Coolronan Raceway

 

 

 

THE EVENT

 

 

Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 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:

 

 

Randy’s Complete Track List

 

 

If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report.  It’s very easy to do.  I’ll try my best to respond.  Thanks!

 

 

I often see two or more tracks in a single day or in a single weekend. Sometimes when that happens I will combine my observations from multiple tracks into a single Trackchaser Report. That is the case today.

 

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

 

SUNDAY

 

 

It was a “Bank Holiday” in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Happy Easter! This my 9^th trackchasing trip to the United Kingdom. How many of them do you think took place over the Easter holiday? The answer is eight!

 

 

Yes, a hangover.

I must admit I woke up with a hangover. No, I had not been drinking. However I had taken a pair of Nyquil gel caps last night for my persistent head cold. That stuff made me sleep but I felt it in the morning.

 

 

The “breakfast” in the B&B.

This morning I would be having my breakfast in a home built in 1760. Wow! That’s before America even became a country.

 

 

This home was ornately decorated. I was told by the woman who owns the home who also served my beautiful breakfast that 80% of the furnishings came with the home when she bought it. There’s one thing about European B&Bs. They are each unique. In a way they are similar to the racetracks I visit. One is never identical to the last….or the next.

 

 

Driving on the wrong side of the road?

Did you know about 35% of world’s countries drive on the left side of the road? This includes Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand among others.

 

 

As an American driver I definitely have to pay attention when driving on the left. I estimate I have driven more than 20,000 miles in countries that drive on the left. Normally I’m doing it with a stick shift car. By now it does feel somewhat second nature but I can never forget where I am.

 

 

What’s the history of driving on the left?

Do you have any idea why driving “on the left” was so popular back in the day? I’ll suggest you may never have heard this explanation. However, that’s why I take the time to research these things for you!

 

 

“In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.

 

 

Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.

 

 

In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver’s seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.

 

 

In Russia, in 1709, the Danish envoy under Tsar Peter the Great noted the widespread custom for traffic in Russia to pass on the right, but it was only in 1752 that Empress Elizabeth (Elizaveta Petrovna) officially issued an edict for traffic to keep to the right. In addition, the French Revolution of 1789 gave a huge impetus to right-hand travel in Europe. The fact is, before the Revolution, the aristocracy travelled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793.”

 

 

This information comes from the “World Standards” website in the EU.

 

 

Can you drive a “stick shift”?

I would guess that well over 90% of the automobiles in the U.S. have automatic transmissions. Did you know the automatic transmission was invented back in 1921 by a fellow from Saskatchewan, Canada? Today a long list of countries will not grant a driver’s license to use a manual transmission if the driving test was completed with an automatic transmission.

 

 

However, when I go to Europe I find the manual transmission is standard. Rental cars with automatic transmissions are much more expensive. I never pay the premium for an automatic in these countries. I am quite comfortable operating a standard aka manual transmission. Back in 1970 I had a brand-new 1970 Ford Mustang six-cylinder car. It was a college graduation gift from my grandfather. That was a fun car to drive until I nearly got killed in it when a woman hit my stopped car while she was driving 50 M.P.H. Yep.  That’s a photo above of what nearly stopped this trackchaser in his tracks!

 

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Coolronan Raceway– Coolronan, Ireland

 

 

At least say thank you right?

My website is a popular place for other trackchasers to do their “research”. They find they can go to my site and get a very detailed report on how best to find and enjoy a trackchasing adventure since I’ve already done it. Some are much better than others at giving credit for their “research” experience.

 

 

When I get help from other, which is often, I can’t wait to thank the information source. Did you know that in my corporate background I attended a half-day seminar on the art of simply saying, “Thank You”? I had a lot of training on various topics during my business career. Frankly, most of them do not stand out in my memory. However, that seminar on saying thank you in the right way and all of my negotiating training do.

 

 

Thanks Colin.

I have Colin Herridge (above center with P.J. Hollebrand) to thank for my knowing about and attending the Coolronan Raceway. I had planned this entire trip to Europe on six hours notice. During those six hours and after I reached the U.K. Colin was busy helping me find additional trackchasing opportunities. He’s the one who discovered Coolronan. Thanks, Colin.

 

 

Was this a big first quarter for trackchasing?

I don’t think of the first quarter of 2016 being a super productive one for my trackchasing. Maybe I have just become jaded to the production I can create.

 

 

However, I did see racing in four different countries, seven American states and three Canadian provinces. Gee. And I thought I didn’t go anywhere!

 

 

Garmin makes a comeback.

My Garmin GPS worked really well on this trip. It was a lot better than the 5-7 year old model I have. However, when I got to Coolronan, a very small and rural town, I had to ask some people out for their Easter Sunday morning walks for some final directions. They were happy to help.

 

 

I didn’t have any euros. How would I buy my race ticket?

Racing was scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. I showed up at noon. General admission was eight euros. Because coming to Ireland for racing had not been on my original agenda I did not bring any euros on the trip. I only had British pounds.

 

 

However, the lady selling the race tickets was most gracious. She allowed me to pay in pounds. Then she asked me how much I thought I should get back in Euros to make the conversion close to correct. I suggested “two or three euros”. She gave me three euros in change. That seemed fair enough to me.

 

 

Later I would use those three euros and about three euros I had received in change from a tollbooth operator to buy my lunch. The food truck was not accepting any “British sterling”. I guess if I had not paid a toll along the way I would have starved to death!

 

 

I like to meet the folks who run the operation.

I had left a message with the Coolronan Raceway on their Facebook page. I thought they might be interested to know the World’s #1 Trackchaser was coming to Ireland on Easter Sunday. Today I walked up to the control tower to introduce myself.

 

 

There I met several friendly people who were getting ready to officiate their second meeting of 2016. They admitted that with today being Easter and the weather conditions somewhat deplorable their car counts were way off.

 

 

In point of fact there were only about 15 cars in the pit area. I would later come to learn there were nine classes on the schedule today. However, some of those classes, including the ladies division, were using the same car.

 

 

Thanks Matt!

A gregarious fellow by the name of Matt offered to take me around the track and explain how things were run at Coolronan. I loved that idea. Remember when I visit these tracks people are more than willing to show off what they have. It’s not too much different than having someone visit your home. If you have a visitor you want them to be comfortable and well taken care of. The folks at the Coolronan Raceway wanted to make sure today’s visitor enjoyed his experience. Of course I did.

 

 

You will be able to hear from Matt in my video from the Coolronan Raceway. He goes into some detail on how things are run at the track. I never would have discerned in a million years why some parts of the crash wall and the huge tractor tires lining the infield were painted red. These are sections where banger drivers can’t hit each other. I learned that and lots of other stuff from Matt. Please don’t miss the video. I don’t get that many opportunities to interview people and share with you. Matt, thanks for everything including loaning me that jacket. I needed it!

 

 

Bad weather.

No the weather was not great today. The temperature was in the mid-40s, the wind was howling and it as spitting rain. However, it could have been worse. Off in one direction the sky was as dark as could be. There wasn’t that much rain at the track. However, when I later left I saw how much rain a nearby town had gotten in the last couple of hours. There is no way a U.S. based track would have raced in the conditions the Coolronan Raceway faced today.

 

 

This is a big plus for Ireland racing fans.

A big plus for fans was they could watch the racing from their cars. Consistent with almost all tracks in the U.K., there were no grandstands at Coolronan. The P.A. system was used to call the drivers to the grid and not to describe the racing action.

 

 

Lunch.

Most tracks in these parts have food trucks supplying their concessions. That was the case today. I had about six euros to my name and lunch took 5 ½ of them. I enjoyed chips and bangers (fries and sausage) covered in a curry sauce. It was all good.

 

 

I enjoyed talking to the young woman serving the food. She had just come back from a trip to New York over St. Patrick’s Day. She told me “New York is more Irish than here!”

 

 

It was time to visit the pit area.

Of course I had full run of the pit area. I tried to get a photo of every car at the track today. I also attended the driver’s meeting. I didn’t take advantage of the offer to stand in the infield to take photos.

 

 

Nine classes….sort of.

The nine classes were consolidated into just three because of the lack of car count. I saw every car at the track race in at least one and sometimes two races.

 

 

The “rookie bangers” were the most entertaining. Except at the end of the long straights they are a full contact class. That means they are encouraged to hit each other! Don’t miss the video. I love the bangers. I can’t believer U.S. promoters have not jumped all over that class.

 

 

 

Nutt’s Corner Raceway– Crumlin, Northern Ireland

 

 

My first trackchasing double of 2016.

Today was going to be my first trackchasing “double” of the 2016 season. With Coolronan’s program beginning at 12:30 p.m. it made getting up to the Nutt’s Corner Raceway a little easier. Nutt’s Corner was not scheduled to begin on Easter Sunday until 2 p.m.

 

 

Easter Rising.

I actually would have loved to have seen something else that was happening today in Ireland. Today was the 100^th anniversary of the “Easter Rising”. That was a revolt by Ireland against England. Ireland was looking for their independence as a separate country. That did not come until 1921. Today there was a huge parade with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance down in Dublin. Nevertheless, this was a trackchasing trip so I had to get on with my trackchasing.

 

 

How about a ‘fiver’?

I didn’t arrive at the Nutt’s Corner Raceway until about 4 p.m. Their scheduled starting time was 2 p.m. Most of the tracks in this general area have two heats and a final for each racing class. If they had five classes that meant 15 races. These tracks run one race after another without any delays. They don’t take intermission. I hoped I would still be in time to see a good deal of racing. I was.

 

 

When I pulled into the track they were still collecting admissions. I suspected they might not be. I asked how much of the program was still to be conducted. The ticket seller didn’t know for sure. However, my question brought to the forefront the “idea” that not much of the racing was left to see.

 

 

Without me having to ask, the ticket seller volunteered, “I’ll let you in for a ‘fiver’ since it’s already 4 p.m.”. That sounded fair enough to me. I offered up five English pounds and was admitted to the Nutt’s Corner Raceway, a track that will go down in history as my 2,201^st lifetime track.

 

 

Cold, windy and a very wet pit area.

The cold and wind were still with us. The pit area puddles told me there had been a good deal of rain in the past 24 hours. It was so muddy I didn’t even try entering the pits.

 

 

Fans circled most of the 400 meter or so asphalt oval track. They watched from their cars. Again, there was no grandstand whatsoever. I suspect a good bleacher salesperson could have a field day in these parts.

 

 

Saloons one of my favorites. Brilliant!

I was in time to see the last of the heat racing. The saloon class has long been one of my U.K. favorites. These cars are fast and they lean on each other…hard. I can’t believe such contact is allowed with cars going so fast. Their heat race had just four cars. However, the race was one of the best I have seen in a long time. The two leaders passed each other, with strong bumps, in every turn for several laps. It was brilliant!

 

 

I was in time to see all of the main events. Today was the first meeting of the season for the Nutt’s Corner Raceway. The classes included the F2 (Gold Helmet) Stock Cars, F2 micros, Stock Rods, 2L Saloons, 1300 Stock Cars and the Junior Rods. You won’t hear those class names at many U.S. tracks will you?

 

 

Racing in different directions.

The racing was very good. All of the “Rod” classes race in the clockwise direction. All of the stock car classes race in a counter-clockwise direction.

 

 

It used to be that yellow flags were almost never displayed with U.K. racing. Cars could be disabled and they would just keep on racing. In the biggest and best U.K. class (my opinion), the BrisCa F1 stock cars, I’ve seen 5-10 cars stopped on the track while the other 10-20 kept on racing.

 

 

That seems to have changed. They have always thrown yellow flags during “junior” races. Now when a car or two is stopped on the track they display the yellow caution flag and take the time to remove the disabled vehicle. However, they do this quickly and beat most of their U.S. counterparts in time wasted on yellow flag delays.

 

 

No ice cream for you.

I didn’t buy any refreshments. I wanted to get something from the ice cream truck but he left before I did! I stayed through the last race of the day.

 

 

As always don’t miss the video from today’s racing action.

As always I implore you to take a look at my video and photos from the Nutt’s Corner Raceway. This is an old time and pretty famous venue in Northern Ireland. I asked one knowledgable fan to tell me which track in the general area was the best. He told me it was “Nutt’s Corner”.

 

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

A good choice in B&Bs for several reasons.

I did one of my better jobs of picking my hotels on this trip. Today’s B&B was just five miles from the raceway. I would be staying at my second B&B in the past three days. I’ll revert to a somewhat normal hotel on my last night on this trip.

 

 

Good value for money.

Today’s B&B was a private home. I was staying at the Bay Cottage Bed & Breakfast located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The operators have two rentable bedrooms upstairs and a place over their garage.

 

 

My hostess was friendly, yet prim and proper in Irish style. I had reserved my room without “en suite”. What does that mean? It meant I had a “shared bathroom”. I’ve rented rooms like that about a dozen times. Often there is no one staying in the other room(s) and the bath becomes private to me. Even when I have had to share a bath I can never recall waiting. Shared bathrooms are often $10-20 U.S. less expensive than en suite rooms.

 

 

By the way my hostess told me to call here directly to book next time. I’ve been told this by several B&B operators. Apparently the booking agents, Kayak, Expedia, Agoda, etc. charge a fortune in commissions.

 

 

 

I reached my B&B by 6 p.m. or so. The time had changed last night in all of the U.K. and Ireland. Of course the clocks had been moved forward. It would be lighter longer now.

 

 

Finally some good food.

I was hankering for a nice sit down dinner. I asked the innkeeper for a recommendation. She said a couple of Chinese restaurants were her favorites. I asked her to choose one. She picked the “New Furuma” Chinese restaurant in Antrim, a nearby town. That was good enough for me. She wanted to give me verbal directions. I told her I was a “GPS man”. Nevertheless, she insisted I take her map with me. Non GPS people do that.

 

 

Soon I was having a wonderful Chinese dinner in a second floor restaurant. I was surprised to see 5-6 Chinese eateries in a two-block area. That seemed odd for Northern Ireland.

 

 

Soon I was dining on “Shrimp Chips” as an appetizer. My main entrée was the “Salt Chili Squid”. I asked for extra chili spice. They prepared things perfectly.

 

 

Of course, I ate my meal with chopsticks. As a trackchaser I have traveled the world. I have learned to eat in all kinds of situations. I would be remiss if I did not express concern over fellow trackchasers not using chopsticks when they are the required choice of sophisticated diners. Fellow trackchasers, we have an image to uphold. Don’t let the hobby down.

 

 

A water view.

My B&B sat just a few yards from the shores of the Lough Neagh. Of course you probably know this is a fresh water lake. It’s the largest lake in the British Aisles and supplies 40% of Northern Ireland’s water. Five of the six counties in Northern Ireland have shores on the Lough. Yes, you do learn a lot reading my Trackchaser Reports don’t you.

 

 

I spent much of the evening in the family room of my new B&B home. My host build a warm fire in the fireplace. Then she left me to relax with some high speed internet. It wasn’t long after that I ventured up to my room for the evening. This had been my second full day in the U.K. and Ireland. It had been a good one.

 

 

One more thing. With my new “AT&T Wi-Fi” I can now call the United States for free from my iPhone when I have an internet connection anywhere in the world. I spent several minutes conversing with Carol. It didn’t take long to realize she had no real understanding of what it had taken to get here over the past 48 hours. That’s O.K. She can read all about it at www.randylewis.org.

 

 

Good night.

 

 

 

Ireland plus United Kingdom

 

 

Nine times.

During this trip I saw my second, third and fourth tracks in Northern Ireland. That gives me 59 tracks in the United Kingdom. A bonus had me adding my third track in the country of Ireland.

 

 

 

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

 

Northern Ireland sayings: Aye sure why nat? (A means of justifying/laughing off something everyone involves realizes is an inevitably bad decision – before doing it anyway)

 

Ireland sayings: Sure look it. In use: “Isn’t it lovely weather we’re having?” “Aw, sure look it.”

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – London, England (LHR) – 5,449 miles

London, England (LHR) – Dublin, Ireland (DUB) – 279 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #1

Dublin International Airport – trip begins

Dungannon, Northern Ireland

Coolronan, Ireland

Crumlin, Northern Ireland

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Tullyroan Oval – $6 British Pounds plus 4 pounds for tiered parking

Coolronan Raceway – 8 Euros, paid with 10 pounds to get 3 euros in change!

Nutt’s Corner Raceway – 5 British pounds discounted from ten for late arrival

 

 

 

 

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 525 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,202

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 70

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.47

 

 

 

That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

Click on the link below to see the “Video Plus” production from the racing action today.

 

Racing from the Coolronan Raceway 

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Racing from Nutt’s Corner Raceway

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

A cold, wet and windy day of trackchasing in Ireland with lots of friendly people

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It was then onto the Nutt’s Corner Raceway for more trackchasing and touring