Greetings from Syracuse, New York
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Center of Progress Building
Concrete oval
Lifetime Track #2,398
THE EVENT I have had the opportunity to follow my trackchasing hobby all over the world. As this is written I have seen racing in 77 countries. My lifetime track total is nearly 2,400. Long ago I wrapped up seeing racing in every American state. Some eleven years ago I moved into the “World’s #1 Trackchasing” spot. Of course, that’s if that title is awarded to the person who has seen the most lifetime tracks. Frankly, I don’t think it should be. Maybe “Most Prolific Trackchaser” is a better description. Anyway my trackchasing totals exceeded all others more than 1,300 tracks ago. Different trackchasers including Rick Schneider, Ed Esser and now Guy Smith have held the second spot behind my trackchasing results. The trackchasing leadership has always had a difficult time managing the “politics” of trackchasing. Even the leaders have been toppled by trackchasing politics. When Mr. Schneider dropped out over a dispute Ed Esser became the #2 ranked trackchaser. Sadly, just four days after Ed and I went trackchasing together in Canada he passed away. This moved Guy Smith into the #2 spot. Since the year 2000 I’ve seen nearly 900 tracks more than Mr. Smith. Currently my advantage over trackchasing’s #2 exceeds 600 tracks. I would lobby that the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” title should go to the person who has seen racing in the most countries. For the longest time the real “World’s #1 Trackchaser” was Roland Vanden Eynde of Belgium. He was closely followed by Will White of Pennsylvania. I never had all that much interest in international trackchasing. I was nearly 40 years old when I saw my first track outside of the U.S., in Canada. I never thought international trackchasing was worth the expense or the hassle. When I gained an airline sponsorship all of that changed. Now I have seen racing in 77 countries and toured the world in more than 90 countries. Long ago I passed up Mr. Vanden Eynde for the true “World’s #1 Trackchaser” title. I’ve wanted to go to the December indoor kart racing in Syracuse for a long time. In the past I was concerned about two things. First, would they be racing any karts that met trackchasing rules? Secondly, would there be another race or two that I could see that weekend to make the trip to the east coast in early December worthwhile. Finally, the stars aligned. I had positive answers to both of those concerns. My hobby is not only about racing. Yes, that is one part of it. However of equal importance are the logistics of trackchasing and the opportunity to see the world. I live in Southern California. The vast majority of tracks are located in the Midwest and East. It takes a good deal of logistical planning to get from where I live to where the tracks are. For the past 15 years I have traveled about 175 nights each and every year. Surprisingly to some, more than half of those overnights were not part of trackchasing. Then there’s the travel just for the fun of seeing new things. You won’t want to miss my “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” page or my “Sports Spectating Resume” page on my website at www.randylewis.org. That will give you some understanding on how important seeing the world and just “seeing stuff” is with my hobby. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD I woke up this morning in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I got a good night’s sleep. I stayed in a Priceline.com generated Red Roof Inn. No the Red Roof Inn is not a Marriott but then the pickings are somewhat slim in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Today I was headed to the New Young State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York. There are quite a few venues that I have visited for some really big nationally known events. That is the case with the New York State Fairgrounds. The big event at the New York State Fairgrounds was always on the “moody mile. This was a 1-mile fairgrounds track that for years and years featured the Syracuse Dirt Track Nationals. All the way back in 1982 I went track chasing with my racing buddy and longtime friend Jim Sabo at the NYSF. On Saturday we saw the World of Outlaws sprint cars with Sammy Swindell winning. Then on Sunday Merv Treichler won the big modified show. What do I remember most about the racing? It was cold during the weekend of October 9-10, 1982! The Syracuse mile track was my 121st lifetime track to see. Can you believe that was more than 2,000 tracks ago? When I walked out of the fairgrounds on that bitterly cold and windy Sunday afternoon I didn’t suspect, as a trackchaser, I would ever return to the New York State Fairgrounds. However, a trackchaser can never say never. Why? Trackchasers are one of the worst for trying to protect his or her trackchasing future. When opportunity knocks the trackchaser drops everything and answers the door. That’s just the way the hobby is. It’s all about counting. It took more than 20 years (2013) but I DID return to the fairgrounds. Carol and I made a visit to the New York State Fairgrounds to see their figure 8 racing. It was a rainy day and there was some uncertainty as to whether or not the event was going to happen. Nevertheless, we were under an overhang and they did get the show in. The NYSF figure 8 track was lifetime track #1,905 Now today, December 2, 2017, I was returning for a third time to the fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York. They were having an indoor go-kart racing program. I’ve known about this event for years. I have tried to fit it in before but there was never an opportunity to see another track during the weekend to make the trip to the East Coast worthwhile. I will travel long distances to see one track but it doesn’t happen very often. I had talked to the promoter Rick Martell a couple of years ago. I spoke with him again last week. I wanted to get some more information about his event and also confirm that senior champs would be showing up. The Syracuse indoor karting show is mainly for flat carts. Over the past couple of years a very small number of senior champ karts have competed. There was no guarantee that any senior champs would show up but Rick seemed to think they would have at least two and maybe more. He had a couple already signed up on the pre-entry list. This conversation all came from our phone call last week. Rick sounded like a standup guy. For many years in corporate business I was trained to identify the bull shitter from the honest guy or gal. His comments convinced me that a trip to Syracuse was in order. Rick had remembered me talking about trackchasing with him a couple of years ago. This morning I managed my wake up call, on East Coast time, with the amount of driving time it would take to get Syracuse. I added in a half hour for gas and food. My plan was to show up at 12 noon. The gates were scheduled to open at 11 am. The racing was supposed to be finished by late afternoon. Virtually everything I know in life I learned by watching NASCAR on TV or playing golf. Both of those activities offer lots of life lessons that the uninitiated may not be unaware of. NASCAR race teams don’t pit for fuel until they are in their “fuel window”. That means they will delay getting gas until they know they can get enough so they don’t have to stop again before the checkered flag falls. I do the same thing when I’m out on the long and dusty trackchasing trail. I was driving the Alamo Rental Car Racing Ford Fusion on this three-day trip, which emanated in Boston. I had a titanium hybrid model Fusion. This car gives me about 40 miles per gallon in fuel economy. The entire driving trip to the northeast was going to cover about 900 miles. Did you know that I drove rental cars 49,000 miles in the single-season a couple of years ago? This year I’ll come in at about 38,000 rental car miles. Really that’s nothing. Trackchaser Ed Esser, operating out of Madison, Wisconsin once drove his Chevy Blazer more than 91,000 miles to the races in one year. By the way I’ll drive my own personal car less than 500 miles for trackchasing in most years. I knew the distance I would drive during the three days I had this car would be about 900 miles. That meant that as soon as I drove 450 miles on the first tank of gas I could refuel and have enough gas to get me back to Boston’s Logan International Airport. However, I didn’t want to cut it that close. Also, I certainly didn’t want to stop for gas for a third time. I value my time! I was driving up interstate 81 in Pennsylvania this morning. It was 33°. The landscape was barren, but still scenic with an occasional farm, as you are likely to find in this part of the world during early December. I was surprised at the number of cars abandoned along the road. There wasn’t a snowstorm. Were these cars so unreliable that they can’t make it back to the barn in good weather? When I had driven nearly 500 miles miles on the first tank of gas I knew that I had less than 400 miles remaining on the drive. It was time to duck into the pits. I would do that just over the New York state line in Kirkwood. I’m a strong proponent of using technology to make life easier and save money. I use a smart phone app called GasBuddy. This lets me know where the least expensive gas prices are located. I realize that a number of the ideas that I share with you may not benefit your situation as much as they do mine. Yes, I travel a good deal more than the average Joe. When I’m on the long and dusty trackchasing trail I will stop for gas about 100 days a year. That number does not include the 30-40 stops I might make to fill out my own personal car each year. When I’m on the road I don’t have a good idea for where the lowest gas prices are. That’s where GasBuddy comes in. I was all set to fill-up for $2.75 a gallon, which isn’t all that bad of a price out here. Then GasBuddy told me that if I waited just about seven more miles I could buy gas at the Loves truck stop for $2.59 a gallon. This nearly four-dollar savings would be thrown into a huge pot where all of the previously generated savings have been tossed. If I told you how much is in that pot over the years from saving a dollar here and ten dollars there and one hundred dollars there you wouldn’t believe me. Because the IRS could be reading these reports I’ll just keep that information to myself for the time being. THE RACING Center of Progress Building – Syracuse, New York Today’s racing was going to be held at the Center of Progress building on the New York State Fairgrounds property in Syracuse, New York. There have been some funky things going on at the fairgrounds as regards motor racing in the past couple of years. They tore down the huge grandstand on the 1-mile dirt oval. That put an end to auto racing (oval and figure 8) on tracks in Syracuse. Despite what has happened at the big track at the NYSF they were holding the 25th Annual N.Y.S. Indoor Championship at the fairgrounds. I’m not sure if in all of those previous years they’ve raced in the Center of Progress building or not. I know that for the past several years that’s been the location. I didn’t know exactly what time they were starting the races today. I knew that the gates did not open for spectators until 11 a.m. I would come to realize that practice had been done yesterday on Friday night. I was thinking they might practice a little bit today and then start racing. With that thought in mind I showed up at 12:15 p.m. While I was parking my car I could hear the announcer describing the race action inside. I was thinking that each class would have a heat race followed by a feature. That was true. I figured if somehow I missed the heat race for the senior champ karts I would still make it for the feature race. Nevertheless, I hurried in and paid my $15 admission fee, which included full access to the pit area. I tend to believe that if you lead a good life and do the right things and treat people the right way it will come back sooner or later. I think that happened to me today. I’ve seen hundreds of go-kart shows in my trackchasing history. If I had to guess I would say 95% of go-kart racing competitors race flat karts. In the hobby of trackchasing we do not count any flat kart racing. Don’t get me started on that and don’t blame me. Don’t like it? Take it up with a trackchasing founding father. At most go-kart shows the flat karts race first. Most of the time the caged senior champ karts race last. I can’t even begin to count the hours that I have wasted waiting for a handful or less of senior champs to race. It’s not that I don’t like flat kart racing. I do. It’s just that I came to see senior champs race today. I would come to find out there were 20 different classes racing today. Actually there were more classes than that but a few classes, with only one or two participants, were merged with another class. This created 20 races for maybe 25 to 28 classes. There was only one trackchasing countable class racing today the senior champs. Today If I had come in at the wrong moment I might have had to watch as many as 15-19 classes race before the senior champs hit the track. Is that what the founding fathers of trackchasing thought was a good idea? You can imagine my shock, my amazement, my absolute deliriously happy feeling when just five minutes after I entered the Center of Progress Building the senior champs hit the track! What perfect timing. With eleven entries there were two senior champ heats. Honestly, I hadn’t been there 10 minutes before the track was capable of being counted. I was a little bit surprised with everything I saw inside the building today. The spectator situation was unusual. All of the fans were seated and standing just beyond turns one and two. There was no room and no fans were allowed to watch along the straightaways or in turns three and four. The temperature was in the high 30s outside. Nevertheless I was wearing cargo shorts and a sweatshirt in inside. I was more than pleased to see that the building was heated. The interior on the arena was absolutely jam-packed with go-karts and go-kart racing team members. I’ll throw out a wild guess and say there were 150 entries. Don’t miss my photos of the situation. It was bordering on chaotic. Anyone walking through the pits had to definitely keep their eyes open to avoid getting in the way. I watched the eleven competitors in the senior champ kart class race. I was right at the staging area where the karts entered the track and where they returned to the pit area after the races. All of these movements were done in turn one. Last night I had seen indoor racing on a dirt track. This afternoon I was seeing an indoor race on a concrete racing surface. However the concrete had been “doctored “ with a very sticky substance. Lots of race promoters pour Coke fountain syrup on their concrete track surface. It makes things super sticky so the racers can get better traction and reach higher speeds. I know that today’s surface was so sticky in the staging area that it nearly pulled the Nikes right off my feet! I talked to one father who had hauled his racing team all the way down from Maine to compete today. He was prepping his tires with a liquid substance that made the tires even stickier even though the track was sticky itself. He was a father working on the go-kart of his seven-year-old son, the team’s driver T.J. Moon. Yes, racing can be a family sport. It had been a long time since I was able to see the races that I wanted to see so quickly. I didn’t feel like sitting through another 20 races to wait for the senior champs to run their feature of it. That could have taken a long time. I spent my remaining time watching a few flat kart races over by turn two and touring the pit area. The pits were a busy place. You could tell by the looks and smell of things these guys, and a few gals, were hard-core kart racers. Good on them. I’m glad they have a place to race in December in New York. I had wanted to meet the promoter Rick Martell. However, it was loud and the place was as busy as New York’s Grand Central Station. I simply wrote a note on my business card and asked one of the track workers to give it to Rick. I’m probably done that a thousand times. I would say that I’ve never heard back from about 990 of the people who I left a card for. I didn’t expect too. I was simply leaving the card as a thank you for whatever information the promoter had given me and to tell them I enjoyed what they had provided for the racers and me. However, a day or two after the Syracuse race I got a phone call from Center of Progress race promoter Rick Martell. He was calling to say thanks for coming to his event. Of course, with an event that brings in 150 race teams I knew we was busy. He certainly didn’t have to do that. I think that one phone call says a lot about why this fellow has promoted well over 100 of these shows and gets the turnout that he does. Well done Rick! AFTER THE RACES Following today’s afternoon racing I needed to make a four-hour drive over to Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Since I didn’t spend as much time in the race building today as originally planned I decided to use my moviepass membership. At this stage over the next 10 months every movie I see is free with moviepass. I picked out a movie in one of the local Syracuse malls. It was titled, “My Friend Dahmer”. It was about the high school days of mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. You can imagine it was pretty strange. But what was even stranger was that so many of the stores in this particular mall were out of business. If I had to guess this mall may be totally shut down in the next year. With my I-Pass transponder, which also works on the E-ZPass toll road system, I headed eastward first along the I-90 toll road and later the Massachusetts Turnpike. I had no idea how much the tolls were as I just passed through electronically. I do know that I got TWO $30 charges renewing the balance that I keep in my toll way account during this trip. During my drive I got a call from Paul Weisel. He called to ask about today’s trackchasing and bench race about last night’s yellow fest in New Jersey. I’ll bet a lot of people would be very interested in the types of conversations we have about racing and trackchasing in general. I’ll just leave that at that! I would spend the night at the Days Inn in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The hotel was just an hour’s drive from tomorrow morning’s airline departure location in Boston. Once again I must thank my sponsors, Priceline.com, for getting me into the hotel at such an incredible price that it can’t be advertised in these reports. The Sturbridge hotel was nearly brand new. It was somewhat out in the boonies but a great find this close to Boston at the price. Good afternoon from Syracuse, they work. New York The Empire state This afternoon I saw racing at my 77th lifetime track in the Empire state yes the Empire state. I hold a #1 trackchasing ranking in 24 total states but not in New York. I’ve seen 77 or more tracks in 11 states. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member New York sayings: Chill out scrap: to express to a close friend that he or she needs to remain calm or relax “Honestly, just chill out scrap!” QUICK FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 600 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 20 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Indoor go-kart racing at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York 
