Cotton Bowl Speedway

Weather was a concern for tonight.

It was decision time for Carol.

This weekend’s two-night trackchasing plan fell in the middle of a typical 10-day busy period for Carol and me.  I can say without hesitation that I am busier in retirement than I ever was while I was working.

Carol is still unpacking from her first trackchasing trip of the year….to Moscow, Russia.  I, on the other hand, take ten minutes to pack for one of these trips and another five minutes to unpack when I get home.

Carol had a decision to make about this trackchasing trip.  With four significant outings spread over ten days, she would pick three of them to attend.  You’ll have to judge which three you would have picked.  Did Carol make the right choices?

Option #1.

First, she decided to attend the one-man theatrical show, “Mike Tyson – Undisputed Truth”.  Yes, we’re talking about THAT Mike Tyson.  I thought this was a fantastic show.  Mr. Tyson, for nearly two hours, took us through his life story without note cards or a teleprompter.  Since I am a golfer I was not disturbed in the least with Mike’s need to use the “F” word or the “MF” word a minimum of 50 times each minute.  I attributed it to his upbringing.  He did say he was arrested more than 30 times by the age of 12.  He was involved in some of the biggest stories of any sports icon.  These included being the youngest ever heavyweight champion at age 20, his famous rape conviction in Indianapolis and biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear to name just a few!  As a big sports fan, I gave the show an “A++”.  Carol, not a big fan of rough language was less appreciative of Mike Tyson’s demeanor.  I would see it again if given the chance.

Would trackchasing make the cut with Carol?

So with the Mike Tyson show in the books would a trackchasing trip to Texas and beyond make sense for Carol?  Sorry the trip didn’t make the cut.  She decided on a day at Disneyland (option #2) with the grandkids and me.  Then a day later we would head over to Las Vegas for a couple of nights of Pac-12 basketball (option #3) and their season-ending conference tournament.  I really couldn’t blame Carol for making her choices.  Luckily, I got to go on all FOUR of these outings.

I would need to come in a day early.

I woke up this morning in San Clemente, California.  I went to bed in Houston, Texas and then headed out for Austin, Texas the state’s capital on Saturday morning.  This is what today looked like.

With the first race of the trip occurring on Saturday at noon, it was required that I come in on Friday night.  Most tracks that race on Friday don’t begin their seasons until May or so.  That meant I would be coming in a night ahead of time.  However, that’s really a good logistical idea.  Getting on flights on Friday evenings isn’t difficult at all.

The chapel or the Marriott?

With this trip I had two distinctly different choices for overnight accommodation.  I could have very easily slept overnight both nights of the Texas portion of this trip in the chapel of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport.  I’ve done that before and it was most quiet and comfortable.

Carol, being a staunch Catholic, was less supportive of my using an airport chapel as a Motel 6.  However, when I discussed this situation with a random woman while riding on an airplane, she said, “God put that chapel there to help people.  He was helping you”.  I couldn’t agree more with that philosophy.

In lieu of sleeping in the chapel, I chose to use my buddies over at Priceline.com to find a place to sleep.  I’m not sure what was going on over in Austin.  An Extended Stay America hotel there was selling rooms for more than $200 a night.  I doubt even the powerful and well financed “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” could afford that.

Don’t worry.  I am a professional.

I used the skills I have honed over time with Biddingfortravel.com and Priceline.com to garner the Houston Marriott Hotel.  That would be a most comfortable place to stay.

Although Carol was not coming along on this trip she did give me a proper send off.  She provided me with a box lunch.  No not THAT kind of box lunch.  My lunch was served in the bottom of a Costco box with all of my favorites that I could eat on the way to the airport without spilling anything.

Not only did Carol prepare my traveling lunch, after providing my favorite hot breakfast (poached eggs on wheat toast) she hoisted my bags from my office (up about 25 steps) to the back of my car.  You see I have a bad back.  I hated to see this skinny, but really quite buff, young girl struggling with my carry-on luggage.  However, she is a type “A” personality and I am a type “B” personality.  I feel that she needs this activity to feed her desire to always be doing SOMETHING.

While I am gone she will attack her “chore list” with gusto.  She never gets to the end of the list even though it disappoints her when she doesn’t.  I, on the other hand, have no chore list.  Carol used to have a “job jar” for me with little slips of paper identifying different jobs to be done.  However, when I could never get up enough energy to put my hand in that jar it eventually faded away.  I’m glad I don’t do any chores at home.  I feel that if I did it would only be depriving Carol of the enjoyment she gets working from sunup until sundown.  I know what you are likely saying to yourself.  “Randy, you are a most empathetic fellow.  Carol is lucky to have someone looking out for her best interests”.  All I can say in thank you for the thought.  It’s pretty much the line of thinking that I remind Carol of on a daily basis.

This omission was a biggie.

When I go on these trips I have a checklist of some 75 items that need to be brought along.  Recently I’ve been leaving the checklist at home.  When I do that I invariably forget to bring something along on the trip.

When I landed in Houston I noticed I had forgotten something that was very important to the success of this trip.  I forgot my iPhone power cord.  That was a “biggie”.  I couldn’t imagine completing one of these trips efficiently and effectively without my phone.

I still had enough juice to do a Google search for the nearest Apple store.  Then my iPhone Google Maps GPS took me to the mall.  For just $19 U.S.  I bought a new power cord.  When I opened the box after leaving the store I noticed the cord was only about 18” long.  That wasn’t great but having power to my phone was.

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

I guess you could call me a “double dipper” when it comes to some of my hotel stays.  This weekend I used Priceline.com to get a full-sized Marriott Hotel for just $40 per night plus taxes.  When I checked in I used my lifetime “platinum” status to “nibble” for a few extras.  First, they threw in free Wi-Fi (regular guests paid for Wi-Fi).  This waved the $12.95 daily fee.  Then I got to choose which “platinum amenity” I wanted.  I chose a bottle of white wine and the cheese and cracker platter.  This was easily a $20 value or more.  Finally, they included the hotel’s buffet breakfast.  Not only did the breakfast coupon give me breakfast but it also covered the 15% tip and tax.  This was another $20 value.  Check it out!  They gave me more than $50 of free “stuff” and only charged me $40 U.S. for the room.  Ain’t capitalism great?

Pay me now or pay me later.

On the way from Austin to Elm Mott, Texas (I-35 Kartway) I did encounter something I had never seen in all of my travels.  First, I was on a toll road.  I was passing under electronic sensors that I assumed were recording my license plate number.  To top it all off huge signs reads essentially, “Don’t worry if you don’t have a transponder, we’ll mail you the bill”.  So far, I haven’t received a bill yet!  However, if I do I’m sure the rental car company will add a surcharge for being the middle man.

Normally, in trackchasing I don’t have a lot of time to waste.  That was the case today.  Luckily, the owners of the toll road understood my problem.  The posted speed limit was 80 M.P.H.!

ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL

Schoepf’s BBQ – Belton, Texas

Texas means BBQ.

I used to eat BBQ everywhere I went.  Then I figured I should be eating more low call foods.  Nevertheless, I still gained weight.  What did I learn from this experience?  I should eat more BBQ!

If you’re going to eat some BBQ then Texas is just about the best place to do it.  Even though I was pressed for time when I saw the sign from the freeway touting Schoepf’s BBQ in Belton, Texas I had to stop.

The first thing I saw after I parked my car were the huge pits where they were cooking tons of chicken, pork and beef BBQ.  Don’t miss the pictures.  I stood in line to place my order and was soon just kicking back in good ol’ Texas having a fantastic BBQ lunch.  All too soon it was time to get back on the trackchasing road.  However, my brief stop at Schoepf’s continued to remind me that trackchasing is about the journey and not the destination.

COTTON BOWL SPEEDWAY – PAIGE, TEXAS

Brand new tracks don’t escape me for long.

The Cotton Bowl Speedway is a brand new track.  They ran their first ever race in late 2012.  Tonight was the track’s third race in its history.  Newly constructed tracks are rare in today’s world.  They don’t last too long without my seeing them either.

It was another two hour drive from the I-35 Kartway to the Cotton Bowl (no not THAT Cotton Bowl).  This would give me about eight hours of driving today in four tw0-hour segments.  It had been a little more than two hours from my Houston Hotel to the Austin area, then almost two hours to Elm Mott and two hours to Paige, Texas home to the Cotton Bowl Speedway and then finally another two hours back to my hotel.  My National Rental Car Racing Dodge Durango SUV made it on one full tank plus one gallon of regular 87-octane fuel.

They were moving right along.

The Cotton Bowl racing program was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.  The mist/light rain continued all the way to the track.  I arrived at 7:45 p.m. to find them racing so I guess the rain had not been much of a bother.  The Cotton Bowl Speedway runs a very efficient program.  When I reached the grandstand I was able to see just one heat race from the modified class before they went to intermission.  They were moving this program along.

Rain was definitely on the way.

My iPhone “Weather Channel” app had showed a HUGE rainstorm moving right toward the Cotton Bowl Speedway during my entire drive down this way.  However, I could see the major rain would not hit the track until 2-3 hours after I arrived.  Folks, I’m pretty good with avoiding bad racetrack weather but I must be pretty lucky too.

They’ve done a very nice job constructing this 1/3-mile semi-banked dirt oval.  The grandstands are huge and modern.  The P.A. and announcer are both high quality.  The lighting is very good and the track’s surface stayed moist on a very windy night.  Someone put some time and money into making this a quality new track.

I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.

Did I say it was “very windy”.  How does about 40 M.P.H. sound?  It was 69 degrees but much cooler with the strong wind blowing directly into the grandstand.  It was a miracle that the fans didn’t get “dusted out” with the wind blowing in but they didn’t.  A time or two the wind nearly blew me over as I stood at the top row to watch the action.

After a 15-minute intermission, when the Alabama born announcer walked through the grandstands, feature racing began at about 8 p.m.  I was most pleased to see 15-lap features for the pure stock and street stocks as well as the 20-lap features for the two classes of modifieds run nearly caution free.  With 70 laps of feature racing in the books the entire program was finished by 9:07 p.m.  On such a windy and wind-chill cool night that was a blessing.

By the way, they raced on an inner oval too.  However, it was not countable as the competitors were “youngsters”.  The founding fathers of trackchasing must have hated kids.  Is that why “kids” don’t count?

Thanks for building such a fine new track.

Upon arrival at the track I had texted track owner Danny Bennett.  Danny ended up winning the pure stock feature in the #R4J (racing for Jesus) car.  All of the racing was competitive although each class had only 10-12 cars.  After the races Danny texted back thanking me for my attendance.

STATE COMPARISONS

Texas

The Lone Star State

This morning, afternoon and evening I saw my 55^th, 56^th and 57th lifetime track in the Lone Star state, yes the Lone Star state.  After having some 70 tracks to see here a few years ago, I am now down to just a dozen.  I wouldn’t be surprised to return to Texas again sometime in 2013.

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

Texas sayings:  How’s mama and them? (Thanks Russ)

Cotton Bowl Speedway racing action!

TRAVEL DETAILS

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Houston, TX (IAH) – 1,382 miles

RENTAL CAR #1

George Bush Intercontinental Airport – trip begins

Austin, TX

Elm Mott, TX

Paige, TX

George Bush Intercontinental Airport – 543 miles

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Circuit of the Americas – No charge

I-35 Kartway – No charge

Cotton Bowl Speedway – $10 ($2 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.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,830

Total Trackchasing Countries

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

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 64

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.08

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