Greetings from New Philadelphia, Ohio
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Midvale Speedway Asphalt inner oval Lifetime Track #2,643 THE EVENT Editor’s note: I’ve been to more than 40 new racetracks since the COVID-19 virus began in March 2020. None have done a better job of enforcing the rules of social distancing and mask-wearing than the Midvale Speedway. I am impressed by that. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis. I live in a modest seaside cottage in 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. Yes, that’s me above. Wear a mask. What can it hurt? Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I’m interested in seeing an auto race. Secondly, I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Am I truly serious about trackchasing? I think so. I’ve seen an auto race in 85 countries at more than 2,660 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? 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 Trackchasing can be an expensive hobby. One of my fellow competitors was said, “When Randy stops trackchasing we know he will have run out of money”. Folks, I have been retired for nearly 20 years and have not earned a single dime working. I’m still 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 on my website at www.randylewis.org. I guess people find what I share interesting. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. 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. 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 Saturday, August 22, 2020. On this Saturday morning, I woke up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I needed to be over in New Philadelphia, Ohio for a race this evening. By the way, there are not many people traveling nowadays. I didn’t want to drive from Minneapolis to the Midvale Speedway in Ohio. That would be an 823-mile one-way drive. If I did that I would end up with a Minneapolis-based rental car in Ohio. Then my options would be to drive 823 miles back to Minneapolis to drop off the car or to incur an expensive one-way drop fee by leaving the car elsewhere. I would fly from Minneapolis. I had a choice to fly into Cleveland or Pittsburgh. They were both about the same distance from the racetrack. I chose Pittsburgh because they had a nonstop flight departing at 7:30 a.m. back to Los Angeles on Sunday morning. Or at least that’s what I thought the schedule was. After I made arrangements to fly from Minneapolis into Pittsburgh I would later learn the departure on Sunday morning from Pittsburgh back to Los Angeles was not 7:30 a.m. but 7:30 p.m. I certainly wouldn’t want to hang around the Pittsburgh airport all day Sunday for that later flight. This would make getting back to Los Angeles from Pittsburgh on earlier flights a bit more challenging. Why was I interested in going to the Midvale Speedway over in Ohio? They were going to be racing on a special inner oval track. I’ve been to Midvale on three separate occasions before today. Once, in 2006, I went there to see the racing on their bigger 3/10-mile outer oval track and their paved figure 8 track. Then in 2018, I came back for their figure 8 racing on a mixed surface (grass/pavement). Now I was returning in 2020 to see racing on their paved inner oval. Remember! I did not make the rules of trackchasing. I only play by them. As you know, trackchasing is a counting hobby. Trackchasers go out of their way to see this track or that track so they can add one more track to their list. One of the (many) rules of trackchasing allows chasers to count different configurations at one facility. This inner oval track was a different configuration and that meant I could add one more track to my lifetime list. So off I went on a jet airplane from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh. I went back on the trackchasing trail in early June despite the coronavirus. Now, this was going to be my 12th consecutive weekend of flying somewhere to see racing since my COVID-19 layoff. I am a strong believer in wearing masks, social distancing and washing my hands. Hopefully, that will be enough. When I landed in the Pittsburgh airport on Saturday late morning the place was a ghost town. Some people blame the virus restrictions on the government. It is not the government but the people who have decided not to fly and travel. Until the fear goes away not that many folks will hop on a jet airplane. I had now flown from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh. I had the rest of the afternoon to drive 100 miles over to the Midvale Speedway. Along the way, I stopped at a Subway sandwich shop in a small town. I walked into the store to see only one employee working. He was wearing plastic gloves and counting the day’s receipts. I ordered a salad. Without breaking a sweat my Subway server put down the cash he had been counting and immediately began to make my salad. No change of gloves. No handwashing. I ordered ranch dressing for my salad. The server squirted the requisite amount of dressing onto all of the ingredients and then begin to knead the salad with his gloved hands as if he were baking bread. This almost made me throw up. I don’t know what I was thinking when I didn’t simply walk out of the store. What did I do? I paid for the salad and ate it. Sometimes I’m just stupid. I had tried to travel to the Midvale Speedway a couple of weeks ago to see a race on their smaller oval configuration. However, at the very last minute, the governor of Ohio stepped in and declared no mass gatherings were allowed. The promoter at the Midvale Speedway concluded that he couldn’t race without fans. Honestly, I don’t know how tracks that have a fan base can economically justify holding a program with the grandstands totally empty. At the beginning of each year and during each year I build up an Excel spreadsheet database of the race dates from tracks I have never visited. This is proprietary information. I get lots of help from the people who contribute to the trackchaser forum and lots of help from others all over the world with race dates. When I schedule a future trip I definitely have to double and triple check each race date that I might have entered last December to see if they are still racing in August. Not surprisingly a large number of racetracks have canceled many or all of their dates for the entire 2020 race season. The Midvale Speedway is a top-notch 3/10-mile asphalt track. The facility opened as a dirt track all the way back in 1953. They ran on the dirt until 1965. In 1966 they paved the track and it remains that way today. I’ve got a good buddy, Brian Tredway who races at Midvale Speedway and other asphalt tracks in the area. Brian is a good friend of the track promoter at Midvale, John Chapman. John has been very helpful in answering my questions about the different configurations that race from time to time at his Midvale Speedway. I’ve got to give Midvale Speedway some credit for their coronavirus prevention techniques. Midvale was going to be my 44th new track visit of the year. Thirty-two of those 44 tracks have come after the pandemic raised its ugly head. I can tell you this. Mask protection is not a “thing” at our nation’s short tracks. Nobody at the short tracks I have visited wears a mask. The incidence of mask-wearing is less than one percent. You might want to take a look at the photo album linked below. It lists by county and state which political party won in each county in the presidential election. Of course, red represents Republicans and blue is the Democrats. 2020 presidential election results by county You can see that almost every rural county in America went Republican. On the other hand, almost every city of any size was Democratic. Democrats are for wearing masks in general. Republicans are not. Almost every racetrack in America is located in a red county. The fans come from red counties. Fans do not wear masks at short tracks. By the way, this message has been reviewed and updated following the presidential election as you might’ve guessed from the photo album. The folks at the Midvale Speedway were doing their very best to meet the state of Ohio restrictions regarding social distancing and mask-wearing. Fans truly were required to wear a mask when they left their seating area to go to the concession stand or restroom. I was impressed by that. Of course they weren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. That would probably piss off the fans. They were doing it to satisfy the state requirements in order that they could have a racing program at all. The track announcer explained this several times to the fans. They seemed to understand. If I lived nearby I would go to the Midvale Speedway quite a bit. They run a good professional racing program with several classes offering competitive events on their bigger track. They have a top-notch announcer and PA system. I enjoyed the racing. Tonight I grabbed a seat in the grandstand and made sure to social distance myself from everyone else. Major portions of the grandstands were roped off to encourage social distancing. It was with a collective sigh of relief when I could really enjoy the entire program once the four-car junk car race had their heat race on the smaller oval track. Later I would see those same four cars compete in a feature event on the little track. Midvale Speedway’s inner oval would now be forever known in the record books as my 2,643rd-lifetime track. Midvale’s smaller oval would be the 84th different track where I’ve seen racing. When the racing was finished I headed back to Pittsburgh. I was more than satisfied with what I have seen at the Midvale Speedway. This was especially true considering the limitations the state of Ohio was putting on them because of COVID-19. This is probably not a great time to be the owner of a racetrack. SUNDAY It was now time to hightail it back to California. At 7:30 in the morning, I grabbed a flight from Pittsburgh to Dallas-Fort Worth. Then later in the day, I caught a flight back to Los Angeles. It’s a bit of a challenge doing my hobby from such a remote location such as Southern California. However, over the years I’ve gotten used to it. Good evening from the Midvale Speedway in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,643 tracks. Ohio The Buckeye State This evening I saw racing at my 84th-lifetime track in the Buckeye State, yes, the Buckeye State. I hold the #7 trackchasing ranking in Ohio. Ohio ranks #11, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Ohio state trackchasing list. I have made 60 separate trips to Ohio 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 Ohio sayings: “You’re fine,” means “No problem” or “No worries.” We’re not complimenting you. 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. Small track racing made it four tracks for me in New Philadelphia, Ohio 
