Greetings from Desert Center, California
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Chuckwalla Valley Raceway
Asphalt Road Course
Lifetime Track #1,725
“THIS SEASON IS A WRAP!” TRACKCHASING TOUR TODAY’S HEADLINES Will I ever beat Gary Jacob’s track totals in California? Who am I kidding? I do NOT like to wear my stuff out! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? That would be a legitimate question to ask. It has been just eight days since our last trackchasing adventure….in Uruguay. Going into today’s race I had taken 14 weekends away from trackchasing. Following this weekend’s racing I will take the remaining five weekends off from trackchasing. Carol and I will spend that time doing several things. We’ll make a trip back to Peoria, Illinois for my induction into the “Peoria Old-Timers Hall of Fame”. We also have several weekends from now until March reserved for UCLA basketball games. The entire purpose of having a goal of taking at least 18 weekends away from trackchasing was to provide “entertainment diversification”. I strongly believe that doing “anything too much” is a bad thing. I will actually exceed my goal for the year. I was able to take some NINETEEN weekends off from my primary hobby in 2011. I am very satisfied with that. THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL THE BEST READERS IN RACING TAKE TIME TO CONTRIBUTE From a long-time reader from South Dakota. Did you know that “trackchasing” can be done by anyone? Yes, that’s right. All you have to do is keep “track of your tracks”. A large number of people share their trackchasing results with Guy Smith who operates the www.roamingtheraceways.com website. There are nearly 70 people who have reported their tracks to him. However, there are probably another 700 or even 7,000 or maybe even more “trackchasers” who choose not to be part of this site or don’t even know about it. That’s why I found it interesting to receive this not from reader Butch Knouse. Butch lives in Lake Preston, South Dakota. Lake Preston is between Brookings and Huron. Butch probably knows more about the history of auto racing in South Dakota that anyone in the world. Here is what Butch wrote to me. I checked the listings for South Dakota, and I see Esser leads with 17. I’ve got 19, 20 if you count Hartford, which was a 1/2 mile and then was shortened to a 3/8. My only tracks left are, Parker figure 8, Wagner, Park Jefferson, Sturgis and Heartland Park. Whether I get to any more of these depends on finances. Sturgis and Heartland Park require a better car. Who is the REAL South Dakota trackchasing leader? Butch has seen nineteen tracks in South Dakota. Why isn’t he listed in the trackchaser rankings? For starters, our original trackchasing czar told everyone they would need 200 tracks in order to be “listed”. I suspect that was simply to keep the administrative work of keeping up with everyone’s lists at a manageable level. I can appreciate that. However, later Will White “modified” his requirements to all folks who live in foreign countries so they could be listed with just 100 tracks. He even reduced that number more to allow certain people to be listed from other continents. I referred to that maneuver as the “International trackchasing welfare program”. When I get time I’ll comment on that subject further. Let’s get back to Butch. Yes, let’s get back to Butch. He’s seen 19 tracks in South Dakota. You won’t be seeing Butch’s name mentioned anywhere on www.roamingtheraceways.com. Why? Despite trackchasing all over South Dakota he’s only seen 36 tracks in total. I know that Butch is an avid race fan. However, his chasing is limited by economics. Is Butch being discriminated against because of his economic situation? Probably. Another point to be learned from all of this is that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of “trackchasers” who have seen more than 200 tracks. Their results are not listed anywhere. I would suspect that there are people, in at least half of the American states, who have seen racing at more tracks in their state than anyone who populates a trackchasing list. These would likely be the old-timers (even older than me!) who “hung around” their state just like Butch Knouse has done. We have several trackchasers who have seen nearly one hundred or more than one hundred racetracks in a particular state. Has anyone seen more tracks in those states than these trackchasers? I would doubt it. With the proliferation of figure 8 tracks, county fair enduros, change of surface tracks, etc. it would be difficult to best the modern trackchaser. However, in just about every state in the country there are probably old-timers who have seen more “traditional” tracks, i.e. weekly ovals than even our best trackchasers. The above is meant to give a “shout out” to people like Butch Knouse. He won’t be on many “trackchasing lists”. However, as far as I know he has seen more tracks in his state than anybody else. He deserves some recognition for that. GREETINGS FROM DESERT CENTER, CALIFORNIA THE PLAN, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Plan This was going to be a unique trip. There were a few unique things associated with this trip. First, it was to be a driving trip. Including this weekend, I’ve taken 31 separate trackchasing trips. The previous thirty all had me driving to the airport to catch a plane to some faraway place. I averaged more than 7,000 miles on each of those 30 trips. Today I would back out of the driveway, point the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS 430 toward the desert and go. By the way, in 2012 the sponsorship of my personal vehicle will change. There were plusses and minuses associated with this idea. I’ll tell you why I felt that way in the “Trip” section. Today I would be trackchasing in my home state of California. I rarely do that. This was my first trackchasing attempt in the Golden state in all of 2011. I’ve known about this track for some time but was in no hurry to get here. I think I was the first trackchaser to find out about the newly built Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. Golfing buddy, turned Palm Springs area resident, Greg Zimmerman first told me about this track a couple of years ago. I was in no big hurry to see it. I figured it would be there for a long time so what was the rush. I would much rather see 3-4 tracks on a flying adventure that waste a weekend seeing just one track somewhat near home. The Trip How difficult could it possibly be to find a track in my own state. I woke up this morning in San Clemente, California. I went to bed in San Clemente, California. That’s the first time I’ve been able to say that this year when beginning or ending a trackchasing trip. This is what today looked like. I had put very little time into planning this trip. How difficult could it be? All along I thought the track was near Palm Springs, California. That would make the one-way drive a little bit less than two hours. The night before I left I checked Google Maps. This was when I learned the track, located in Desert Center, California was actually on the OTHER side of Palm Springs. That meant the one-way drive would be just over three hours. I didn’t much like that idea. SoCal is a great place to live. Most folks think that the Southern California area, including Los Angeles is just one big smog-filled major city. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Southern California area, often times called “SoCal” has so much to offer. There’s the ocean, the desert, the mountains where snow skiing is less than two hours away. There’s a foreign country just 75 miles from our house. There is a ton of things to see and do in “SoCal” and one can see and do those things in perfect weather twelve months a year. This is a fantastic place to live. Compared to most places Southern California is an expensive place to live. I’ve had two friends tell me why that is the case. My realtor told me “all money flows to the sea”. Another friend said “there’s a surcharge for sunshine”. I think they both made valid points. Less than 15 minutes from where I live at the beach you can find yourself out in the wilderness. That wilderness can be reached by taking the Ortega Highway (Ortega Highway) through the Cleveland National Forest. If you want to see what this rustic mountain driving route looks like I implore you to take a look at the trip pictures. They can be seen by clicking on one of the links above. I took the dangerous route just to see the scenery. Yes, I felt lucky. The Ortega Highway is a dangerous road to travel. I normally go several miles out of my way taking 10-lane freeways just to avoid it and be safe. However, this was a crystal clear Saturday morning. I had some time. I would take the scenic route over the Ortega Highway. Like I say don’t miss the pictures. I do NOT like to wear out my own stuff. I will tell you this. I didn’t much like driving Carol’s Lexus (one of two “Lexi” she owns) on this trip. You see I don’t like wearing out her cars driving to racetracks. I will rent 40-50 cars per year. I will drive 25,000-30,000 miles per year……in a rental car. I cover less than half of those distances in my personal car. That’s why Carol’s 2004 Lexus looks like its brand new. I simply don’t think it’s worth ruining your car to drive back and forth to racetracks. I can say that because I’m lucky enough to have an airline sponsorship that comes from son J.J.’s employment as a commercial airline captain. I love to fly and I don’t mind driving long distances in rental cars. However, when it comes to wearing out my own stuff just to see a racetrack I don’t like it one bit. Today I drove nearly 400 miles so I could be at a California racetrack for about two hours. Was it worth it? Read what I have to say in “Race Review”. The People Greg’s a Badger. Greg Zimmerman, an old-time golfing pal, told me about this track. He moved from our area out towards Palm Springs a few years ago. Greg is a University of Wisconsin graduate. That being said he is a staunch Badger and Packer fan. I can always look forward to an email when one of his teams beats one of my teams. Why is it that folks like that never send me an email when one of my teams smothers one of THEIR teams? I’m a Huskie. My last email from Greg was reminding me that his Wisconsin Badgers had defeated my Northern Illinois University Huskies (class of ’71) 49-7 in the opening game of the season. From there the Huskies have gone onto an 8-3 record. Look for them is a bowl game near you. I hope you didn’t miss the Huskie game against the University of Toledo a few weeks ago. It was broadcast on ESPN. The Huskies ran back the kickoff TWICE on their first two offensive plays. The first runback was for 100 yards and the second for 95 yards!! Pretty amazing stuff. Editor’s note: You may have noticed the NIU Huskies trounced Arkansas (State) in the GoDaddy.com bowl in Mobile, Alabama. This was the second to last bowl game of the year. That being said I figured it must have been the second most important behind the next night’s BCS Championship Game. Any ideas which school has the longest current football winning streak in college football? If you guessed the Northern Illinois University Huskies, and I hope you did, then you are correct. Try that trivia question out at your upcoming Super Bowl party. In the meantime I will await Mr. Zimmerman’s email congratulating all of us Huskies on our current moment of glory. RACE REVIEW CHUCKWALLA VALLEY RACEWAY – DESERT CENTER, CALIFORNIA This was about as close to being a complete waste of time as it could have been. I’ve got to be honest, (it’s in the bylaws) today’s racing was nearly a complete waste of time. I like to see wheel to wheel racing where there’s a good deal of passing, some crashin’ and bangin’ and a little bit of mayhem if possible. There was none of that today. This track is located in Desert Center, California. This place is nearly out in the middle of BF nowhere. Desert Center’s (Desert Center) population is 125 people. It’s located midway between Palm Springs and Blythe, California on Interstate 10. I’m sure Hollywood movie producers use this location for most of their “Ghost Town” footage. To top it off, temperatures have reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Why did they need to build this track so far from anywhere? However, today was going to be a perfect weather day in Desert Center. Although the temperature was just 65 degrees with a bright desert sun and no wind it seemed much warmer. The weather conditions, considering what the rest of the nation gets in late November, were ideal. I didn’t expect to be rained out today. First of all, American road racing races in the rain. Of equal importance is that the town of Desert Center averages just 4.4 inches of rain per year. Some places can get that much in a single rainstorm. The place is brand new and 50 miles from anywhere. The facility is brand new. The Chuckwalla Valley Raceway website (Chuckwalla) states the 17-turn road course is 2.7-miles long with multiple elevation changes. It actually seemed longer. The track sits adjacent to the Desert Center Airfield. There were some good-looking vintage racecars on hand. The paddock area is covered with brand new asphalt. There were some 40-50 racecars on hand. The racing was being co-sanctioned by the HSM-West and VARA racing organizations. There were seven race groups and seven races scheduled for today. The highlight of the day, easily, was seeing the beautiful racing machines up close. Don’t miss the pictures if you like seeing old-time road racing machines. After taking a picture of nearly every racer in the paddock area, my day’s entertainment was finished. However, I still had to watch some racing. If they were racing I had a hard time seeing it. Seeing the racing was nearly impossible. For a spectator this is one of the worst road racing venues I have ever seen. Most are bad, this was terrible. You should know that I think MOST road racing venues are very poor when it comes to spectator enjoyment. Today’s track had a long straight that paralleled the paddock area. At the end of the straight the racers made a right hand turn and headed toward Vegas. About a half-mile or more from the spectator location the cars briefly went out of sight. Heck, for all I know they DROVE to Las Vegas in the interim. The long main straight was separated from the paddock area by a series of “Jersey barriers”. The barriers were so high it was even difficult to see the cars race down this straight. Once the cars “got out into the desert” it was impossible to read a car number or see much of anything. Fun for the driver; no fun for the spectator. I suspect a 17-turn racetrack is great fun for the race driver. It sucks for the spectator. Maybe that is why this track how so few wheel-to-wheel racing events on the schedule. The spectator amenities are sparse. The track did have a guy cooking BBQ on an open grill. The menu items of ribs, sausage and brisket sounded good. However, the prices were high. The most expensive lunch combo topped out at $16 U.S. I’m sure the place had bathrooms….however I didn’t see any. The P.A. system was used to announce the upcoming race schedule and nothing else. At lunch they offered the opportunity for spectators to take their streetcars out onto the track. I like doing that and have taken my car to the track more than once in this manner. However, at $25 U.S. it seemed too expensive. I really DID want to see if those guys were driving off to Las Vegas when they drove out of sight…….maybe next time. Who am I kidding? That’s right. Who am I kidding? I can’t imagine any circumstances that would find me returning to the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. It’s really not for spectators. Give me a high-banked quarter-mile dirt track and a pork tenderloin sandwich and I’m happy for the weekend. Driving home I ran into a fairly major rainstorm near Los Angeles. Folks in California are spoiled by the constant good weather. They don’t drive well in the rain. Of course, heaven-forbid, we get no snow. There were several fender-benders and cars in the ditch that slowed my arrival back into San Clemente. I’m glad I didn’t forsake a 3-4 track trip for a visit to Desert Center! STATE COMPARISONS California This afternoon I saw my 115th lifetime track in California, the Golden state, yes the Golden state. I’ve lived in California longer than I have any other state. I guess that makes this place my home state! Nevertheless, I’m not the trackchasing leader here. That title goes to the late Gary Jacob. Gary saw 149 tracks during his illustrious career. He was definitely a “racechaser”. Trackchasing totals came to him as a sidelight only. Will I ever best Gary’s total in California. I don’t think there’s any chance. Do I want too? Not really. What’s the fun in beating someone’s totals whose life was cut short prematurely? Gary deserves the honor of seeing more tracks in the Golden state that anyone else. Ron Rodda brings up third here with 86 tracks and a young Carol Lewis follows with sixty-six. I have potentially three or four more tracks to see in all of California. That’s not many. I’ll see ‘em all here one day. In the meantime I’ll enjoy hitting the airways where the trackchasing supply is more plentiful. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! Do some trackchasers carry an unfair geographical advantage? 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 California sayings: Dude! TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE No airplane! PERSONAL CAR San Clemente, California – trip begins Desert Center, CA – 191 miles San Clemente, California – 376 miles – trip ends Total personal car miles – 376 Total miles traveled on this trip – 376 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Chuckwalla Valley Raceway – $10 Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $10 COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 300 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report . . Click on the link below for today’s photo album: See the photo album from my racing day at Chuckwalla 
