Crescent Lake Ice Track

 

 

 

THE EVENT

 

 

My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. Each year I will visit 25-30 American states and several foreign countries.  Long ago I moved into the #1 trackchasing position in both the number of different racetracks seen as well as the number of countries where I’ve seen racing.  

 

 

During my media interviews and discussions with friends and fans they often ask, “When did you start trackchasing?”

 

 

Yes, that’s a question I get frequently. I never know how to answer it. I started out as a “racechaser”. I went to the very best tracks where my favorite drivers were racing.

 

 

Somewhere along the line I decided I liked seeing a race at a track for the FIRST time rather than the TENTH time. As I went along I learned I liked the CHASE as much or more than the RACE. By the time I started trackchasing more than racechasing I was hundreds of tracks behind the leading trackchasers most of whom started in their 20s. Here’s a list of the number of tracks I had seen by a certain age:

 

 

Age 5 – 1 track

 

Age 30 – 71 tracks

 

Age 40 – 180 tracks

 

Age 50 – 404 tracks

 

Age 60 – 1,517 tracks

 

Age 68 (today – still a kid) – 2,299 tracks

 

 

Today’s adventure was one more of the 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.  Or you can visit me on Facebook.  Thanks!

 

 

Randy on Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

ON THE WAY TO THE RACES

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

Yes, my trackchasing carnival was moving on down the road. I was changing Canadian provinces for a race in Manitoba sanctioned by the Winnipeg Sports Car Club. That was going to be fun. I would not likely have made it to the Manitoba race if I hadn’t had a reason to come to Saskatchewan for yesterday’s race.

 

 

It was a rather desolate and dark drive from Rosetown over to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. My drive took place from about 4 p.m. until nearly 1 a.m. The side roads and highways are not in the best of shape these areas. When I finally did get on Canada route one, a four-lane highway, it was much better although still not the smoothest ride I’ve ever had.

 

 

To show you how remote this particular drive was I didn’t see a single McDonald’s from Rosetown all the way to Brandon, Manitoba. What a measuring stick huh? Granted, I did take a bypass Road around Regina. I actually saw more A&W restaurants than McDonald’s during this trip to Canada.

 

 

The headlights and the bright lights on my Nissan Altima rental car are not the best. That item was probably the weakest of anything I noticed with this car. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a car with better bright headlights than my own Lexus RX 350.

 

 

After about five hours on the road tonight I gave up on trying to find a Wendy’s. When I saw Tim Horton’s I pulled into the jam-packed parking lot. It was 10:30 at night. What was going on?

 

 

It turned out that a local hockey match had just finished. Timmy’s was more than full on the interior. People were waiting in line to be served at about 10 deep. I quickly gave up and went to the drive-thru. I was served in about three minutes. Good call.

 

 

I did give the Yellowquill Motel in Portage la Prairie a call. I told the woman who answered that I wouldn’t be arriving until about ‪1 a.m. She was glad to get the notice and promised to stay up for my arrival.

 

 

During this long drive I was able to be entertained with the UCLA basketball broadcast on SiriusXM satellite radio. Carol and I have season tickets to the UCLA basketball games. Since I couldn’t go tonight I gave our tickets to our son J.J. He had a great time watching the UCLA Bruins beat the lowly usc Trojans 102-70. Trojans suck!

 

 

It is interesting to note that Canada uses kilometers as a measurement rather than miles. I find myself hastily trying to convert speed limit signs into miles per hour. I multiply everything by 0.6 as a simplified method. Then I to drive 5 MPH over that amount. 

 

 

There is one silver lining in the cloud of arriving at tonight’s hotel ‪at 1 a.m. My hotel is located in the same town where tomorrow’s 12-noon ice racing will take place. That meant that I could sleep in to a reasonable hour.

 

 

Right now that it’s looking like my last ‪night of this trip, Sunday night, will require me to sleep in my car or the airport overnight. ‪ On Monday morning I’ll have ‪a 6:10 a.m. flight departure. I will need to be returning my rental car by about 5 a.m. I don’t expect to get to the airport ‪until midnight or later. Even if I do sleep in the car or airport it won’t be for long.

 

 

I’m sure I’ll get some shut-eye on the four-hour flight back to Los Angeles. When I think about it, and you may come to the same conclusion after reading my entire weekend’s report, it is not surprising that nobody else does this like I do.

 

 

 

SUNDAY

 

 

I woke up in the Yellowquill Motel in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba this morning. I don’t stay in many ma and pa motels anymore. Priceline.com took care of that.

 

 

I had not checked in last night until nearly 1 a.m. My hotel is located just 1.2 miles from where the ice racing would take place today. It was a perfect location. The price was right.

 

 

The motel itself was probably built in the 1940s. It was one of those 12-unit single-story drive up to the front door operations. It was the kind of place I used to stay in during my very first year in business back in 1972.

 

 

I had already done my share of driving on this strip. To get to where I was I had driven two hours to the Los Angeles airport, flown four hours to Minneapolis, driven 15 hours up to Rosetown, Saskatchewan and then driven eight hours after yesterday’s SK race to get to the Yellowquill Motel. It’s likely that most folks hadn’t done anything like that just to get to the Yellowquill Motel!

 

 

I actually love driving. I could have easily been a long haul truck driver. In a way my lifestyle is very similar to that of the man or woman who drives truck.

 

 

With the racetrack being so close by I didn’t need to check out of my hotel until 11 a.m. One of my first morning chores was to try to get my winter boots back in a serviceable condition.

 

 

Yesterday’s muddy water and slush was so severe that the Saskatchewan liquid mud had added about 3 inches to my height all emanating from my boots. I took the boots outside and tried to wash off Mother Nature’s residue in a big mud puddle!

 

 

Next up was breakfast. I still had a Tim Hortons cruller doughnut left overnight in my car. That and a Diet Mountain Dew would be my morning meal.

 

 

Then just a few moments later it was time for lunch! I stopped at McDonald’s. I do not endorse folks stopping at McDonald’s when they are on international vacation. I think that is the height of ignorance. It shows a definite lack of creativity and adventure.

 

 

However, I do offer one exception to that policy. If the international McDonald’s you are visiting has an item that you have never tried or an item that is not on the menu of domestic restaurants that you love then go for it. You will be given a creativity and adventure pass.

 

 

I was pretty sure this Canadian McDonald’s would have poutine. Would McDonald’s be serving the very best poutine in all of Canada? Likely not. Nevertheless McDonald’s was available. That meant poutine was available.

 

 

That’s one of the reasons McDonald’s has had such great success. They are available and they offer consistent quality.

 

 

Today McDonald’s DID have poutine. For the uninitiated poutine is simply a concoction of French fries, brown gravy and white cheese a.k.a. cheese curds. Done properly it’s delicious. For the price McDonald’s does a pretty good version of protein.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Lake Crescent Ice Track – Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada

 

 

Today I would be seeing what might be my last ice track of the 2017 season. I know this for sure. The Portage la Prairie located ice track would be my fifth ice track of the year. Nobody will match that figure this year.

 

 

The Winnipeg Sports Car Club sanctions this Manitoba ice racing. They also race on a permanent asphalt road course during the warmer months.

 

 

I’ve been following their ice racing for years. After seeing the racing today in Portage la Prairie I will have knocked off every one of their currently active ice racing venues.

 

 

 

Hamish Donaldson is one of the key members of the ice racing sanctioning body. I’ve known him for several years now. He always gives me good updates on upcoming events. Today Hamish and I spent a couple of hours together meeting the drivers and talking about the events of the day.

 

 

I also got a chance to meet Jordan Sharples. Jordan had given me some good information about today’s racing. Unfortunately right now Jordan is sidelined after a bad crash a couple weeks ago. He essentially broke his neck and is now in the recuperation. Get well soon Jordan!

 

 

Today’s temperature while I was on the ice came in at about 30°. However there was a pretty strong wind. That made it probably the coldest ice racing adventure for me this year. That just goes to show you how warm this year’s ice racing has been.

 

 

From about 10 o’clock this morning I could hear the ice racers practicing on Crescent Lake. When I arrived at 11:30 AM there was a lull in the action.

 

 

I soon found Hamish. He’s not difficult to find as he always wears a fluorescent pink stocking cap. I think in Canada they might call it a beanie.

 

 

Hamish filled me in on what had been happening with the ice racing for the weekend. Today they were having some problems with the track. They actually had to change one of the turns when water from the snow melting created a hole in the ice. The water from that hole made that particular part of the track unraceable.

 

 

Given the track’s condition they eliminated any studded tire racing for the day. They would only be having rubber to ice (RTI tire above) competition. As you probably know, studded tires are much harder on the ice surface than non-studded tires.

 

 

I don’t know how many cars showed up to race at yesterday’s event. However today there were only six rubber to ice racecars competing. A few others had dropped out with mechanical problems.

 

 

Today’s one and only race class was scheduled to have six different races. All of the competitors in the class would run in each race. That was a lot of track time for each of these drivers.

 

 

However after two races they had another problem with the track. Water was coming up from a hole that has been created from the previous racing.

 

 

This was going to delay the racing action for a while as they plowed a new turn to bypass the turn that was leaking. This gave me plenty of time to walk the paddock area with Hamish. He introduced me to a lot of his friends including track officials and race drivers.

 

 

Of course Canadians are a friendly bunch. I learned that some of the drivers have been racing on the ice for 30 years. It was fun to hear them talk about tracks that have long since left the ice racing scene.

 

 

One of the drivers, Tim Gordienko showed me the variations of studded and “sypted” tires that are used for ice racing. Driver Wayne Kehler showed me the roll cage construction. Safety is important. At the last race a roll cage collapsed on driver, Jordan Sharples, injuring him seriously.

 

 

You don’t hear about many people getting hurt in ice racing. It is extremely rare for a racecar to get upside down on the ice. It’s almost unheard of to have a roll cage collapse in this type of racing. I do several ice racing organizations, that race at slower speeds, not using any roll cages whatsoever. As a matter of fact I rode shotgun in two ice races yesterday in cars that didn’t have any roll cage protection.

 

 

Yesterday’s ice racing in Saskatchewan was of the down-home/redneck (their words not mine) variety. That meant the cars showed up without roll cages not much safety equipment beyond what the original manufacture had provided. They didn’t have much in the way of racing speed modifications either.

 

 

The cars that race in Manitoba are some of the more sophisticated ice racing machines that I see anywhere I go. I’ve now seen ice racing at more than 80 tracks. Except for some of the European ice racing the guys and gals in Manitoba are as on top of their game for ice racing as anybody I see.

 

 

I’m going to guess that today’s ice racing road course was about three quarters of a mile in length maybe a bit longer. The race was being broadcast on FM radio to a large group of spectators. They watched from their cars at an elevated position over the lake. It was a pretty nice set up. It was a pretty nice setup for the fans.

 

 

Today I was seeing my 2,299th lifetime track. The next leading trackchaser is nearly 600 tracks below that total. Despite having seen racing at so many places it’s still the people and the ambience that entertains me the most.

 

 

That’s not to say that I do not like the racing. It simply means that I’ve seen a lot of racing. It’s unlikely that I’m going to see too much that I haven’t already seen before.

 

 

 

However, when I can meet racecar drivers who take me behind the scenes and show me how their cars are built and what their strategies are….that’s fun. When I can meet folks that, in so many instances have grown up in a different culture than me I find that to be entertaining and enriching as well.

 

 

Today I was at the track for nearly three hours. I was glad that I had all of the ice racing gear that I lugged from sunny Southern California. There’s a good chance all of that gear will go back into storage after this weekend and not be used again for about 10 months.

 

 

I will tell you this. I was happy I had my ice cleats today. They fit nicely over my size 14 REI purchased boots. I believe it was Wisconsin’s Wendy Hurst who first recommended ice cleats to me. On glare ice they are indispensible.

 

 

Each and every day of my life I routinely talk to a minimum of 10 people who live outside the United States. Lots of these folks are on the lookout for me in an attempt to find those really interesting and obscure racing locations that I haven’t seen yet. It certainly makes each day very interesting one.

 

 

Today it was nice to catch up with Canadian born and raised Hamish Donaldson. It’s so much better to have a contact like that who could introduce me to the key players in today’s racing game. One of the real benefits of traveling to so many tracks by myself is that I am encouraged to meet other people. If I bring Carol along, and I love bringing here on these trips, I am apt to spend all of my time and attention with here. I am much less likely to meet other. It’s a night and day different experience doing one way compared to the other.

 

 

With the delay in track maintenance Hamish recommended I get a start on my drive to Minneapolis. He was right. I still have eight hours of driving and an international border crossing facing me. I heeded his advice. Luckily, the weather was perfect for driving. It was mid-February. The weather could have been a LOT worse in Manitoba and Minnesota at this time of year.

 

 

 

AFTER THE RACES

 

 

Before I could leave Portage la Prairie I had to stop at Tim Hortons one more time. I never know when I’m going to get back to Tim Hortons again so I didn’t want to miss out. With a Boston cream, a maple dip and a 10piece box of Timbits I headed on down the road.

 

 

This weekend I had seen my sixth and seventh tracks of 2017. It seems like I should have had more by now. I missed out on four other tracks for some pretty unusual reasons. Nevertheless, I still had seven tracks to my credit and was just one short of 2,300 overall.

 

 

The ice and snow is beginning to melt all over North America. The weather forecast for the coming week means there will be more melting. Next week would be my last opportunity for any ice racing. The week after that I’m committed to an indoor show. The week after that we’ll be into mid-March. The ice racing season for the year will be history by then.

 

 

MONDAY

 

 

I was pulling into the great Minneapolis area at about 1 a.m. My flight was leaving in about five hours. I had a choice. I like it when I have choices.

 

 

I could sleep in my car for about three hours. Alternatively, I could sleep on the “landside” part of the airport terminal for about the same amount of time. I chose the rental car. At past midnight it was 52 degrees in Minneapolis in mid-February. That’s warm. I had to take off some of my long underwear to sleep comfortably!

 

 

I don’t advocate getting three hours of sleep….in a rental car. However sometimes the math wins me over. What was I to do when I got back to the airport area at 1 a.m. with a 6 a.m. flight.

 

 

I know what the skeptic might say. Don’t get back to the airport at 1 a.m. Don’t take a 6 a.m. flight. If I didn’t do stuff like that I wouldn’t be the World’s #1 Trackchaser. Once on the plane I slept and watched an iTunes movie on my MacBook Pro.

 

 

When I landed at LAX it was 8:10 a.m. If I tried to drive home at that hour I would be fighting rush-hour traffic. With three hours of marginal sleep that didn’t sound good.

 

 

What was the alternative? I would spend the next three hours in the private Alaska Lounge. My membership there had been an excellent choice over the years. I would have a complimentary breakfast, watch another movie and just generally chill out. When I was fully relaxed I made the nearly one-mile walk of my airport parking garage. By nearly noon there was no traffic on the 10-12 lane wide freeways that frequent my home town.

 

 

Good afternoon from Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada

 

 

Manitoba

 

 

The “Friendly Manitoba” province

This afternoon I was seeing my 9th lifetime track in the “Friendly Manitoba” province, yes the “Friendly Manitoba” province. Surprisingly to me, five of those Manitoba tracks have been on the ice.

 

 

 

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

Manitoba slogans: Sunny Manitoba

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

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

 

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,299

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 20 countries of my lifetime total.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 74

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.37

 

 

 

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