where the crowd would be allowed onto the track for “Pepsi night.” This promotion would allow everyone to get up close and personal with the cars and drivers. We enjoyed our visit to Twin State Speedway but it was hot. The most significant aspect of tonight’s Twin State visit involved Carol. This was her first ever trackchasing visit to New Hampshire. This gives her 39 states where she has seen racetracks. That puts her in the top echelon of trackchasers in this important category. CAROL’S COMMENTS I liked the way they kept the races running one after another. It was weird the way we ran into P.J. This was my first time to meet him. I was surprised how he came so far just for the figure 8 race. He’s a good guy to talk too. He better get his girlfriend out to the tracks. She’ll never become a listed trackchaser if he doesn’t. CAANAN FAIR SPEEDWAY (ASPHALT OVAL), CAANAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE The Canaan Speedway is unusual. They have a full-sized 3/8 mile asphalt track and a full sized ½-mile dirt track. The dirt track is located behind the asphalt track’s grandstands. As far as I know, they never race on the same night. Tonight we were in line to see the asphalt track. We pulled into the very dark parking lot at about 9:05 p.m. I didn’t expect much problem seeing some countable feature racing. The track’s answering machine told us they would be featuring six divisions of racing capped off with a 100-lap open competition modified feature. The machine also told us that a family of two adults and three kids would be admitted for just $35 and if you didn’t have any kids, then “Bring the neighbor’s kids.” We took advantage of the vague “Senior rate” of just $10, a hefty saving for us oldsters of five dollars. We were also greeted with this news from the ticket takers. “We’re getting ready to start our last race.” Wow! It’s 9:05 p.m. and you started at 7 p.m. with six divisions and you’re getting ready to start your last race? We hustled inside. Carol went to the bathroom and I sent my press release up to the tower. In a minute or two, the drivers were introduced and the green flag flew on 13 starters. The cars were blindingly fast in what I call “Richie Evans Modifieds.” There was an early crash and red flag delay. This allowed the announcer to get into the trackchasing information I had given him in some depth. Actually, I think he ready all 283 words of the entire communiqué. He invited me to join him in victory lane after the race. Two drivers battled nose to tail for the entire 100 laps. They raced cleanly with Teddy Christopher taking second and a young double ear ringed surfer dude winning. The feature ended at 9:50 p.m. There was a good crowd on hand in some very dark grandstands. There were lots of big bugs dive-bombing us that wasn’t very enjoyable. The entire front stretch lighting system was a series of 10” by 10” shop lights attached to the top of the wheel fence. Surprisingly, they did a great job. True to his word, the announcer called for me to visit the winning driver in victory lane. The surfer dude was just happy to meet anyone and we shook hands. We had been at the track for less than one hour and seen the main race of the night, a 100-lap feature event. Had we shown up much later we would have missed it. This was my second traditional double of the 2006 season. It was Carol’s first three pack of the season. CAROL’S COMMENTS I loved the cars. The announcer was great to us with our trackchaser recognition. It was dark in the grandstands. They got the races over really quick. Our motorcycle friend was another gracious New Hampshireite. The track’s management (announcer and promoter) took the time to talk to us after the races for several minutes. WEATHER CONDITIONS It’s hot and humid up here. It feels somewhat better after the sun goes down. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix is affixed with Massachusetts license plates. Wednesday total driving miles – 204 miles Thursday total driving miles – 462 miles Friday total driving miles – 428 miles LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. * Warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list. ** Special exemption. The widespread use of the “*” is causing my printer cartridges to run dry much faster than they should. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. Spike Rixon has been removed from this list. 2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis #1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi I should never care to argue for anything that would lesson the difficulty of the game because difficulty is its greatest charm. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Boston, MA – 2,567 miles RENTAL CAR Logan International Airport – trip begins Little Valley, New York – 547 miles Claremont, NH – 1,037 miles Canaan, NH – 1,074 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Little Valley Speedway – $12 Twin State Speedway – $10 Canaan Fair Speedway $10 senior rate (Reg. $15) Tonight Carol was able to see a new track in her 39th state. She has plans to see her 40th state later in the week. 1,000. Auburndale Kartway, Auburndale, Florida – February 10 1,001. Ocala Speedway (asphalt oval), Ocala, Florida – February 12 1,002. Speedworld Speedway, Surprise, Arizona – February 19 1,003. Lowe’s Motor Speedway (1/5 mile asphalt oval), Concord, North Carolina – February 25 1,004. Concord Raceway, Concord, North Carolina – February 25 1,005. Antioch Speedway, Antioch, North Carolina – February 25 1,006. Green Valley Speedway, Gadsden, Alabama – February 26 1,007. East Bay Raceway (inner oval), Gibsonton, Florida – March 17 1,008. Volusia Speedway Park West (1/6M oval), Barberville, Florida – March 18 1,009. Speedway Park, Fruitland Park, Florida – March 18 1,010. Sand Mountain Speedway (road course), Fort Meade, Florida – March 19 1,011. Anderson Motor Speedway, Anderson, South Carolina – March 31 1,012. Westminster Speedway, Westminster, South Carolina – March 31 1,013. East Lincoln Motor Speedway, Stanley, North Carolina – April 1 1,014. Margarettsville Speedway, Margarettsville, North Carolina – April 2 1,015. Sunny South Raceway, Grand Bay, Alabama – April 7 1,016. Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, Alabama – April 8 1,017. Coldwater Raceway, Coldwater, Alabama – April 8 1,018. Talladega Short Track, Talladega, Alabama – April 8 1,019. Ballymena Raceway, Ballymena, Northern Ireland – April 14 1,020. Oulton Park, Little Budworth, England – April 15 1,021. Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway, Rooks Bridge, England – April 16 1,022. Mendips Raceway, Shipham, England – April 16 1,023. Oval Raceway, Angmering, England – April 17 1,024. Arlington Stadium, Eastbourne, England – April 17 1,025. Southside Speedway, Midlothian, Virginia – April 28 1,026. Motor Mile Speedway, Radford, Virginia – April 29 1,027. Wythe Speedway, Wytheville, Virginia – April 29 1,028. Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point Circuit, Summit Point, West Virginia – April 30 1,029. Old Dominion Speedway – inner inner oval, Manassas, Virginia – April 30 1,030. Shenandoah Speedway, Shenandoah, Virginia – May 4 1,031. Bridgeport Speedway (inner oval – front), Bridgeport, New Jersey – May 5 1,032. Empty Jug, Hawley, Pennsylvania – May 6 1,033. Oakland Valley Race Park, Cuddebackville, New York – May 6 1,034. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Center Isle, New York – May 6 1,035. Motocross 338, Southwick, Massachusetts – May 7 1,036. Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, Fultonville, New York – May 7 1,037. Calumet County Speedway, Chilton, Wisconsin – May 19 1,038. Grant County Speedway, Lancaster, Wisconsin – May 20 1,039. Blackhawk Farms Raceway, Rockton, Illinois – May 21 1,040. The Milwaukee Mile (Road course), West Allis, Wisconsin – May 21 ** Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – May 21 (new track Carol only) 1,041. Park Jefferson Speedway, Jefferson, South Dakota – May 25 1,042. Superior Speedway, Superior, Wisconsin – May 26 1,043. Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minnesota – May 27 1,044. Canby Speedway, Canby, Minnesota – May 27 1,045. Crawford County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Denison, Iowa – May 28 1,046. Tri-State Speedway, Sisseton, South Dakota – May 29 1,047. Sheyenne River Speedway, Lisbon, North Dakota – May 29 1,048. Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, Pahrump, Nevada – June 3 1,049. The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nevada – June 3 1,050. Hibbing Raceway, Hibbing, Minnesota – June 6 1,051. Buena Vista Raceway, Alta, Iowa – June 7 1,052. Lebanon Midway Speedway, Lebanon, Missouri – June 8 1,053. Rocky Top Raceway, Coal Grove, Ohio – June 9 1,054. Midvale Speedway (oval), Midvale, Ohio – June 10 1,055. Midvale Speedway (figure 8), Midvale, Ohio – June 10 1,056. Spring Valley Raceway, Millport, Ohio – June 11 1,057. Rialto Airport Speedway, Rialto, California – June 17 1,058. Lawrenceburg Speedway (figure 8), Lawrenceburg, Indiana – June 20 1,059. Lawrenceburg Speedway (temporary oval), Lawrenceburg, Indiana – June 20 1,060. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Knox Dale, Pennsylvania – June 21 1,061. State Park Speedway, Wausau, Wisconsin – June 22 1,062. Dodge County Fairgrounds Speedway, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin – June 23 1,063. Lucas Oil Speedway (oval), Wheatland, Missouri – June 24 1,064. Lucas Oil Speedway (figure 8), Wheatland, Missouri – June 24 1,065. Tri-City Speedway, Pontoon Beach, Illinois – June 25 1,066. Lake Ozark Speedway, Eldon, Missouri – June 29 1,067. Poplar Bluff Speedway, Poplar Bluff, Missouri – June 30 1,068. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road course), Indianapolis, Indiana – July 1 1,069. Rush County Fairgrounds, Rushville, Indiana – July 1 1,070. Rock Castle Speedway, Mount Vernon, Kentucky – July 2 ** Windy Hollow Speedway (oval), Owensboro, Kentucky – July 2 1,071. Heartland Park Topeka (dirt oval), Topeka, Kansas – July 3 1,072. Thunderhill Speedway, Mayetta, Kansas – July 3 1,073. Little Valley Speedway, Little Valley, New York – July 13 ** Twin State Speedway (oval), Claremont, New Hampshire – July 14 1,074. Twin State Speedway (figure 8), Claremont, New Hampshire – July 14 1,075. Canaan Speedway (asphalt oval), Canaan, New Hampshire – July 14 DAYS 1-3 – “CAROL DESERVES A RIGHT TO VOTE” TRACKCHASING TOUR SPECIAL EDITION WOULD YOU EVEN IF YOU COULD? How do you plan your vacations? Have you ever taken a flying vacation with your husband, wife or loved over a busy holiday? How far in advance did you plan the trip? Maybe 2-3 months or even longer? Did you spend some time shopping for the very best airfares? When it was time to take the trip did the two of you eagerly anticipate the vacation and arrive just a little bit early to make everything went just right? I planned to “snooker” Carol into going on this trip. The Lewis’ do it a little bit differently than most. Let me tell you about it. Somehow, just two weeks after a weeklong European trip I was able to cajole (snooker?) Carol into taking another major cross-country trackchasing trip. I have always scored highly on “persuasiveness” on any aptitude test I have taken. However, the trip would not be without obstacles. As you know, I buy tickets to other sporting events and entertainment venues. Although I enjoy all of these outings, a hidden benefit is that a ticket commitment to something other than trackchasing keeps my trackchasing under “control”. Does trackchasing have control of my life or what? We needed to be in Maine on Friday by 7 p.m. The earliest flight from Los Angles to New York on that day would not get us into the airport until 4 p.m. That would not give us enough time to make it to Maine in time for the race. That meant we would have to leave on Thursday instead. However, our last theatrical performance (Dirty Dancing) at the Pantages Theatre was to be held on Wednesday night. The theatre is closer to the airport than it is to our house. It made more sense (no, not dollars and cents) to get a hotel at LAX on Wednesday night after the play than it did to drive home after the play and get up early on Thursday morning and drive back up to LAX. What did this mean? In order to get to a 7 p.m. race date on Friday in Maine, we left our house at 3 p.m. on WEDNESDAY and didn’t return for almost a week! Even with this plan we only had four hours of sleep at our LAX hotel. Does trackchasing have control of my life or what? We were going on the trip but we didn’t have any airline tickets. When you take your flying vacations, do you have airline tickets in hand (no not paper tickets but at least a confirmation number) when you arrive at the airport. We didn’t have any tickets. We rarely have any tickets (or confirmation codes) when we arrive at the airport. Permit me to give you some background. There are three types of passengers in an airline’s reservation system. The first type has purchased a ticket and checked in. They may have checked in at home or when they arrived at the airport. The second type of passenger has also purchased a ticket. However, they have not yet checked in (and may never check-in) at home or at the airport. Finally, the third type of passenger (us!) is standby passengers. Because we have a sponsorship agreement with certain airlines, we will be permitted to board the plane if there is an open seat at the scheduled take-off time. If there’s no open seat, we wave good-bye to the passengers as they jet away on their holiday. As you might expect, the planes were full leading into the Memorial Day travel weekend. Today’s early Thursday morning departure was going to be tight on “availability”. That’s airline jargon for whether there would be an open seat for each standby passenger. Standby passengers are given priority based upon seniority dates. It’s sort of like being in the top 35 in the NASCAR point standings. The higher your priority, the more likely you are to get on the flight. Our priority or seniority date is not very good. Most airlines post a “stand-by” list on the TV monitors at the gate. This lets the standby passengers know where they stand in terms of the other standbys. The TV monitor also shows how many seats remain open on the flight. This lets everyone know what his or her chances might be of getting on the airplane. The early morning non-stop did not look good for us to New York (by the way, New York was the best major East coast city to begin this trip from based upon overall availability). That’s why I had about 25 flights (I am not exaggerating) as part of a massive backup plan. I now spend more time researching flights than I do researching future racetrack locations. The airline TV monitor showed seven standby passengers. Carol and I were #6 and #7 on that list. Yes, we were last! The monitor also showed just three seats open. Based upon that data we would not be going to New York on this flight. However, the above is not the complete story. The agent began to call names from the standby list to fill the three open seats. Of course, she started with standby passenger #1 and went down the list from there. For some reason three of the first five standby passengers did not come forward when their name was called. In this game, “if you snooze you lose”. Maybe the folks were stuck in this morning’s huge security lines. Trained Trackchasing Assassins. It is important for you to know one thing before you read any further. CAROL AND I ARE TRAINED TRACKCHASING ASSASINS. I know that might sound a little strong to some people. However, I say it for just one reason. It’s true! As trained trackchasing assassins, we have planned for every contingency. We know what our target is and we will not deviate until the target has been “removed”. At times there are standby passengers traveling in groups of two people or more. Often times there is only one seat available. At that point, the standby group with multiple passengers must decide, “do they split up or not”? In this regard, I am lucky to have Carol as my travelling spouse. Often I see other couples look lovingly into each other’s eyes when the decision must be made to split up or not. Does one fly and the other stay behind? I can tell from their eye contact they will not be splitting up. It is with glee that I make this observation. It is this co-dependency that will keep them from taking their trip and many times gives me that last available seat. As my friend Rick Laub says about golf, “Every shot makes somebody happy”. Carol and I now had to make that decision. For us it was not a decision at all. We had already decided in our pre-planning meeting for this trip. If there were only one seat available, Carol would go. I would follow when I could. Would you split up? Now I ask you. What would you do? Would you split up or not? Carol is an independent person. She can handle this situation quite well, even though her performance (she says it was me) in Brussels might leave others to question this capability. So as she received her boarding pass (in business class no less!), I began to wave good-bye and consider my options. However, the game isn’t over until the gate agent says it is. Other stand-by passengers came rushing up to the gate. These were some of the passengers that would have gotten a seat ahead of Carol if they had been here on time. There were now six standby passengers (I was #6 out of this group) wanting to get on this plane. The agent told us to sit tight. There were still twelve people who had purchased a ticket and had a confirmed seat but who had not checked in. Maybe there would still be a shot. However, one by one, confirmed passengers came rushing up to the gate. They had been stuck in the longest security line I had seen in a couple of years. The 12 seats were dwindling fast. The TV monitor told us there were not just six passengers who had a ticket but had not shown up. There were six standby passengers. This was nail-biting time. Finally, the agent told the six of us to go down the jet way and stand at the plane’s doorway. We did as told. One by one standbys were allowed to go onto the plane…..except me. Here I was within three feet of getting on a big jet and flying away to New York City to enjoy a beautiful Memorial Day weekend trackchasing trip, along with some fantastic Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I was just three feet away! I was just three feet from success. The boarding agent told me, “Wait here. I’m going to check on the last available seat on the plane, seat #21B. If it’s still open you’re on the plane”. Soon she came back with a “thumbs up”. I was getting on the plane or I least I thought I was. As I headed to the back of the plane and a middle seat in coach on a cross-country flight, I had to walk through the business class section of the plane. Yes, there was Carol is seat #10A. She didn’t look like a “trained trackchasing assassin”. She was enjoying a cocktail and snacks and already grooving on her airline provided complimentary headset. I tried to get her attention as I was whisked out of the upscale section. She seemed to ignore me. Maybe it was all part of the cloak and dagger “trained trackchasing assassin” thing. As I approached my seat, the flight attendant asked me, “Where are you going?”. I explained that I had seat #21B. She said, “I don’t think so. Every seat back here is full”. No, you’re not going to do this to me…..are you? Upon closer examination, seat #21B was available. I grabbed it and sat down in the smallest conceivable sitting configuration a 6′ 3” human being could possibly accept for the next five hours. It’s the end of the story. Yes, this brings us to the end of our story. Would you, even if you could, do it this way? Yes, our “purchase price” would be more than reasonable. However, as you can see, the working conditions are not for the feint hearted. What would Carol had done in New York if I had not been able to join her over the Memorial Day weekend? What would I have done? Those questions will remain unanswered, but someday they must be addressed. However, for us, this is just another day in the office. You see, we are trained trackchasing assassins. Our mission is to thwart those Dreaded East Coast Tracks (DECTs). It is what we do. GREETINGS FROM CANAAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE TODAY’S HEADLINES It was “Jerry Springer” time in the grandstands tonight …………..details in “Race Review”. What’s the one region of the country I don’t care for?………………more in “The Trip”. The trip started with a special Trackchasing Tourist Attraction…………..details in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IS HISTORICALLY A BIG RACING WEEKEND IN THE UNITED STATES. THE INDY 500 IS THIS WEEKEND. HOWEVER, WE’VE “BEEN THERE DONE THAT” SO WE WILL SPEND OUR HOLIDAY IN AMERICA’S NEW ENGLAND AREA. OUR TRIP HAD US LEAVING SAN CLEMENTE ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. WE WOULD NOT RETURN FOR NEARLY A WEEK. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED ON DAYS 1-3 OF MY 14TH TRACKCHASING FLYING TRIP OF THE 2009 SEASON. THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP AND THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective What was the REAL purpose of this trip? I was lucky to get Carol to go on this trip. She had just spent a week babysitting me in Europe. Normally, she doesn’t sign on for two big trackchasing trips so close together. The real purpose of this trip was to get more tracks for Carol. If things fall right, she can get 7-8 new tracks before we return to sunny Southern California. I’ll tell you more about this plan in my next Trackchaser Report. That explanation will also be accompanied by a plea to the trackchasing political hierarchy. The Trip Sorry, I don’t like the East coast. I will tell you this right now. I am not a big fan of the East coast (except Manhattan). I think just about everything from Boston to Washington, D.C. and several miles inland should be dozed, flattened and rebuilt. We could take all those Caterpillar tractors that are sitting unsold in Illinois for the job. We could import all of the unemployed workers from Michigan and Ohio to do the work. In no time they could have the crumbling east coast infrastructure, bad roads, terrible traffic lights that don’t appear to be hooked up to anything, old ramshackle buildings and get rid of it all. I still haven’t figured out how to cure the rainy, sometimes cold, sometimes humid rotten weather of the region. I have several friends who live in these areas. It’s important to note I still love you as much as I always have. It’s just that I don’t like the East coast. New England rocks, but the East coast is not New England. Our trip started out ever so poorly. On Friday, we started the day with breakfast across from the hotel at Grand Central Station. I am as impressed this place as I was the first time I saw it some 30 years ago. Next, we rode the train back out to the airport to get our rental car. My original reservation called for us to pay $366 for five days of rental car. That seemed expensive. By staying the night in New York without a car we “saved” one night of rental car expense. Now we would only need a car for four days. That should save us money right? Wrong! The rate for a four-day rental was $536!!!!. No thanks. I had to use four of my “free” days that I normally reserve for one-way rentals but I wasn’t going to pay more than 500 bucks to rent a car. We picked up our car at noon. It was going to be a five-hour drive to Maine. The races up there started at 7 p.m. We should have had plenty of time. However, there was a problem on I-95 north. It was a BIG program. It took us four hours to go 60 miles!! Have I told you how I feel about the east coast roads? Tonto kept revising our expected arrival time. Soon, it became obvious we would not be able to get to Maine in time for the races. I checked my available databases. We would be able to make it up to Canaan, New Hampshire in time for their Friday night races. We were lucky. I don’t have many Friday night backups and especially up in New England. We finally reached the cause of this massive Friday afternoon traffic jam. A semi-truck had caught fire, apparently about the time we were just leaving New York. When we finally passed the point of the problem, fire crews were still standing around putting out the last embers of this inferno. I hope the driver was O.K. No, we would not be trackchasing in Maine. The People Every area has its country folks. The fans who attend racing at the small tracks in New England are a rural folk. I haven’t been around them enough to truly understand where they’re coming from. I observe rural race fans all over the country. The southern people are nice, somewhat unsophisticated and have an underlying sense that seems to say, “We don’t care how you do it up north”. The Midwesterners are a friendly lot and honest as the day is long. The far western rural people are probably the least friendly and seem to sport the attitude, “We’re cowboys here and you’re just a tenderfoot”. Nevertheless, when I encounter people “one on one” just about everyone seems nice. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home. I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day. Pantages Theatre, Los Angeles, California – Production of Dirty Dancing We don’t go trackchasing every day. This TTA only qualifies for inclusion in this report because we left our home in San Clemente for the theatre and continued directly from the play to our massive Memorial Day weekend trackchasing trip. We bought season tickets to the Pantages for a series of plays that ran from about September until May. I think we saw five productions. Phantom of the Opera was probably the best, but we very much enjoyed tonight’s production of Dirty Dancing. We always pick a fun restaurant to visit before going to the theatre. Our play dates are all mid-week. This is good in the sense that it keeps from scheduling any weeklong trackchasing activities. Yankee Stadium, New York (The Bronx), New York I grew up rooting for the Yankees, but not anymore. I grew up a Yankee fan in the late 50s and early 60s even though all of my fellow central Illinois friends routed for either the Cubs or the Cardinals. To this day I can tell you the complete Yankee lineup by player for those years. As noted above we didn’t know what time we would be getting into New York today or even if we WOULD get to New York today. When we landed at about 3 p.m. We had a decision to make. We could spend the night in Manhattan and then drive to Maine. Alternatively, we could simply start heading toward Maine. We chose Manhattan, wouldn’t you? My technology doesn’t cost me any money, it saves me money. Before we could start I had to have a few minutes of quiet time with my iPhone and my laptop. Soon, I had a Priceline hotel reservation at the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street across from Grand Central station. This would be a perfect location. We rode the airport’s AirTrain and then the New York Subway “E” train to within blocks of the hotel. We got a great rate at the Hyatt and our transportation from the airport to downtown was just seven dollars per person. A cab for the same trip runs about $45 plus tip. We do a lot, but we try to buy things right. Once we reached the Hyatt, we had a decision to make. What were we going to do tonight in Manhattan. We were operating on four hours sleep from the night before. We could have a simple dinner and just enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. We considered seeing a Broadway play. However, we had seen a major production just last evening. Additionally, we have been to Manhattan two or three times for plays already this year. What else could we do? Maybe we could go to a Mets or a Yankees game. They were both playing in new stadiums this year. My iPhone Sportacular “app” told me the Yankees were in town for a game against the Baltimore Orioles. That sounded good. Could we get some Yankee tickets? When we arrived at the Hyatt, I checked with the concierge about tickets to the game. He was a congenial fellow, but the news he had for me was not good. Yes, he could get tickets. However, they would be $110 apiece. He explained that this was actually a very good price as face value for the tickets was $100. That might have been a good deal, but I didn’t want to pay that much to see a baseball game. Carol and I went up to our room. I’m one of these people who is always thinking “you only go round once in life, don’t miss the opportunity that presents itself to you TODAY”. I decided to get those Yankee tickets. However, when I went down to buy them, they were already sold! Rats. The ticket scalper is your friend. We decided to ride the train (train #6) out to the stadium and try buying tickets from a scalper. Remember, the scalper is your friend. He has tickets when you just decide to go to the game on short notice. He charges a small mark-up for the convenience he provides to you. Yes, the scalper is your friend. However, once we arrived at Yankee stadium we didn’t see many ticket scalpers. A great idea came to me. Why not just buy tickets from the box office. Brilliant! Yes, they had some seats. The cheapest seats they were selling went for $60 each although they came with an obstructed view. That wouldn’t do. I decided to go with $80 seats that were located down the right field line. Carol and I share season tickets with some friends to the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim games. We get 12 games each year. The cost for our seats is $23 per game. Our Angels seats are much better than the Yankee seats we had tonight. That might tell you about the cost of living in New York. Tonight was a great night for a game. It was a perfect weather night for a ball game. We were early for the game and had a chance to walk all over the new ballpark. The stadium was nice but actually somewhat stark in appearance. Carol was not impressed at all. Nevertheless, it was a very nice experience and we enjoyed ourselves a good deal. However…….New Yorkers are a loud people. I don’t know if I want to use obnoxious or not, but I’m close. The two young men sitting directly behind us acted as if they were a four-hour non-stop version of ESPN’s Sports Center program. They never stopped talking about all manner of sport for the entire four hours and they talked loudly. The vendors constantly came up and down the aisles shouting to the top of their lungs, “Cold beer”, “Hot dogs, get your hot dogs here”. The fans at Anaheim Stadium are a much more reserved lot. Yes, we have the rather annoying “rally monkey” but other than that the fans sit quietly and enjoy the game with their friends while munching on some sushi and drinking a merlot. The Angel vendors don’t yell at all. They simply hold up their wares without saying anything. They suspect that you can see they are holding a hot dog and you will let them know if you want one. The Yankees won the game. Other than the loud and aggressive nature of the people we encountered it was a good experience. The old Yankee Stadium sits just across the road from the new park. Carol found this especially perplexing. “Why wouldn’t they just rehab the old stadium rather than building an entirely new one”, she kept asking me. I was at the old Yankee Stadium for a World Series game between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. This was in 1976 or 1977 when the likes of Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter were playing. I remember it was a corporate event and we had a busload of about 40 people. It was a cold October night. I was friends with the guy who got the tickets for us. He met the “ticket seller” in a New York restroom and exchanged money for tickets over one of the stall walls! What did I like best about the stadium? They sold a ton of different concessions. It’s a New York law to post the calories of each item on the menu right next to the item’s price. It’s amazing how many calories some of these “munchies” have. Check out my photos from this event to see what Yankee Stadium looks like. RACE REVIEW CANAAN DIRT SPEEDWAY, CANAAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE This track would be a very nice backup to our originally planned Maine trip. We arrived at the track at 7:30 p.m. The track’s website told us the program would begin at 7 p.m. However, when we got there they were just going to intermission. The heats were already finished. They must have started earlier than their website advertised. I am a recovering junk foodaholic. Many of you know, I have been on a WeightWatchers diet program for a few months. My top weight was 236 pounds and I left on this trip at just 207. This weight was my goal. I might try to get below 200 pounds, but if I do I will do it on a gradual basis. I think I have learned to eat differently after being on WeightWatchers. Again I thank our children, Kristy and J.J., for their help and encouragement with WW. However, my lifestyle puts me in front of all kinds of very unhealthful foods. I will eat some of them but in much smaller quantities. Tonight, the “treat of the day” was the special “fresh-cut” French Fries that many east coast and New England tracks offer. Just because I don’t like the east coast does not mean I can’t give their racetracks their concession kudos. East coast tracks have the best food in the country. The regular admission rate was $10 but the senior rate was only five bucks. That’s a tremendous savings. It would almost make getting a fake I.D. worth it. We had traveled some 284 miles to get here and our senior rate savings was much appreciated. We liked the racing tonight. When the intermission was finished we saw all four classes run their feature events. It was almost like going to a “features” only program. I wish all short tracks ran features only. I would much rather see ten cars race one 25-lap feature than see two meaningless heats of five cars each and then a feature. Make it features only and have the feature a little longer than it would be if heat races were involved. We picked up a free copy of the “Racin Paper”. It’s, well, a racing paper. For the uneducated, the “racing paper” is a trade paper that is normally published one time per week. In the paper are the race results from the previous week from all over the area. I subscribe to just two racing papers today. I’m thinking about stopping my subscriptions to both of them. Racing papers used to have all kinds of ads for upcoming races. However, two things have stopped that from happening. First, the tracks can’t afford to advertise anymore. Secondly, I’ve been to most of the “big” short tracks. The little guys I’m seeing now have no budget for advertising in racing trade papers. The Canaan Dirt Track sits within shouting distance of the Canaan asphalt oval track. Both are permanent tracks. Carol and I went to the asphalt track a couple of years ago. The Canaan Dirt Track has one of the prettiest old covered grandstands you will see anywhere. They are definitely a dying breed. Each of tonight’s four classes had 10-14 cars. For a feature event on a quarter-mile dirt track that’s perfect. Anything much more than that and the first few laps of the feature will be spent eliminating 8-10 cars via crashes. Then they end up with 10-14 cars anyway! It was Jerry Springer time. Toward the end of the program there was a disturbance in the grandstand. The announcer was a most congenial guy. He moved around the grandstand and did much of his announcing out in the open near the top of the grandstand. As luck would have it, a driver came up from the pit area to the grandstand to sit down with family and friends. This driver was a rather scruffy looking fellow and soon got into an argument with his friend. The argument escalated into a shouting match and the appropriate expletives. This prompted a mother of small children sitting in front of the disturbance to get involved. She objected to the language being use. Soon we had a full “Jerry Springer” episode on our hands. At this point the announcer got involved over the P.A. system. He called for the driver to calm down and go back to the pits. The police were summoned. Finally, the driver headed back to the pits just ahead of the cops. It was all in a fun night of New England rural stock car racing. We had a good time. STATE COMPARISONS New Hampshire This evening’s New Hampshire track was my 13th. This moves me into a tie with Allan Brown for 13th place. I still need three more tracks in New Hampshire to crack the top ten and remove the five NGD “penalty points” I currently have for non-performance here. Guy Smith and Paul Weidman are fighting it out for first place with 27 tracks each. RENTAL CAR UPDATE New York, New York – Thursday/Tuesday It took some doing but I finally was able to turn a rental car disaster, pricewise, into a very reasonable situation. Coming soon! My humble plea to trackchasing’s political hierarchy (coming in Trackchaser Report #1,432). Why I fear Ed Esser (coming, hopefully by June 30, 2009). Has there been unethical play in the lifetime National Geographic Diversity contest? (Coming in Trackchaser Report #1,435) How do fellow P&G retirees really think? Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser I am we Todd it. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – New York, NY – 2,467 miles RENTAL CAR John F. Kennedy International Airport – trip begins Canaan, NH – 284 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Canaan Dirt Speedway – $5 Sr. rate (regular admission $10) COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS UPDATE: There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus or more) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 2009 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS Lifetime track totals in ( ). LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS Final 2008 National Geographic Diversity results have been posted. 1,401. Death Valley Raceway (oval), Armargosa Valley, Nevada – January 3 1,402. Lake Weyauwega Ice Track (oval), Weyauwega, Wisconsin – January 11 1,403. Marion Pond Ice Track (oval), Marion, Wisconsin – January 11 1,404. Grandvalira Circuit (road course), Port d’Envalira, Andorra – January 17 1,405. Kuna International Raceway (oval), Kuna, Idaho – January 25 1,406. Circuito Efren Chemolli (oval), Buenos Aires, Argentina – January 31 Ozark Empire Fairgrounds (oval), Springfield, Missouri – February 6 (new track for Carol only) Lake Speed Ice Track (oval), Tilleda, Wisconsin – February 7 (new track for Carol only) 1,407. DeltaPlex (oval), Grand Rapids, Michigan – February 8 1,408. Losail International Circuit (road course), Doha, Qatar – February 13 1,409. Lake Washington Ice Track (road course), Mankato, Minnesota – February 15 1,410. Bahrain International Circuit (road course), Sakhir, Bahrain – February 27 1,411. Dubai Autodrome (road course), Dubai, United Arab Emirates – February 28 1,412. Dunkin Donuts Center (oval), Providence, Rhode Island – March 6 1,413. Fur Rondy Grand Prix (road course), Anchorage, Alaska – March 8 1,414. Perris Auto Speedway (road course), Perris, California – March 14 1,415. Autodromo de Tocancipa (road course), Tocancipa, Colombia – March 22 1,416. Motorland Aragon (road course), Alcaniz, Spain – March 28 1,417. Circuto de Murca (road course), Murca, Portugal – March 29 1,418. High Plains Speedway (oval), Clovis, New Mexico – April 19 1,419. Flomaton Speedway (oval), Flomaton, Alabama – April 22 1,420. Kapelluhraum (road course), Hafnafjorour, Iceland – April 25, 2009 1,421. Monadnock Speedway (oval), Winchester, New Hampshire – April 25, 2009 1,422. Berlin Lions Club Fairgrounds (oval), Berlin, Connecticut – April 26, 2009 1,423. Tri-State Speedway (oval), Amarillo, Texas – May 1, 2009 1,424. Uranium Capital Speedway (oval), Milan, New Mexico – May 2, 2009 1,425. Speedworld Off-Road Circuit (road course), Surprise, Arizona – May 3, 2009 1,426. Hungaroring (road course), Mogyorod, Hungary – May 8, 2009 1,427. Hoch Ybrig (road course), Hock Ybrig, Switzerland – May 9, 2009 1,428. Vighizzolo d’Este Stock Car Track (road course), Vighizzolo d’Este, Italy – May 10, 2009 1,429. Siskiyou Motor Speedway (oval), Yreka, California – May 16, 2009 1,430. Delbert’s Memorial Raceway (oval), Lakeport, California – May 17, 2009 1,431. Canaan Dirt Speedway (oval), Canaan, New Hampshire – May 22, 2009 Official end of Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see a photo album from our 2009 visit to the Canaan Dirt Speedway: Canaan Dirt Speedway – 2009 visit 
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
It’s Memorial Day weekend and we’re in New England. The tracks are so close together up here I could walk to them. It’s not like the Far West. I suspect Carol and I will see a few more before we head back to the Golden state.
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2009