Greetings from Newberry, Michigan
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Luce West Mackinac Fairgrounds Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,634 R.I.P. Kevin Cerveny THE EVENT Editor’s note: A day in the life of my trackchasing is a bit different than what most folks experience every day. Don’t believe that? Just read my story from today. A casino visit, driving a car 715 miles on a tank of gas, getting my temperature checked, seeing a man trapped inside a car while it burns, sleeping in my car overnight during a driving rainstorm. How many of those things did you do today or this week or this month? I AM A TRACKCHASER. Are you new to the hobby of trackchasing? If so, let me give you just a little bit of background. Before I go any further I will tell you that a lot of people get pretty enthused about what I’ve been doing with trackchasing. I will offer this warning. If you try it yourself it could become addictive. My name is Randy Lewis (above with Leonard Wood of the famous Wood Brothers racing team). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing is a “collecting” hobby. Trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. It’s really not all that much different than when you were a kid and you collected stamps or beer cans or bottle caps. Trackchasing is all about visiting new auto racing tracks for the very first time. Believe it or not, trackchasing has “rules“ as to what kind of racetrack and race car and race driver count toward a chaser’s lifetime totals and which ones would not. In a nutshell, a trackchaser can count a track where adult drivers race cars or trucks at ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. That covers 98% of the rules. In addition to the racing part of trackchasing for me, I really enjoy seeing the local sights and sounds of whatever area I am visiting. I called these “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. If you go to my website at www.randylewis.org and click on the Trackchasing Tourist Attractions tab you’ll see where I’ve been all over the world. Here’s a link to that tab. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I also really enjoy the logistical part of the hobby. I have been retired for nearly 20 years. During that time I have not earned a single dime of work income. That means I have to manage my money pretty closely enable in order to be able to do what I do. Logistically I have to handle seven different categories of trackchasing expenses. Those expenses include airplanes, rental cars, hotels, airport parking, gasoline, food and race tickets. As an example, you can just imagine what traveling from Southern California out to the Midwest for four days of racing would cost. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles. I’ll stay in hotels 150-200 nights a year, rent 50-75 rental cars every year and buy a full tank of fuel about 100 days a year just for trackchasing. After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience. My stories are not just about what happened at the track but about my visit to the area and what exactly it took to make the trip happen. That’s where the racing, the touring and the logistical challenges come from. I told you that trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. Trackchasing is ultra-competitive as well. Lots of people don’t recognize that when they are initially exposed to this hobby. Trackchasing has had all of the political drama, cheating, accusing people of cheating and other aspects of poor personal behavior that any other competitive activity might have. This is why I am NOT a member of any organized trackchasing group. The management of these groups has been so poor over the years these groups are not something I want to be associated with whatsoever. As this is written I have seen racing in 85 different countries at more than 2,650 racetracks. During all this time I have never tried to benefit financially from my hobby. This is despite being interviewed by hundreds of track announcers, newspaper reporters and radio and TV outlets as well as doing a TV pilot. I’m a volunteer. I do this 100% for the fun of it. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,600 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. Yes, today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial 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 Saturday, August 1, 2020. Last night I trackchased at the Norway Speedway over in Norway, Michigan. After the races, I had a hotel reservation in Iron Mountain, Michigan which was less than 10 miles from the track. Whenever my nighttime hotel is near the track I can normally stay for the complete program no matter how long it is. That’s what I did last night. This morning I woke up in the Mountain Host Motor Inn in Iron Mountain. This was the perfect little clean but rustic ma and pa type hotel you would find in a rural tourist type town. I was able to get a nicely appointed room that featured a microwave and refrigerator for just $50 for the night. They even had a nice fitness center at this motel. Sadly because of the coronavirus situation at this moment, their hot breakfast was nowhere to be found. That did not stop them from continuing to advertise that breakfast on their hotel sign. I didn’t leave my room until past 10 a.m. When I did I went out for a power walk. I want to power walk four miles at least five times a week. I found that when I have a very full day of trackchasing and driving if I can get 2-3 miles out-of-the-way in the morning getting the rest sort of takes care of itself. My schedule has definitely changed for Saturday and Sunday of this particular trip. I had a track in Ohio cancel for today. The state’s governor issued a COVID-19 restriction of no spectators in the stands. The promoter of the track that I wanted to visit messaged there was no way he was going to run a race without fans. Economically it couldn’t make sense. Then I got a message from another Ohio track that I had planned on seeing tomorrow. They were canceled as well. Why? Despite being in Ohio they were not canceling their program because of anything to do with COVID-19 and government restrictions. The weather forecast for tomorrow at this track was bad. Nope. They didn’t cancel because of the weather. They canceled because there was a change in the local softball tournament schedule! That meant they would not be able to race. I wasn’t sure I understood that one. Nevertheless, I’ve got some good friends at this track and whatever they told me goes in my book. There was another minor goal that I was trying to achieve today. Last week I drove my National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry 690 miles on a single tank of fuel. I thought I could beat that with a couple of adjustments. Since I last filled up I had driven up interstate 75 into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at a high rate of speed. I probably drove 75-80 miles an hour most of the way just keeping up with traffic. That certainly wasn’t going to save any fuel. However, I did implement one fuel savings strategy. I turned off the air-conditioning for about half of the trip on this tank of fuel. I’m the kind of guy that runs the air conditioning 100% of the time no matter the outside temperature. I just like the way the air conditioning takes away the humidity. It was going to be touch and go breaking my record of 690 miles from last week. I’d like to surpass the goal of 700 miles that I had for this tank of fuel also. The orange low fuel light began to glow at about 670 miles today. Off I went with a low fuel light glowing and me feathering the accelerator. First, I passed the 690-mile mark. I had beaten last week’s record! Now I wanted to shoot for 700 miles on a single tank of fuel. I passed a gas station at the 698-mile mark. I wondered if it was a mistake to drive by that station at that point in time when I was just 2 miles short of my goal. I elected to motor on. Yes! Next, I reached my goal of 700 miles for this tank of fuel. Actually seeing 700 miles pass over the trip odometer wasn’t as important as when the next gas station was going to come onto my radar screen at that point. I seriously thought about returning to the gas station I had seen at mile 698 but didn’t wanna waste the time driving in the wrong direction. The next gas station did not come all that soon. The gas gauge kept falling lower and lower beyond empty. That glowing orange flu fuel light was starting to blind me by now. Luckily, after I had driven 715 miles on this tank of fuel a BP station came into sight. I was happy to see it. Plus I only had to pay $2.01 per gallon for the fuel. Like I always do, and something I learned from my NASCAR watching, I packed that fuel tank full of fuel, just like the supreme court might be packed someday. I waited until it minorly overflowed. That’s how I do it. I was proud of my new record and proud of the fact that I could now turn on the air-conditioning! It just so happened that I happened to be next to the Island Resort and Casino, probably owned by an Indian tribe, where I fueled up. I decided to take a break and walked in to check things out. Of course, upon entry in the casino I had to have my temperature checked. I passed. Most of the casino was dedicated to slot machines. I don’t exactly think of slot machines as creating a casino but whatever. I was happy to see a few craps tables and some blackjack tables as well. I didn’t have much time but I saddled up to a blackjack table to play just one hand. It turns out this table was offering only “Spanish blackjack”. I had never heard of such a thing. The dealer explained the rules. It seemed that mainly all of the “tens” in the deck had been removed. Additionally, I could double down at any time during the hand. I did know this for certain. The people who thought up the Spanish blackjack rules knew more about those rules than I did. They wouldn’t have done such a thing if there wasn’t at least a minor advantage for the house. I plopped down a $20 bill on the felt of the blackjack table. I said as I would do in Las Vegas, “money plays”. The dealer quickly informed me that for some reason with Spanish blackjack I couldn’t just play cash money. He then went about exchanging my $20 bill for four five-dollar casino chips. I had no problem with that. I didn’t understand the drama around the fact that my money couldn’t just “play”. If I lost my money would disappear. If I won I would get my twenty dollars cash back and twenty more dollars all in casino chips. With my first hand, I got a three-card 19 and the dealer matched that exactly. My $20 bet would ride on the second hand. This time I got a three-card 18 and the dealer ended up with a three-card 17. I was a winner! I immediately took my winnings to the cashier and cashed out. When I don’t have too much time but want to feel a little bit of the action I often play just one hand. As you might imagine sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. On the way out of the casino, I asked the middle-aged security officer how many people failed the COVID-19 temperature check when trying to enter the casino. She told me that occasionally a customer will come in after having driven over to the casino in an unconditioned car or maybe they just walked in from the golf course. If their temperature exceeds the required amount she would simply sit them down in front of the fan until they cooled off. She told me this method had worked so effectively that since they implemented the testing procedure on May 16 not a single gambling guest had been rejected! From there I completed my three-hour drive over to a very rural race location in Newberry, Michigan. It’s most unusual, especially with my level of trackchasing development to be able to trackchase on consecutive nights in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I consider this a major geographical strategic win. Tonight the TNT derby outfit was promoting a race at the Luce West Mackinac Fairgrounds in Newberry. The TNT announcer told everyone that TNT had 35 events on its 2020 schedule. They’ve only been able to complete five of them because of COVID-19. First, I needed to pay five dollars to park in the watered-down farm pasture. The woman who took my money remarked about my Georgia license plate on the rental car. I told her I wasn’t from Georgia but from California. She immediately recognized me as the person she had been communicating with over the past week on Facebook! I took her picture. Yep. In my business it’s difficult to keep a low profile. This woman told me today’s crowd was going to be limited to 250 spectators as per COVID-19 state requirements. Of course, it was important to know what “250” meant in this context. I understood in advance that if I wasn’t part of the first 250 people I could still buy a pit pass. With that in mind, I didn’t feel the urge to get here today all that early. I would say that well over 50% of the people at the track today were in the pit area. At the entrance to the grandstand, I had to sign a release stating that I would not sue anyone if I acquired COVID-19 during my visit to the fairgrounds. I also took and passed another temperature check. Last night at the Norway Speedway, for the first time in my entire trackchasing career I needed to take and pass a temperature check. Today’s weather was dry with temperatures at 6 p.m. in the low 80s. I noticed that the very small rural grandstand was facing into the sun. It would face a setting sun for the next 2 1/2 hours. That didn’t appeal to me. I went back to the ticket seller and returned my spectator wristband for a full refund of the $10 I had paid to sit in the grandstand area. I then walked over to the back of the track and bought a pit pass for 20 bucks. Having the sun at my back from the pit area plus being able to see all of these uniquely built cars up close was well worth the extra ten bucks. I figured I came to the track already ahead by $20 from my one and only blackjack hand at the casino. There were approximately 150 cars in the pit area. I was more than impressed. They already had the cars in several sets of lines representing each heat race lineup. I arrived early enough to sit in on the pit meeting. There the promoter was explaining how the race program was going to work. They were going to have a lot of heats and then a lot of consolation races and finally a lot of mains! The promoter then explained the purse structure. The winning driver in one of the classes was going to earn $1,100. Those were high purse rates. I don’t know what drivers paid to enter their cars but I am sure that with 150 cars the fees from the drivers and pit crew paid the entire purse and more. I went about checking out this very full pit area. You won’t want to miss the photos from today. There was absolutely a little bit of everything with colorful paint jobs, unique sponsors, and even one President Donald J. Trump tribute car. Have you ever been to a large food buffet? If you have did you try to eat just a little bit of everything from the 50-100 selections? Probably not. Maybe you tried 8-10 items and then came back for seconds on three or four items. Today’s racing which started almost on time at 6 p.m. was kind of like going to one of those food buffets I just described. There was so much being offered that there was no way I could partake of it all. An hour after the official start time they had only run three or four heat races. I could see that this show was going to run well past midnight. With so many entries as well as lots of track prep after every race or two it was slow going. I did not plan to be here at midnight. I’m going to recommend that you take a close look at my photo album and YouTube video of the Racing. I think you’ll be impressed with this group. One driver flipped his car over in turn three. The car ended up on its side and then the engine compartment caught fire. They were able to extricate the driver with no harm to him. However, the car was toast (pun intended). I will tell you this. I watched the races just like I would behave at a food buffet. At a buffet, I would eat as much as I could and as much as I wanted and as much as I enjoyed and then I would leave the restaurant. I did the same thing today. I watched as much as I wanted and as much as I enjoyed and then I headed for the exits. It would be a five-hour drive for me back to Detroit. Now that my race has been canceled for tomorrow in Ohio I looked for alternatives. I checked out a track racing on Sunday in Kansas. They had a good weather forecast. However, when I contacted them for more information I learned they received a lot of rain two days ago. They had canceled because the grounds were so wet. Then I was told they regretted the cancellation because the sun had dried things but now it was too late to do anything. There was another trackchasing opportunity in Alaska. However, their strict COVID-19 requirements prevented me from going up there. Their weather forecast wasn’t good either. After doing as much research as I could I learned there wasn’t a single track in the United States or Canada racing on this particular Sunday that I had not already seen and that I could physically visit. That’s a pretty strong statement when you think about it. There wasn’t a single track in the United States or Canada that was racing that I hadn’t already visited. When you think about it that’s a pretty amazing statement Now for the next five hours, I simply sat back in the comfort of my National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry and finished up the drive to Detroit. I gave trackchasing buddy Paul Weisel a call. I enjoy listening to his take on our country’s politics. I dropped into a convenience store and picked up supplies for tonight’s dinner. That would be a can of Viena sausages and a package of pistachio nuts. That should do me for dinner. I also struck up a conversation with the convenience store clerk. I like to ask folks in this position how their customers are dealing with facemasks. He told me not very good! He said he had a lot of resistance from people over the idea of wearing a mask. I don’t exactly understand that but then I don’t exactly understand lots of people’s views on lots of things. What not just help out the other guy? From the car, I made a last-minute reservation at the Extended Stay America hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I would have about eight hours inside the hotel which was just enough time to get a short nap and get cleaned up for tomorrow. Yep. I would be flying from Detroit to Los Angeles sometime tomorrow. I will be flying standby. I did encounter one significant problem. I pulled into the Extended Stay America hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan at 1:30 a.m. I had just driven five hours after the racing in Newberry, Michigan to get down to the Detroit area. When I walked into the hotel lobby carrying all my gear the desk clerk, in somewhat of a monotone voice, told me that even though I had a reservation they didn’t have a room for me. Essentially at that point there was nothing I could do. I needed a new plan. I made a quick phone call to Agoda, the travel agent I had booked my room with. They really weren’t much better on the sympathy side of things than the hotel clerk. They did agree to give me a full refund and a $6.10 credit toward a future purchase. Wow! It was now 2 a.m. What were my best options? I could try to track down another hotel at a reasonable price but I wouldn’t get into one of those places until after 3 a.m. I needed to be heading to the airport at 6:30 a.m. I decided my best option was to simply lean the driver seat back in the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry and sleep for the next four hours. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by a driving rainstorm. It’s all part of it! My wake-up call came at 6:30 a.m. I was quickly over to the Detroit airport and caught a 9 a.m. nonstop flight back to Los Angeles. Given my overnight “accommodations” I was a little worse for the wear but at least I was back to LAX by 10:30 a.m. I walked 2 miles in and around the Detroit airport before catching my flight this morning. Then at LAX, I walked another two miles before I got back to my car in the airport parking garage. I had nailed down my 4 miles of daily walking before noon. I made it home in time to watch the NASCAR race from New Hampshire on a recorded basis. I really like watching NASCAR Cup races but would only do so if I can skip the commercials. That saves me about an hour or more when watching each race. SUNDAY Today has been reserved for trackchasing. However, all of my options had canceled their events. Nevertheless, I still felt like I had a good trip. For the week I had seen racing on Wednesday at my 99th track in Wisconsin. Only two-winged karts showed up but that still was good enough to get the track in the books. Then the next night I caught a once a year junk car race in Indiana at a track where I had seen racing on a permanent oval in the past. With COVID-19 cancellations coming from every direction, on Friday and Saturday nights I reversed direction and saw two different tracks race up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That’s hard to do. I had driven my rental car more than 1,800 miles in four days. The weather has been clear. This was an unusual but very productive trackchasing trip. I will see you somewhere up or down the long and dusty trackchasing trail. When I do don’t forget to say hey. Good evening from Newberry, Michigan Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,634 tracks. Michigan The Wolverine State This afternoon I saw racing at my 136th-lifetime track in the Wolverine State, yes, the Wolverine State. I hold the #4 trackchasing ranking in Michigan. Michigan ranks #2, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Of course, the Golden State, California is #1. Here’s a link to my all-time Michigan state trackchasing list. I have made 67 separate trips to Michigan seeing 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 Michigan sayings: “She lives over in the Thumb.” Yeah, we Michiganders have a thing for hands. It’s not our fault we live on a giant mitten! Anyway, perhaps you’ve heard a Michigander mention that one of their loved ones resides in the Thumb. No, there’s nothing weird going on — “the Thumb” simply refers to a large peninsular area on our state’s Eastern shore. 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 775 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 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. 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. This was a FULL day of trackchasing with a casino win 
