Greetings from La Guadeloupe, Quebec, Canada
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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La Guadeloupe Dirt Track – dirt road course
Lifetime Track #2,098
THE EVENT ON THE WAY TO THE RACES Drive….then drive some more. A big part of today was going to be spent driving. Driving is almost always a major aspect of my trackchasing day. I think I would have loved the life of an over the road trucker. My iPhone alarm woke me from a dead sleep at 7:45 a.m. I was housed in the Howard Johnson’s in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. Whenever my alarm wakes me up from sleep I know that I could’ve slept longer if not interrupted. No, this isn’t rocket science is it. By the way my iPhone has replaced my gold Rolex presidential model watch and my portable alarm clock….among so many other things. 11 hours of driving would yield some very good trackchasing results. Today’s plan calls for a four-hour drive to my afternoon race. Then it will be nearly a three-hour drive to my evening event. Finally following tonight’s racing I would have a four-hour drive in order to be well positioned for a 10 a.m. start on Sunday morning. If you add up those numbers you’ll see I was planning to drive 11 hours today. The entire “budget” for my three-day car rental is 24 hours of driving. Luckily I enjoy driving! This flying trackchaser does something else….he drives. Throughout my career I’ve been known as a flying trackchaser. That is true. Other trackchasers rarely fly to their events. However once I land at the airport I’m going to need a rental car. Then I become a “driving” trackchaser. My situation truly is different. Most of the top trackchasers have easily seen all of the tracks within a day’s drive of their home. I live in Southern California. My situation is a bit different. Don’t drive west, south or east! If I drive 100 yards to the west my car would be in the Pacific Ocean. If I drive 74 miles to the south my car would be in Tijuana, Mexico and likely be stolen soon. If I drive 15 miles to the east I would be in both mountains and deserts. There would be virtually no racetracks in any of these directions. If I were to drive north it would not be much better. I might find a few tracks in that direction but they were knocked off years ago. The net net of it is there just aren’t very many tracks close to where I live. Yes, long ago I saw all of the those tracks. So if I want to be a world-class trackchaser I’m going to have to leave the Pacific time zone. The real secret. However, here’s my real secret. When I fly into one city or another from a trackchasing point of view I can act as if I live in that city. That’s right. If I fly into Omaha, Nebraska on a Friday afternoon it’s as if I’m a Nebraska Cornhusker in the blink of an eye! Then all of a sudden there are tens of tracks within a five-hour driving radius of my location. Flying into a faraway location and then acting like a “local” has been my trackchasing lifeline for years. THE RACING La Guadeloupe Dirt Track – La Guadeloupe, Quebec, Canada Not Nebraska. Of course I was not in Nebraska today. I was in Canada. Did you know that nearly 15% of all of my tracks have been seen in 69 foreign countries? That percentage has remained constant for years. Today I would be making my 15th separate trip into the Canadian province of Quebec to trackchase. That seems like a lot of trips to Quebec. I would end up seeing my 30th, 31st and 32nd lifetime tracks here. This afternoon’s race called for me to come to the tiny town of La Guadeloupe, Quebec. It’s a small place with a population of just 1,787 Canadians. I was here for the “Courses de bazous” racing. French….only French. By the way French is spoken almost exclusively in Quebec. One would be hard-pressed to find many people who can or will speak English. I don’t speak French. I have a strategy for everything I do in life. Here’s my thinking on speaking foreign languages. Yes, it would be wonderful to be bi-lingual. However, long ago I developed a personal strategy of not wasting my time on things that would not yield the proper benefit. It was this strategy that got me through high school Spanish class with an overall average of about 71 (70 was passing). If I thought learning Spanish was worth it at the time I would now be one of the best Spanish speakers you know. I’ve been to more than 80 countries up to now. Most of those countries have a native language other than English. I didn’t starve to death in any of them. That’s the bar I set with regard to foreign languages. Would I starve to death if I didn’t know the language? Now you know why I am an English only speaker! Giving the proper credit. As far as I can remember I first learned about today’s race from Guy Smith. I like to give credit when I benefit from information provided by others. Good racing weather. Today was going to be sunny although coolish with temps in the low 60s. That was fine with me. I would simply wear a long sleeve pullover shirt and cargo shorts. The paddock area was a busy place. Today’s racing reminded me of a huge United Kingdom banger event. They had approximately 100 racers or more of the junk car variety. Don’t miss the photos. These cars were pitted all over the place. I had a choice of parking out on the highway or inside the paddock area. It would be a long walk if I parked along side the highway. I paid my $15 Canadian admission fee and drove directly into the paddock. If you go to a World Formula 1 race you won’t be parking your car in the paddock. However, this wasn’t F1 by a long shot. I parked my car in the overly crowed pit right next to a beat up junk car racer. I only hoped he would be careful when he entered and exited his spot! What kind of racetrack were we dealing with? Today’s racecourse was a flat dirt road course. I’m guessing it was about three quarters of a mile in length. The racing surface was sandy with lots of huge rocks. A high-energy animated announcer who spoke only French did all of the announcing. That was no problem for me. I was just there to observe the people places and things. It would have been nice to have known what the announcer was telling the crowd but it was not absolutely essential. I just wanted to get plenty of photos and video clips to share with you. That way you could see what I saw and have a feeling of having been there. I hung out at the track for about two hours. As is my practice I tried to explore every nook and cranny of the entire operation. I wanted to get my $15 Canadian admission price worth of entertainment and exploration. AFTER THE RACES When I had done that it was time to head over to the Le RPM Speedway. I’ll tell you more about that visit in my next report. It’s going to be special. I hope to see my 2,100th lifetime track at RPM. Quebec The La Belle province This afternoon I saw my 30th lifetime track in the La Belle province, yes the La Belle province. 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 Quebec sayings: Mon crisse de chien jappe sans cesse. My goddamn dog keeps on barking. QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Toronto, Ontario, Canada (YYZ) – 2,174 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Toronto Pearson International Airport – trip begins Whitby, Ontario, Canada Toronto Pearson International Airport – trip ends – 124 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Toronto Pearson International Airport – trip begins Whitby, Ontario, Canada Oswego, NY La Guadeloupe, Quebec, Canada TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Brooklin Fairgrounds – No charge Oswego Kartway at the Oswego Speedway – No charge La Guadeloupe Dirt Track – $15 Canadian 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 475 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 my trackchasing day: A fun day at the junk car races in Quebec 
