Greetings from Crystal Lake, Iowa
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Crystal Lake Ice Track
Ice oval
Not countable
THE EVENT My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. Each year I will visit 25-30 American states and several foreign countries. During the winter months I often see racing on ice and snow. 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) – 2,296 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: 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! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES FOREWORD This trip was going to be special for several reasons. Later in the trip Carol and I would be celebrating our wedding anniversary in New York City for the better part of a week. That was going to be wonderful. I was looking forward to a special achievement with my ice trackchasing as well. I have actually trackchased on the ice around the world. In total I have seen ice racing in 16 states, provinces and countries. Here’s the list for that up to this point: One of my 2017 trackchasing in goals is to add a 17th geographical area to this list. However, when I established that goal I didn’t have Iowa in mind. I didn’t even know they had ice racing in Iowa! However the staff in Randy Lewis Racing research department is nothing if not on top of their game. Just a couple of days ago they came up with an ice racing opportunity in Crystal Lake, Iowa. Crystal Lake is a little bitty town of just 250 people. The town is located on the south shore of Crystal Lake. It’s a popular fishing location. Not only would I be seeing ice racing in Iowa for the very first time, I would be seeing UTV ice racing as the primary ice class for the first time. It was going to be the start of a very good ice trackchasing weekend I hoped. FRIDAY Normally, I drive the Carol Lewis owned and MFunds sponsored Lexus RX 350 to the airport and park it there when I go trackchasing. However, because Carol will be joining me in New York City on Monday it wouldn’t make any sense to have two cars parked at the airport. My fallback position for situations like this is simple but a little time-consuming. Carol would drive me to the train station in San Clemente. From there I would take a train up to Los Angeles’ Union Station. At Union Station I would transfer to the Flyaway bus for the trip to LAX. I hopped on the 6:56 a.m. train and ended up arriving at LAX at about 10 a.m. That’s three hours of travel time. Driving would have probably taken me about an hour and 15 minutes. As luck would have it I missed my first two standby flying opportunities to Minneapolis because there weren’t any seats for me. In each case I only missed it by a seat or two. Finally I did make a flight to Seattle and from there connected to the twin cities. Minneapolis is probably my most favorite domestic airport. It’s a great place to sleep overnight. This is especially true when I arrive at a little past midnight as I did today. I’ve got a special second-story loft that is quiet and safe. For the second Friday night in a row I slept overnight in the Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport. SATURDAY I woke up in the airport this morning at about 6:30 a.m. Last week I slept on a table that connected to a couple of leather chairs. On this trip I elected to go with simply sleeping on the floor. I brought various forms of padding for this eventuality. It really wasn’t too bad. Today’s weather in Crystal Lake, Iowa calls for fairly warm ice racing temperatures with a high of 36°. However the wind is projected to be 23 MPH. As I commonly say, “It’s the wind not the temperature”. However, I’ve got a good deal of ice racing clothing and the like. I think I’ll be OK. At about 8 a.m. I grabbed a brand-new Toyota Camry from the National Car Rental lot. I was only going to be renting this car for about 10 hours. It would be a 145-mile one-way drive down to Crystal Lake, Iowa. I was bypassing a traditional car race on ice in Minnesota to trackchase in the Hawkeye state. Down in Crystal Lake I was expecting to see UTV racing along with quads and motorbikes. After sleeping overnight in the airport I felt that I needed a reward of some sort. That reward came in the form of a stop at Perkin’s restaurant. Their somewhat tardy serving of lemon blueberry pancakes got me in the mood for some afternoon ice trackchasing. THE RACING Crystal Lake Ice Track – Crystal Lake, Iowa Using my Waze GPS system it was easy to find Crystal Lake, Iowa. Crystal Lake is a small town with a huge statue of the “World’s Largest Bullhead” built in 1958. I don’t know if someone actually caught a 12-foot bullhead fish or if they just built the statue that way! There weren’t all that many racers in the pit area. Notice I said, “Pit area”. The track was an oval configuration. Oval tracks have pit areas. Road courses have paddocks. Why the difference? I have no idea. There were 5-10 quads ready to race and a like number of motorcycles. There were a few UTVs in the pits from large to small. There weren’t a lot. None of the UTVs had numbers on them. That was somewhat strange. I couldn’t tell which ones were racers and which ones were civilian machines. I hung around for a few minutes waiting for things to be again. Practice was scheduled to be at 1 p.m. Racing was to follow. However they didn’t hold the driver’s meeting until 1:20 p.m. I wondered if they had plowed the ice track today as a road course configuration if they would have started on time? Just before the driver’s meeting began they posted a handwritten sign on the side of the race trailer. It listed the race order for today. I was a little concerned when only motorcycles and quads were on that race schedule. However, I felt better when Jr. Schleuger asked his assistant to take the sign back in for some modifications. Surely she was going to add the UTVs to the racing agenda. However, with the new race order was posted there were still no UTVs on the list. Jr. went through a brief driver’s meeting. He explained there would be no official UTV racing because only one competitor had shown up today. My heart sunk. When he adjourned the meeting I walked up to introduce myself. He was happy to see that someone had come all the way from California to see his group’s races. Nevertheless we were both disappointed that there would be no UTV racing. Junior told me that last week’s ice racing, at a different location, had attracted 13 UTV racers. He had no idea why the turnout was nearly zero today. There was one other racer in a UTV-like machine. It was much smaller than a normal UTV. I didn’t investigate but I suspected it was for a child driver. The one adult UTV competitor joined the back of a quad race to do his laps. The child UTV racer joined in with another race. Had these two UTV racing machines, both countable by trackchasing rules, been in the same “race” I could have counted the track. I’m pretty sure I could have approached the promoter and explained how trackchasing rules work. He might have been willing to “help” me out by putting both of these UTV competitors in the same “race”. However, I have a strict policy. I never encourage a promoter to do something that he wasn’t planning to do originally just to benefit my trackchasing count. I wish every other trackchaser that I have ever encountered had the same ethics. Sadly, their record indicates otherwise. I toyed with the idea of trying to visit the Minnesota ice track that I had bypassed in favor of coming to Iowa. However, Crystal Lake was 203 miles away from that Gopher location. There was no way I could make it in time to see any of their racing today. I had parked my car along the highway that paralleled Crystal Lake. I watched a few races for the motorcycles and quads from there. I was hoping there might be a late UTV arrival or that maybe the promoter would decide to run the two UTVs together. None of that happened. I was shut out on the first Saturday in February. That is never a good sign. AFTER THE RACES My trackchasing total for the year stands at three. It could have been six by now. One track cancelled a couple of days ahead of time because of an ice storm in Missouri. Two other tracks including the one today fell into the “non-countable” category. Why? Only one allowable competitor had shown up to race. Yes, I could have six tracks by now. The year is getting off to a rather sluggish start. Nevertheless, it was what it was. I drove the National Car Rental Toyota Camry northward for the 145-mile drive back to the Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport. I did stop in the drive-through at Culver’s restaurant for a double cheeseburger and some of their famous cheese curds. It’s always comforting to drown your sorrows in cheese curds. Iowa The Hawkeye state I had attempted to see my 106th lifetime track in the Hawkeye state, yes the Hawkeye state. I hold the #1 trackchasing spot in Iowa. I’ve seen 105 or more tracks in 4 separate states. 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 Iowa definitions: RAGBRAI It sounds like a dirty old bra, but it’s actually a weeklong festivity of biking, camping and drinking. 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. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the 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. Ice racing from Crystal Lake, Iowa…..almost 
Alaska
Alberta, Canada
Andorra
British Columbia, Canada
Finland
Maine
Manitoba, Canada
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New York
Ontario, Canada
Quebec, Canada
Russia
Vermont
Wisconsin
