Greetings from Gimli, Manitoba, Canada
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Lake Winnipeg – Gimli – Ice Track
Ice road course
Lifetime Track #2,199
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 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. I’ll try my best to respond. Thanks! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES SUNDAY Free Snickers. This was going to be a very busy Sunday. After you’ve read everything I’ve written about today you can decide for yourself about that. If you don’t believe it was a most busy Sunday I’ll buy you a Snickers the next time we meet. The longest day. Technically, my “day” started in Minneapolis at about 11 p.m. Saturday night. I fly into the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport all the time. I’ll guess I’ve flown in or out of there nearly 500 times. Some 99.9% of the time I land in the Lindbergh terminal. That’s terminal 1. Only four airlines fly into the Humphrey terminal or terminal 2. Those are Condor, Icelandic Air, Southwest and Sun Country. I rarely fly on any of these airlines. However, tonight I was coming into MSP on Southwest Airlines. Trying to avoid a big hassle. There are rental car pick up areas for each of the two terminals. My “default” MSP rental car pickup area is terminal 1. I had forgotten that Southwest lands in terminal 2. The last time I tried to pick up my rental car in terminal 2 when they were expecting me in terminal 1 there was a big hassle. I wanted to avoid that tonight. I’m not sure I did. It is not very convenient to get from one terminal to the other at MSP. This may be the most INCONVIENIENT airport to do such a thing. I would have to take a light rail train from one terminal to the other. As they say in life, “If it’s not one thing it’s another”. I missed the first train by 30 seconds and had to wait 20 minutes for another. As you can see it wasn’t very busy at this hour. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than approval. Nevertheless, at about 11:30 p.m. I was able to pick up a brand new Nissan Altima. This wasn’t exactly the car I had rented on line. I had rented an economy car. The Altima was a full-sized car. I was hoping I could “skate” past the gate agent at exit. I wanted a nice car to drive to Canada. I’ll end up dropping this rental car in Winnipeg, Manitoba tomorrow afternoon. I did something I don’t like to do. I asked for approval. Normally, I think that’s a dumb thing to do. Why? I believe it’s better to ask for forgiveness than approval. I asked the agent, “You’ve got me returning this car to Winnipeg right?” I had to ask. I couldn’t have them thinking I was returning this car to Minneapolis when I was returning it to Canada. It wasn’t exactly the car class I had reserved either. The agent had to “look me up in the system” before he could confirm everything. He did. I was good to go in an upgraded car! Recall that Saturday had been day #2 of my three-day “pre-eating pre-colonoscopy” doctor prescribed eating plan. The highlight of my eating for the day had been three scrambled eggs and a piece of country ham at the Waffle House. The rest of my caloric intake had been a can of Vienna sausages and a couple of knife’s full of Skippy creamy peanut butter. Oh yes, I had about seven slices of cheddar cheese, which was melting rapidly inside the car while I was at the races. Midnight….long drive. The driving distance from the Minneapolis airport to Gimli, Manitoba, site of today’s ice racing was 529 miles. Racing was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Canada. I was leaving the airport at midnight. I had a full ten hours to make the eight hour and eight minute drive! Wait. Bonsai run. I was only a few miles out of the airport when I decided to make a bonsai convenience store run. I needed some supplies to get me to my destination. What could I buy at past midnight in a convenience store that would be meet both my Atkins diet requirements and my colonoscopy prep needs? What a question huh? Too much information? I think I made an intelligent selection with my items. I bought a couple of 20-ounce bottles of Diet Mountain Dew. Then I bought three more cans of Vienna sausages to go with the six cans I already had in my bag. Finally, in a bold move, I bought an aerosol can of whipped cream. All of the above items had nearly nonexistent quantities of carbohydrates. The whipped cream had carbs but would still keep me under my goal for the day. That meant I met the Atkins diet requirement. Additionally all of these items were on the approved colonoscopy list. They were also very tasty to my palate even though they probably didn’t cover all of the major food groups. I did the math. It sounded like it would work. I was a bit concerned that my driving time was expected to be eight hours. I only had one bottle of 5-Hour Energy drink. Do the math. I decided to drive as long as I could until I got drowsy. Then I would use up that bottle 5-Hour Energy. The funny thing about Saturday the day I had just completed was I had already spent 45 minutes on a power walk. I covered 3 miles during that walk. Then with airports and walking around the race grounds, etc. I probably added another couple of miles. I had been out in the warm sun and wind. I had driven nearly 200 miles on Saturday after going to bed at 3 a.m. early Saturday morning. Burning the candle at both ends. By midnight tonight I felt like I had put in an entire day. I had. Nevertheless, I still had eight hours of driving in order to get up to the ice races in Manitoba by 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. I guess there’s a reason the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” must travel in teams. On the positive side of things I was able to “pair” my iPhone with the car’s audio system. From there I could listen to SiriusXM satellite radio generated by my iPhone as well as my podcasts that are on my iPhone. Now it was just a process of being patient, sitting back and traveling through the night. I spent nearly the first 10 hours of today driving to Minneapolis up to Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. My driving distance was a little greater than 500 miles. Not all that difficult. I actually thought the drive was going to be tougher. I drove through the night with only four 15-minute naps. Of course I was the beneficiary of a single dose of 5-Hour Energy drink – extra strength. My Canadian fuel strategy. I have a strategy regarding fuel when I trackchase in Canada. If I’m driving into the country I will fill up with gas just before I cross the border from the U.S. to Canada. At about 7 a.m. I reached Pembina, North Dakota. Pembina is only a couple miles south of the border. There I filled my tank to the brim with gasoline costing $1.79 U.S. per gallon. At the first gas station I saw in Canada fuel was priced at it was charging $0.85 Canadian per liter. With a conversion rate of one Canadian dollar for 72 American cents that translates to about $2.44 U.S. a gallon. That’s meant my fill-up of 17 gallons in the U.S. saved about $0.65 per gallon. That amounted to nearly $10 bill in savings by filling up in the U.S. I will be returning my car to the Winnipeg airport late this afternoon. However I won’t be driving that many kilometers in Canada. My Canadian fuel bill will be low. You might be asking yourself a couple of questions. You might be asking yourself a couple of questions about now. First, “Randy, why do you keep such close track of such minor expense details?” Secondly, “Why are you making such a great effort to travel from Florida to Manitoba, Canada to get in one more track at such a great travel inconvenience?” Those are two very good questions. Why keep track of minor expenses? I’ll answer the expense question first. I grew up poor. I didn’t know we were poor. Everybody in my neighborhood and town were just like us. Vienna sausages were a staple in my diet. Our house where my mother, sister and me lived was 672 square feet. It was built in 1938 by my grandfather. I lived there until I was 15 years old. That house last sold for $45,000 in 2003. My last new car purchase cost more than that. According to Zillow the house is worth $51,036 today. Here’s a link to that home from Zillow.. So how poor were we really? How poor were we? As a 14-year old I had asked a girl to a freshman high school dance. My mother would be driving us to the dance. The girl, Patty Murphy, was the daughter of the high school basketball coach. That’s right. I was always thinking ahead! They lived “up on Fondulac Drive, the ritzy area of my hometown of East Peoria, Illinois”. Our, 1954 Ford was old. The interior upholstery was all torn up in the back seat. We had to place a blanket over that mess for my date and me to sit comfortably. During my high school days “filling up” the car’s tank meant a dollar’s worth. That would take me all over town for about a week. Today, by some people’s standards, I might be considered wealthy. My indoor basketball court is bigger than the house I grew up in for the first fifteen years of my life. It helps to be good with numbers. I have always been “good with numbers”. I can compute the savings on very small purchases. I don’t might taking a little extra effort to save a little here or there. Will saving five dollars here and five dollars there make you wealthy? Probably not. But if you have the right kind of mindset, find a little good luck and work hard you probably can become wealthy. It worked for me. Oh, yeah. What was your second question? Oh, yeah. Why make the extra effort to go from Florida to Canada for a simple winter ice race? I could try to come back to Manitoba, Canada on a separate trip in the future. However, it would cost me more time and money in start up costs for a trip like that than it would by coming to Canada from Florida this weekend. I try to analyze things in as many ways as possible to make sure I’m making the most expedient cost-effective decisions. Chatty. I encountered a rather inquisitive Canadian border patrol officer when I crossed into Manitoba. He must have asked me fifteen questions. It’s always the little confusing to these officers to come across a person living in California, driving a car with Minnesota license plates who spent yesterday in Florida and was coming all this way to see an ice race in Canada. He also wanted to know where I was thirty-six hours ago and where I would be going tomorrow. Yes he was an inquisitive gentleman. As I was about to drive away he noticed I was wearing shorts. “You’re going to have to switch to long pants for ice racing!” he smilingly said. Would I? Not at all impressed. I was not impressed with the state of Canadian roads. Despite there not being all that much snow in places the roads were terrible. This was similar to what I encountered back a couple of weeks ago in Quebec. I’m not sure why they’re not plowing the roads better. I had an idea…. I had the idea of ice trackchasing in the back of my mind when I came to Florida on Thursday. However I was not all that certain that I could even make it to Canada in time for the races. Therefore I didn’t bring all of my ice racing gear along. With an overflowing rolling travel bag as it was I didn’t bring my long underwear or my waterproof boots. Today’s temperature was going to be about 35°F. With a blue sky and sunshine the roads were starting to get slushy in spots. I couldn’t afford to get my one and only pair of shoes wet. That would make for a very uncomfortable rest of the trip. This is easy to do. As I got closer and closer to my destination of Gimli, Manitoba I saw more and more cars that had slid off the road in the past day or so. One car was actually on its roof in the snow. I don’t see that very often. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to venture out onto the ice to see the races or not. Sometimes the ice racing can be viewed from the shore. Often times I can actually watch the races from the comfort of my rental car. If I did go out onto the ice I really hoped it would not be slushy with puddles of water all over. That was the case two weeks ago in Quebec. At the time I had my waterproof boots so water and slush was not a problem. If I went onto the ice today I would be using my ice cleats that would easily slip over my sized 14 Nike red and black athletic shoes. THE RACING Lake Winnipeg Ice Track – Gimli, Manitoba, Canada I made it! I pulled onto frozen Lake Winnipeg at 9:30 a.m. this morning. About ten ice racing cars were already on the ice. I had covered an eight-hour drive in about nine and one-half hours. My primary stops were four 15-minute naps and some comfort priorities. Yes, I had to pee from time to time. All of the spectator viewing would be done on the frozen lake. Fortunately virtually all of the lake was snow-covered. This made the footing so much better than if it had simply been glare ice. A very large area for spectators has been plowed. I picked a good spot, with the sun behind me, which provided some really good viewing of the ice racing action. Back to Manitoba….again. There was no admission charge for spectators to watch the races today. Most of the time at ice races there is no spectator fee. This was my fourth ice track I’ve seen that has been sanctioned by Winnipeg Sports Car Club. I hoped to reunite with my buddy and race contact Hamish Donaldson on the ice today. I would watch several races from the spectator area and then pull my car into the paddock. There I can be up close and personal with the racecars and possibly track down Hamish. There is always something I have never seen before. There was no PA system or any concession stands. That is not unusual for ice racing. There was an all-time first however. It seems like there’s always an all-time first at every track I visit. That’s amazing to me considering I’ve seen nearly 2,200 tracks. Today’s porta potty was wearing an insulated “jacket”. Yes, it looked as if it was wearing a parka. I had never ever seen that before. Just good ice racing. There was a good field of very competitive good looking ice racers. The first six races on the itinerary were for “rubber to ice” cars. Rubber to ice simply means the tires did not have studs of any kind. You might be surprised at how good the grip is with no studs on a rough ice track. I’ve raced in a few ice races and know this from experience. Road racing. Today’s track was plowed in a road course configuration. Cars raced counterclockwise. I’m guessing the track was nearly a mile long. The rubber to ice races were run over a distance of 5-6 laps. When one race was finished the cars would pull into the paddock area for about 10 minutes. Soon they were out on the track again for another race. Tracks and “Ice Points”. I have see ice racing at 76 tracks after today. I have accumulated 92 “ice points”. Of course an ice point is given for every ice track I have seen. One point is also awarded for every state, province and individual country where I have seen ice racing. No other trackchaser has seen as many ice tracks or attained as many ice racing points. For the past few years I’ve held the title as “World’s #1 ice Trackchaser.” I’m proud of that considering I trackchase out of the sunny seaside village of San Clemente, California. One of the worst ice racing seasons on record. With the warmer than normal “El Nino” winter so many ice racing locations have had problems holding their races. This might be one of the worst, or maybe the worst, ever ice racing season. Some ice racing organizations have not held a single event this year. Their venues have not produced enough ice. A good conclusion to my 2016 ice racing season. Nevertheless I was able to see five ice tracks in 2016. Four of them were in Canada. One was in Wisconsin. I’m not sure any other trackchaser that posts their results saw racing at more than one ice track this year. My ice racing “career” began 15 years ago. My ice racing “career” began in Quebec, Canada back in 2001. Today might have been the most comfortable weather-wise. It was about 35°F with no wind, a clear sky and bright sun. Due to space limitations I had not brought my full complement of ice racing gear. The funny thing was I didn’t use a single piece of the ice racing apparel I DID bring to today’s race. Today I wore exactly what I wore yesterday for the afternoon racing in Palatka, Florida. From top to bottom that was simply a t-shirt with a light weight long sleeve pullover, cargo shorts, black ankle socks and my red and black Nike athletic shoes. No, I did not look like I was around here. That is not unusual. My lifestyle is much different than most people I run into. There were several friendly Canadians who laughed and smiled and said, “You think it’s summer already? “ Let’s visit the paddock. After watching several races from the spectator area it looked as if the cars were taking a break. This was my opportunity to drive into the paddock area, get a close-up look at the racing machines and find my friend Hamish. Hamish and I communicate periodically and have done so for years. He’s always on the lookout for new trackchasing opportunities for me up his way in Canada. What’s a “togue?” I had to ask around to find him. One of the track workers told me he was wearing a pink “togue”. I had no idea what, in this context, a togue was. Frankly, I didn’t know what a togue was in ANY context. I was too embarrassed to ask for further explanation. I just started looking for any man wearing anything pink in the paddock area. There weren’t many. By the way this is what Wikipedia told me about “Togues”. “In Canada, tuque /ˈtuːk/ is the common name for a knitted winter hat, or watch cap (sometimes called a beanie in other parts of the world); the spelling “touque”, although not recognized by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is also sometimes seen in written English. The Canadian-English term was assimilated from Canadian-French tuque. Toque first appeared in writing around 1870. The fashion is said to have originated with the coureurs de bois, French and Métis fur traders, who kept their woollen nightcaps on for warmth during cold winter days. Such hats are known in other English-speaking countries by a variety of names, including beanie, watch cap or stocking cap; the terms tuque and toque are unique to Canada and northern areas of the United States close to the Canadian border.” Found him. It wasn’t long before I found a gentleman wearing a pink stocking cap. I guess a stocking cap is a toque. You learn something every day… if you listen. Hamish and I had a chance to spend about 15 minutes talking about his club and today’s ice racing. He is the former ice racing director for this group. Hamish now works on several different projects for the club. Winnipeg Sports Car Club. The Winnipeg Sports Car Club sanctions ice racing at several venues in and around Winnipeg. They also operate six major events at the Gimli Motorsports Park. Back in 2006 I saw an afternoon of racing at GMP. That track wound up being my 1,090th lifetime track to see. By the way I moved into the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” position with track #1,040 in 2006. That was at the Milwaukee Mile – Road Course on May 21, 2006. Hamish told me the club had spent $4,000 Canadian on radios. This would allow the workers to better communicate with each other. Those radios made for a more efficient program and a safer environment for the racers. We also talked about club insurance, the cost of the porta potties and many other things. Remember, if it’s not one thing it’s another. There’s a lot that goes into running these races. I suspect I’ll be back up here one of these days. The club races at new venues from time to time. Considering their northern location they do much better than groups trying to race to their south with good ice. AFTER THE RACES Amazing but true. With just four 15-minute naps last night, an eight-hour drive and a bottle of 5-Hour Energy drink I was beginning to drag just a little bit. I was happy I elected to fly back to Minneapolis (MSP) from Winnipeg (YWG) rather than rent a car. Facing another eight-hour drive would have been difficult. It would have also gotten me back to San Clemente on Monday. By flying from YWG to MSP after the races I might even get back to SoCal tonight. I found that thought rather amazing. It’s been another interesting trackchasing weekend. The advance plan had me leaving on early Thursday morning. I expected to return on Monday at about noon. You remember “ol Diz” right? I’m confident that no other trackchaser comes anywhere close to making the commitment to this hobby that I do. As Dizzy Dean used to say, you know Dizzy right, “It’s not bragging if it’s true or you can do it.” That makes all the sense in the world to me. By about 2 p.m. I was on the road again. I did make a brief stop out at the Gimli Motorsports Park road course. I couldn’t see much as the place was snow-covered. I did get a photo of the track sign. The plan said I would get home on Monday. I was now headed to the Winnipeg airport for my flight over to Minneapolis, Minnesota. A 7 a.m. Monday morning flight was part of the plan to get me from MSP to LAX. I figured I could sleep overnight in the Minneapolis airport. It wouldn’t be worth getting a hotel if I had to get up at 5 a.m. Minneapolis time to be ready for the 7 a.m. flight. The trip took my mind off what was coming up next. Recall I told you earlier in the trip that for Friday, Saturday and today Sunday I was eating all of the food required and recommended on the colonoscopy prep list. I was overlaying that list with my list for the Atkins diet program. That meant I was mainly eating meat and cheese for the past several days. Tomorrow, Monday, I can eat no solid foods. I hope I have enough energy to run through airports like I normally do without any solid food! Tuesday noon. Be there. Tuesday at about noon is my procedure time. It’ll be nice to have that behind me (no pun intended!!!). I like to take preventative measures with my health care. The whole colonoscopy prep idea was not something I was looking forward too but something that must be done for good health. As always I recommend that everyone of my readers in the proper age range talk to their doctor about this. From this point it was all about getting my skinny fanny home in time for that colonoscopy procedure. Would you take the trip I did from Thursday through Sunday or Monday if you had this type of procedure scheduled at noon on Tuesday? No, I guess you wouldn’t. But I did. I enjoy stuffing ten pounds of taters in a five-pound sack. Flying home from a foreign country. When I got back to the Winnipeg airport everything was going well. I knew the flight was lightly booked. I would get on easily. I was able to use the U.S. government’s “Global Entry” system to re-enter the U.S. with less than the normal non-Global Entry hassle. The Canadian TSA folks tried to hassle me though. What seemed like a newer agent took all of my Vienna sausage cans, my 5-Hour Energy drink bottle and my unused hand warmers to his supervisor. He didn’t know if they were “allowed”. Wait. That was my supper he was taking away. He soon came back with all of my stuff. I was good to go. Everything was dumped back in the bag amongst a weekend’s worth of dirty clothes. Now that makes for an appetizing culinary situation. First class baby! I am happy to report I was rewarded with a first class seat on the flight down to Minneapolis. That’s always nice. Once I was back in Minneapolis I had two options. First, I could try for a late Sunday night flight back to Los Angeles. Traveling standby on a Sunday night is just about the most difficult time during the week. People are coming back from their weekend mini-vacations. Others are getting an early start on the work week. My second option was to simply find a quiet place to sleep in the airport. Minneapolis used to be my most favorite U.S. airport for an overnight sleep. However, they put a retail store in the location where I used to sleep! I haven’t had to stay overnight at MSP since that happened. It’s always worth giving it the college try. I decided to try for a flight back tonight. Why not? If I didn’t make it I would default back to option two. I made it! My seat was in the last row but I was the only person in my row. I watched an iTunes movie on my MacBook Pro. When I landed at LAX I had to stop at the Habit hamburger outlet in terminal 6. I wasn’t all that hungry. However, in just three hours, at midnight I would not be able to eat any solid food for the next 36 hours. I must tell you that on the 65-mile ride home from LAX to San Clemente it was all I could do to stay awake. The night before I had slept for one hour (in four 15-minute increments). Today I had been out on the ice in the sun, wind and fresh air. I had flown for five hours. However, I handle these situations better than most. I pulled into the driveway at nearly midnight. I would sleep in on Monday morning. On Tuesday I would complete my fifth lifetime colonoscopy. If everything turned out well with that I’ll be free from the procedure for another five years. Over fifty? Are you over 50 years of age? Are you current with your colonoscopies? If you answered “Yes” and “No” you better get off your behind and get to the doctor. In today’s USA Today there was a story about a 52-year old woman who was president of Columbia University. She was diagnosed with colon cancer last month. She died today. If I had to guess I’ll bet she never had a colonoscopy. Don’t be a statistic before your time. Editor’s note: I am happy to report my colonoscopy went smoothly. All checked out and I won’t have to do this again for five years. Manitoba The Land of 100,000 lakes province This afternoon I saw my 7th lifetime track in the Land of 100,000 Lakes province, yes the Land of 100,000 Lakes province. I’ve seen seven or more tracks in five of the ten Canadian provinces. No other trackchaser comes close to those results. 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 sayings: Manitoba: Canada’s Heart Beats QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Seattle, WA (SEA) – 958 miles Seattle, WA (SEA) – Atlanta, GA (ATL) – 2,201 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport – trip begins Lake City, FL Jacksonville International Airport – trip ends – 384 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Jacksonville International Airport – trip begins Palatka, FL Jacksonville International Airport – trip ends – 177 miles AIRPLANE Jacksonville, FL (JAX) – Atlanta, GA (ATL) – 270 miles Atlanta, GA (ATL) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 908 miles RENTAL CAR #3 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – trip begins Gimli, Manitoba, Canada Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport – trip ends – 594 miles AIRPLANE Winnipeg, Manitoba (YWG) – Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – 395 miles Minneapolis, MN (MSP) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 1,535 miles Total air miles – 6,267 (6 flights) Total rental car miles –1,155(3 cars) Total miles traveled on this trip – 7,422 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: All Tech Raceway – $12 Rodman Plantation – $20 Lake Winnipeg Ice Track – No charge Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $32 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 525 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 to see the “Video Plus” 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. See what I saw with today’s photo album from Jacksonville to Gimli and beyond 
2 comments
Rick, Thank you very much! Randy
Your best report so far Randy!!