Daytona – The Road Course

 

 

 

From the road course….

Should a trackchaser have to put up with big red welts in the name of the hobby? …………..details in “The Trip”.

 

Why can’t people just do their jobs right the first time?………………more in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”.

 

What was this ticket scalper’s best score? …………..details in “The People”.

 

 

“THE TROPICAL AND ICE TRACKCHASING WEEKEND!”

 

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

That would be a legitimate question to ask.  It HAS been 26 days since our last trackchasing adventure….on New Year’s Day.  I’ve been busy doing Yoga (twice a week), taking golf lessons (you can never really master the game), going to Vegas (what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), having a birthday (if you must know…#63), spending the night at the beach with friends for a ‘beach BBQ’, and going to UCLA basketball games (they’re getting better!).

 

Yes, if you said, “retirement life is tough” you would be correct.  However, as they say “somebody’s gotta do it”.

 

Goal:  22 weekends away from trackchasing (just to keep my free time in perspective)

 

Current results:  3 weekends off

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

 

 

THE PLAN, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

 

The Plan 

  

How did I come up with a Friday race in January? 

Normally, January and February are reserved for ice racing and indoor racing.  Almost always this type of racing occurs on Saturday and Sunday.  However, I ended up getting a outdoor permanent asphalt road course on a Friday in January.  Was I some genius that had known something the other trackchasers didn’t know about?

 

Not really.  My plan for this weekend was to see some traditional ice racing on both Saturday and Sunday.  That was until I heard from Eastern trackchaser Paul Weisel.  He mentioned he was going to the Daytona International Speedway on Friday for some racing.  He wanted to know if I was interested in heading his way.

 

At first, I didn’t think so.  I was well aware of the famous “Rolex 24 Hours” race held each January over the Saturday/Sunday weekend days.  What was Paul going to see on a Friday at Daytona?  A quick check of the website showed the Grand-Am (Grand-Am) series would be there on Friday.

 

That would be fun to get a Florida Friday race in January.  However, that would be a LONG way from ice racing in the Northern U.S. on Saturday and Sunday.  What if I could find another Florida track racing this weekend?  I went to work with my proprietary “tracks still to be seen” database.  This database is shrinking all the time!

 

 

Boy was I surprised. 

Soon, to my incredible surprise, I noticed a “senior champ kart” special being held just three hours down the road from Daytona.  On Saturday, the Martin County Kartway was racing in the afternoon.

 

Now I had a two-day trackchasing doubleheader in Florida that would work for Friday and Saturday.  However, I was itching to see some ice racing.  Could I get somewhere north by leaving Florida on Saturday night in time to see some “ice action” by noon is some northern clime?  Maybe.  You’ll have to stay tuned to see what followed Daytona.

 

It is rare that someone else’s trackchasing plan has much influence on mine.  O.K., I’ll be honest.  I do try to avoid contact with those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” when I can.  But Paul, although a dyed-in-the-wool Easterner, is a good friend.  I always enjoy taking in an afternoon of racing with him.

 

 

The Trip

  

I had to leave early for this trip.

I woke up this morning in San Clemente, California.  I went to “bed” near gate 52 in the Orlando International Airport.  This is what today looked like.

 

Friday’s racing at Daytona was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.  There was no way I could get there in time for their racing by leaving California on Friday morning.  My original plan was to fly overnight, leaving Thursday.  However, overnight flights, commonly called “red-eyes” are some of the most crowded flights of the day.  When my red-eye opportunity was blunted by too many paying passengers I had to leave even earlier.

 

 

No golf; no acupuncture. 

I would catch a flight from Los Angeles to Charlotte at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.  This was some twenty-one hours before the Daytona race would begin.  Leaving this early knocked me out of my Thursday standing tee time as well as an acupuncture appointment. I like both of those things but getting to finally see racing on the Daytona road course was something I had wanted to do for a long time.

 

After connecting in Charlotte (via my newest airline sponsor), I was off to Orlando.  I landed at midnight.  It was then that I faced a financial decision.

 

I’ve been staying overnight in hotels for more than 150 nights for each of the past ten years that I have been retired.  I have a rental car on most of those 150 days.  As you might guess that can be expensive.

 

 

I am NOT the rich guy in this movie. 

Long ago, I was labeled as the “rich guy” of trackchasing.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I am able to do this because of sponsorship support.  If I had to pay for my trackchasing out of my own pocket I would not be on the road all that much.

 

Truth be told, most of my fellow competitors are gainfully employed.  Carol and I are retired pensioners.  Carol didn’t even work outside the home long enough to qualify for social security while she cared for our three children and followed me around the world.  We have a modest seaside cottage in the sunny little enclave of San Clemente, California.  Yes, we might be the most underfunded trackchasing team on the circuit.

 

 

Times are tough; sponsors are hard to come by. 

As it turns out I don’t have “sponsorship” for fifteen nights on the road this year.  How will I overcome that?  Some of my trips will have me sleeping overnight on an airplane.  Others, like tonight, will find me “bedding down” in the airport itself.  If Tom Hanks can do it, then so can I.  Lots of folks sleep overnight in the airport.  Check out the website “Sleepinginairports.net”.  There you will find a review of most major airports and their “overnight accommodations”.

 

 

Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you. 

Based upon lack of sponsorship I would sleep in the Orlando Airport tonight.  Just one week ago tonight I was attending a business meeting in Las Vegas.  What were my accommodations there?  I had a 2,700 square foot suite; yes I know that’s bigger than most people’s houses, at the top of the posh Luxor Hotel.  That’s how life is.  One week I’m sleeping in one of the best suites in America and the next week I’m sleeping on the floor of the airport.  I’m pretty flexible.  I can “make it work” no matter what the circumstances.

 

Unfortunately, the seats in the Orlando airport all come with inflexible armrests.  There is absolutely NO WAY that anyone can laydown across two seats or more.  The diabolical #$@#$% who designed those chairs should be forced to sleep overnight in an airport sometime.

 

This situation pushed me to the floor.  Although the floor was carpeted I feared the carpet had not been cleaned in years.  I did my best to use my weekend’s clothing to fashion pillows around me.  It wasn’t great but a few weeks from now I will have forgotten the whole thing.

 

 

You’re kidding right? 

Of course, that’s if the swelling goes down.  Yes, I somehow came away with several big red “welts”.  Two on the top of my shoulder near my collarbone were the size of a deck of cards!  Was Carol sympathetic to my cause?  Her sympathy pretty much started and ended with “no comment” and “I told you so”.  I’ve got to talk to that girl about the impact of trackchasing sponsorship.

 

 

 

The People

 

I was with my probation officer today.

I would trackchase today with Paul Weisel.  Paul has seen 854 tracks.  Lately, he’s been cutting back citing other near home racing interests and the lack of real “value for money” from the trackchasing hobby.  I can understand that.  Like I say without my trackchasing sponsorship funding I couldn’t do this as much either.

 

Paul was a probation officer for about fifteen years.  I can imagine he’s heard every hard luck story known to man.  That would have been a fun job for the stories if nothing else.

 

During Paul’s probation officer period he was also an open-wheeled race driver.  Few of our trackchasers have a “real” racing background.  Paul and his good buddy Bing Metz are two that do.

 

For the past many years, Paul has been a Firestone racing tire dealer.  He uses some of his trackchasing trips to pick up inventory to save shipping costs.  Therefore, I guess Paul has some sponsorship too.

 

 

Paul knows what makes a racecar tick. 

Paul knows a lot about the technical side of racing.  That has never interested me much.  I know where the driver sits and that’s about it.  No one should find it surprising that I have NEVER lifted the hood of the Carol Lewis owned and Lincoln Financial Group sponsored Lexus LS430 in the more than eight years that she have owned it.  Why should I?  I take it in for all scheduled service just like the owner’s manual recommended.  When you do that and you own a Lexus you won’t need to raise the hood.  If I ever DID new to raise the hood I hope Carol is with me.  She would be patient enough to read the owner’s manual and then explain what it takes to raise the hood!

 

I don’t track all that well when Paul goes into detail about the “innards” of a racecar.  I think my true calling might have been as a race promoter.  However, if I had chosen that occupation, I would have been focused on the “consumer side” and had someone like Paul running the “pit side”.

 

 

Good eatin’ and Jai Alai! 

Anyway, Paul and I had a good time.  I used Yelp! to get us a place to eat after the races.  More on that below.  Then Paul came up with the great idea of going to the Jai Alai matches over toward Orlando for the evening.  I hadn’t been to Jai Alai since the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas had them many years ago.  More on that below.

 

 

A guy after my own heart. 

We did meet an interesting young fellow at the Jai Alai fronton.  He was from Pittsburgh and seemed to know a good deal about the Jai Alai players competing tonight.

 

After some conversation, he mentioned he was vacationing in Florida for a couple of months.  What was his occupation?  He was a ticket scalper!  Yes, he purchased tickets to sporting events and concerts all over the country for the purpose of reselling them for a profit.  I wish I had more time to talk to him.  He bought the tickets from whatever source he could find and then sold them on Stubhub.com.  He did mention that he’s had to “eat” as much as $800 worth of tickets that didn’t sell by game time.

 

His most profitable source of tickets?  The Winnipeg Jets National Hockey League tickets.  He said he recognized the area was so starved for hockey that he flew up to Winnipeg to buy season tickets.  Now he sells them for anywhere from $200-900 U.S. per ticket.  Hey folks, ain’t capitalism great!

 

 

 

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.

 

Orlando Jai Alai, Casselberry, Florida

 

A fun way to spend the evening. 

Have you ever been to the Jai Alai matches?  Florida probably has the most Jai Alai “frontons” (arenas) of any state in the country.  They like dog racing too.

 

It would be somewhat difficult for me to explain Jai Alai to you if you’ve never seen it.  Click on this link to learn more Jai Alai.  However, the important thing to know is that you can bet on Jai Alai.  That’s why people come!

 

 

Oh no!  Not another east coast jumping the line incident. 

Paul and I paid our three dollars, while trying to avoid any confrontations with people who might think we were “jumping the line”.  Remember, we were on the east coast.  Where do you think all of these snowbirds and relocated Floridians came from…..the east coast.  You can get shot for “jumping the line” in these parts.

 

Paul is a big guy.  You wouldn’t want to mess with him.  However, even Paul was somewhat skittish about the appearance of jumping the line.  While he parked the van, I stood in line for tickets.  By the time he reached the ticket area, there were several people behind me.  He discreetly handed me three dollars thus skirting the issue that nearly cost us dearly at the Orange County Fairgrounds Speedway a couple of months ago.  With that deft maneuver behind us we went in and grabbed a seat.

 

 

Don’t read the signs. 

This was not before Paul pointed to a sign that read something to the effect, “Don’t record stuff”.  I could see Paul was a little uneasy when I whipped out my iPhone camera to get a few “remembrances”.  Remember, Paul lives in the section (the east) of the country nearly everyday of his life.  He knows how serious these people can be.  Apparently, they are not to be #$%^ with.  However, I am an “outsider”.  I figure I can talk my way out of most situations I’m likely to encounter.

 

 

Five on five to win please. 

Off we went to our seats.  We placed a bet on the first match.  I picked team #5 to win.  I bet five bucks on them.  When you go to the betting window you simply say “five on five to win”.  How difficult is that right?

 

However, the ticket seller gave me a two-dollar ticket and three dollars change.  I told him of his error.  He quickly gave me another three-dollar ticket and as they say, “we were all good”.

 

I returned to my seat to watch team #5 smother their opposition.  They were competing against seven other teams.  The odds were 9:2 on team #5 to win.  That meant that on my five dollars worth of winning tickets I would earn 5 (because I bet five dollars not because I bet on team #5) times 4.5 or about $23 U.S.  I liked this Jai Alai.

 

 

Unconsciously incompetent. 

I returned to the ticket window.  The ticket seller recognized me.  “You’re glad I gave you both tickets aren’t you?” he said.  I nodded in agreement and handed him both my two-dollar ticket and my three-dollar ticket.

 

He examined the tickets.  “This three-dollar ticket is not for team #5” he told me.  Say what?  He had punched in the wrong information.  He ADMITTED he had entered the wrong team to win.  “What could we do about it” I asked.  “It’s your responsibility to check your tickets before you leave the window” was his monotone response.  I was about ready to say, “It’s your $%^&# responsibility to do your silly ass job right.  You CAN be replaced by a machine you know.”

 

However, I looked around.  I was on the East coast.  The Jai Alai fronton was probably owned by the mafia, the East coast mafia.  Was it really worth raising an issue over $14 U.S.?  Maybe, but I chose to return to my seat.  For the rest of the evening Paul and I conversed about the subjects of the day.

 

 

GREAT PLACES TO EAT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

 

 

Daytona Brickyard, Daytona Beach, Florida

 

The best burgers in Daytona. 

I enjoy eating unique, local cuisine.  From the Daytona International Speedway parking lot I used Yelp! to find us a hole in the wall type eatery that was highly recommended.

 

Paul selected the cuisine type and then I went about meeting the request.  The Daytona Brickyard, just a couple of miles down the street would be our choice.

 

Everyone raved about their burgers.  What did we have?  The burgers as in ½ pounders.  They were fantastic.  The fries were too.  This is a sports bar that serves good burgers.  I recommend it.

 

 

 

 

RACE REVIEW

 

DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY (ROAD COURSE), DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

  

I finally made it.

 

I’ve been wanting to see road course racing at the Daytona International Speedway for twenty years or more.  However, going all the way to Florida in January for just one race never really made sense.

 

I seen racing on the famous high banks of the Daytona International Speedway’s oval track many times.  It is officially credited with being my  37^th lifetime track.  Now the venue’s road course becomes my 1,727^th lifetime track.  However, I have never seen the Daytona 500.  I hope to correct that omission someday.  In the meantime I’ll enjoy the 500 on my plasma big screen in high definition with a view of the Pacific Ocean in the background.

 

Today’s racing was done under drizzly skies at the beginning.  As the day went on the weather got better with temps just below and then above seventy degrees.

 

 

 

We had the place all to ourselves. 

Daytona’s grandstands seat about 168,000 fans.  How many people were here today?  I’m guessing a thousand, maybe a few more.  This type of racing just isn’t a “spectator sport”.

 

I’m normally not a big fan of road course racing.  I do have some experience with road courses to back up my opinion.  I have fewer than five permanent road courses left to see in both the U.S. and Canada.  Why don’t I like them?  At most you just can’t see much of the racing.

 

Daytona is an exception to that rule for the most part.  Although the cars are fairly faraway at times, you can at least see them for 80% of each lap or so.  Most of the 2.5-mile oval is actually used as part of the road course.  From time to time the cars make a left off the oval and do some “dipsy doodles” in the track’s infield.

 

 

 

The highlight of the day. 

There was one major highlight to today’s racing.  They started 81 cars!  I probably won’t see another race all year that starts that many cars.  Actually, the competitors were divided into two “races within a race”.  Some forty cars or so, took the green flag at 1:30 p.m. today.  Then about thirty seconds later another forty cars accepted the green flag in rows of two.

 

Once the race got going cars from both classes blended together.  This meant there was always some action all over the track.  The race did have several yellow flags.  It almost seemed as if yellow flags were waved so the cars could pit more safely.  There were very almost no incidents to actually cause a caution period.

 

The race was scheduled for 2.5 hours.  With the yellow flags it went a few minutes beyond that.  During the race, the winner completed just over fifty laps.

 

 

STATE COMPARISONS

 

Florida 

This afternoon I saw my 56th lifetime track in Florida, the Sunshine state, yes the Sunshine state.  That ranks Florida as my ninth most prolific trackchasing state.  The only person who has seen more tracks here than me is Ed Esser.  He’s seen the green flag drop 67 times at different tracks.

 

I have nine tracks down here remaining to be seen.  Only one races on a regularly scheduled basis.  The rest are either kart tracks or venues that race just once a year.

 

 

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

 

Florida sayings:  If you think we can’t vote, wait til you see us drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Charlotte, NC (CLT) – 2,120 miles

Charlotte, NC (CLT) – Orlando, FL (MCO) – 468 miles

RENTAL CAR #1

Orlando International Airport – trip begins

Daytona Beach, FL – 105 miles

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Daytona International Speedway – $15

 

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS

There are no trackchasers currently within 300 tracks of my lifetime total.

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,727

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 1,425

3.  Guy “The Kid” Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,419