Greetings from Lincoln, Nebraska
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Lifetime Track #1,876
The last two days were big in the Trackchasing Tourist Attraction department…………….more in “Attractions”. Managing trackchasing strategy is pretty important in this hobby……………..more in “The Details” Public relations is an important part of this hobby……………..more in “The Details” Why worry, this race would be run ‘rain or shine’ right?……………..more in “Race Review” Just how long can my rainout free streak last?…………….more in “Race Review” I was seeing today’s racing event on a Thursday. With today being Wednesday I had no new track to visit. I checked and checked and could not find any place running in the United States today at a track that I had never seen. I didn’t care too much for that situation but it was reality. With a bit of free time on my hands, I spent the morning revising my travel plan for the last four days of this trip. Trackchasing strategy reared its head at every turn. First of all I planned to move out of the Nebraska/Kansas area and head toward North Dakota in a couple of days. I did this for two reasons. The primary reason was that in the future, without as much airline support, it will be easier to move into and out of Nebraska and Kansas than it will be North Dakota. Secondly the rain chances in the Omaha area on Friday were too high for my comfort. This new route would require changing rental car reservations but not cars. My friends over at National Car Rental car gave me my current full-sized Hyundai Sonata for just $8.28 for the two days. This even included it being a one-way rental! You cannot beat sponsorship in trackchasing. I could only entertain this plan because I found a flight leaving Grand Forks, North Dakota next Sunday that would take me into Ohio. Why go to Ohio when I had tracks to see in Nebraska and Kansas? It’s all about National Geographic Diversity points! On the hotel front I would need a place for the next two nights in the greater Omaha area. First I checked “Bidding for travel”. They would provide information I needed to successfully bid on Priceline. What did I come up? I got the Marriott Omaha for $55 a night. What was the Marriott’s best rate when checking their website? $184 per night!. Is it no wonder that the Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers cannot keep up with me? My advantage is that I know how to use technology to create cost efficiencies. I use this advantage to buy good things (Marriott) cheap ($55). I just hope my fellow competitors don’t get bed bugs in the places they have to stay. With my work done for the morning I rolled over and slept a little longer. That’s what any retiree worth his salt would do. Early this afternoon I would be acting on a Paul Weisel Trackchasing Tourist Attraction recommendation. More on that later. Public relations is important in this hobby. As you may have seen in the past, Randy Lewis Racing has a rather robust public relations department. I am frequently called upon to do newspaper and radio interviews (and some TV) regarding my unusual hobby. Members of the media seem to like the “human interest” side of the story. Much of the coverage centers on “can you believe this guy does this!”. Tonight I pulled into the Lancaster Events Center and was directed to park in a roughly graded dirt parking lot. I had asked the ticket seller ($3 to park and $2 to enter the fair) where the figure 8 track was located. He didn’t know. I chalk that lack of knowledge up to “volunteer” help. When stuff is free you get what you pay for. I would soon find out I was parked a LONG way from the track. Oh well, it would be good exercise to hoof it over to the grandstands of the figure 8 track. Off I went. It wasn’t long before a fellow game up in a golf cart and asked if I needed a ride. Of course, I did. Have I ever mentioned that the folks from Nebraska are the nicest people in the country (along with people from Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota – They are “NIMS” people.) They’ve even (apparently) created their own university, NIMS University in India. Google it. The man giving me the ride was named Scott. Scott asked me if I had brought my umbrella. I told him I had not. It was not going to rain until at least 10 p.m. I told him. My iPhone weather app never lies. Weather.com was saying there was a zero percent chance of rain until 10 p.m. Scott smiled contently at me. Did that mean he didn’t have an iPhone or he didn’t think a California guy would know when it was going to rain in Nebraska? Scott sensed I “wasn’t from around here”. I get that a lot in my travels. It’s as if I have a sign on my forehead that reads “I ain’t from around these parts”. How can that be? Nevertheless, in the space of our 2-3 minute ride the conversation turned to my hobby of trackchasing. Yep, that really happened. Scott became interested quickly. You see he works for the CBS TV affiliate, KOLN Channel 10, in Lincoln, Nebraska. I guess he could sense a good story in the making. While we were still riding in the golf kart he made a phone call back to the studio. On short notice could they get a reporter out here to do a story on a trackchaser who had found his way to Nebraska? Alas, at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night no one was available. Scott apologized and gave me his card. “Call me anytime and we’ll try to do a story on your hobby of trackchasing. It sounds like fun and it sounds like it’s expensive,” he told me. By the way, Scott was right about the umbrella. At precisely 7:52 p.m. it began to rain…hard. More on that outcome in “Race Review”. 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. This was special. I enjoy car museums. I probably enjoy race car museums just a little bit more than a regular car museum. It would likely be inaccurate to classify the Museum of American Speedway as JUST a racecar museum. It’s so much more. The museum was founded in 1992 and encompasses more than 135,000 square feet. Although most of the museum is devoted to racing machines there are some fantastic collections of other items. These include guitars, lunch boxes (yes, lunch boxes) and all kinds of children’s push toys and wagons. I won’t take your time to tell you much more. I’ve created a new section on my website, titled “Museums”. It’s behind the “News and Updates” tab. You can also use my site’s search function (it works very well). Simply type in “Special Report” and you see my car museum info and lots of other “special” things. If you get to Lincoln don’t pass up the Museum of American Speedway. They only do one tour each day so don’t be late. Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium – Omaha, Nebraska This was something to see. According to www.budgettravel.com the Henry Doorly Zoo is the #1 ranked zoo in the U.S.A. Admission for me was $14 U.S. The St. Louis Zoo ranks second in the U.S. and everyone gets in free there. The San Diego Zoo ranks sixth (I thought it would have been higher) and they charge patrons $42 to get into their zoo. Yes, California can be and is an expensive place to live. According to www.americanlivewire.com the Henry Doorly Zoo ranks #3 and the San Diego Zoo is first. Whatever it’s overall rank I knew I was seeing a first class operation. I had a little more than two hours to see all I could see. It was warm and humid. The time I had would be more than enough for me in this weather. This zoo is not like most zoos I have been too. It is really a huge park. Rather than take your time to tell what I saw I will simply provide photos and a video. I think you will enjoy both. If you like zoos and you get to Omaha you won’t want to pass up the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL Hartland BBQ – Omaha, Nebraska Back in the day I rarely passed up a BBQ joint. However with waistlines the way they are nowadays I can’t go “BBQ eatin” as often as I would like. However, when Yelp! recommended the Hartland BBQ restaurant in Omaha I was all over that idea. This is a single outlet restaurant not a chain. In 2013 they were voted Omaha’s best BBQ. You can’t go wrong with an endorsement like that. Yelp! gives it a 4.5 star rating over 67 reviews. Here’s a sample of one of the reviews: “Review #200… I was waiting for something truly special for this review.
This place truly, is a special place. I live in Phoenix, not known for it’s BBQ, so one thing I had to do in the midwest was have decent BBQ, and after a quick yelp search, I was led to Hartland BBQ. When you pull up in the parking lot, it smells delicious, and they have a huge smoker outside. Inside, it is very clean, and the staff is beyond friendly… this is a HUGE point with me. There are no attitudes here, just friendly, eager to help you people.
I told them it was my first time and they gave me small samples of the pork, brisket, and chicken. I was pretty sure the brisket and pork were the best things I’d ever tasted, so I got a brisket dinner. It was delicious. The beans were interesting, with a few fruits and veggies thrown in there. Cornbread was among the best I can remember, as there is just something about a sugary sweet glazy layer on top of the bread that makes it amazing. The brisket itself was smoky, tender, and flat out delicious, though I enjoyed the pork a little more during another visit. The pork is just fall apart tender and has a little smoky, little sweet, little salty taste to it. I realize that I have, before Hartland, NEVER had real BBQ. NEVER.” It’s Randy again…..Folks, I’ve had my share of BBQ. I have never had baked beans as good as what I was served at Hartland’s. The corn bread was excellent and the quality and portions of the pork ribs I had was great. I will definitely be back to this place the next time my plane lands in Omaha. Super Taco – Lincoln, Nebraska This somewhat generically named Mexican eatery gained a 4.5 star rating from 28 Yelp! reviewers. That meant the place was good. I had time before tonight’s racing to stop in and I did. I still can’t get over a trackchaser who once told me his favorite Mexican restaurant was Taco Bell. Another chaser orders only “fish and chips” when he visits a seafood restaurant. Alas, many (most?) trackchasers are not known for their culinary acumen. When I entered the restaurant I noticed one thing that pretty well guaranteed the place would be good. They had two TVs and they were both turned to a Spanish language soap opera. That meant the place was “authentic”. The Midwest used to be a vast wasteland for Mexican food. When I think about it maybe Taco Bell WAS the best Mexican restaurant 15 years ago in these parts. Not anymore. Hispanics are showing up all over the country and specifically in what use to be “lily white” Midwestern towns. They are bringing with them a very strong work ethic and some very tasty restaurant menus. Tonight’s meal was excellent. I went with the shrimp fajitas. The refried beans were white rather than the normal grey. The waitress did give me flour rather than the corn tortillas I ordered. Maybe that’s because she knows I like flour tortillas better but order corn tortillas to save on calories. The service was excellent. Every time I asked for something it came my way quickly. A quick look at my “Lose It” app told me I could afford dessert. I selected the flan. However, they were out of flan. Would I like to try a “flan type cake with chocolate on the bottom? Would I like whip cream all over it”? Yes. Yes. Yes. It was super delicious. Folks I’m into this trackchasing stuff for the experience. The racing provides that on one level. Then Trackchasing Tourist Attractions and eating in special places like “Super Taco” take my overall experience to a totally different level. I’m very lucky to get to do what I do. Would the rain hold off? Racing was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Like all good Midwesterners normally behave, they started on time with the singing of the national anthem. Off the north (of course my iPhone has a compass app – would you have thought it did not?) some really black clouds were forming. It doesn’t get dark around here until 9 p.m. at this time of year. It looked as if it were midnight to the north! Don’t be misled by photos, which appear to make the skies lighter than they actually were. It was DARK! Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan have the best “big car” aka V-8 stock car figure 8 racing of anywhere in the country. Some twelve of my 38 Nebraska tracks are of the figure 8 variety. Tonight’s racing was done on a large moist BLACK dirt flat figure 8 track. You won’t find dirt any blacker than in these parts of the country. Fans looked on from several sets of brand new aluminum grandstands. However, the main area directly across from the “X” of the figure 8 track was left open for a walkway and concession stand. This meant that some of the prime real estate for fan seating was missing. That didn’t seem like good planning. The P.A. system was good and the announcer had a strong voice. However, he didn’t make much of an effort to tell us about the racing program. He did mention we were seeing two classes race. Beyond that I didn’t know, after a while, if I was seeing heat races, consolation races or even what class was on the track. I had nothing to worry about. This race was run ‘rain or shine’. However, the announcer was adamant on one point. This was a “rain or shine” event. He admitted there would be no “shining” tonight. This group would race in the rain he told us. One of my biggest faults is I have a strong sense in believing what people tell me. If someone tells me something I take it to the bank. However, if I get to the bank and what I’ve been told isn’t true one of my OTHER biggest faults takes over. At that point the individual who gave me the bad info is on my permanent #$%^# list. Folks, don’t get me wrong. If someone makes an innocent mistake I won’t hold that against him or her. If someone simply doesn’t really know what they are talking about I also won’t hold that against them in the honesty department but it might go down against them in the intelligence area. Regarding the honesty requirement just ask Guy Smith, trackchasing commissioner where he stands. Off to the north, where the big black clouds were, it began to produce a good deal of lightning. I know that promoters are really scared of lightning. Every year a few fans get killed by lightning. Promoters will cancel or postpone a racing show if that stuff is in the area. Tonight’s figure 8 racing was very good. They really “race” with these big cars. Contact is frowned upon. It’s not a demo derby they are racing. In 6-8 races there was virtually no collisions where the course crosses over itself. This point is called the “X” in figure 8 parlance. When I entered the fairgrounds it was a hot and humid 89 degrees. At about 7:50 p.m. the temperature began to drop precipitously and the wind started to blow. I’ve had this experience below. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what is likely to come next. At this point, some of the smarter fans began to leave their seats and head to the parking lot. I guess I wasn’t one of the smarter fans. It was also at this juncture that I remembered I was parked more than a half-mile from the grandstands. Ouch! The announcer kept reminding us they would race rain or shine and thanked the fans for hanging in there with them. When the first rain drops began to fall they were big and they made huge blotches on the concrete. This was a signal to me that I needed to head for my car. There was zero shelter from the rain anywhere near the grandstands. As I “beat feet” out of the grandstand area I spotted another fair volunteer with a golf cart. Not being bashful I asked for a ride. Within three minutes as I was being soaked by the cold rain I was at the back of my rental car. I hopped in and drove back over to the grandstands area. There was a huge asphalt parking area for the racetrack grandstands. I wish I had parked there to begin with. It was beginning to rain hard now. I was safely in my car and for the most part dry. Now it was time to be entertained by the people fleeing the grandstand area in a real downpour. One woman’s umbrella inverted itself in the strong winds. The rain was as bad as what I had experienced near Pratt, Kansas a couple of days ago. I was told they got seven inches of rain out of that one. I believe it. You can view the video of the fans leaving the grandstand like rats evacuating a sinking ship. Some people got very wet. After a while they didn’t seem to care too much! While all this was going on, I could still hear the racing engines at full song. I made a pact with myself to go back in and watch the rest of the races when the rain subsided. However, just 25 minutes after it began to rain hard ALL of the remaining fans left the grandstand area. The show had been cancelled. So much for “rain or shine”! Nevertheless, I had seen “competitive racing”. That is what the trackchasing rules call for when a trackchaser counts a track. Actually I had seen nearly an hour of racing which included 6-8 events. I came within about 50 minutes of having my record-breaking “trackchasing rain-free” streak broken. Currently, that streak stands at 791 days and 219 tracks. That record will never be broken. As a matter of fact, I don’t think there’s another trackchaser who could document going HALF as long as this streak of no cancellations has run. I’ve been lucky and I’ve made good plans to avoid questionable weather. By the way, did I fault the announcer for flaunting a “rain or shine” event and then having it canceled? Not really. In the business that’s called “puffing”. You can SAY you have the best restaurant or the best car dealership. Do you? That would be difficult to objectively prove wouldn’t it. That’s why it’s called puffing. The announcer probably didn’t make the call to cancel the racing. He’s employed to be positive and entertain the fans. I’m going to give him a pass and write it off to the “euphoria” of the moment when he made his the “show will go on” comments. Tonight I was lucky. There were other tracks with a better weather forecast that I could have gone too. However, that would have required a plane ride or two. I’ve been gone nine days on this trip. I don’t expect to ride on another plane until it’s time to return home to sunny southern California.
TRAVEL ITINERARY Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,232 miles Dallas, TX (DFW) – Nashville, TN – 630 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Nashville International Airport – trip begins Bowling Green, KY Indianapolis International Airport – 315 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Indianapolis International Airport – trip begins Rossburg, OH Peoria, IL Urbana, IL Indianapolis International Airport – 778 miles AIRPLANE Indianapolis, IN (IND) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 177 miles Chicago, IL (ORD) – Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) – 461 miles RENTAL CAR #3 Sioux Falls Regional Airport – trip begins Luverne, MN Eppley Field (Omaha) – 252 miles RENTAL CAR #4 Eppley Field (Omaha) – trip begins Arlington, NE Liberal, KS Beloit, KS Lincoln, NE TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Southern Kentucky Fairgrounds – $13 Eldora Speedway – $40 (not trackchasing expense) Peoria Speedway – $13 (not trackchasing expense) Champaign County Fairgrounds – Complimentary Rock County Speedway – $9 Washington County Fairgrounds – $9 Liberal Fairgrounds Speedway – $10 Solomon Valley Raceway – $18 Lancaster Events Center – $13 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 350 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,876 Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
It’s time well spent managing trackchasing strategy.
Trying to think ahead.
Is it no wonder?
I enjoy meeting new people.
It wasn’t going to rain….was it?
Museum of American Speed – Lincoln, Nebraska
They do it better here.
They get some weather back here 12 months a year.
We’re racing.
It was time to make a hasty exit.
Like rats leaving a sinking ship.
How much longer can this streak last?
I can understand ‘puffing’.
AIRPLANE