Greetings from Fife Lake, Michigan
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Cherry Raceway – Lifetime Track #1,752
“MEMORIAL DAY – THE BIGGEST RACE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR! Even in retirement I’m one busy guy. Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. Will I make it to track #1,800 this year? The unsustainable business model. THE EVENT THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL THE BEST READERS IN RACING TAKE TIME TO CONTRIBUTE I use TripAdvisor.com frequently when I’m planning my international trips. When I come back I often share my experiences from the trip on TripAdvisor. When I do that I frequently get messages like this one from Australia. “I’ve just come across your thread on Trip Advisor about your Japanese experiences so I thought that I would drop you an email directly to ask a little more. A friend and I are currently planning our trip to the 2012 F1 in October this year and I’d appreciate any advice / suggestions as to how to make the trip a good one. Currently we’re considering either – Flying Direct to Nagoya from Sydney, staying in Nagoya and transferring each day to the circuit at Suzuka, then on the Monday after race day heading off to Tokyo and flying back to Sydney from there after 5 days Flying Direct to Nagoya from Sydney, transferring to Suzuka and staying there for race weekend, then transferring to Tokyo, flying back to Sydney the following weekend Flying to Tokyo, transferring to Nagoya / Suzuka for race weekend, then back to Tokyo for a week before heading back to Australia. Its been 10 years since I was in Japan and I can remember that it wasn’t the cheapest of places on the planet so we’re looking to make this trip as affordable as possible. Any info you have of the best way to go about this adventure would be great, and suggestions as to whether its best to stay in Nagoya or Suzuka would be appreciated. Many thanks Randy, I hope to hear from you at your earliest opportunity.” WHO, WHAT, WHY AND WHERE The Plan Efficient. What does that mean here? I love going trackchasing. However, there are lots of other things to do in my retired life as well. That being the case, I want to be efficient with the time I spend with trackchasing. What does that mean? The average U.S. track that I see is MORE THAN 2,000 miles from my home. Just getting to and from these tracks takes some time and effort. To make this work for me I want to see as many tracks in one trip as I can. This helps me “amortize” the cost and effort of a trip more effectively. Make sense? It all evolves around race dates, weather and airplanes. Before I commit to a long distance trip I’ll need to confirm that races dates are in place. That’s not too difficult with U.S. based regularly scheduled tracks from May-September. I’ll also have to make sure the weather forecast is good. I’m coming up on a full year of no rainouts. No trackchaser has ever approached my success record with the weather. This becomes a little trickier during the springtime season with the unpredictability of the Midwest and Eastern weather. Finally, considering I live in California just finding a way to get to these faraway tracks can be challenging. I particularly like that part of my hobby. Would you attempt to fly standby over a big holiday travel weekend during Memorial Day? I’m just as busy, or busier, in retired life as I was when I worked for the man. Carol and I have a lot going on in our everyday personal lives. I play golf on most Tuesday and Thursdays. During the spring and summer Carol and I will go to about a dozen Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim games. These two activities effected this trip both coming and going. I couldn’t leave until I finished golf on Thursday. I had to return a day earlier than I might have wanted to so we could attend the Angels-Yankees game on Memorial Day Monday. That was the commitment I made to Carol when we bought the tickets. I certainly don’t mind these “exceptions”. I love trackchasing as a hobby. However, there are so many other things to do that trackchasing gets fit in when it doesn’t conflict with many of the fixed activities that I do at home. For me this level of scheduling detail makes life very interesting. The Trip Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. I woke up this morning in San Clemente, California. I went to bed in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. This is what today looked like. I know that some of you might turn up your noses at sleeping overnight in an airport. All I can say is “don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it”. I would also say “don’t knock it if you don’t know how to do it”. But Randy? “But Randy, how could I possibly NOT know how to sleep overnight in an airport. You’re not giving me much credit. How hard could it be?”, the mildly combative “Dreaded East Coast Trackchaser” might be heard to exclaim. O.K., folks. It’s not really as simple as it sounds. Most things are not as simple as they sound…..if you want to do it right. This past evening I spent the VERY BEST night sleeping in an airport that I ever have. Why is that? First of all, I was in one of my three favorite domestic airports in the country. I’m talking about the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). MSP is so good on many levels. First, you can fly just about anywhere you want from MSP with several choices each day. Secondly, the place is mainly new and has tons of quality airport eateries. Finally, MSP is in Minnesota and Minnesota is home to the “NIMS” people. You might expect “NIMS” people to go out of their way to make sleeping overnight in their airport a pleasurable experience. As a trackchaser I fly some 150-200 flights per year. Few, if any, trackchasers will travel just 10% of those totals in a given year. Given my experience you might expect that I would have sleeping in airports figured out. Stop everything and go to this site now. Of course, my handy iPhone web reference is www.sleepinginairports.net. This is a great resource on which airports, all around the world, are the best for this sort of thing. My fellow travelers will share the “nooks and crannies” if you will about WHERE to sleep in the airport. On this trip my flight from Los Angeles landed in MSP at just past midnight. My next flight was leaving 6:58 a.m. By the time I traveled to a hotel, got settled and then got up in time to make a 6:58 a.m. flight I would have only 3-4 hours of sleep in the hotel. That wouldn’t be worth the effort or the expense. At MSP those “NIMS” people go out of their way to help out the weary traveler. Just to be clear I don’t WANT to sleep in an airport but sometimes it makes the most sense. The MSP airport is the ONLY airport that I know about that provides mats, year-round, for airline travelers to sleep on. NOW do you know why I think Minnesotans along with those folks from Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota are the nicest folks in the country. Yes, “NIMS” people rock. Sleep tight; don’t let the bedbugs bite. On this evening I grabbed my mat (at 1 a.m.) and hauled it to a very special place in the airport. If you want to know where that is you’re going to have to specifically ask. The readership of my RLR Trackchaser Reports is getting so large that there could be “a run” on the airport if everyone chose to do this on the same evening. As it was, when I arrived in my secret spot there were already 5-6 people “in bed” for the night. Yes, we “road warriors” have put in our time and get the most out of these trips. I found a good place for my mat and began to “organize my nest”. This involved using my locking cable to secure all of my personal belongings (computer, camera, rolling luggage bag, etc.). I had chosen a place within 30 feet of both the restroom and a drinking fountain. Then I using my Tempurpedic travel pillow for my head. My grandstand seat cushion was my knee pillow. I set both my iPhone alarm and my portable ($5 Walgreens – Maui) alarm clock for a 5:45 a.m. wake-up call. Everything was perfect. I would now get a good five hours of sleep and be ready for a great Memorial Day trackchasing weekend. But wait….there’s more. But wait…..there’s more. Before I could fall asleep I heard a strange sound. What could it be? It was music. Where I was sleeping they were piping in CLASSICAL music. Folks, you gotta just love these “NIMS” people. What will they think of next, chocolates with every sleeping mat? The only other sound all night was a recording, at 30-minute intervals telling anyone who might want to know what time it was. That didn’t really seem necessary but I could live with it. You’ve heard me say that I don’t have the big travel budgets of those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. It’s true. However, if I can use my systems approach to get travel bargains like MSP offers then I just might be able to keep up. Observations Save money, spend money, try to save more money. The best rate I could find online for a two-day rental of a full-sized car in Grand Rapids was $96 U.S. That seemed high. I decided to give Priceline.com a try. They came through. They gave me a non-refundable race of $58 for the two days with Hertz. However, when I went to get my car there was an extra charge. I asked for a rental car with satellite radio. I would be driving nearly 1,200 miles in rural areas. I wasted to get good reception. However, the rental car clerk wanted to improve the bottom-line of Hertz. It would be an additional $11 for the two days to get a car with satellite. I paid it but I didn’t like it. Of course I could have simply taken a car with a standard radio. Nevertheless, Priceline.com gave me an excellent saving once I knew I was committed to coming to Grand Rapids. 1,800? This year? Today’s track was #1,752 lifetime. Whenever I pass a “50” mark I give some thought to reaching the next century level, in that case 1,800. As I look ahead that’s going to be tough but doable. If I do reach 1,800 this year it will be on one of my last couple of trips. RACE REVIEW CHERRY SPEEDWAY FIFE LAKE, MICHIGAN Sorry. Started way late tonight. The Cherry Raceway races on Friday nights. I only have about ten “Friday night” tracks remaining to see. That’s why I liked being able to get here tonight. After sleeping all night in the Minneapolis airport, then flying to Grand Rapids, Michigan it was a simple 148-mile drive to the track. I arrived just before start time. However, they did NOT start on time! That’s right they had grossly overwatered the little quarter-mile dirt oval. They started nearly an hour late. That was a bummer considering I was making a 240-mile round-trip drive. Dirt tracks are much more difficult to maintain than asphalt tracks. That’s especially true when they get too much water or not enough. It’s hard to get it right. I discovered a long time ago and it’s reinforced at virtually every oval track that I go too that a lot of time is wasted. It’s wasted from an entertainment point of view. You only get one chance….don’t screw it up. They say you only “get one chance to make a good impression”. I think a lot of tracks fail to make that good first impression with their fans. Why is that? This might happen for one of two reasons or both. The promoter stands in the middle between the competitors and the fans. If the promoter does things to help out the competitors (time trials, yellow flags, etc.) it might (and does) disappoint the fans. I’m not sure a track can be too “fan-friendly” even though a race promoter once told me that “he can put on a race without fans but not without racers”. I would concur that can happen FOR A WHILE but it the long run it is the fans that pay the profits. From most fan’s point of view time trials are a waste of time. I think the same could be said for heat races. In today’s racing world the average track will have 5-6 divisions racing. If I had to guess I would say the AVERAGE car count for all divisions I see over the past couple of years is about ten cars. Some have more and some have less. If a track has ten cars in a division you can bet they will divide those cars into two five-car heat races. Folks a 5-car race for 6-8 laps just isn’t very interesting. I would much rather see all ten cars in a division race in one or two longer distance races with a “one-spin” and you’re out rule in the first or even both races. Bore the fans at your own peril. As it was tonight the start time was delayed by an hour because they overwatered the track. Then another hour or more was spent having 5-6 car heat races. If an intermission is added then the fan is sitting in the grandstand for anywhere from 1-3 hours never having seen a race with more than 5-6 cars. Folks, that’s criminal. Tonight’s program did draw a pretty good crowd of what looked to be local people. There were lots of families with babies (babysitters are too expensive?) and small children. However, there just wasn’t enough racing early on to make for an entertaining show. The most important employee at the track was good tonight. The announcer was above average. He made some of the races that weren’t that interesting……entertaining. The concession offered good basic “race track” food. My only recommendation to both the Cherry Speedway and most small oval tracks is to run a “features only” program. I know these tracks have been racing heat races, in some cases, for fifty years or more. Too bad. It’s time to stop doing that. Small tracks are failing at an alarming rate. They better make more changes, big changes or this industry will be down the tubes within five years. The unprofitable and unsustainable business model. When the crowds drop off, the purses go down. When the purses go down the car counts go down. When the car counts go down the crowd goes down. It’s a vicious unprofitable and unsustainable business model. STATE COMPARISONS Michigan The Wolverine State This afternoon I saw my 79th lifetime track in Michigan, the Wolverine state, yes the Wolverine state. I’ve still got a cool 100 tracks remaining to be seen here. Most of them are fairgrounds tracks running figure 8 or enduro events. Being fairgrounds that means they run almost exclusively during July and August. I do have nearly ten regularly scheduled tracks in this bunch. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! Do some trackchasers carry an unfair geographical advantage? What happened to the recent trackchasing rules proposal submitted by Paul Weisel? Plus editorial comment from me. Should foreign trackchasers be given a handicap so they can enjoy the fruits of trackchasing glory? 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 Potential Michigan state slogans: “No hurricanes here.” “No riots since ’67.” “Casino fever – catch it.” “Gerald Ford slept here.” “So close to Canada you can hardly tell the difference.” “The one that looks like a mitten.” “Soda? We say pop here, buddy.” “More than just boarded up auto plants.” “Birthplace of Meijer Thrifty Acres.” “Where Ontario is a shortcut to New York.” “It’s called snow. Get used to it.” “Not as flat as Indiana.” “Try eating corn flakes without us.” “It’s not the heat. It’s the humidity!” “Where lousy teams get new stadiums.” “Speed limit’s back up to 70, so move it!” TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 1,535 miles Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – Grand Rapids, MI (GRR) – 406 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Gerald R. Ford (Grand Rapids) International Airport – trip begins Fife Lake, MI – 148 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Cherry Speedway – $9 ($3 senior discount) 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 300 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 9 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.29 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Racing action from the Cherry Raceway The trip from start to finish on the way to the Cherry Raceway Click on the link below to see photos from my trackchasing day on they way to the Cherry Raceway – track #1,752. . Today’s photo album from the Cherry Raceway 
