Greetings from Kingman, Arizona
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Long Mountain Event Center Dirt road course – long Lifetime Track #2,672 Long Mountain Event Center Dirt road course – short Lifetime Track #2,673 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Can you imagine getting to tour the Grand Canyon in the middle of a global pandemic during a trackchasing trip? Not only could you imagine such a thing but today…you get to read about someone who actually did such a thing! I travel this way so you don’t have to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. Welcome to my 2021 trackchasing season! I AM A TRACKCHASER. What’s a trackchaser? What is trackchasing? Trackchasing is a hobby of mine. With trackchasing I do just three things. Each one is of equal importance to me. I travel the world watching auto racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. I estimate I have flown on three flights a week, EVERY WEEK, since I was 23 years of age. I seek out “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” during my travels to keep myself entertained when I’m not at the racetrack. I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I plan airline, rental car and hotel accommodations to get me from my home in Southern California to racetracks located in the United States and all over the world. Just the planning part of my hobby is as much fun as anything. I am known as the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”. How did I get that title? I have traveled to 85 different countries and see racing at nearly 2,800 tracks…that’s how I got that title. If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. 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 Thursday/Saturday, January 7/9, 2021. The Long Mountain Event Center was going to be my first trackchasing trip of 2021. Racing was scheduled for January 9, 2021. When I first seriously considered trackchasing as a hobby nobody trackchased in January. The “normal” season would end in October and likely wouldn’t start up again until March or April. That’s right. Trackchasers were like bears…they went into hibernation during the winter. Sometimes I long for those days. Now trackchasing is a 12 month, 52 week, 365 day a year hobby. There is no time off. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t fun. The hobby is fun! How do I know it’s fun? I’m a volunteer. People who volunteer enjoy what they are doing. With this trip I would be taking Trackchasing’s First Mother a.k.a. wife Carol on this adventure. When she comes along, I stay in better hotels, eat at better restaurants and don’t drive as far in an ongoing effort to make sure she has the time of her life. That’s what a loving husband would do, right? Off we went on Thursday morning January 7, 2021. We would be taking a road trip in my fully electric Tesla Model X automobile. The overall driving distance from San Clemente, California to Kingman, Arizona was going to be around 1,000 miles. If I were driving a gas powered car my gasoline expense would be close to $200. Stopping at Tesla superchargers along the route and charging my Tesla offered up zero expense for me. I like it that way. This would be Carol’s first opportunity to “plug-in” at a supercharger with my Tesla. She handled the responsibility like a pro. At our first charging stop just outside of Barstow, California we stopped at In N Out Burgers. This trip was on! We would be staying at the Grand Hotel (above) an upscale resort in Tusayan, Arizona. Yelp helped us pick out the Plaza Bonita restaurant for dinner. Indoor dining Covid measures with social distancing and masks were in force. I guess this trip could be divided in the three major activities. The first activity would be driving back-and-forth to Arizona. Then an all day tour of the Grand Canyon National Park would be followed by an afternoon of racing at the Long Mountain Event Center. For a short trip this would be a very diverse trip. It’s been many years since we visited the Grand Canyon. It hasn’t changed much! However, with the Covid pandemic going on the crowds were way down. There are certainly a lot of negatives associated with Covid. However, being able to tour normally very crowded attractions with no crowds at all during Covid is a plus. Coming back to the Grand Canyon reminded me of the white water rafting trip I took with my son J.J. He was about fourteen at the time. We road some pretty wild rapids and did our share hiking. That was a memorable adventure. Don’t miss the pictures from our stop at the Grand Canyon. We even used one of the photos for our annual Christmas card. Dinner was at the Big E Steakhouse Saloon in Tusayan. This was one of the best meals we’ve had during the pandemic. With social distancing in effect with the tables and a small crowd overall we had an absolutely wonderful dinner. We ate steak and blue colored alcoholic drinks and apple pie à la mode. Yep. One of our best restaurant dinners in a long time. If Carol doesn’t come on this trip I’m not eating at the Big E. All during the year I’ve been tracking Covid vaccination results. Did you know that vaccinations in the U.S. began on December 14, 2020? That’s about nine months after Covid surfaced in the U.S. Pretty fast work…medical community. As of January 8, 2021 705 million doses have been given. We are just getting started. The Long Mountain Event Center race course is located in Kingman, Arizona. This group first began racing at the Mohave County Fairgrounds in Kingman. I never made it over there. Now they have relocated the track out into the desert. On the way to today’s racing, we had a chance to tour downtown Kingman. It’s quite an interesting city. Route 66 made Kingman a stop on the trek for many Americans as they traveled out toward California. I will say that Kingman looks a little rough around the edges. Kingman has a population of around 28,000 people. According to Wikipedia a major news event happened in 1973. Kingman Explosion The Kingman Explosion, also known as the Doxol Disaster or Kingman BLEVE, was a catastrophic boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) that occurred on July 5, 1973. The explosion occurred during a propane transfer from a Doxol railroad car to a storage tank on the Getz rail siding near Andy Devine Avenue/Route 66. Firefighters Memorial Park in Kingman is dedicated to those 11 firefighters who died in the blaze. Today the city has a lot of murals depicting the Route 66 ear and old cars and old buildings. If you get the chance, I’d recommend stopping in Kingman just to see those attractions. Racing at the Long Mountain Event Center is organized and run by Cerbat Motosports. Our plan today called for us to add one track to my lifetime Arizona totals. Today was a clear very windy and cool day out in the desert. Kingman sits an elevation of 3,330 feet. They can get a good deal of snow during the winter time. It was nice that we could watch the races from inside the Randy Lewis Racing Tesla Model X. It was kind of interesting and unique to see our Tesla parked amongst the pickup trucks and Jeeps of these desert dwelling race fans. Inside the car we dined on strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. Nice! Often, I enjoy watching the races inside the car when the weather isn’t that great. I don’t get to do that very much. Today the racing began with a group of side-by-side racers on what would come to be known as the “long course”. When we came here, we didn’t realize there even was a long course! This was a special treat today. The long course was now going to make our visit to the Long Mountain Event Center a trackchasing double. I love it when that happens! Today’s racing also included some motorbike racing and ATV racing. On a day like today, weatherwise, I was so thankful we could watch racing from the car. The long course racing was followed up by a series of junk cars and 4 x 4s racing on what would become the “short course” at Long Mountain. The course had several jumps sending these junkers high into the air. The short course had just enough minor bends in it to make it a road course and not an oval. You definitely don’t want to miss the video from this one. The track also raced a series of smaller side-by-sides. This was a kid’s class. They got after it pretty good on the short track. We dined on “street tacos” at the track concession stand. Arizona tracks are very likely to offer up Mexican specialties since the state borders the country of Mexico. Back in 1974 we lived in Phoenix, Arizona. The Manzanita Speedway was our home track. That’s where I learned to eat “cheese crisps” aka quesadillas. I had a chance to spend a little bit of time talking to the track announcer today. He and I had been corresponding with each other in advance of our visit today. He told me he was happy to have the World’s #1 Trackchaser in attendance today. I was happy to be here as well! I was able to get some really close up photos of the junk cars slinging mud. There was also a sign at the track telling me that the track was for sale. If you’re interested dial 928-279-6770. When the racing was finished, we made the long drive back to California. That driving distance was about 340 miles. We supercharged in Kingman, Needles and Barstow, California where regular gasoline was selling for $3.99 a gallon. The price of diesel was $4.29 a gallon. Quite often Tesla superchargers are located near a major truck stop or shopping mall or some location where you can grab some food and relax while your car charges. We stopped at EddieWorld in Yermo, California. You wouldn’t believe the selection of candies they have in that store. We ended up getting a custom ordered pizza at EddieWorld and dining in the car while we charged. I noted that just a day later on January 9, 2021 some 7.3 million doses of the Covid vaccine had been given. People were beginning to protect themselves for simply one reason. Nobody wants to die! It was a good trip. Anytime you can see the Grand Canyon on a trackchasing trip it’s got to be a good one. I had now seen racing at 46 tracks in Arizona. This extends my lead over my nearest trackchasing fellow competitor by a large amount in this desert state. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,763 tracks. Arizona The Grand Canyon State This afternoon I saw racing at my 45th and 46th lifetime track in the Grand Canyon State, yes, the Grand Canyon State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Arizona. New Arizona ranks #18, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Arizona state trackchasing list. I have made 41 separate trips to Arizona to see these tracks. 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 Arizona sayings: Get your Kicks on Route 66 JUST THE 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 860 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to 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. See it in pictures! 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. Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” All photo albums are fully captioned. A trip to the Grand Canyon; a tour of Kingman, AZ; PLUS junk car racing…lots to see! 
