Greetings from Lucedale, Mississippi
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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George County Motorsports Park
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #2,300
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) – 2,230 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 My 2017 ice racing season is finished. What comes after ice racing for any world-class trackchaser? A trip to the south! Yes, January and February are reserved for ice trackchasing. Then March and April takes me through the southern climates. By May I can pretty much trackchase any where in the U.S. That will last until October. What about November and December? It’s catch as catch can for the last two months of the year. Yes, the climate dictates where my trackchasing travel takes me. This trip would have some incredible ups and some minorly annoying downs. I’ve had my share of unusual journeys. This was one of them. It’s somewhat amazing how flexible I need to be in order to maximize my trackchasing efforts. I was planning on leaving for this trip on Saturday morning. My travel plan was set. With that in mind I had scheduled a “date night” with Carol on Friday night. However, when the Saturday morning flights got to be too full for me to be able to comfortably fly on a standby basis things changed. I would now leave by mid-day on Friday. Date night was shifted to Thursday night. Carol and I are pretty flexible. We have to be in order to get the most out of life. This change in travel dates might allow me to visit one of my all-time favorite restaurants in New Orleans on Friday night, Charlie’s steakhouse. I was now going to have Saturday available for Mississippi touring. I thought I might like to take in a college basketball game. I checked six or seven schedules. All of the Mississippi and nearby home teams were playing their games “away” this weekend. The one exception was the University of Mississippi located in Oxford, Mississippi. However, Ole Miss is situated in northern Mississippi. I would have had to drive about five hours out of my way to make that game. That wasn’t worth it to me. Then I discovered one of the top 10 Trip Advisor recommended Jackson, Mississippi touring opportunities. It would be a most unique touring choice. I might get the opportunity for a one on one tour of the home of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers. This sounded like a very intriguing adventuresome tour. That’s exactly the kind of thing I like to add to my Trackchasers Touring Attraction resume. However, I could only do such this tour on Sunday. Folks in the south don’t do much on Sunday except to go to church. I contacted the woman who leads these tours. She would not be able to confirm to me until Sunday if she could give me a private tour or not. If she could meet me, after she was finished with her church services, she would call me at 1 p.m. No call meant there would be no tour. It seemed as if everything I was trying to do was “almost” going to work. I could almost make a Saturday morning flight. I could almost make a major college basketball game within 150 miles of New Orleans. I might almost be able to get a private tour of a very famous civil rights historical location. Almost doesn’t cut it in trackchasing or with Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I was having some airplane problems too. Flights were tight. As you know, I fly standby. I can only get on an airplane if there is an open seat available for me. I wanted to fly to New Orleans. Logistically that would be the best stop for my trackchasing weekend. However, the flights going to Memphis were wide open. They departed much later on Friday. I figured if I didn’t get on a flight to New Orleans in time to make it for dinner at Charlie Steakhouse I would take the easy flight to Memphis. Would anybody else make his or her travel plans that way? I ended up getting on the very first plane to New Orleans. I would be flying on Spirit Airlines. They are a no-frills airlines. They charge for everything including soft drinks on the plane. It was three dollars for a Diet Coke. The clientele that rides on Spirit Airlines is a little bit different. Today it seemed like it was a real party crowd. That made sense. It was Friday. People were flying to New Orleans. It seemed a little unusual when the pilot came over the public address system before we took off and said, “I hope everybody is ready to party.” The plane erupted in cheers. I guess this group WAS ready to party. I didn’t think too much more about it at the time. However, when we landed the pilot came on the PA again. He wished everyone a great Mardi Gras weekend. Mardi Gras? Duh! It was beginning to dawn on me. Next Tuesday was Fat Tuesday. I did a little Googling. I soon found out that the main celebration of Mardi Gras is the weekend before Fat Tuesday. As God is my witness I had absolutely no idea that I was flying into New Orleans on Friday night, the night that begins the main weekend of Mardi Gras in New Orleans! However, as the old saying goes, “When God serves you lemonade drink it.” I was traveling, “luggage wounded”. I have had a long time trackchasing sponsorship support program with Costco. They have agreed to provide me with complementary luggage that meets my satisfaction. It’s sort of like a racing chassis sponsorship. My luggage from Costco is the “house luggage”. Just like a chassis sponsorship in racing, whenever my luggage is damaged beyond repair Costco is there to provide me a brand-new piece. However my new luggage wasn’t being delivered until next Monday. That meant I had to use some of my old secondary luggage that is secondary for a reason. Nevertheless, I did my very best to move everything over from both my now defunct carry-on bag and my computer bag. All of the essentials were being moved into one smaller rolling bag and a very small duffel bag. I thought I had done that job perfectly but I had not. I was thinking it would be a good idea, like I always do, to attach my security cable to something fixed in the car’s interior. That way my computer wouldn’t “walk away”. Luckily, before I locked the cable, I remembered that the two small keys needed to UNLOCK the cable were in a secret place in my computer bag. My computer bag was back in my office in San Clemente! Had I snapped that lock on the cable around some fixed object it would’ve been a major hassle to either cut the cable or get a locksmith to retrieve my computer. Whew! Costco Travel was helping me you out with my rental car this weekend as well. They offered me three days of an intermediate car rental for $82. My long time rental car sponsor, National, wanted $110 for two days. Even though I love National I can’t hang with them at those prices. Today Budget Rental Car gave me a Chevy Cruz. It had only 1,200 miles on the odometer. I figured I would add another 800-900 miles to that total. My rental car program for the weekend was going to work out very well. I landed in New Orleans at 5 o’clock. The airport was packed. Some quick research told me that the first Mardi Gras parade tonight was starting at 7 p.m. I had to get going. There would be traffic. I would need a fully charged battery on my iPhone. I wanted to get a lot of video of the Mardi Gras parades. I pulled out one of my charging cables that I use on every trip. I plugged it into the USB port of the car. A little while later I noticed it was not charging my phone. Was the car’s charger defective? I immediately began to regret renting from Budget. However, I soon found out that is was my cable that wasn’t working. Luckily, I had a second cable at the ready. It worked. I told you that this trip had some major ups and some minor downs. Without a charged and workable iPhone I would be dead in the water. Parking in the small residential neighborhoods of New Orleans in front of the Mardi Gras parade’s was a real challenge. However, I subscribe to the theory that there is “always room for one more”. I found a spot that was only five or six blocks off the parade route. Once I got over to Magazine Street I saw a family atmosphere of folks waiting for the parade to begin. I cornered a woman named Debra. She was lovely. Debra gave me the lowdown on how things were going to work with the parade and such. I really had my heart set on eating at Charlie’s Steakhouse in New Orleans tonight. I first started coming to Charlie’s all the way back in 1972 when we came to New Orleans for business. I started my business career in July, 1972. My very first day of work had me flying to New Orleans for our national sales meeting. We stayed at the luxurious Royal Sonesta Hotel. During that first week I would go to sales meetings during the day. Then we would go out and party and eat and drink all over the French quarter in the evening. That was when I first discovered Charlie’s. Charlie’s was affected heavily by the Katrina hurricane and subsequent floods. The damage had then closed for nearly two years! One of the waiters was able to buy the place and re-open it. I had been there one other time since Katrina. But first there was the parade. Carol and I were just talking a couple days ago about the idea that we have traveled so much and never made it to Mardi Gras. Now, totally by pure luck, I was going to experience my very first Mardi Gras parade. I knew that I was seeing a “sanitized” version of Mardi Gras. Where I was it was mostly families with young children. There were hundreds of step ladders. They were used to give young children a better view from a height of about six feet. These people had been here before! There was a bit of a college crowd. However, I knew that the majority of those party goers were hanging around closer to the French quarter. At the parade I caught my share of beads and had a great time. Don’t miss the video. I can’t wait to bring Carol to Mardi Gras now that I have an idea of how things work. I used Google maps to find out that Charlie’s Steakhouse was about a mile from where I was watching the parade. It would make more sense to walk over there. Then after dinner I would walk back to the car, if I could find it. I had taken pictures of the street signs where I parked the car. I was parked at the intersection of Lyons and Laurel. I was also parked close to the intersection itself. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get a ticket for that or in a worse case scenario be towed! I might tell you that I was minorly disappointed with Charlie’s Steakhouse this time around. The 8-inch high serving of onion rings was very good. The crab au gratin potatoes were very good. My 10-ounce filet mignon was only average. When my bill came the onion rings, crab meat potatoes, filet mignon, Jack and Seven in a tall glass and several Diet Coke refills with tip came to 78 bucks. I’m a good tipper. That was certainly pricey. However if you knew what I paid for everything else this weekend you might think it all balanced out. From an exercise point of view today was going to be a combination of elliptical training and walking. Before I left California I got up early and did 30 minutes on my elliptical machine. I have a professional grade elliptical trainer in my house. When I finally made it back to the car my pedometer showed that I had walked 4.2 miles today. My trackchasing hobby, with the time I spend in airports, requires a lot of walking. I love walking. By flying into New Orleans I had miraculously discovered that Mardi Gras was happening. What a huge plus. However, I had planned to use Priceline.com to get a hotel tonight. That wasn’t going to happen in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Most hotels were going for about $300 a night and more. There was another aspect of using Priceline.com that needed to be managed. With Priceline reservations must be made by 11 p.m. local time in order to get a room. In order to made that happen I had to drive over to a nearby McDonald’s. In the Mickey D parking lot I could get an Internet connection. It was 10:45 p.m. I had to work quickly in order to beat the Priceline 11 p.m. deadline. McDonald’s Internet connection was not the best. At one point it stalled and I never could get the proper connection with Priceline for New Orleans or any other nearby area such as Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Baton Rouge or Mobile, Alabama. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, there were some out of control drunken college kids hanging about the McDonald’s parking lot. They were loud, obnoxious and probably spending their parents hard earned money on their once-in-a-lifetime Mardi Gras weekend. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. I tried kayak.com. I tried Getaroom.com. I tried Orbitz.com. Any hotel near New Orleans was off the charts expensive. It was only when I searched for hotels in Lucedale, Mississippi that I found a place. The location would be good. Lucedale was home to the track I planned on seeing tomorrow night, Saturday night. However Lucedale is a small place. There wasn’t going to be much going on until late Saturday night with the races. What would I do in Lucedale all day Saturday. Nevertheless, getting a room for 55 bucks in this environment was going to be a steal. Lucedale was a little bit more than two hours up the road from New Orleans. I arrived at the hotel at 2:15 a.m. I took a moment to look back on the day. I hadn’t even known for sure if I was flying to New Orleans as early as this morning. Remember flying to Memphis would have worked as well. If I had done that I wouldn’t even have known it was Mardi Gras weekend at all. I guess I had done pretty well for myself. Tomorrow it would be time to go trackchasing. That’s what had brought me on this trip. I was going to have some time during the day to seek out more good restaurants serving the Cajun food that I love. I might even find a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction or two that would continue to educate me about this largely untapped, for me, area of the United States. I’ll close the day of Friday by saying it was a significant annoyance to not have my regular luggage with me. Normally all I carry is my 21-inch rolling carry-on bag and my computer bag. Imagine taking everything in your kitchen, that’s been there for years, and switching the contents of every drawer. Every time you go to get a spoon you find a skillet. Annoying! SATURDAY When I woke up I had a decision to make. Last night I had stayed in Lucedale, Mississippi. That’s where tonight’s racing would take place as well. I could drive a couple of hours northward after the races or I could stay in the same hotel for a second night and drive in the morning. I could go with either one of those choices. My decision would be based upon where I could get some good Cajun/Creole seafood and find an interesting Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. I always like to do a little research on the places where I stay. Here are some of the highlights on my research of Lucedale, Mississippi. Lucedale was founded in 1901. Today is has nearly 3,000 residents. The town’s demographics show about 70% white and 30% black as their racial makeup. The median income for a family in Lucedale is $22,604. Some 40% of those under 18 years of age live below the poverty line. Ruthie Bolton, a member of the United States gold medal winning basketball team came from Lucedale. Now for lunch! I went to my Yelp app. I try never to eat in a restaurant when I don’t have a personal recommendation of one sort or another. I have found Yelp’s many users who provide their recommendations to be a most valuable resource. I enjoy eating. I enjoy eating fine and fun foods. Yelp is perfect for making those recommendations. Yelp was not recommending any good Cajun restaurants in Lucedale. The nearest plethora of such restaurants was going to be south of the Biloxi, Mississippi/Mobile, Alabama area. I have some time. I was willing to drive an hour one-way for a great Cajun lunch and Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. When I discovered the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum located in Biloxi the deal was sealed. I would drive down to Biloxi, see the museum and have a great Cajun lunch. This decision made up my mind that I would list for one more night at the Western Motel in Lucedale, Mississippi. That’s how decisions get made in my world. It was a beautiful late February day in Mississippi. The high temperature was going to be 70° with blue skies. The drive down to Biloxi was quick and easy. Biloxi is dominated by casinos. What was the most noteworthy aspect of the drive? That is an easy question answer. They have a lot of churches down here. It’s the Bible belt. For the entire 60-mile drive I must have seen nearly 100 churches. Gas is cheap here. I saw prices for regular unleaded gas for as little as $1.97 a gallon. Diesel fuel was about $.30 higher. Lunch would be at the 4.5-star Yelp rated Tasty Tails Seafood House restaurant. I was looking for some Cajun/Creole food. They were selling King Grab for $29.99/lb., shrimp for $15.99/lb. and crawfish for $7.99/lb. I guess you can figure out the Rolls Royce, Lexus and Chevy of the seafood world. I reviewed their menu and settled on some shrimp fried rice and Cajun fries. I struck up a conversation with a couple at the table next to me. They were enjoying a platter full of crawfish. They invited me to sample some and I did. It was awfully messy and it seemed like they were difficult to eat without much meat as a reward. They were spicy! Outside the restaurant I could see people were lining up for a parade. I inquired about the details. The parade would be beginning at 5:30 p.m. as part of the entire overall Mardi Gras celebration for the area. I was told there would be more than 70 floats. I got to thinking. I was going to bypass this huge once a year Mardi Gras celebration in order to attend a senior champ kart race? It is times like this that I raise questions about my very own hobby. From lunch I ventured over to the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum. This was a top ten attraction in Biloxi. I’m a big fan of museums that have films showcasing whatever their subject matter might be. Today there were two excellent films being shown. One focused on the seafood industry. The documentary interviewed lots of people now in their 80s and 90s who had worked in seafood factories of the greater Biloxi area back in the 1960s. The other film focused on the devastating hurricanes that have torn up the area most notably, Camille and Katrina. Following my museum tour I went on the better part of a 4-mile power walk. This is always a nice way to see the local area while getting in a little exercise as well. Remember, I need to cover at least 4 miles during each workout for a minimum of 250 days in order to meet one of my most important trackchasing goals. Why is exercise a part of my trackchasing goals? With all of the travel I do I need to make room for exercise while I am out on the trackchasing trail. The more I exercise the easier it is to do the travel that my hobby requires. THE RACING George County Motorsports Park – Lucedale, Mississippi A landmark track. Tonight I was seeing my 2,300th lifetime racetrack. Can you imagine collecting, seeing or doing anything 2,300 times? Not many people get the opportunity or take that opportunity. I’ve done both. Here’s a list of what I call my “century” tracks. SUMMARY OF “CENTURY” TRACKCHASING ACHIEVEMENTS # 1 – Peoria Speedway (Mt. Hawley), Peoria, Illinois – circa 1955 # 100 – Red River Valley Speedway, West Fargo, North Dakota (Sammy Swindell winner) – July 13, 1981 # 200 – Sumter Rebel Speedway, Sumter, South Carolina – March 28, 1992 # 300 – Brownstown Speedway, Brownstown, Indiana (Billy Moyer Jr. winner) – April 19, 1997 – # 400 – Barren County Speedway, Glasgow, Kentucky – October 1, 1999 # 500 – Freedom Raceway, Delevan, New York – July 27, 2001 # 600 – Trail-Way Speedway (figure 8 course), Hanover, Pennsylvania – July 20, 2002 # 700 – Thunder Alley Park, Evans Mills, New York – April 22, 2004 # 800 – Five Flags Speedway, Pensacola, Florida – December 3, 2004 # 900 – I-96 Speedway (inner oval), Lake Odessa, Michigan – July 15, 2005 # 1,000 – Auburndale Kartway, Auburndale, Florida – February 10, 2006 (Ed Esser joined in the celebration) # 1,100 – Cambridge Fair, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada – September 9, 2006 # 1,200 – Castrol Raceway, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – June 3, 2007 # 1,300 – Bira Circuit, Pattaya, Thailand – January 19, 2008 # 1,400 – Kemper Raceway, Kansas City, Missouri – December 20, 2008 # 1,500 – Glencoe Fairgrounds, Glencoe, Ontario, Canada – September 27, 2009 # 1,600 – 85 Speedway, Ennis, Texas – October 8, 2010 # 1,700 – Aylmer Fairgrounds (figure 8), Aylmer, Ontario, Canada – August 13, 2011 # 1,800 – Ancaster Fairgrounds (oval), Jerseyville, Ontario, Canada – September 20, 2012 # 1,900 – Jackson Speedway (inner oval), Jackson, Minnesota – August 30, 2013 # 2,000 – Reading Fairgrounds (oval), Leesport, Pennsylvania – August 4, 2014 # 2,100 – Le RPM Speedway (oval), Saint-Marcel-de-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada – June 6, 2015 # 2,200 – Tullyroan Oval (oval), Saint-Marcel-de-Dungannon, Northern Ireland – March 26, 2016 # 2,300 – George County Motorsport Park (oval), Lucedale, Mississippi – February 25, 2017 When all of my afternoon touring activity in Biloxi was finished it was time to head back up to Lucedale, Mississippi. Lucedale is home to the George County Motorsports Park. Race time was scheduled for 7 p.m. I arrived a few minutes before that time. It was totally dark when I pulled into the parking lot of the raceway. They were all kinds of pricing options based upon your preference for the grandstands or pit area, your military background as well as your age. I chose the grandstand senior admission rate of only five dollars. Pit passes were $15. I am happy to report that the program started on time. I’m going to call the track about 1/5 of a mile in distance. It was set up very much like a traditional oval short track as opposed to it being a “kart” track. The pit area was located beyond turn two. There was a small concession stand selling traditional race track food. I never did see where the restrooms were located. The track had advertised 600 cc micro-sprints along with senior champ karts. There were several divisions of flat parts and a couple of racing lawnmower groups. The track featured an announcer who informed the crowd over a PA system that could easily be heard. However from time to time there were extensive periods of silence. I didn’t know if the electrical system was causing them problems or watt (get it?). I sat in the top row of the five-row grandstand just before the racers entered turn one. A long-haul trucker from Florida, on his way to Texas, sat down next to me. My plan was to listen to the UCLA – Arizona basketball game on SiriusXM satellite radio while I watched the races. However the PA system and the sound of the racing engines made that difficult. I finally gave up on listening to the game and just enjoyed the company of my new truck driving friend. I enjoy listening to people’s perspective about their various occupations. The driver told me all about being “on the clock”. He said that once he started driving he had 14 hours to drive as much as but not more than 11 hours. The man seemed to be about my age. However, I learned he had only been driving truck for four years. He had retired from the county and was looking for something else to do. He did offer one piece of trucker advice. You can take this one to the bank. He told me that when you see a highway rest area and you’re even thinking about going to the bathroom you had better stop. You never know when the next rest area is going to come and driving a 53-foot tractor/trailer limits your flexibility! Of course, being a long-haul driver myself, I knew where he was coming from with that advice. I thought about mentioning my strategy with a Wendy’s to go cup but thought better of it. Someone once told me that a good conversationalist listens more than he/she talks. I am amazed that when I meet new people like this that they ask so few questions of me. For the most part I don’t mind that. I like asking questions of my new acquaintances and then just sitting back and listening to what they have to say. Most of the racing tonight was for flat kart classes. I was surprised at the number of spin outs. These spins generated a large number of yellow flags. Without the aid of announcer it was difficult to know which classes were which. There were two caged kart races. It appeared that these might be different classes based upon the engine sounds. They could have all been in one class or they might’ve been two separate divisions of champ karts. Without an announcer or race line-up it can be hard to tell. The first champ kart group had four or five competitors. The second champ kart race had six or seven racers. Following the champ karts a couple of racing lawnmower groups of just three and two competitors respectively raced. It was a cool night for racing. I had my stocking cap, my heaviest winter gloves and even hand warmers left over from last week’s ice racing. It wasn’t terribly cold but was definitely coolish with temperatures probably in the low to mid 50s. AFTER THE RACES After having been at the track for two hours and seen the senior champ karts race I headed for the exit. My hotel was just 6 miles from the racetrack. My motivation for getting back to the hotel was simple. I wanted to see the last few minutes of the UCLA basketball game. I was able to do just that and watch the #5 rated UCLA Bruins defeat the hated #4 Arizona Wildcats in Tucson. That should move UCLA up in the rankings. Following the basketball game I made a quick call to Carol. She will be joining me for a Far West trackchasing trip next weekend. Then I made a late night stop at the Waffle House. This was my first Waffle House visit of the trip. A waffle and grits was the perfect nightcap following a very full day of some diverse activities. Mississippi The Magnolia state This evening I saw my 14th lifetime track in the Magnolia state, yes the Magnolia state. Ed Esser leads here with 22 tracks. By the end of the weekend I’ll be tied for third place in Mississippi. I’ve seen 14 or more tracks in 135 separate states. No one can beat that stat. 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 Mississippi sayings: Quit being ugly At first glance, this phrase seems extremely rude but if someone in Mississippi says this to you don’t fret. They’re not referring to your looks rather they’re letting you know to change your attitude because it’s, well, ugly. 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 20 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 to see the video production from the racing action today. 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. Mardi Gras plus racing from the George County Motorsports Park 
