Greetings from Urbana, Illinois
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Lifetime Track #1,871
Do the difficult things today and tomorrow will be easier……………more in “The Details”. Bad news travels fast……………..more in “The Details” My travel schedule is nothing if not robust………………more in “The Details” If you’ve ever had a passion for anything… ………..details in “Race Review”. Why won’t my fellow competitors share? ………..details in “Race Review”. Nothing is ever simple. I woke up this morning in Champaign, Illinois. I went to bed in Champaign, Illinois. This is what today looked like. I’ve had some unusual trackchasing days. This was another one of them. Why can’t things just be simple? My alarm woke me from a dead sleep at 8:30 AM. I was staying at the Baymont Inn & Suites Hotel in Champaign, Illinois. Since I was planning on staying at the Baymont again tonight I had the luxury of having breakfast at the hotel and then working on my Trackchaser Reports. When it was time for lunch I took a break at Wendy’s. All during the early afternoon I was checking travel schedules and race schedules for the future. I spend a good deal of my time on the road doing this so as to make my trips as productive as possible. I have all the systems in place to maximize the efficiency of my travel while minimizing the expense. My fellow trackchasing competitors can’t come close to these efficiencies. As Dizzy Dean always said, “It’s not bragging if it’s true or you can do it.” Who’s to argue with Ol’ Diz? Do the difficult things today and tomorrow will be easier. For tomorrow racing activity, I had to decide between two locations in Minnesota and a place in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I chose Minnesota. Why Minnesota? If I could add one more track in the Gopher state it would put me in a tie with Ed Esser for second most tracks seen in Minnesota. Of the two locations available up north, I chose Luverne, Minnesota because it was further from Minneapolis and would make seeing the remaining locations somewhat easier on a future trip. Whenever I can I choose the most difficult location to visit now leaving easier to get too (closer) locations for future trips. I’ve done it this way forever. I chose to fly into Sioux Falls, South Dakota because it would decrease my drive to tomorrow’s track from three hours to one hour. Everything I do on the trackchasing trail logistically is designed to maximize efficiency and minimize expense. By doing that I can dramatically increase my overall trackchasing productivity. There was an outside chance I would see two new tracks this evening. The first race at the Champaign County Fairgrounds in Urbana, Illinois was scheduled to begin at 7 PM. I called the promoter yesterday to confirm details. The promoter, Phil Kline, was a nice guy. He was very much intrigued by my trackchasing hobby. Phil told me to look for a guy who was 6 foot six and 300 pounds in the pit area this evening. That would be him. When I arrived at the fair I did found a find a person resembling Phil’s description. However he was much more like 6 foot four and maybe 265. Phil…that’s a compliment! You’re the guy from California right? I checked in at the pit tent. Without a single word from me the woman handling pit sign-ins said, “You’re the guy from California right?” I asked how she knew. “You look like you’re from California!” I was taking that as a compliment. Without further do I was being given a pit pass wristband (complimentary) and sent on my way into the infield to meet up with Phil and his racing group. But before I left the woman motioned for me to come toward here. She had something she wanted to whisper to me. “You need to zip up your zipper,” she said. Without any reaction from me I told her that was good advice. Then I walked and took care of the directed business. Bad news travels fast. When I did find Phil he had some bad news. “I only have two cars willing to run the figure 8. I can’t believe it. I paying a $1000 bonus if one car wins both the figure 8 in the demo derby”, he told me. In point of fact only two drivers had volunteered to drive in the figure 8. Both of these were first time ever drivers. They had seen the racing on TV and thought it would be fun to build cars to participate in the figure 8 race tonight. Even if no other cars were willing to race in the figure 8 they still wanted to run. They told me they wanted to race for two reasons. First, this was their first effort and they didn’t want to be turned away. Secondly, the race was scheduled to pay $500 to win! They were even willing to race if the purse had to be cut. However, Phil wanted to have a minimum of four cars in the race. At the drivers meeting he pleaded with people to volunteer. These were diehard demo derby racers. Surprisingly the four-cylinder compact demo derby entrants did not want to run the figure 8 race. They were fearful they would get their cars torn up or they would overheat making them unavailable for the demo derby. That was surprising to me. It seemed as if they would have a good chance at winning $500 if they were only one of three or four cars in the figure 8 race. At the drivers meeting a member of the fair board took over the microphone and chewed out the drivers. He told them that they were arriving too late, making too many demands, and just being generally uncooperative for a sport that was supposed to be fun. He reminded them that he could make more money at the fair booking concerts than demolition derbies. He told the drivers he would do exactly that if their bad behavior continued. Then the promoter got on the microphone and again pleaded his case for the figure 8 race. Silently I was pulling for him. Soon one driver and then another volunteered until there were five people willing to run the figure 8 race. I was more than pleased with that result. The overall event was supposed to begin at 7 PM. By now it was 8 PM. The crowd was getting restless in the covered fairgrounds grandstand. Finally, the show got going. The first item on the agenda was the best-looking car contest. Following that was a 10-lap figure 8 feature event. The crowd liked the figure 8 racing. Only four of the five F8 entries made the race. Nevertheless this 2 to 3 minute race was entertaining. There was some contact and the crowd had a good time watching it. From there they went to demo derby. I watched one DD event. Then I headed out in search of a second track for the evening. I will say this. I think the crowd, based upon their reaction, got a bigger kick out of the figure 8 racing than they did the demo derby. It’s funny how figure 8 is entrenched in some areas and in other locations it’s all demo derby. From a driver’s perspective I would think F8 would be more popular. A driver can probably use his figure 8 car 8-10 times or more before it’s time to build a new car. With demo derby lots of cars are “one and done”. Was this going to be a waste of time? Nevertheless, after the one and only figure 8 race, I was headed to a track some 40 miles away. I expected to get there by 9 PM. There were two concerns with this plan. First it looked like they were going to get rained out. Secondly, the racing that I wanted to see might be finished before I got there. I tried to call the track but to no avail. Phones went unanswered or were busy. It had rained in Champaign at 6 PM. The track I was trying to visit could already be rained out or it could be rained out by the strong line of thundershowers that were just 20 miles off to the west. My Weather Channel app has an uncanny capability of predicting rain. It has a great record telling me exactly when the rain will hit an area. I can also see the weather radar showing location and intensity of the impending precipitation. This didn’t look good…and it wasn’t. When I arrived in Cerro Gordo, Illinois at 9:02 PM I found a very small and mostly put to bed small Midwestern town on a Friday night. There’s not much happening in Cerro Gordo. It didn’t look like any racing activity would be or had been happening in little Cerro Gordo either. However, I had come this far might as well take a look at the racetrack. When I saw the lights were on and trailers were in the pits at the fairgrounds I was both surprised and shocked. I soon learned this was a two-day show, with racing planned for both Friday and Saturday. There was no spectator admission price available. The only way to get in and see the races was to purchase a pit pass for $25. I inquired about what stage the program was in when I arrived. They had had a rain delay. That wasn’t surprising! The cars were now time trialing with feature events to follow. However with rain in the area and a curfew of my own I asked if I could sit outside the pit entrance and wait until the racing began. If it rained I didn’t want to have $25 invested in this track. My travel schedule is robust if nothing else. How’s this for a racing/travel plan? These guys needed to BEGIN racing soon because I had to leave by 2:30 a.m. Why was that? I had to make a 5:30 a.m. flight out of Indianapolis headed first to Chicago and then to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Yep. My trackchasing schedules are not for the faint-hearted. One of the women working the pit booth (it’s almost always women working the pit booth!) went to get the track promoter, her brother. Soon he came out and we talked about his racing operation. He gets 300-400 go-karts per weekend and pays a purse of $30-$40,000. That’s big money for karts. As we were talking the karts continued to qualify. Unfortunately, raindrops soon began to fall. It wasn’t long before the track was lost and there would be no racing tonight. I certainly wasn’t as bummed as I could’ve been since I already had one track in my pocket from earlier in the evening. My carnival moves on down the road. Off I went on a drive back to Champaign, Illinois where my hotel was. I normally call Carol each evening after the races. However tonight I was tired and thought about passing on that call. However at the last moment I decided to make that phone call. I was glad I did for several reasons. I had planned to leave my hotel this morning at 2:30 a.m. Central time. It was a 2 Hour drive from Champaign to Indianapolis. With my flight departing at 5:30 a.m., if all went according to plan I would arrive an hour before the flight. However Carol’s information rained on that parade. She reminded me that I would be losing an hour driving from the Central to Eastern Time zone in Indianapolis. Ouch. She was right. This new information meant I would now be leaving my hotel at 1:30 a.m. or 11:30 p.m. yesterday Sam Clemente time. That also meant I would be LEAVING for my morning airplane BEFORE Carol went to bed back home the night before! As someone famous once said “It is what it is”. That doesn’t make it any better. I arrived back in my hotel at just before midnight giving me a little bit more than 90 minutes of overnight slumber. If this were easy then the dreaded East Coast Trackchasers could do it at this level. It isn’t and they can’t. Precisely at 1:30 a.m. my iPhone alarm woke me from a dead sleep. In four minutes I was backing out of the hotel parking lot. And so it goes with another trackchasing day in the life of the World’s #1 Trackchaser. CHAMPAIGN COUNTY FAIGROUNDS – URBANA, ILLINOIS Figure 8 doesn’t have very deep roots in this area. I’m pretty sure that demo derby racing has a much stronger history in and around Champaign than figure 8 racing does. Why was that significant to me? In my trackchasing hobby the “rules” call for wheel-to-wheel racing at ovals, road courses and figure 8 races. That’s it! Who came up with these rules anyway? Demo derbies are not “wheel to wheel” racing. Drag racing and motorcycle racing doesn’t count either. If a track class is limited to racers less than 18 years of age those tracks don’t count. Yes, there are a lot of limitations that, in some cases, don’t make much sense to me. On the other hand, we can count a track twice if the racing surface changes from dirt to asphalt or vice versa. If there’s a big oval and a little oval at the same facility we can count two tracks. There’s a lot more stuff that make track counting too liberal in my opinion. However, I didn’t set the rules of trackchasing. I don’t even participate in the voting on the rules of trackchasing. This is all done by a small group of cronies commonly referred to as the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchaser” and their associates. I specialize in meeting people. Tonight I was able to make contact with the promoter, several of the racers and a fair board member. That made the evening interesting. Phil, the track promoter, was between a rock and a hard place so to speak. He wanted to run a figure 8 race for the fans. He was willing to pay $500 to win that race. That’s a good purse. Despite his best efforts only two figure 8 racers had shown up. Phil went around the pit area and spent some time at the driver’s meeting trying to drum up support for the race. At the end he was able to get two more drivers into the figure 8 race for a total of four. Phil did his best. The drivers just weren’t very interested in going figure 8 racing. I also spent some time chatting with a fair board member. It is the fair board members all around the country that volunteer their time to put on the once a year county fairs. At county fairs “grandstand entertainment” runs the gamut. The entertainment can be tractor pulls, demolition derbies, motorcycle racing, stunt shows and often country and western musical entertainment. Most bigger fairs have a little bit of everything over the 5-7 days of their fair. Tonight’s fair board member was more than a little miffed at the demo derby drivers. He didn’t like their “complaining attitude” and was more than willing to tell them so. Good for him! He’s running the fair. I also spent some time talking to the two drivers who had showed up specifically to run the figure 8 race. They were both excited and enthusiastic about the opportunity. You won’t want to miss my interview with these two rookie figure 8 drivers in the pit area after the race. Commonly my visits equate to a ‘long walk for a short slide’. I had been at the fairgrounds for more than two hours. It had rained quite a bit earlier in the day. More rain was coming. In the end I would see a 10-lap four-car figure 8 race that lasted all of about three minutes. Yes, I had flown into the Midwest, rented a hotel room and a car to see THREE MINUTES of figure 8 racing. There is no way to justify what I do financially. I don’t even try. I couldn’t do it. If you’ve ever had a passion for anything. However, if you have ever had a passion for collecting anything, then you might better understand my passion for trackchasing. I am “collecting” experiences. My collection of words, photos and videos is my way of sharing my collection with you. Why won’t my fellow competitors share? I will tell you this. I have pleaded for years with my fellow competitors to share their trackchasing experiences. Only a very few will write an abbreviated review of their day at the races. There’s only one website devoted to trackchasing, by trackchaser Guy Smith (www.roamingtheraceways.com), and 99.9% of it’s content is a series of lists. Folks, it is true that trackchasing is all about counting. If a track doesn’t “count” then a trackchaser doesn’t go to that track. However, to me anyway, trackchasing is about so much more than lists. Take a look at my site. There’s very little space devoted to track lists and rankings. It’s almost all Trackchaser Reports, photos and videos. Guy Smith is always mentioning how taking pictures and videos of his track visits is so important. I have asked for years, “Why don’t you share any of this with other trackchasers”? His actions (or lack thereof) speak louder than words. Guy isn’t the only person unwilling to share his trackchasing experiences. Virtually all of the top 20 trackchasers have elected to NOT post anything about their experience. Yes, it takes some time to share. However, I feel you get back so much more than whatever effort it took to share your experiences. The weather Gods were messing with me tonight. As mentioned above, I tried to get a trackchasing “double” at a somewhat nearby go-kart track later in the evening. However, the weather Gods didn’t want that to happen. That’s O.K. I was more than satisfied in seeing a figure 8 race that almost didn’t come off itself. STATE COMPARISONS Illinois The Illini State This evening I saw my 86th lifetime track in the Illini state, yes the Illini state. Ed Esser has seen the most tracks in Illinois with ninety-nine. I would love to catch up to him but there are not that many remaining opportunities for me to add tracks 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 Illinois saying: I’ll need to “warsh” up for supper.
TRAVEL PLAN AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,232 miles Dallas, TX (DFW) – Nashville, TN – 630 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Nashville International Airport – trip begins Bowling Green, KY Indianapolis International Airport – 315 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins Rossburg, OH Peoria, IL Urbana, IL TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds – $13 Eldora Speedway – $40 (not trackchasing expense) Peoria Speedway – $13 (not trackchasing expense) Champaign County Fairgrounds – Complimentary 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 350 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,871 Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
Would I see two tracks tonight…or none?
If you’re not early you’re late; they were late.
