Greetings from Van Buren, Arkansas
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Tickets were ten bucks. Crawford County Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #1,537 Reprinted with permission from my Saturday, May 8, 2010, Trackchaser Report. THE CLASSIC TRACKCHASER REPORT Editor’s note: This is a CLASSIC Trackchaser Report. What the heck does “Classic” mean? It’s simply a Trackchaser Report that comes from my trackchasing archives. Typically these will be stories from tracks I visited five years or ten years or more ago. For whatever reason (usually not enough time) it didn’t get posted to my website when I first made the track visit. Often a classic TR will not have a video and/or photo album attached. I didn’t begin producing my YouTube videos until 2009 (YouTube channel: RANLAY). I didn’t begin writing a complete Trackchaser Report until I had seen about 425 tracks. Photo albums were sort of hit or miss during the early years of my trackchasing. Additionally, if you see a website link know that link worked when the TR was originally written. Will it work now? Your guess is as good as mine! Nevertheless, this CLASSIC Trackchaser Report has finally bubbled to the surface and is now available for everyone to see at www.randylewis.org. I hope you enjoy it. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with one of my Italian media buddies). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! “JUST PADDING MY TOTALS” TRACKCHASING TOUR RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Feature RLR “exclusive features” are critically thinking pieces about results and trends in the hobby of trackchasing. They are meant to “get the reader thinking” about “cause and effect” of one particular trend or another in trackchasing. What is happening to our trackchasing veterans? Long-time veterans of the trackchasing hobby have dominated this hobby since the beginning. Trackchasing’s “top 25” chasers have seen 21,567 tracks! Folks can you imagine just 25 people seeing more than 20,000 tracks during their trackchasing career? This data is current through May 20, 2010. Nancy Brown ranks #25 and has seen 523 tracks. The hobby is so popular and so competitive that it takes more than 500 tracks just to break into the top 25! Can you imagine if you applied the trackchasing counting procedures to other venues such as seeing movie theatres, playing golf courses or whatever venue houses your favorite hobby? A disturbing trend has hit the hobby. However, a disturbing trend is occurring in our hobby. Nearly half of “trackchasing’s top 25” have dropped out of the hobby or nearly stopped! I invite you to look at the 2009 trackchasing totals achieved by twelve of the top twenty-five trackchasers (see below). There is really no debate here. A full one dozen of our most prolific trackchasers did not see as many as twenty new tracks during the past season. Most of that group didn’t even make it to ten. This group AVERAGED about six new tracks during all of 2009. Look for yourself. Remember these are people who have seen the most tracks of any trackchasers in the world. When I see data like this, the obvious question is “Why?” Allan Brown Lifetime World Ranking: 5th Career track total: 1,191 2009 track total: 11 Rick Schneider Lifetime World Ranking: 6th Career track total: 1,096* 2009 track total: 13* Andy Sivi Lifetime World Ranking: 7th Career track total: 1,060 2009 track total: 8 Robert Helmick Lifetime World Ranking: 8th Career track total: 1,033 2009 track total: 18 Jack Erdmann Lifetime World Ranking: 9th Career track total: 914 2009 track total: 1 P.J. Hollebrand Lifetime World Ranking: 10th Career track total: 895 2009 track total: 6 Norm Wagner Lifetime World Ranking: 13th Career track total: 764 2009 track total: 6 Paul Weidman Lifetime World Ranking: 17th Career track total: 690 2009 track total: 1 Dale O’Brien Lifetime World Ranking: 19th Career track total: 640 2009 track total: 1 Roger Ferrell Lifetime World Ranking: 22nd Career track total: 617 2009 track total: 8 Eleanor Weidman Lifetime World Ranking: 24th Career track total: 547 2009 track total: 1 Nancy Brown Lifetime World Ranking: 25th Career track total: 523 2009 track total: 4 *Reporting may be limited due to political infighting. I have several theories on why the veterans of the hobby are falling by the trackchasing wayside. Some of these chasers are affected by more than one of these theories. Here’s my take on the situation. AGE Age catches up with everyone sooner or later. If you’re 40 years old, you probably don’t do the same things you did when you were twenty. If you’re sixty, you probably aren’t doing the same activities you did when you were forty. Trackchasing takes stamina. As many folks add on the years, they don’t have the energy that trackchasing takes. ECONOMICS Trackchasing can be an expensive hobby. Most trackchasers experience their hobby on a “regional” basis. This means they trackchase somewhat in their own geographical neighborhood. If you look closely at most trackchaser’s totals you will see the vast majority of the tracks they have visited are “near” their homes. Of course, the word “near” is a relative term. For this comparison, I define “near” as within 500 miles of home. Most of the top 25 trackchasers have seen nearly every track within 500 miles of where they live. When a chaser begins venturing out beyond the “imaginary” 500-mile boundary expenses begin to mount. A 500-mile one-way track visit becomes a 1,000-mile round-trip! A trip of that length begins to add to the trackchasing expense. Although a race ticket may cost only ten dollars, gasoline for a 1,000-mile trip will likely cost more than $100 U.S. The greater travel distance brings hotels and restaurants into play. Very few if any, (other than me) trackchasers routinely include commercial airplanes in their trip planning. Of course, airplanes can get trackchasers beyond their 500-mile “limits” but in many cases can add to the trackchasing expense. We’ve seen twelve of the top 25 just about drop out of the hobby. At the same time, we’ve seen another phenomenon develop that didn’t exist years ago in order to control expenses. I’m talking about “team trackchasing”. This happens when two or more trackchasers travel together to share expenses. Some deny that this is done in the name of “economy”. However, I doubt anyone using this method is allowed to participate without sharing the expenses. I suspect if everyone was an “independent” trackchaser as a few of us are, several to the currently “active” team trackchasers would drop off the charts too. INTERESTS Changing interests can be responsible for some folks curtailing their trackchasing interests. This goes back to the “age” issue to some degree. As folks move through life’s evolutionary chain i.e. single, married, married with small kids, married with teenagers, married with kids on their own, married with grandchildren, married with great-grandchildren, nursing home, etc., their interests change. The average age of the chasers who have curtailed their trackchasing interests probably averages more than sixty years of age. DEMOGRAPHICS Trackchasing has long been a male-dominated hobby. Yes, there are top women trackchasers but they likely wouldn’t be in the hobby if it weren’t for their husbands. Trackchasing has never known a top-ranked woman trackchaser who operated on her own. Trackchasing has long appealed to the single or, near single male. Many trackchasers have never married or are divorced. That stands to reason. There are not many wives willing to let their husbands travel the country (or at least their 500-mile neighborhood) seeing races nearly every weekend for several months of the year. From time to time some of our active trackchasers have either married or re-married later in life. This marital union sometimes adds a new person to the “trackchasing equation” who may have no history or interest in auto racing. I recall one trackchaser telling me that during his “dating process” he made no mention of his interest in trackchasing to his prospective mate. This omission was made for fear of “messing things up”. ENTERTAINMENT VALUE It stands to reason that most trackchasers visited the tracks they most wanted to see earlier in their careers. They probably wanted to see those tracks because they offered the most entertainment. Several of the trackchasers who seemed to have “dropped out” have seen more than 1,000 tracks. How many good tracks somewhat close to home are there after you’ve seen more than a thousand tracks? Not many! For the top active trackchasers, the hobby has moved from full field, side-by-side oval racing to a never-ending series of “inner ovals”, “figure 8’s” and “kart tracks”. Examine the track lists of the top ten chasers who are still going strong. I believe you will see their lists have more “novelty” tracks than American oval tracks, which fully dominated that chaser’s list ten or more years ago. Crowds at most short tracks nowadays are getting smaller and smaller. Most amateur road racing and kart racing attracts virtually no spectators. Now, many oval short tracks are turning into “participant-driven” locations with crowds of 200 people or less. In many locales, spectators have “voted with their feet”. Could the demise of so many leading trackchasers be a similar situation? Are trackchasers “voting with their feet”? COMPETITION Trackchasing can be a very competitive hobby. This is true whether you’re battling for the top spot and having a running battle with someone for 15th place in the worldwide standings. It’s entirely possible that some chasers have slowed their pace when they figured they could no longer be “competitive” in the hobby. I’ve seen a few trackchasers “drop off the trail” when they couldn’t or didn’t want to compete when “novelty” tracks began to proliferate the hobby. SUMMARY There can be no denying that nearly half of trackchasing’s “lifetime top 25” has pretty much abandoned the hobby. There doesn’t appear to be an “influx of youngsters” ready to replace these people. Will other leading trackchasers soon be joining the list of the “disinterested”? Where will the hobby be in 15 years when most of the leading trackchasers are 75 years old or more? These are perplexing questions. Recently I read where the country of Japan will cease to exist in the next century or two because more people are dying than being born. Will trackchasing go the way of Japan? A few years down the road will almost everyone in the top 25 be adding just a handful of tracks each year? I hope not, but I fear this will be so. Of course, I will publish all responsible responses from the trackchasing community on this topic. GREETINGS FROM VAN BUREN, ARKANSAS TODAY’S HEADLINES Home maintenance was never my thing. …………..details in “The Trip”. Is the statement, “There is no free lunch” really true?……………..more in “The Trip”. If I were king!…………….more in “Race Review”. Today’s “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction” was a “best ever”. …………..details in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective Friday and Sunday locations dictate my Saturday location. When I plan these trips, I never worry about where I’m going on a Saturday night. Why is that? It’s because most short track ovals in America race on Saturday night. I plan my weekend trips around locations racing on Friday and Sunday. Once I get those locales in line picking a Saturday “place to chase” is easy. Why Arkansas? This weekend’s plan called for me to be in Oklahoma on Friday night and Colorado on Sunday. I could easily have chosen a Saturday night track in Oklahoma. However, I did not. “Why is that”, you might ask. It’s always fun to do as well as I can in the annual National Geographic Diversity competitions. The annual contest rewards trackchasers who visit a large number of states during a given year. I figured where else could I build up those NGD points than in one of the less diverse states in the country…..Arkansas. The Razorback state was just a hop, skip and a few jumps down the road. Arkansas on Saturday night it would be. The Trip Some sponsorships are better than others are. I woke up in one of the shabbier hotels I expect to stay in during all of 2010. That would be the Knights Inn located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A continental breakfast was included in the “Wyndham Hotels Sponsorship Program” offer that also included a complimentary (such as it was) room for the night. Yes, some sponsorships are better than others. This was the entire food inventory!! I got up at 8:30 a.m. to see what breakfast looked like. Let’s just say it didn’t compare to the buffet spread offered by the Le Meridien Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco a few days ago. Of course, today’s breakfast didn’t cost $25 per person plus tax and tip either. Home maintenance has never been my thing. I was staying in a second-floor room. My path to breakfast took me past the hotel swimming pool. It was dark green with algae just like our own pool used to be back in the day in Phoenix. My “maintenance plan” with our pool was simple. I would lean over the pool and put my hand in the water as deep as I could. If I couldn’t see my fingers it was time for a massive “chlorine jolt”. Now, do you understand why Carol doesn’t allow me to do any chores at home? The paint on several of the hotel doors was peeling badly. One door had more paint peeled off than painted on. With this as a backdrop, you might be expecting me to tell you that the complimentary breakfast was one of the best ever. It wasn’t. The ENTIRE offering consisted of four miniature muffins, a canister of O.J. and one of coffee. I grabbed a cup of orange juice and depleted their muffin inventory by 50%. I guess I was lucky I got there when I did. What is a ‘light’ travel day? Today would be a “light” travel day. I didn’t have to fly anywhere. I wasn’t going to be driving that much, just six hours for the day. Yes, to me driving “just” six hours IS a light driving day. Can you really get a ‘free lunch’? Being that this was going to be a light travel day I had time for a “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. I was also going to use another one of my sponsorships to have the proverbial “free lunch”. Carol tells me there’s nothing free in life “except a kick in the butt”. She got that line from either Archie Bunker or her father. The Trackchasing Tourist Attraction was a “best ever”. It’s described below. The dining opportunity at “Earl’s Rib Palace” in Moore, Oklahoma was a trip highlight. This trip was going very well. Earls Rib Palace!! I don’t make a habit of eating in “rib palaces” anymore. The WeightWatchers program provided that education. However, this was no ordinary rib palace. This was the rib palace where I had been awarded a $15 gift card last night while visiting the I-44 Speedway. The announcer told me they have the “best ribs anywhere”. I came to see. However, even when I do eat in a “rib palace” I don’t eat ribs. Yes, it’s a “WeightWatcher” thing. During the first 15 years of my business career, my business pals and I tried to eat and drink as much as we could every night we were on the road. It was just like today’s sponsorship. It was all free! Yes, we were doing it all on “expense accounts” and there weren’t as many pesky TV and radio shows talking about the ills of overeating. Of course, back then we exercised a good bit to partially offset the overeating. During that time I “knocked down my share of ribs”. The blueberry cobbler alamode was out of this world. Today’s venue was “Earl’s Rib Palace”. It was, how shall I say it, fantastic. It easily earns a Randy Lewis Racing (formerly RANLAY Racing) Money Back Guarantee. It has a modern “Applebee’s” type décor but I didn’t hold that against it. I went with the “regular” portion, which was the larger of two sizes offered, of smoked turkey breast. My two sides were a double order of baked beans, which also included some Texas toast. The sodas were unlimited. I created my own cherry coke of sorts with a shot of strawberry soda. Of course, since I was eating “free” I couldn’t pass up the blackberry cobbler alamode. “Alamode” in this case meant three heaping servings of ice-cold frozen solid vanilla ice cream. My entire bill came to $17.29 so I didn’t exactly eat totally free. I had to come up with $2.29. Everything was absolutely perfect and delicious. The hot sauce at the table was hot. It can’t get hot enough for me. They didn’t serve the cobbler until I was wiping the last bit of baked beans from the front of my shirt. The place wasn’t easy to find since the address wasn’t in my GPS (the restaurant folks told me it wouldn’t be) but the hunt was worth it. I might even be back if my calorie counter runs low on batteries. The People Who is really responsible for someone’s contentment? The folks in some of these rural places don’t seem to have much. I don’t’ really know if they are happier than folks “with stuff” or not. They seem to be happy enough. However, they frequently talk about being “suppressed” in one way or the other by “the man”. We didn’t have a whole lot when I was growing up. However, I can never recall a single conversation with anyone in a position of authority where our family blamed his boss, the company, the system, the government or anything else for “keeping us back”. Maybe that’s why you will never hear me complain about those things. No! Not again! I nearly ran out of gas for the second time this month. I was on the “Muskogee Turnpike” at nearly midnight and tried to push it as far as I could. Just as I went by one turnpike gas station the “low fuel” light went on. About ten miles down the road, I came upon a tollbooth. I asked the friendly and elderly woman taking my $1.50 where the next gas station was. “It’s 14 miles”, she told me. “I don’t think I can make it”, was my response. She looked at me and smiled. “Don’t worry, the highway patrol will help you out. It’s ‘star 55’ on your phone.” What a positive attitude! I made it, but I had to be on fumes. An ‘eclectic’ clientele doesn’t really do justice to these folks. When I checked into the Motel 6 at just past midnight, there was a line of people waiting to get their room. The credit card machine was on the blink. This really made me feel that the “car option” might have been better. However, I had a non-refundable reservation, so I waited. I will say this. There is a very “eclectic” clientele of hotel customers at a city Motel 6 at the “witching” hour. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home. I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day. Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum (http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/) I decided to go here after doing a search for “things to do in Oklahoma City”. I had to hang around town until it was time for lunch at “Earl’s Rib Palace”. I chose between this outing and the “National Cowboy Museum”. I don’t know how informative and entertaining the NCM is but the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum might be the best of its kind I have ever seen. You will certainly recall the horrific murders that took place in Oklahoma City back on April 19, 1995. The 15-year anniversary of that massacre was just last month. The bomb blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at 9:02 a.m. on that morning. This was the most significant act of domestic terrorism on American soil. There are only a few times where I remember where I was during some major events. The “Oklahoma City Bombing” is one of those events. Carol and I were in the market for a TV during this time. Later in the day, we were in a TV store and the news coverage was being broadcasted over tens of TVs. It was a very sad story. I guess the one thing that bugs me in life is when “underachievers” aka “fucking idiots” have to ruin other people’s lives because they’re so screwed up. Anyway….. back to today’s Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. The memorial sits on the site of the explosion. Without a proper explanation from the federal ranger tour guides, it would be impossible to understand where the federal building originally stood. This is one of those places, where you’re going to want to see the pictures. By now, you should understand how to get there at www.randylewis.org. The memorial is very tastefully done. There are 168 “chairs” placed around a grassy area where the Murrah Federal Building existed for its 18-year lifespan. There is also a long reflective body of water that is located where the street in front of the building used to be. Federal park rangers are in the area to answer questions and explain the “why and wherefores” of the memorial. This is the southern view of the “Journal Record” building that now is home to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. The Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum is located in the former Journal Record building. This building was majorly damaged by the blast in 1995 but no one in that building was killed. Admission to the museum is ten dollars. Touring the memorial is free. Normally, I’ll breeze through a museum in an hour or so. Today, I spent a full two hours looking at the exhibits and listening to videos from the coverage of the event. I likely would have stayed longer except I was parked in a two-hour parking space. Despite the tragedy happening 15 years ago, the memories are kept current. The mood of people touring the museum is somber. Folks move from one location to the next at their own pace. There are several places where you can grab a seat and read details about many people who lost their lives that day. Another location allows you to press buttons and read what family and friends had to say about the victims. Of course, there are many large TV screens and videos playing local and national coverage of the event. There are several display cases showing the damage that was done. This ranges from a disfigured “day planner” to a huge set of Venetian blinds that were warped by the blast but served to prevent shattering glass from killing more people. Overall, this was an excellent informational and educational experience. I hope we won’t have any more tragedies like this, especially from our own citizens, but it wouldn’t be surprising if we did. There are just too many people who want to control other people’s lives for this to stop. If you’re in Oklahoma, I would recommend going out of your way to visit here. RACE REVIEW CRAWFORD COUNTY SPEEDWAY, VAN BUREN, ARKANSAS The most rural state that I trackchase in is West Virginia. Arkansas probably comes in second. Tonight’s races were sponsored by the “Catfish Hole” a local restaurant. I arrived at 7 p.m. for the show scheduled to begin 30 minutes later. They were hot lapping when I pulled my shiny black Buick Lacrosse, with just 500 miles on the odometer, into a dirt parking spot. Just missed. Admission was ten dollars. I just missed the age 62 senior discount rate of six dollars by nine months! This is a 3/8-mile banked dirt oval. The lighting is good but the announcing wasn’t that great. The announcer didn’t seem to say much and the speaker system was on the poor side. I’m responsible for my own entertainment. I’ve learned to “take matters into my own hands” to prevent myself from being bored by a poor announcer or bad sound system. I had my race scanner and enjoyed listening to the “good ol’ boy” banter on the radio. Tonight’s racing included six divisions of stock cars and modifieds. I would say the car counts were “muted”. That’s another way of saying they didn’t have all that many cars. Each division averaged about ten racers. Of course, that mostly meant five car heat races, which is not very entertaining. However, it does go pretty far in the direction of wearing out your butt by feature time. If I were king. If I were a promoter I would do away with heat races entirely. Of course, I would never consider having time trials either. Then I would schedule a “features only” program for these 10-car classes with a good number of laps ranging from 20-30 circuits. I might run three or four of the classes before intermission. Then I would save the best two classes for after the break. With a starting time of 7:30 p.m. the entire program should be finished by 10 p.m. Fans are voting with their feet….and butts. Tonight’s crowd numbered about 250 people. Last night they had about 100 people. Remember, folks “vote with their feet”. With crowds of this size, “people have voted”. Why do promoters stick with the same thing, meaning meaningless heats and then features. People don’t want to sit on a board for five hours. Maybe this is why veteran trackchasers are abandoning the hobby as well. I was happy to see they started the program on time. The heats (about 10 of them) took just 70 minutes. There was an abnormal amount of smoking engines and breakdowns. There weren’t that many cautions because most of the cars didn’t go that fast! However, the “slide job” was used frequently and that made the program entertaining. Soaked in a vat of butter and salt brine! During intermission, they had some sort of “car contest” as a tie-in in with May being “breast cancer” month. Cars with anything pink were allowed to enter. During this break I purchased a one-dollar box of popcorn that appeared to have been soaked in a vat of “butter and salt brine”. Of course, I thought it was delicious. I had the popcorn and a banana in deference to the huge lunch from “Earl’s Rib Palace”. After three of the six features it was time to head for home. The racing was not all that exciting. I had been at the track for three hours. That’s long enough to be “entertained”. I had a two-hour drive ahead of me. The decision was to get a hotel or sleep in car. I only had time for 4.5 hours to sleep. That’s right on my breakeven point in the “hotel or car” decision. I elected to choose a forty-dollar Motel 6. It was not one of the remodeled versions but it was quiet. I just hope that 40 bucks doesn’t push me over the financial brink when I run out of money in a nursing home. We’ll see. STATE COMPARISONS Arkansas Tonight I saw my 10th-lifetime track in the Razorback state. I don’t get down here that often. My state rank is fourth. Wisconsin’s Ed Esser has the trackchasing lead here. He has seen racing at 19 Arkansas tracks. For a state like Arkansas, my two-track lead over Sammy Swindell should hold up for a while. Jack Erdmann is in third place two tracks ahead of me. I have seen ten or more track in 41 different states. No other trackchaser comes close to that record. I have just four tracks remaining to be seen in Arkansas. They all race on Saturdays so I won’t be adding to my totals here much. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! Trackchasing politics revealed….they’re about ready to kill each other. Has a conspiracy been committed in the international tracks “counting world”? Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser Arkansas saying: It’s hotter ‘an two squirrels screwin’ in a wool sock on a hill over at Peach Tree. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Orange County, (SNA) – Salt Lake City, UT (SLC), – 588 miles Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) – Oklahoma City, OK (OKC) – 864 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Will Rogers World Airport – trip begins Oklahoma City, OK – 9 miles Van Buren, AR – 310 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: I-44 Speedway – $10 Crawford County Speedway – $10 COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of RLR Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 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. Oklahoma Touring with Arkansas Racing
Sponsored by the ‘Catfish Hole’.
