Greetings from Rossburg, Ohio
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Little Eldora Speedway
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #2,309
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) – 2,309 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! FOREWORD This was a most complete and diverse trip. The diversity included the types of tracks I was seeing, their geographical locations and the racecars I was seeing. On Friday I saw southern stock car racing on a dirt oval in Georgia. Then Saturday afternoon I saw NASA road racing on a flat asphalt oval in Louisiana. Saturday night I was in Florida for some dirt road course racing with stingers, 4-cylinder stock cars. I capped off Saturday night with more dirt stock car racing but this time in Alabama. Now it was Sunday afternoon. I was set to see go-kart racing on an oval in Ohio! Yep. It was a very diverse weekend. ON THE WAY TO THE RACES SUNDAY For the second consecutive night I drove through most of the early morning hours and napped in the car periodically. I did stop this last night for two one-hour sessions. After sleeping in my car two nights ago I was pretty tired. Yes, I often times burn the candle at both ends. If you’re going to trackchase in Georgia on Friday night, and then Louisiana, Florida and Alabama on Saturday you will have a busy weekend. Now, I was off to Ohio on Sunday. I’m going to do my very best not to drive overnight for two consecutive nights in the future. It’s actually not so much the driving that it’s the issue. It’s the lack of sleep! Lack of sleep and lots of long-distance driving could make for disastrous results. I was planning to wrap up the trackchasing portion of this trip today in the tiny little burg of Rossburg, Ohio. Racing fans will immediately know that Rossburg is home to the famous Eldora Speedway. Folks it’s not all that easy to get from Loxley, Alabama, where I was last night at nearly 11 PM, up to the grounds of the Eldora Speedway for a projected 12:30 p.m. start today. However this is what I do. I did it today. The plan was to drive back to Atlanta, Georgia arriving at about five a.m. Then I would hop on a jet airplane from Atlanta to Indianapolis. Once Indianapolis I would rent a car. From Indy I would drive a couple of hours over to the Eldora Speedway. Yes, that was the plan. However some plans don’t work out like they were originally constructed on the drawing board. Today’s plan was going to require some modifications. I had checked the flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis yesterday. At that time there were plenty of seats open. I would make it on the standby basis easily. However, something overnight must have changed. Maybe another flight by another airline to Indianapolis canceled? I didn’t really know. As I investigated further at the gate itself I saw that I was last on the standby list of some 26 people. There were only six open seats. I was not going to make this flight to Indianapolis. The flights following this one wouldn’t get me to Eldora in time. What to do? I’ll tell you what I did know. If I couldn’t make some arrangements to get me to Eldora by 12:30 p.m. today then it would be better if I just hopped on a plane back to Southern California. That would be the plan of last resort. Before I put myself on a plane to Los Angeles I checked out the opportunities to fly to Columbus, Ohio and Dayton, Ohio. Luckily Atlanta is the major hub for Delta Airlines. They have zillions of flights going everywhere at all times a day. The flight going to Dayton, Ohio was exactly what I was looking for. It was leaving in about an hour from the time I checked it. That meant I would have time to buy my ticket and get over to the gate where my new flight would be leaving. There was an added benefit of flying into Dayton, Ohio. Dayton is only about an hour from the Little Eldora Speedway. My original flight, to Indianapolis, was going to be a two-hour drive. I was saving some time with the new plan. However, I couldn’t get home on a nonstop basis from Dayton to Los Angeles tomorrow. I could if I left Indianapolis tomorrow. There was just one problem. Rental car companies do not take kindly to you picking up in one place and dropping in another. Of course they can handle that situation. How do they handle it? They make the renter pay an outrageous sum. The normal one-way rental, on the cheapest basis, costs about $75-$100 per day. I’ve seen one-way rentals cost more than $200 per day. I try to bypass those one-way rip-off charges at every turn. Fortunately I have the National Car Rental Company as one of my trackchasing sponsors. They probably give me 20-25 free days every year. When I get a free day I use it to replace the expense of a one-way rental. That’s the most financially effective way to use the free days I’m given with my support from National Car Rental. Now I was all set. I got on the airplane flying from Atlanta to Dayton (above). It would get me there in plenty of time to see the racing at the Little Eldora Speedway in Rossburg Ohio. Then I would return the car to the Indianapolis airport. That way I could catch a flight early tomorrow morning, Monday, from Indianapolis back to Los Angeles. My original plan had been in jeopardy at one point in time this morning. However, some quick thinking and some equally efficient and effective technology saved the day. There really aren’t any trackchasers that have these capabilities. Over the years I’ve added tens of tracks when the situation called for quick thinking and the most current technology. I consider this one of my greatest strengths within the hobby of trackchasing. Once in Dayton I walked out to the National Car Rental garage and selected one of their big premium Chrysler 300 automobiles. I was only going to be driving about 150 miles. However, I figured if I was going to drive even one mile I might as well do it and comfort. For a full-sized rental car it’s tough to beat the Chrysler 300. The Midwest holds the front doors to lots of restaurants that I don’t get a chance to visit since I live in California. One such location is the Skyline Chili parlor. Skyline Chili is located in and around the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I’ve been eating at these places for going on 50 years. I would be working around Skyline’s Sunday morning start time. They didn’t open until 11 a.m. By the time I got my rental car and drove over to the nearest location it was still 30 minutes before opening time. That was no problem for me. I leaned back the front seat and took a well-deserved 30-minute nap. I’m way behind on the rest meter right now. At 11 o’clock I was walking through the front door of the Skyline Chili parlor. Soon I had ordered the chili 5-way, which means spaghetti, meat sauce, cheese, beans and onions. That was supplemented by a couple of fully loaded Coney dogs, which means cheese, meat sauce, onion and mustard. I drowned it all down with a couple of large Diet Pepsi’s. I even took about half of my meal with me in the car for consumption later at the kart track. THE RACING Little Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio I used my Waze GPS system to get me from Skyline over to the Little Eldora Speedway. This part of Ohio is extremely rural. I was on two-lane roads during the entire 50-mile trip. The full-sized Eldora Speedway may be the most famous short track in the world. I first came here in 1980. I’ve been here about 40 times seeing the biggest races the track has offered. My favorite has always been the World 100. It’s the granddaddy of them all for late model stock cars. About 10 years ago NASCAR’s now retired driver Tony Stewart bought the Eldora Speedway. One of the things that has been added to the venue during his tenure is a freestanding permanent go-kart track. They call it Little Eldora Speedway. Most go-kart racing is done with “flat karts”. Trackchasing’s founding fathers frowned on flat kart racing. I don’t know why. If you’d like to find out I suggest you ask one of them. Pretty much the only kind of “kart” racing that is acceptable to the aforementioned trackchasing’s founding fathers are caged karts. Commonly they are referred to as champ karts. Of course not anyone can drive a champ kart and be acceptable to the founding fathers. Generally, in order to count a track that is racing champ karts adults have to be driving them. The class has to be open to people aged 18 years at a minimum. This season the Little Eldora Speedway is racing once a month on Sundays. Any track that races on Sunday is good for me. Many many years ago I knocked out all of the tracks that race on a regular Sunday night weekly basis. There aren’t many of them that try to make a go of it on Sundays. Somehow I was thinking that the Little Eldora Speedway was actually located inside the half-mile dirt oval of its daddy the Eldora Speedway. That may have been the case some time ago but it certainly is not the case now. The permanently located Little Eldora Speedway is situated roughly off of turn three of the big track. When I showed up today I had two seating options. I could buy a pit pass for $10 or go over to the spectator grandstand seating area and watch for free. I chose the complementary option. Somewhat surprisingly there are no concession opportunities where the spectators watch for free. There were also very limited PA announcements. The PA was used to simply call out the next class that would be racing. That is common, although not very entertaining for the race fan, with kart racing. I parked my car just outside a chain-link fence, which allowed me to see about 60% of the oval. I knew that most of the racing would not count for trackchasing purposes. The temperature weighed in at about 55° with some sun and some wind. Sitting in my car would be a comfortable location until all the classes I wanted to watch up close and personal came out on the track. The announcer did share this stunner with the crowd. There were 226 racers in attendance today. That meant the track would be hosting 60 heat races, 16 consolation races and 17 features. Folks, that’s a lot of racing especially when each race has a caution or two and sometimes more. I would say that most go-kart tracks run the senior champ karts at or near the end of the race program. I have no idea why they do that but they do. Was I going to have to wait for 59 flat kart heat races before the one and only senior champ kart event came onto the track? I certainly hoped not. When the first flat kart race came onto the track I left my car. I stepped inside the chain link fence area to take a few pictures. With 60 races coming up I figured I had time to make a pit stop at the portable bathroom units. I had just wrapped up that chore. I had liquid soap on my hands when the announcement, that I didn’t think I would hear so soon, came. The second heat race of the day was going to be for the senior champ kart division. I found out amazing. It was even more amazing considering my hands were full of wet and sticky soap. That wasn’t going to make photographing this historic occasion all that easy. Now I was rushing. I was rushing to get in position to film this heat race. I was wiping the excess liquid soap on my blue jeans. That’s right. I had changed in the blue jeans after arriving at Eldora today because of the coolish weather. I hate to admit that. I don’t think people SHOULD wear long pants. I had worn shorts exclusively up to this point on the trip. Normally all of the senior champs that appear at one of these races can easily fit into a single heat race. Today they had two or three senior champ races. Why can’t I recall the exact number? It’s because I didn’t begin dictating this part of the report until I had already seen about 30 or 40 heat races! The racing program did start some 41 minutes past the scheduled start time of 12:30 p.m. This doesn’t surprise me. It doesn’t shock me. It does minorly disappoint me. I find it amazing that most dirt tracks all across the country can’t seem to start their programs when they say they will. Don’t blame me for pointing this out. I just report the data. I doubted very much that I would still be in attendance when the senior champ kart feature race pulled onto the track. In all likelihood they would not have a need for a consolation race. If that were true that meant that at least 60 heat races would have to be run, 16 consolation events and a few features before the senior champ feature race would go off. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed for 80 go-kart races in order to see a senior champ kart feature. As far as I can predict I don’t think I ever will. The Little Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio was my 2,309th lifetime track to see. That’s quite a few isn’t it? It was also my 78th lifetime Ohio track. This had been a most productive weekend. I left Southern California on noon this past Thursday. Then I ended up seeing new racetracks for me in Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and now Ohio. I expected to be home by about mid-day on Monday. Yes, that’s a very productive trip. Before I left the Dayton airport today I went on Priceline to reserve a hotel. By the way did you know that you could use the same procedures that I long ago developed for use with Priceline? That’s right. Just click on this link and you’ll go to my website and I’ll tell you how to do it just the way I do it. Hotels…how to buy them at 30-60% off and more…the way I do it Let’s get back to the racing at the Little Eldora Speedway one more time. Remember the racing was scheduled to begin at 12:30 in the afternoon. The first green flag actually dropped at 1:11 p.m. Luckily for me the one and only class that I wanted to see, the senior champ karts raced before 1:30 p.m. One would’ve thought I would’ve left right after that. Me too. Nope. I stayed until nearly 6 p.m. Did I have an innate love for flat kart racing? Remember today’s racing card called for 60 heat races, 16 consolations and 17 features. Nope. At about 2 p.m. I had wondered back to my car. It was a nice day. I figured I might as rest well rest in the car as back in the hotel in Indianapolis. I had officially gotten about 3 1/2 hours of car sleep over the last two nights. I leaned back the driver’s chair of the National Car Rental Racing Chrysler 300. I took a little snooze. When I woke up it was 5:30 p.m.! Was the entire racing program at the Little Eldora Speedway all wrapped up and put to bed? Was the cleaning crew knocking on the driver side window of my car asking me to leave before they shut the gates for the final time of the night? No, they were not. At 5:30 p.m., more than four hours after they started racing, they had just completed heat race #51. I think I might have had to take a quarter inch drill and put several holes in my skull if I had had to wait, without knowing when the champ karts would be racing, until 530 p.m. or later!! Remember, the Little Eldora Speedway does not have lights. Sunset in Rossburg Ohio tonight was at 6:52 p.m. Last light was at 7:20 p.m. Folks, I am sure that you can do the math as easily as I can. There was zero chance they were going to finish today’s racing program before it got completely dark. I wandered what they were going to do when darkness fell? However, I was not curious enough to wait around to find out. I’ve got to give the track some credit. When one heat race was finished they immediately came on with the next race. However most of the races had one, two or more caution flags. It was definitely a case of trying to put 10 pounds of taters into a five-pound sack. AFTER THE RACES I had seen enough. I had rested enough. Now it was time to make the two-hour drive over to Indianapolis Indiana. Can you imagine if you were a racing competitor today? You might have gotten to the Little Eldora Speedway to unload by about 10 AM or so, maybe even earlier. Then you wait for the next 4 to 6 to 8 hours before your five or ten-minute heat race hit the track. Then maybe you sit around for another few hours until your feature comes around if it comes around (darkness). That doesn’t sound good. It felt good to be able to sleep in a hotel after two consecutive nights of sleeping for a grand total of 3.5 hours in my car. Even at that my wake up call tomorrow morning would come at 5 a.m. eastern time, which would be 2 a.m. California time. MONDAY I woke up to find it raining in Indianapolis. I had been on this trip for five days. I had driven my rental car more than 1,600 miles. There had been no rain until this morning. I could live with that. My early morning flight was a nonstop from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, California. I landed at LAX at about 8:30 a.m. There was really no rush to make a 65-mile drive from the airport back to San Clemente at that particular point in time. Los Angeles morning traffic can be tough around LAX. I had options. I chose to go over to the Alaska Lounge and relax using my private club membership. There I could have a free breakfast, sit in a big comfy leather chair and know that the morning rush hour was rushing along without me. I put on my Bose headset, went to my “white noise” iPhone app and drifted off to sleep for the next hour or so. When I woke up I took the leisurely 20-minute walk over to my parking garage. There I grabbed the Carol Lewis owned and MFunds sponsored Lexus RX 350 and drove it back to the barn. Folks, I’ve seen more than 2,300 racetracks. The weekend yielded five new tracks in five states. I am still amazed that after seeing so many worldwide tracks that I can still be so productive from one weekend to the next. Good day from Rossburg, Ohio. Ohio The Buckeye state This afternoon I saw my 78th lifetime track in the Buckeye state, yes the Buckeye state. I’ve seen 78 or more tracks in 9 separate states. No other chaser can match that total. 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 Ohio sayings: When you ask us WHERE somewhere or something is, we won’t tell you where it is. We’ll tell you something like, “It’s 30 minutes outside of Cleveland.” 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 575 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. The trip to the Little Eldora Speedway from start to finish
